Book Review: Last First Snow by Max Gladstone

Every year in fantasy there comes what Jo Walton termed the “important book.” This is the book that’s everywhere, that’s reviewed by everyone in the genre, ends up on most of the critic best of the year lists, and creates a love-it-or-hate-it response from readers due to its polarizing nature. Last year the most obvious examples of important novels were City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett and the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. Like Walton, I believe that there are some books that should have become important novels but simply never got the same level of attention they deserved. This year in fantasy has given us possible important novels (like The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu, Uprooted by Naomi Novik) but if given the choice for one that's likely to slip through the cracks, my vote is going to Last First Snow by Max Gladstone.

I’ve written about Gladstone before. As far as I’m concerned, his Craft Sequence is the most exciting new fantasy series published in recent years. Through this thematic series, Max Gladstone has used his magic system of the Craft and the Deathless Kings to explore issues relevant to our time: the tyranny of corporations, water shortages, the rise of secularization and its effect on religious fervor. His vibrant, diverse, and complex characters grapple with very modern problems in a world so much like our own. The most impressive thing about these books isn’t that they’re like reality—it’s how he manages to show how different his universe is while still revealing universal truths of the human condition, all while still telling an entertaining story. In this latest entry, Gladstone tackles his most political subject yet: protest.

In Dresediel Lex, the wards in the Skittersill are falling and if they do fall, it could literally set demons on the world. So to try and develop the area, the King in Red hires Craftswoman Elayne Kevarian to help negotiate a deal. The only problem is that the people of the Skittersill have their own plans for the future, and they have their own leader in Temoc, a priest of the old gods who’s taken to community organizing while trying to create a better future for his family. To quote the front flap: “Elayne and Temoc must fight conspiracy, dark magic, and their own demons to save the peace—or failing that, to save as many people as they can.”

This novel doesn’t sugarcoat its issues. Instead, Gladstone writes a complex, multi-layered story where there are no true heroes or villains. As in real life, sometimes the characters have to make deals with the opposing side despite feeling that they’ve compromised everything they’ve ever believed in. As in life, they all have a point. And as in life, they find no easy answers or solutions. Life is messy and so is the way things eventually end up in Last First Snow. The novel comes to a proper conclusion, if one that the reader may have wished could have been avoided. But it’s that staunch realism and brutal truth about life that the novel offers that makes it such a compelling read, if not a very optimistic one. Make no mistake: this is a very entertaining book, with lots of dramatic tension and action in the latter half. However, due to its serious subject matter and grey morality, it may not be the ideal choice for those looking for a light, escapist read.

As with every Craft Sequence entry, Last First Snow’s highlight is its characters. Returning to the series are Elayne, the King in Red, and Temoc. As this novel is set chronologically twenty years before Two Serpents Rise, Gladstone uses the events of the story to help develop Elayne and Temoc into the characters as we knew them in Two Serpents Rise and Three Parts Dead. While I’d always found Elayne to be one of the more interesting older female characters in fantasy literature, seeing her as the protagonist and seeing things through her own perspective humanized her in such a way that I can definitely say that she is easily my favorite Craft Sequence protagonist yet. Temoc is another I came to really understand and love through this book; while I may not have agreed with every choice he made, he remained sympathetic throughout the narrative. Kopil, the King in Red, is just as frustrating as he’s ever been; he makes good points and his choices are understandable, but they are still quite hard to forgive. Gladstone also introduces several new and interesting additions: Temoc's wife, Mina, a wonderful and determined woman; Chel, conflicted but strong; Tan Batac, born and raised in the Skittersill but has been away long enough to be considered the enemy by its people; and the Major, who was perhaps my favorite new character for the mystery surrounding this character and just how dedicated they were to the cause. (Though I was a bit confused by a certain revelation regarding the Major and just what the reader was supposed to have learned about the Major's identity.)

The prose is just as the other books are, so there’s not much to say there: the usual clipped sentences, with lots of fragments and one-line paragraphs. It’s a style that can get very frustrating, but it does work.

Diversity-wise, the novel can claim to feature two older protagonists. Both Elayne and Temoc are over fifty. Elayne is actually a rather rare breed in the fantasy genre: a female protagonist who is over fifty, unmarried, and childless who is portrayed as neither hating men nor children and is in fact the most fair-hearted person in the novel. Also, Temoc’s culture is heavily inspired by the indigenous cultures of America.

In summary, Last First Snow is a fantastic novel. It expands the fantasy genre in terms of character, setting, and plot choice. The style is easy to read and very compelling; the narrative gives just as much tension and suspense to court negotiations as to genuine action scenes. It’s not a novel for everyone, but it’s certainly worth a look. Perhaps the biggest flaw is just how slow the pace is for its first half, but once the halfway mark is passed, everything comes together. What it sacrifices in pacing it gains in perhaps the most well-developed cast of characters Max Gladstone has given us yet. If it doesn’t become one of the illusive “important novels,” it will certainly be one I and other likeminded readers will cherish—at least until the next one comes out. Highly recommended.

Score: 4.5/5

Book Review: Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

 

It’s no secret that fantasy literature has a diversity problem—the conversation has been nearly constant for the last few years. Thankfully, there’s been a growing influx of new authors bringing fresh perspectives to a genre that had begun to grow stale. These range from New Weird authors like Jeff VanderMeer to more traditional fantasy authors as Saladin Ahmed. Our subject today, Daniel José Older, belongs to the latter category. Older released his debut in February of this year; a critically acclaimed release, my interest was piqued but I never got the incentive to check out the man’s work until now, with the release of his new novel, a young adult effort, titled Shadowshaper.

Shadowshaper is an exciting new novel to talk about. An urban fantasy, Shadowshaper rectifies many of the elements I’ve found missing in the urban fantasy subgenre. The novel is set in Brooklyn, and Older’s Brooklyn feels lived in—it’s not just a generic area that just happens to hold a secret, it’s filled with multicultural communities. Older’s protagonist, Sierra Santiago, is a fierce girl of color, of black and Puerto Rican heritage with a thick Afro that she wears proudly. Her friends are diverse as well—one is Haitian, another from Martinique of Igbo descent, two are a lesbian couple, and all are some form of ethnic minority. While Shadowshaper is fundamentally a fantasy adventure, this novel has relevant themes that are weaved subtly into the tapestry of Older’s world: police brutality, street harassment, gentrification, internalized racism manifested through colorism, misogyny and homophobia’s intersection.

Best of all is the world building—rather than fall back on the tried and true masquerade, Older’s magic fits almost perfectly into the society he describes, just as in tune with the communities as the air they breathe. Shadowshaping is such an excellent and visually stunning form of magic, I can just imagine how many people will want to play it in RPGs.

As a novel, it’s solid. The prose is sharp—descriptive without being flowery. The author does especially well at describing music, which comes as no surprise due to his own admission on his website that he is a musician himself. His writing swells but doesn’t overwhelm the narrative so as to distract from the story.

And a good story it is. While the sense of place is one of the book’s best elements, Older also writes a well-paced mystery. Some elements are fairly easy to spot, while others might require a keen eye to detect. Let it be said that Daniel Older left just enough clues to keep things exciting, but filled the novel with enough quiet moments to keep things from feeling overwhelming.

But the heart of the novel is, unsurprisingly, its characters. Sierra is a lovely protagonist; while less flawed than the main characters I tend to prefer, she is a proactive heroine who solves her problems in an intelligent fashion, is proud of herself, and fights back against injustice that should thrill those that are into that sort of thing. The novel contains a fairly good villain that serves their narrative purpose. Other great characters include her conflicted mother, Uncle Neville, Nydia, and Sierra’s friends Tee, Izzy, and Bennie.

Does it have flaws? Of course—sometimes Older gets a bit carried away with his descriptions, Sierra reacts just a bit too well to such traumatic experiences, the romantic subplot between Sierra and Robbie is contrived and oh so tiring. . . .

Overall, Shadowshaper is a good young adult novel. Young adult has tended to lose me in recent years due to the overabundance of copycat releases, but I can say definitively that this novel is perfectly readable for both teenagers and adults due to its entertainment value and the relevant social commentary hanging in the background. Recommended.

Score: 4/5