Amanda Downum

I picked this book up on impulse a while ago based on the excellent back blurb and a gorgeous cover, plus an endorsement from Jacqueline Carey, whose work I enjoy.

Isyllt Iskaldur is a necromancer and a spy sent to a neighbouring empire to stir a revolution, to keep the empire from turning its attention to her lands. She travels from her homeland to Symir with two companions: Adam and Xinai. They are traveling under the pretense that Isyllt is going to be training at the local mage haunt, the show more Kurun Tam. While at the Kurun Tam, she bumps heads with ghosts and Asheris, a mysterious and attractive fellow mage.

There are also several subplots: Xinai is from Symir and has to deal with returning to her homeland, a place she had to leave after her clan was killed. She reunites with old friends and gets drawn into one group of revolutionaries. Meanwhile, another group of revolutionaries, slightly less militant, are also stirring, aided by an apprentice at the Kurun Tam.

Amanda Downum has created a sumptuous fantasy world. I had to go over the first chapter a couple times because there was so much information and so many place names starting with S, and I started reading the book while I was sick, but it was well worth the effort. The world building is meticulous and rich and the characters all have unique personalities that emerge over the course of the novel. The storytelling is layered and takes lots of twists and turns, with an exciting ending.

There is a very real sense of cost in The Drowning City. Isyllt does not go through the novel unscathed, nor do other characters. There is a grittiness in Amanda Downum’s writing that makes everything feel quite present and true. I really loved it and can’t wait to read The Bone Palace.

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I think Amanda Downum is my favorite.

I loved the atmosphere, the gritty adventuring, the gorgeous and respectful handling of trans characters, the blood and magic (and blood magic), the wealth of capable women.

Really, about the only thing that didn't entirely work for me was Isyllt's most serious romantic connection -- but I think that's just a matter of me not going for the mentor/student trope in general.

And Savendra's relationship plot made me so happy I could barely stand it, so it show more balances out. show less

I am a huge fan of Amanda Downum’s Necromancer Chronicles, and I have to confess that I was more than a bit disappointed to learn that her new novel, Dreams of Shreds and Tatters, was not part of that series (and I still hope that she’ll get the chance to continue it one day). That disappointment, however, did not even survive the five or so pages of the Prologue; by then I was totally gripped by what turned out another brilliant novel by that author (who is on her way of becoming one of show more my favourite writers of speculative fiction).

While the Necromancer Chronicles were Second World Fantasy, her new novel belongs unambiguously to the horror genre; in fact it places itself firmly in a certain tradition by incorporating numerous references to Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, which – among others – greatly influenced H.P. Lovecraft. And there is something quite old-fashioned about Dreams of Shreds and Tatters in the way Downum deftly builds an atmosphere of looming dread, just a few wispy strands of fog barely above ground level at first, but slowly and ineluctably rising higher and higher, until the characters of the novel (not to mention its readers) find themselves entirely caught up in an alien, unutterable horror,manipulated by forces far beyond human knowledge and experience for inscrutable purposes.

But Dreams of Shreds and Tatters is not just a nostalgic excursion into retroland, but updates the supernatural horror for contemporary sensibilities – there are zombies and the occasional action scene and, more importantly, among Downum’s protagonists are people of colour, queers and of course women with agency. All of which places the novel into another, more colourful horror tradition, namely of the early Clive Barker and Caitlín R. Kiernan, the first for his vivid, bizarre imagination, the second for replacing the usually rather bland protagonists of classic weird fiction with credible, interesting characters.

If all of this makes Dreams of Shreds and Tatters sound somewhat less than original, then this is not quite untrue – but lack of originality is, I am quite confident, fully intended by the author. The novel is a deliberate weaving-together of two quite disparate strands of tradition in horror fiction, and Amanda Downum purposely plays with elements from both these traditions making this, if you want, a postmodern horror novel. But it’s not really self-referential games Downums is interested in – underneath the brightly polished brilliance of the writing and the dazzling display of bizarre creatures, Dreams of Shreds and Tatters is at its heart a character-driven novel and the literary and imaginative fireworks it burns have in the end as its main purpose to illuminate the people populating the world Amanda Downum has created. She presents the reader with a variety of viewpoints most of them, in keeping with Chamber’s The King in Yellow, artists with of a somewhat decadent inclination. Something I particularly loved is how, although we learn a lot about those characters, really none of them is made totally transparent – they all keep some of their secrets, and this opacity makes them more substantial, gives them a certain weight and allows them retain their mystery and likely to occupy the reader’s mind even after finishing the book.

I’m still hoping for more Necromancer Chronicles, but now I’m hoping for a sequel to Dreams of Shreds and Tatters, too (and there are some hints as to wider conflicts of which events playing out in this novel may be a part… so there is hope). Or really, anything Amanda Downum may want to write next. show less

I enjoyed the first of these ([b:The Drowning City|6296885|The Drowning City (The Necromancer Chronicles, #1)|Amanda Downum|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327901734s/6296885.jpg|6481427]) but didn't find it amazing. The Bone Palace, however, built on the introduction of the main character and just took off. The pace was excellent, and the writing just sang in a way the first one never quite managed for me. Ms Downum's phrasing is rich, varied and replete with sensorial detail, even if she show more occasionally overuses a word or two. For instance, "conflagrant" is such a stand-out word that it can probably only be supported once a book, especially if you're burning through the pages as fast as this tight-plotted and splendidly turned-out book almost demanded.

I particularly loved the "third gender" (as trans-gender people of all kinds are referred to in the world of the books) characters in this story. Savedra is an amazing, complex, sympathetic, understandable character, who is introduced and developed with deftness and sensitivity. She is also privileged, and well aware of her privilege - which makes her a nice contrast with the general perception/treatment of androgynes, a specific example of which is also introduced with deftness and sensitivity later in the book.

All of which turns the book incidentally into an excellent consideration of the element of gender in the struggle for identity (nicely supported by cisgender characters with non-real-world-traditional senses of their gender) AND a consideration of privilege. I say incidentally, because it never gets anywhere near preaching on this, but does all of it in the background of a rollicking fantasy urban adventure.

And for that, fuck it, I'm giving the book fives stars, because while it's not perfect, it's an amazing achievement, and a damn good read. show less