Grand Conspiracy

I am completely captivated by the Wars of Light and Shadow series.

And if I were not quite convinced, this second book of the Alliance of Light reaffirms once again all the elements that mark for me an encompassing adult fantasy experience: gorgeous writing, rounded, consistent characters, solid world-building, clashes and blood (oh yes), plots and counterplots, political intrigue, calculated endgames, pleasing unpredictability, witty dialogues, though-provoking themes and a cartload of entertainment. The ending, with all of its tight wrap up of all of the strings and characters, with the humor and the double-cross twists of fate I absolutely cherish in the series as usual caught me unawares, but with the following book, [b:Peril's show more Gate|1040471|Peril's Gate (Wars of Light & Shadow #6; Arc 3 - Alliance of Light, #3)|Janny Wurts|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422571071s/1040471.jpg|1026842], timely at hand.

The key to this part of the story is the title, Grand Conspiracy: the book’s thriving, intertwining coils of conspiracy immerse the reader, along with all the characters involved (ever developing, ever intense in their flawed, passionate and human way) in a complicated and politically changing situation, where the established boundaries of right and wrong blur, yesterday’s enemies become today’s allies and vice-versa, ambivalence rules and the main players’ known and hidden agendas come to fruition or shift in failure with interdependent resolution. If revelations and conspiracies –and the implications beneath- take the main stage, the book is far from lacking in hammering action. The bedlam of the last chapters is priceless with its superb mix of humor and tragedy, and the mid-book focus on the s’Brydion strategies immersive and wily fast-paced.

"Two accursed princes hold the world’s fate between them".

Arithon keeps sailing the blue-waters seeking the vanished Paravians and finds his only solace in the maturing powers of his art. “Unable to lie for convenience” or “to break from the sound tenets of his character”, he heavily relies on his “sharp penchant for cleverness” to avoid disaster. Aided by Dakar, the clanborn and his secretive network of allies, he holds on his integrity struggling to maintain his sanity against the compulsion of the Mistwraith’s hate-geas. Yet his stolen reprieve may draw to a close, threatened by the Koriani plotting to exploit “his royal-born tie to compassion” to bring about his downfall and the Alliance, weaving its “growing tapestry of power linking cities east to west on the continent”, exacerbating the crusade against darkness and sorcery.

Lysaer, "dangerous beyond compare since no one alive can guess his preferred agenda", casts his net wider claiming divine inspiration and carefully tends his inner circle of powerful advisers. All exalted leadership and cool calculation, ever the consummate politician, he bides his time answering the nurtured fear of the masses with his “war-bent call to religion” and “steering Alliance interests to bind terrified trade guilds into a strangling dependency”. However, when the dictates of “cold bullion” and unexpected setbacks threaten mire his strategy “to key the next stage of his empire”, not only Lysaer keeps rallying mage talent to his cause, but he starts to court the advantages of the very same dark practices he pledged to uproot…

The factions and individuals involved (knowingly or not) in the feud between the royal half-brothers are driven by different interests and loyalties which may logically change over time, sport very subjective moral grounds, and play the game with their own sets of rules, often to the result of avalanching consequences for the world of Athera.

The Koriani Prime enchantress Morriel, nearing the end of her prolonged life, who patiently conspires and deftly sets her long-range intent to thwart the Fellowship authority. Lirenda, all citybred elegance and disowned groomed successor to the pinnacle of Koriani power, driven by blind ambition and conflicting passions, obsessed and compelled to capture Arithon for the purpose of reinstatement and personal vengeance. Elaira, oath-bound to Koriani obedience, yet inseparably linked to the Prince of Rathain, shining example of willpower and humility. Fionn Areth, plagued by a preordained fate and unwary pawn of a greater scheme. The charter law-abiding clans, bane of the town trade guilds, convenient scapegoats relentlessly hunted by Alliance soldiers and fleeing to neutral Havish or hiding in order to survive. The ever-present threat of the Mistwraith from the dead planet of Marak and the Rockfell prison. The s’Brydion family of Alestron, fiercely protective of its freedom and cunningly refusing to be anyone’s game piece. Cerebeld, First High Priest to the Prince of the Light, and the growing number of his gifted collaborators, whose born talents are drawn to Lysaer’s cause under the full awareness of his s’Ahelas farsight. The Fellowship Sorcerers, bound “to ensure Paravian survival no matter the cost of the sacrifice” and whose reserves are stretched painfully thin, have “no license to use power to influence mortal destinies” and “can act only by the Law of the Major Balance, inside a prescribed set of limits”, which leave them and their charges in a most precarious position.

One of the aspects I love of this series is how carefully the details are woven in the “world's broadscale tapestry of events”. Grand Conspiracy shows again deep and careful planning; particularly the denouement is testimony of the incredible craft of Janny Wurts, who manages to balance all the layers and levels of the story and to offer timely answers to the questions of the reader; what’s more, with each title in the series the delivery builds tighter and faster. She never fails to impress with her rare gift for words, delightful in humour, descriptions, dialogue and action. show less

Well-titled as one conspiracy after another is either set in motion, grows in complexity, or races to fulfillment. Fellow readers have called this book somewhat bleak, and there were many times I agreed. And yet, there are pinpricks of hope strewn throughout and I will cling to them as the series moves forward.

Lysaer and Talith were a tragic couple in some ways, but Arithon and Elaira have to be the one of the most heart-breaking couples in fiction. True soulmates, truly selfless in their love, so bittersweet...

The characters surrounding the two key players got more "page time" in this entry to the Alliance of Light/Wars of Light and Shadow series, and I certainly enjoyed getting to know them better. The circle of characters keeps show more expanding and, knowing that each has their part to play, I'm trying to keep them fixed in my mind. show less

There are a couple of traits Janny Wurts’ The Wars of Light and Shadow series shares with with the current trend of New Grit in fantasy literature: her characters have a plausible psychology, she is willing to have bad things happen to good people if the story requires it, her world is populated not just with nobility, but with middle and lower classes who are more than just decoration and have an active role to play. But in Wurts’ novels, unlike those of, say, George R.R. Martin or K.J Parker, those elements do not serve to achieve a greater degree of realism. Instead, she is aiming for something quite different, namely the grand scope of the truly Epic, and that is nowhere as pronounced as in her use of language.

No "Knights Who show more Say Fuck" here - all the expletives Wurts’ characters use are colourful, often bizarre and sometimes quite imaginative, but always far removed from anything people would realistcally expected to say. Nobody talks “naturally” here, but everyone uses an artificial, archaic-sounding language, emphasizing the fact that those characters are not constrained to normal human proportions but considerably larger than life. And this holds true not just for the dialogue, but even more so for the descriptive passages, where one can almost feel how the writing strains to mold itself to the epic content of the tale it tells, feel it vibrate from the urge to transcend mundane diction towards the epic and the poetic. Sometimes it overreaches, and as a result the imagery is occasionally off, the prose purple rather than sublime - but I for one had rather see an author take the risk of grasping for greatness and fail at times than stay safely in the realm of the bland and boring.

What never falters, though, is Janny Wurts’ sense for the music of language – the compelling rhythm and colourful sound of her prose draw the reader in, and when I read her, I always have the sound of her sentences echoing in my head. There is (to name just one example) a passage of just a few pages in this novel that describes a caravan journey across the mountains in winter – nothing much happens in it, and it’s not of much consequence for the plot, but the way is written makes it so achingly beautiful that I was holding my breath while reading it. I usually do not like audio books at all, but I think Janny Wurts’ prose really lends itself to being read aloud, and I’d be very curious to actually hear the cadence of her prose some time.

As for the plot of Grand Conspiracy, like in the previous installment there is a slow build-up that gradually gathers momentum to then explode into a compelling grand finale – which is in turn a set-up, moving the characters into place for the next volume. Again, the main pleasure derived from this novel comes not from following its plot, although there are some nicely spun intrigues and surprising twists here, those being another trademark of this series. show less

Another wonderfully gripping and beguiling instalment in the saga of Arithon and Lysaer.

The opening third of the book concerns, almost exclusively, Lysaer and the clan of s'bryedion, as careful manoeuvrings attempt to determine loyalty and to seek such damage as can be plausibly denied. Lysaer has also the trade guilds to contend with, and must plan his actions to maximize the amount of revenue that can be garnered to build fortresses and raise armies even though there has been no sign of the "Spinner of Darkness" for many years.

The remaining latter two thirds of the book deal with Arithon, drawn back to the mainland after 15 years of fruitless searching. He hears word that someone in the city of Jaelot has been arrested because of show more his likeness to himself. Jaelot being a city which he once almost destroyed, the citizens have little patience for truth, preferring bloodthirsty revenge. Interspersed within these plots we have the endless machinations of the Koriani, and the trials and travails that the Fellowship undergo to preserve the sanctity of Athera.

The opening is perhaps a little slow, picking up from where Fugitive Prince left off. But as the prophecy draws near and the Koriani plots mesh together the action and tensions rocket up. Particularly inventive plotting and writing allows the skipping over 12 years of maturation. I was also pleased by the deft handling of the aging of some characters and how societies change even though our protagonists are all effectively immortal. How this will impact their heirs remains to be seen. I barely noticed any shifts in viewpoint from character to character which has plagued some of the earlier books, and the continued practice of including snippets of minor characters' lives at the chapter breaks works very well in tidying loose ends.

A few plot holes - always annoying to find minor inconsistencies in what was otherwise such a carefully constructed and detailed world - The dragon skull wards; why are these a sudden surprise, their owners had been using them for years to avoid scrying. The slave barge interdict; this apparently throws trade into turmoil, but the use of slaves had only been around for a few years, why could the merchants not revert to earlier practices. And if Slaves are against compact law, why could the Fellowship not simply block the practice over the entire continent. Moriel's plan; the Fellowship should have been able to guess what she was up to as she headed towards to the Skyshields, and have been much more prepared.

A specific problem with this Ebook edition. It has been badly proofed. The text is all fine, but in many instance, especially for 50 pages or so around page 500 several words are run together without spaces, muchlikethis. Very annoying.

Minor niggles aside it is hugely gratifying to read the 5th episode of a series without noticing any lessening of tension, style or sheer enthralling grasp of the skilfully crafted world. Read them all.

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After re-read:
This is not the best point to enter the series. The story starts off very slowly with the first 300 pages of little happening, as various characters manoeuvre for position during Arithon's decade at sea. Without the previous books to highlight the importance of their actions it is difficult for the new reader to comprehend why we should care. However about halfway through Arithorn returns to the action and the pace picks up dramatically, this was as good as I remembered the series being. I didn't notice the above mentioned holes at all. show less

Each novel peels back layer upon layer, revealing more of the motivations between several key players and philosophies, making it nigh impossible to summarize any plot points, including the myriad conspiracies plaguing Paravia, without spoiling what was, what is and what is yet to come. The last three chapters' pace proved unrelenting, even unto the final triplet.

I'll be picking up the next novel ([b:Peril's Gate|1040471|Peril's Gate (Wars of Light & Shadow #6; Arc 3 - Alliance of Light, #3)|Janny Wurts|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1276188141s/1040471.jpg|1026842]) to continue this outstanding series.

The fifth book in the overall arc The Wars of Light and Shadow, does not fail to deliver. Utilizing the magic of music and the music of language, the tale of how the Mistwraith twists Paravia, and its peoples continues.

Her characterization continues to delight. And layers that make up the world of Paravia continue to be revealed as plots within plots are unstrung against not only the Master of Shadow, but against the sorcerers sworn to protect Paravia and against the protective spells guarding the world itself.

Great epic fantasy, with depth and color and music.

Tension continues to build, as the Fellowship Sorcerers stretch their resources ever thinner to keep the clans and Arithon alive. The Koriathane's conspiracy, which has a been a couple of books in building, at last comes to a head. Arithon survives, but the cost becomes ever dearer.

This is NOT the spot to start the series. Another near 600 pages, and the Mistwraith's geas has wound itself more tightly. I'm hooked. Wurts tells a fine story. If you can get beyond the fact that the past is bleak, the present is bleaker, and the future looks nigh on hopeless, it's easy to grow attached to her characters and her writing style.