Wheel of the Infinite

Exiled priestess Maskelle returns home for a centennial ritual designed to renew and preserve the world. Unfortunately, something is going wrong with the ritual, and Maskelle has to salvage the situation despite a hostile royal court, foreign conspirators, and guidance from an unreliable, inhuman source. Wheel of the Infinite was excellent: finely observed, carefully characterized, free of clichés, and progressively minded.

But most importantly, the book off-handedly introduces a cursed puppet. When the puppet later becomes demonically possessed, he is regarded with the same degree of weary nonchalance by the other characters. You know times are bad when the demonically possessed puppet is the least of your worries.

Intermittently interfering gods and a 100year ritual really complicate life, as disgraced Voice of the Adversary makes her way back to the center of worship only to find the problems aren't just hers but threaten the entire reality. But she picks up a sarcastic hunk who has her back, so that's cool. A rare middleaged protagonist with attitude and angst who just keeps dealing with what's in front of her. Also a wicked puppet.

A woeful number of fantasy readers are unfamiliar with Martha Wells. My proof, you ask? The very fact that rights have reverted back to Wells and she has decided to re-release her books in e-book form.

Wide-ranging in world-building and focus, she hasn’t been content to settle down in one fantasy universe and write an endless series (cough, cough, Robert Jordan). I happen to love her fine balance between plotting and world-building, and the way she winds them together with reasonably sophisticated–but non-purplish–language. I’m a little regretful that it took me so long to discover her writing despite my wide-ranging fantasy tastes, and I’d encourage any fantasy reader to check her work out–there’s certainly enough variety show more that if one book doesn’t suit, there’s likely another that will fit better. And if nothing else, her take on fantasy tends towards the unusual.

Wheel of the Infinite centers on Maskelle, a formerly powerful woman who has left her position as her temple divinity’s living Voice in disgrace. Set in a society somewhat loosely based on Tibetan Buddhism, there is a pantheon of gods who have spent time on earth and have returned to the Divine Realms. A core ritual of the combined temples is to recreate the mandala pattern of the lands annually or the land will suffer, and this year marks a crucial hundred-year ceremony. Although Maskelle retains many of her powers from her time as the Voice, she’s been traveling incognito, acting as seer for a traveling theater troupe. While looking for herbs, she discovers a river inn overrun with raiders. Feeling rather ornery, she decides to see if there are any honest folk left to rescue, and she instead discovers a foreign traveler captive to the bandits’ amusements. They mutually rescue each other, discovering an immediate connection. He surreptitiously follows as she leads the troupe to the capital city of the Celestial Empire, until a temporary rouse as her bodyguard leads to a permanent association. Once in the city, Maskelle, her new bodyguard Rian, and the troupe quickly become the focus of local politics, both supernatural and corporeal.

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As usual, I have more to say. But since my first paragraph was already woefully off-topic, there isn't any guarantee this review won't be removed. So find it at:
http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/wheel-of-the-infinite-by-martha-wells/ show less

This absorbing fantasy follows the journey of Maskelle, in her mid-forties, who is “the Voice of the Ancestors.” She is thus a high functionary of the Infinite, a religious order guided by ancestral spirits. She has been called back to the Capital by the Celestial One, the supreme head of the order, for the rite that remakes the Wheel of the Infinite each year. The Wheel of the Infinite refers to a round model of the world that both represents and creates reality; a change to the wheel will change the world.

This year it was a more significant rite than usual because it marked the End of a Hundred Years. But something kept going wrong with the preparations. There were dark alterations to the Wheel that no one could explain, and no show more one knew how to stop. Thus Maskelle was summoned to help.

Maskelle used to be not just a Voice of the Ancestors but the Voice of the Adversary, before she was cursed and exiled from the Capital seven years earlier. The Adversary is the only Ancestral spirit that was never a living being. It was created by the other spirits to destroy evil. Since the Adversary was never a living being, it was personified by its Voice: “So the Voice of the Adversary is not just the Adversary’s voice, but the Adversary Itself. Or Herself.”

Seven years before, Maskelle took consequential action in the Capital that was deemed to have been in response to a false vision from the Adversary, thus betraying her sacred duty and status. Not only had she been exiled, but the Adversary no longer spoke to her. While she lived, however, there could not be a new Voice to replace her, so the Empire has been denied the contributions of the Adversary all this time. But now they were desperate for help.


Meanwhile, Maskelle had been traveling with a group of itinerant actors, and in the course of their journey she met Rian, a swordsman who, albeit younger, became both Maskelle’s protector and lover. No one had spoken to her in years with his directness; mostly they were afraid of her. But Rian’s humor and stubbornness matched her own, and she could not deny her attraction to him. And Rian turned out to be critical to the Infinite for the confrontations to come between evil and the Infinite, and for the fate of the world.

Evaluation: The world-building is amazingly complicated, as is the plot, but both are impressively rich and absorbing. And there is enough mystery and danger to keep readers turning the pages. It seems that no matter what subsection of speculative fiction Wells is inhabiting at any time, her writing is outstanding. show less

Standalone (as far as I know) from MW. A travelling hedge-witch/priest meets a runaway bodyguard swordsman - they don't fall suddenly in love! but instead travel together with a troop of thespians to the capitol. She's been summoned by the emperor - she is more than just a witch, but a exiled priestess, and now something's gone wrong with their religious rite, that perhaps puts the whole world in danger.

Contrived is perhaps the best explanation for the motivations - it does sort of all make sense in the end, but I spent a long time being not very convinced by much of it. As usual with MW the world-building is a little sketchy, and it's the characters that bring it to life. Better than some of her other works, it never quite gelled with me.

My only experience with Martha Wells is the Murderbot science fiction series, which I love. I’m glad to see her fantasy writing is good as well. I think her humor shines more with Murderbot, but Maskelle’s sardonic outlook in this one gave me a few chuckles too.
I have to say, I object to the cover design here with, I guess, Rian on it and no Maskelle. I liked both characters a lot, and I was glad to get Rian’s POV along with Maskelle’s, but Maskelle is the headliner here, people.
It seems weird that a book written in the year 2000 has such an old school feel to it, but it reminded me of fantasy novels I read as a teen and young adult, maybe because of the elaborate, lengthy descriptions or that fact that it’s a standalone show more novel.
Wells is great at characterization and building camaraderie among her characters. The characters were what I liked most about the book. The world was interesting and original, although I’m not sure I fully grasped the magical/religious system. I would have been fine without some of the lengthier descriptions of the city and temples, but they did provide a good mental picture for contrast with events that happened later in the book.
I enjoyed it, and I’ll definitely seek out more by this author. show less

Another great Amrtha Wells book: Of all the books I've read so far this summer, this was the one I liked best. I haven't read everything Ms. Wells has written, but I've never been disappointed. The characters are interesting, the story flows well and is well structured, and she has created an interesting culture with memorable descriptions, and an interesting mystical magic system. Highly recommended!