Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson: Glorious World Building muddled up and squandered.
One of the latest release from the consistently impressive Tor
books stable, Unwrapped Sky is stunningly realized fantasy novel – written in lush,
evocative prose, Rjurik’s debut pushes the boundaries of this genre purely on
the basis of his vivid fecund imagination that knows no bounds and has
translated into this weird city of Caeli-Amur.
Possibly a worthy successor to the New Weird champions in
China Mievelle or Jeff Vendermeer, Rjurik’s imagined city of Caeli-Amur
sparkles and entices, apparently running on steampunk technology (Local trams
for conveyance?) mixed with ancient magic (the unexplained forces that thrive
on the Other Side, the brilliantly wrought up magic system of Thaumaturgy that
combines mathematical equations with ideogram puzzles) universities vying for
space with weirdly shaped palaces and most of all, the myriad mix of different
races that populate this city. The ancients called Elo-Taverns with their immortality
and weirdly long spider-like limbs, the Xsanthians who are part fish-part
humans, the New-men with their passion for inventing stuff and who love their technologies
and their vices like the Andulasian wine. And of course, the magnificent minotaurs
( that lovely cover has probably got half the folks in a tizzy. Minotaurs. In a
book. Seriously!) who come from far-off lands to celebrate the Festival of Sun.
So the troubled city of Caeli-Amur – with a rich heritage and
a past full of secrets and mysteries – is on the brink of a revolution. “Seditionists”,
a bunch of righteous like-minded folks who indulge in pursuit of knowledge and
freedom, want to throw away the yoke of tyranny that the ruling Houses have
imposed on their lives and free the ordinary citizens. Their schemes and ideas
slowly blow out of proportion, setting into action cataclysmic events that
threaten the future of this once-magnificent city. The story unfolds through
the eyes of three ordinary lives caught up in this political game for power .
Boris Autec, a tramworker who desires power and influence and works his way
into the nobility within one of the Houses and suffers from an addiction to a strong
drug. Kata, a philosopher-assassin ( another cool concept, though I thought it
smacked of Mentat-Assassin from the Dune stories a bit) wants nothing but to
free the debt that the Houses have placed on her and will do anything to get
out of this rat-race for a villa on the countryside. Anything. Maxmillian, a
young idealist who joins the seditionist group to do right for this city and its
people.
For all the inventiveness of his world-building, Rjurik’s
debut sometimes felt like it was losing steam somewhere. The story moves forward
in jerks and spurts, buoyed on by the actions and decisions taken by these
three morally compromised characters who are weak, shift loyalties and not
equipped enough to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. I
hated all three characters in equal measure and could never identify myself
with them. The prose, while evocative and lush to bring vivid images to the
mind about this strange and wonderful city, doesn’t really elicit that feeling
of knife-edge tension that should be warning us of the impending disaster about
to fall the city. It is a book on politics and the intrigue and the
machinations that go behind the power-play that help rule or topple a city has
been sufficiently brought out. But this was a political thriller sans much action. Discounting that
explosive opening chapter at the Festival of Bulls that feature Kata and the
Minotaurs. What began with a bang sadly went out without even a whimper by the
end of four-hundred odd pages.
There are several things to love about this book. It’s a
multi-layered narrative that peels off slowly and reveals conspiracies, Gods at
war and the ability of the human mind, corrupt on power and desire to stoop to
any levels. It’s a great new fantastical world and here be Minotaurs. But lack
of compelling characters whom we can root for and a narrative through-line that
never emerges beyond the potential it showcases in the beginning really is disappointing.
While finishing the book was a breeze for me, I was just skimming without
really dipping into the bounties. A competent debut that showcases how wildly
talented the author is, I have high hopes for Rjurik’s next. But I wasn’t jumping
for the moon after finishing this book for sure.
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