Customer Reviews

An Autumn War (The Long Price Quartet)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the first two books of The Long Price Quartet, Daniel Abraham focused on the wealthy, slightly decadent world of the Khaiem Cities, whose ability to bind the andat (natural forces) with magic gave them immunity from military danger; the warlike, technology-using Galts to the west were only a shadowy threat. In book three the threat becomes real as General Gice of the Galts sets out on a crusade to save the world by destroying the andat forever. Since the andat are treacherous and potentially dangerous, even to their controllers, the reader can sympathize with Gice's aim. But the tension becomes great as Gice's attack threatens the world, realm, and family of Otah Machi, Khai of one of the most powerful cities, and the continuing hero of the series.

Abraham's ability to create sympathetic, believable characters on both sides of the conflict is one of the strengths of this book. Another is the fast moving plot. In less than 400 pages Abraham can tell more story than many other fantasy authors can in 600. War, family tensions, long-held resentments, the power of love and forgiveness, are just a few of the themes played out in this story. There's also a bit more examination of the magical process that binds the andat and the way in which the nature of the "poet" who does the binding determines the results. The novel is a page turner, with a conclusion that is surprising, satisfying, and yet leaves more conflict to be resolved in the fourth and final book of the quartet. This is a very good fantasy series that deserves success. I'll be waiting for number four!

The strength of the first 2 books of the series was in the setting and the characters. Abraham's writing has a philosophical bend to it; he uses the novels to study human societies and individuals. I thoroughly enjoyed summer and winter, but it was a slow read, with only a dash of suspense to help one turn the pages. Not so for this book. I stayed up till 5AM last night finishing it. All the elements that made the first two books so enjoyable are still there: the alien, yet familiar setting of the world of the poets and their andaat, the family minidramas, the little touches with the hand poses and the food. However, this time the story grabs and doesn't let go. The ending was brilliant. I am still mulling over the questions posed by the resolution, the meaning of it all. We have here humanist sentiment coming to grips with the brutality that comes from ambition and the need to survive. I can't wait for book 4.

Daniel Abraham has improved with every volume of his debut series The Long Price Quartet. In A Shadow in Summer, he introduced a unique setting and compelling characters; in A Betrayal in Winter, he increased the complexity and maturity of the story; and now, in An Autumn War, he heightens the drama and adds earth-shattering plot twists worthy of George R. R. Martin. In my opinion, Abraham writes the best kind of genre fiction: confident, original, and sophisticated yet comprehensible.

The Autumn War is about Otah, a former poet-in-training and outcast who reluctantly became lord of the Khaiem city of Machi after his family died. Because he disapproves of Khaiem tradition, he struggles to maintain his authority with his citizens. Now he also has to face an external threat: The Galtic Empire has long coveted the riches of the Khaiem and finally has a ploy to negate the Khaiem's sole advantage: the andat. Otah has to defeat the finest military in the world or risk annihilation and enslavement.

The Autumn War is also about Balasar, a Galtic general who sees the andat as the ultimate danger and strives to eradicate it. By introducing Balasar, Abraham forces us to see the Khaiem from a different perspective. Nowadays, it is common for writers to include both heroes and villains as viewpoint characters; however, here, Otah and Balasar are neither hero nor villain--they are just at opposite ends of an argument that will shatter the world by the time it is resolved.

Overall, The Autumn War is about consequences: the consequences of relying on the andat or technology; the consequences of staying with a child or leaving him; the consequences of remaining loyal to a lord or betraying him; the consequences of trying to be a good man and failing. It is a stunning, dramatic novel from an author who is quickly established himself as one of the elite writers in fantasy.

While I enjoyed this book, I didn't love it as much as the first two books of its series, The Long Price Quartet.

In all three books, my favorite characters have been the poets. I have always enjoyed the poets' interactions and conflicts with the andat. Daniel Abraham's language is the most compelling and interesting when he is writing about them. Unfortunately, this third book, The Autumn War, does not focus as much on the relationship between any particular andat and poet. But the book is absolutely fantastic when it does.

Still, I quite enjoyed this book. It was very gripping. Every time I picked up the book, I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to keep reading and reading and reading. And the characters, who didn't seem as intricate as they did in the first two books, were still quite solid and full.

I don't usually enjoy fantasy novels that focus on military campaigns by ruling nations. But this book isn't the average military fantasy. This book's wild and excellent ending speaks to this point; it left me deeply wanting to read the fourth book of the series. I hope it comes out soon.

Oh, and the character, Sinja . . . he is really cool.

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series and was looking forward to reading this one. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get into this one. The story just dragged...never got going. I finally gave up; something I rarely do. Like the other two novels, the story is set in an exotic, facinating world where there are inhuman, powerful creatures controlled by poets. In this book, we should have learned more about these strange "creatures" and what happens when their poets lose control of them, but I didn't get that far.

I really enjoyed all 4 books in this series. I did get tripped up by names, at times, and a little confused/annoyed by the postures; plus I am not totally sure all the plot developments are free from holes. However the story builds slowly into a very interesting tale. The characters are not "good" or "evil", even those that oppose one another,and those that do evil. They tend to act like real people do. Puzzles long-thought-over are sometimes suddenly solved... but often not, and more thinking goes on. Relationships get messy, and people behave strongly in their own best interest, with love not guaranteed to conquer all. Sometimes my brain was waiting for a magical aha moment in which the problems were solved, and true love won out... but just as in real life these came sparingly or not at all. Although some developments are predictable, the conflicts rarely built into the climaxes I would have expected.

Most interesting are the andat. The story is really about the men and women, but it would be fascinating to hear more tales of these creatures. I do not know if the author kept them somewhat distant on purpose, or if he had a hard time with them... I suspect the former, given how well everything else is realized. The central battle seems quite relevant in our age of asymmetrical war and nuclear weapons. Not sure if the author intended those parallels, but he had me thinking. Not the easiest reading in the first book, by the last two it was hard to put them down. Highly recommended.

This is a great series. As mentioned by a pervious reviewer for some reason TOR has not released the the fourth book in the sieries as a paperback yet. The hardback for it was released July 2009. Which really bothers me as I'd like to have all 4 in the paper back edition and not have to by the fourth book as a hardcover.
However, Orbit UK has released all four books in two paperbacks that can be purchased for a reasonable price from Amazon UK

Shadow and Betrayal: Book one (Long Price) contains books 1 & 2
Seasons of War: Book Two (Long Price) contains books 3 & 4

This is an imaginative, somewhat unconventional, and generally well written fantasy series. Abraham puts forward a world in which talented individuals (poets) can instantiate abstract ideas in the form of beings with tremendous powers (andats). These beings are controlled by the poets, who are servants of a very hierarchic set of city-states. The presence of poets-andats guarantees the security, prosperity, and traditional social structure of the city-states. Other states wish to conquer the city-states and this set of books is partly the story of efforts to destroy the poets-andats and its consequences. Abraham has some clever plot construction. He uses a basic conflict between the 2 major protagonists of all 4 books to mirror, in sometimes ironic ways, the underlying political conflict. Inter=generational conflict and in particular, the costs of subordinating women, are important themes. Abraham is a solid writer with decent characterization and prose skills. The major problem with this series is that it is repetitive. This is essentially a single novel stretched out to 4 smaller books with considerable repetition of themes and plot devices. A single, individually longer but cumulatively shorter book would have been preferable.

Oh wow, what an awesome set of books. These are absolutely some of the best books I've ever read. The serious is quite interesting all the way through. It does NOT fall apart in the fourth and final book.

The quality of the writing is also above and beyond the normal level of writing for the fantasy genre. I highly recommend this series.

Several times the rulers of Galt have attempted to destroy the poets, the sorcerer-mathematicians who defend the Cities of the Khaiem through the power of the spirits known as andat. Each time they have risked discovery and exposure and the destruction of their homelands in retribution. Now the Galtic general Balasar Gice has returned from a dangerous quest into the heart of the ruined Old Empire and brought back textbooks that may hold the key to destroying the andat once and for all, and enable the armies of Galt to purge the Khaiem before they can bind new spirits.

As the Autumn War begins, Otah and Maati discover that only they have the skills and abilities that can stop the invasion, but only if they have enough time, and only if they can fully control the powers they seek to summon...

An Autumn War is the third and penultimate volume of The Long Price Quartet, and also the fastest-paced and strongest book in the series. The first two books were slow-building tragedies revolving around intrigue, ambition and betrayal. The third book is about war, the reasons for it and its devastating consequences. Balasar believes that the world is threatened with annihilation at any time if the andat remain alive, whilst Maati is convinced that their powers can be harnessed for the good of mankind. Otah stands between them, having himself seen the evil and destruction that the andat can unleash and the imperfections in the poets' training, but at the same time rejecting the Galts' murderous answer to the quandary.

It's an interesting book, with the military action being interspersed with thoughts on the morality of holding weapons of mass destruction (although the multiple interpretations of this leads me to believe that Abraham wasn't making a one-on-one correlation to nuclear weapons) and the characters' different approaches to dealing with the crisis. Abraham isn't the best author in the world at describing battles and military action, preferring to hold it back in favour of emphasising the impact of the war on the characters and their relationships. This he handles with aplomb, building up to a conclusion horrifying and unexpected in its tragic ramifications.

An Autumn War (****½) is an excellent fantasy novel, the highlight of this four-book series, and is well-recommended. The book is available now in the USA and in the UK as part of the Seasons of War omnibus.