A Secret Atlas

Sometimes having a world you can fall into is a very good thing. Say it’s been a year since your last vacation, and you’re way too tired to read something challenging, something with gorgeous language and tortured but interesting syntax. Or your job sucks, and you don’t want to have to think at all about grand philosophical ideas of the nature of the soul and the meaning of life; you just want to go away. Or you’ve seen all the “Law & Order” reruns, and they’re not rerunning “Star Trek Next Generation” anywhere, but you want another comfortable world to escape to.

Well, then, Michael A. Stackpole’s A Secret Atlas: Book One of the Age of Discovery (Bantam Spectra, $15.00, March 1, 2005) might be just the thing. It’s show more pure and simple fun, even if it’s not really the “captivating new fantasy saga unlike anything you’ve ever read” that the jacket copy claims for it. It’s about the power of maps – that’s the somewhat original part of it – and it’s about family politics regarding the family talent, the dangers inherent in magic, quests for strange lands and odd things, and murder. A Secret Atlas follows the thread of much fantasy these days in that it gains its setting and tone from the Asian world, rather than from Celtic myth or the Brothers Grimm, so we’re treated to honorable swordplay, much bowing, and a reverence for elders quite foreign to modern day America.

There’s a reason that Stackpole appears from time to time on the bestseller lists. His writing is smooth and rarely obtrusive, almost pure story. When a full-fledged description interrupts the dialogue, it’s usually a description of a sword fight. The characters are familiar types – the good grandson, the rebellious grandson, the spiritual swordfighter with honor, the arrogant student swordfighter, the nasty patriarch, and so on. It’s not at all a surprise when you go to Stackpole’s website and learn that it takes him about 200 hours to write a 100,000 page novel, and that he’s a game designed as well as a writer – it fits with the flow of the book, which moves at the pace of a decent adventure movie.

What it comes down to is that this book is comfortable. You know what you’re going to get. You can pick it up and go away for a few hours, even be surprised when you surface to find you’re not wearing a kimono, but a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. All those worries, all those petty anxieties, disappear as you float down the river of the story. And that’s a very good thing to be able to say about a book, all by itself. show less

(Alistair) I am pleased to report that the Age of Discovery trilogy, or at least its first book, more than lives up to the expectations I have for Stackpole after enjoying his work in the X-Wing series of Star Wars EU books.

The worldbuilding is particularly enjoyable, owing more to Asian cultures and Chinese models than the Western models pervasive in fantasy. (We also see a part of the world based on the even more rarely seen Mesoamerican model.) Also worth noting is the interesting magic system based on excellence, in which magic (and extended lifespan) is generated by great skill in a particular field. This also ties very well into both the historical backstory, in which the aftermath of a great battle warped the land in all kinds of show more interesting ways and demolished most of civilization, and the plot of the book, in which one definitely sees the suggestion - as one follows the mapmaking family who are the protagonists - that the map can affect the territory even as the territory is being mapped.

And the plot lives up to the worldbuilding, being nicely complex and intrigueing, with a rich cast of secondary 'tagonists, both pro- and an-, and and plenty of different aspects brought into play, and it flows along very smoothly, keeping you turning the pages.

The real question, I suppose, will be how well it holds up with the next book. He leaves this divergent set of plot threads dangling with the end of this one, and how well they're picked up, continued, and reconverged in the next books will be the real test of the trilogy.

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2009/07/a_secret_atlas_michael_a_st... ) show less

The Anturasi family have been mapmakers for generations. This puts them in a unique position of power, since without maps trade and travel suffer. It has been almost 800 years since The Cataclysm, a magical holocaust which both literally and figuratively changed the face of the world, and everyone is still getting things sorted out. This is (more or less) the story of three of the Anturasi children: studious Keles, adventurous Jorim, and soul-searching Nirati. Keles is sent west to survey the lands where dangerous wild magic still has a great hold. Jorim is sent east in a ship to find a new route to the west (and his voyage is similar to Columbus's in many ways). Nirati, concerned that she still does not exhibit a Talent, gets tangled show more up in local politics. Of course, this is barely scratching the surface. Like many fantasy epics, the characters and subplots are numerous. It is clear that a lot of world-building went into this book, and much time is spent explaining customs, fashions, and history. This doesn't seem distracting at first, but I did find I lost the thread of the plot on several occasions. Nirati's tale in particular confused me; I feel like I somehow skipped a chapter or something. Keles and Jorim's adventures, on the other hand, were great - once they finally got started. I was especially fascinated by the effects of wild magic, how it moves in storms with unpredictable results. It's unfortunate that this is the first book of a trilogy, which meant the ending was unsatisfying and things cut off just as the plot had at last begun to move along well. It simply does not stand on its own. I would probably read the other books were I to come across them, but I'm not sure I'll seek them out. While this was certainly not a boring read and I had no problem churning through many chapters in a sitting, it is not something I thought about when I wasn't reading. It was simply something to pass the time. So while I really enjoyed the world it was set in, I would have appreciated a tighter story. show less

Michael Stackpole really thinks about his characters and his plots, and it shows in this book. He's created a fascinating and complicated world, and the adventures within are suspenseful and unusual! I recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy fiction.

Premise is interesting, character development is adequate but story is just blah. I've tried and tried to get into it but it's been sitting on my shelf since the 22nd of Nov (today is Dec 4th) and I just realized that I haven't missed it at all. I usually love alternate worlds, fantasy, magic, alternate tech, etc but this just isn't capturing my interest.

instead of his medieval Europe type, we get a more eastern flavor, and some south american thrown in. Very enjoyable, but why do some main characters always seem to die? I didn’t enjoy that aspect.

I haven't read the rest of the series, yet, but this wasn't a bad start.