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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Ambitious, but........, March 29, 2010
This is a complex and ambitious piece of fantasy which is both a good and a bad thing. The author presents a world on the edge of an ice age (the Freeze) where the privileged few are preparing for a few decades of difficulty while many of the rest of the unfortunate population will be left to their own devices. This is a world populated mainly by humans, but there are a few sentient non humans in the cast too which makes for a potentially more interesting set of characters.
Added into the mix here we have a scheming chancellor, various weird religions, cultists who use ancient technology and the loyal Night Guard there to act as the Empire's special forces.
And there's the trouble really, there is almost too much going on and what could have been a truly fascinating world and premise is bogged down by complexity, too many characters and a strange writing style. By strange writing style I mean that it veers from the good to the cliché and from the flowing prose to the stilted with far too much regularity. With the exception of the head of the Guards, you actually fail to connect with almost any of the characters and while the second half of the book is an improvement, overall it just about makes 3 stars. But, it has to be said, the pace and plot really picks up in the second half and it is a shame that this is not matched in the first 200 pages as the author's focus is on the world building rather then getting the reader absorbed in the plot.
It is a real shame, because there are some great ideas in here. I feel the author would have benefited from a more critical and guiding editor who might have helped shape and tighten the book. It does leave a lot of open plot lines to be picked up in the next book, but I think I shall wait for the reviews before deciding to pick it up or not.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful start to a weird and dark series, June 30, 2010
This review is from: Nights of Villjamur (Legends of the Red Sun) (Hardcover)
The Sun is red and getting dimmer year after year. The winters are getting colder and now a freeze is set to happen that will last for the next 40 years where the world will ice over and only those who have prepared may live to tell their children of how the world was before or so hope the leaders of this world.
With Nights of Villjamur Charan has landed and brought his unique insights and clear, distinctive voice to the world with a skill that belies his age. Nights of Villjamur is the first book in the Legends of the Red Sun series by Newton, which has been lauded quite well in the UK since it came out there last year. This is Charan's US debut, although his UK debut was The Reef from a small press that can be a bit hard to find. I've seen reviews that make Nights of Villjamur out to be a cross of Vance's Dying Earth and Mieville's early work, which is definitely on the spot. However, in many ways I found the writing and characters more approachable than in any of the Dying Earth books I've read to date.
Villjamur the titular city is the largest in the world, alluded to be a far future Earth. Villjamur is a character of its own few other fictional cities can be compare to. It is dark and moody, but shows signs of love and selflessness albeit with plenty of venom and conspiracy down dark alleys. Great and wonderful things happen in Villjamur, but even more dastardly and vile actions, people, and plenty else are a foot.
This is not a land of heroes, but of survivors. As the ice encroaches in on civilization people from all over are traveling to the largest cities of the world with Villjamur being the goal for the majority since it is the capital. Thousands have flocked to the city just to be shut out of its gates where they live in squalor and continue with the hope the city of their leaders will let them in for a chance of survival. But the leaders of Villjamur are not too kind and worry for the long term life of the city given the ice age approaching and only enough food and stores for so many citizens.
The story is told though about half a dozen points of view, but a few others pop up intermittently. Brynd the albino captain of the Night Guard was definitely my favorite as he appears to be the most together character. Still he is the most fragile in many ways, which is a mean feat for a warrior of his class as he follows the will of the empire. There is Radur the ne'er do well who has some real physical skill that I hope gets showed off more in the future. However, I couldn't get over my dislike for Randur at all, but found his chapters enjoyable especially his time in the darker parts of Villjamur. There is something that feels very questionable about him and what he is doing even after events change him. Still I want to find out what happens to him, which I think says a lot about the story and world Newton has created that despite my dislike I need to know what he is up to.
Jeryd is an investigator in search of a killer and his part definitely plans the noir murder mystery angle to its fullest. He is also a rumel, which is a sort of human/lizard, but I have trouble picturing the species well. This is only one of the many unusual species met in Nights of Villjamur and hardly the strangest. Urtica, a leading member of the ruling council has the only tiresome point of view as his aims are quite opaque. But the most interesting character of all is Dartun who is a leader of a cultist group. Cultists were one of the most intriguing groups meet in Nights of Villjamur amongst many as they are a cross of wizard, scientist, and alchemist who safeguard ancient technology akin to magic. Well maybe safeguard is the wrong word. More like use for their own purpses while perpetuating their sect. Dartun is one of the oldest members of the cultists, which is why I couldn't wait for more of his chapters although they are a bit sparse except toward the end. He just knows so much about this world that I want revealed.
Nights of Villjamur is a story of a world far removed from our own comprised of very many different elements. It is a murder mystery, a love story, political novel, literary Fantasy, Horror (only slightly), but most of all it is inventive in the right ways and just plain weird at times. Making technology out to be magic and creating sub-human species worked really well and just wait until near the end to see what shows up. I'm still unraveling that puzzle in my head. Nights of Villjamur couldn't have been written at any other time. It feels perfect for the here-and-now with it sometimes strong prose and complex world worth visiting again and again packed with a beauty, starkness, and realism seldom seen in Fantasy. Newton's influences are plain to see, which he holds forth proudly.
This is a series to get lost in that will only get bigger, better, and weirder, which will ensnare you with its gracefulness and down-right oddness. It is without a doubt one of my favorite reads this year. There are some flaws although small. One of the evil doers is just too predictable as was a coming together of lovers, and I guessed one of the killers rather a bit too early on. Still fans of China Mieville, Richard K. Morgan, and Scott Lynch should take note. Scratch that. Fans of Mieville, Morgan, and Lynch should run out the door in search of a copy to find out for themselves how good this book is. I give Nights of Villjamur 8.5 out of 10 hats. Charan shows a lot of promise and I think he'll only get better from here with his beautifully demented mind. The sequel in the series, City of Ruin, has just been released in the UK and should be out in the US about this time next year.
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
rich potential but only partially fulfilled, September 19, 2009
Nights of Villjamur by Mark Newton is the first in a series entitled Legends of the Red Sun. The setting is the Boreal Archipelago, though the vast majority of the action takes place in the capital of the Jamur Empire--the eponymous city of Villjamur. The empire is built on its military and the remnants of ancient technology scavenged, studied, and used or modified (not always as the original technology was intended) by a group of Cultists (who are subdivided into sects). The city's inhabitants are made up of humans, rumel, one member (Jurra) of an Ancient race who has seemingly lived for a thousand years but has no memory, banshees--women whose visions of about-to-happen deaths allows them to arrive immediately afterward to keen the announcement, and Garudas--half bird/half man soldiers/guards.
As the book starts, the Empire is facing a slew of problems, both external and internal. The entire archipelago is being threatened by an impending ice age and refugees are threatening to overwhelm the capital. The Emperor is at best paranoid and at worst utterly crazy. Chancellor Urtica is plotting to usurp the emperor's title for himself, as well as rid the city of all the refuges camped outside. A top cultist, Dartun, who had thought himself nearly immortal finds out it isn't near enough, and along with experimenting with raising the dead is seeking the rumored gates into other realms where he might find life-extending technology/magic (and is not particularly concerned about what might come through from the other side). There are rumors of strange creatures and mass killings on outer islands, an underground and bloody religious cult is rearing its ugly head, and a manufactured war is about to begin.
Meanwhile, a councilor is murdered in odd fashion and a Rumel investigator, Jeryd, begins an investigation. Brynd, who commands the elite and cultist-enhanced Night Guard, suspects a high-up traitor whose information led to his group being nearly decimated in an ambush. We're also introduced to Tuya, a lonely prostitute/artist whose paintings can come to life; Tryste, a human aide to Jeryd whose upset that he's reached as high as he can go professionally due to humans being excluded from top policing levels (due to their short lives compared to the rumels); the Emperor's two daughters: Eir--younger, impetuous, and Rika, whose been gone for years following a religious path, and Randur--a outland islander who has taken the identity of the man hired to tutor Eir in dance and swordsmanship.
That's a lot to deal with (and that isn't everything) and perhaps a bit too much. Villjamur has a rich potential to it, but it doesn't quite feel fully there, at least, not consistently so. The author is juggling so many pov's, so many plot strands, any one or two of which could carry a novel (and a series), that we never feel fully grounded in any of them long enough to feel immersed in story or character, despite the fact that most of the plots wind together and most of the individual characterization starts out strong.
The encroaching ice is a great premise, but we never feel its inevitability, its alien coldness, the fear it must cause among the refugees who have fled its advance or those islanders who have stayed behind. The scavenged alien technology akin to magic is another great premise, but we get few flashes of light, some boxes, a few sentences here and there saying this box does this, this light does that, and that's mostly it. The banshees, the garudas--great inventions but they don't linger enough. We're never quite clear on the Rumels, on how they and humans have come to cohabitate, even on exactly what they look like. Tuya's ability is used to jumpstart a murder investigation, once more for almost a trivial use, and then mostly dropped. This happens with several other elements--this sense of half-fulfilled promise.
The same holds true with the plot. The murder investigation seems like it would have been an interesting line to wind through the story, but we as readers know almost immediately who the murderer is and Jeryd doesn't actually do much investigating. The artificial war set in motion is pretty transparent, a bit too flimsily based to completely accept how easy people accede to it, and then its major action happens offstage. The usurpation is bled of much tension by the fact that the perpetrator tells us (via conversation with another character) how he's going to do it and then, well, does it. The plotline involving Dartun would seem to have some major veins to explore: raising the undead, questions of ethics, a way to show us the world as he journeys to some of its farther edges, a sense of grandness re the portals to another world. But it falls curiously flat. Part of it is that it's so business-like. Part of it is it happens relatively quickly. Part of it is some nagging questions, such as how can nobody know he's been around as long as he has and would he really just drop his zombies off like so many pennies he doesn't want to carry in his pocket so they'd be found by others? And the burgeoning romance between Eir and Randur is just too predictable to add much excitement or tension.
As for the atmosphere, Newton strives to create a sense of the city, and does have some beautiful moments, but the problem is it often feels like he's striving to create atmosphere. The characters give us their views of the city, but too many times it feels like words put in their mouth by the author. Which of course they are, so this is a tough criticism to make, but it's one of those "you know it when it's done right" kind of things (see Mievelle). And the archipelago never felt fully there (see Leguin).
I liked what Newton was going for here. As mentioned, there are so many ideas here just begging to be fully explored. I wish he'd whittled them down a bit more or saved some for book two. Jeryd and Brynd stand out for their strong characterizations and in them, as well as a few side characters (Jurra and one of Brynd's captains) you see Newton's potential for character. In the banshees, and the garuda to some extent, you see his potential for imagination. And in the use of ancient technology you see his potential for turning up new metal in old veins. That potential isn't really met in Villjamur, but there was enough that I'll give book two a shot. As for a recommendation, I can't say I enthusiastically recommend it. I'd consider holding off until book two comes out and we see if it's worth the investment.
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