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Empire's Daughter (The Chronicles Of Kydan book 1) by Simon Brown
01/09/2005 . Source: Tom Lloyd-Williams 
pub: DAW. 440 page enlarged paperback. Price: $ 6.99 (US), $ 9.99 (CAN). ISBN: 0-7564-0283-2. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out websites: www.dawbooks.com and http://eidolon.net/homesite.html?author=simon_brown
When the government of Kydan is overthrown by a group of rich merchants aided by a foreign power, its former leader Poloma flees to the Empire of Hamilay for refuge and help in regaining control of his city. Hamilay, like the other major power in the region, Rivald, is ruled by members of the Kevleren family who are the only people in the world able to Wield, the only magic around and fuelled by the sacrifice of something beloved.
It's decided that the Empire's greatest general, Maddyn, will lead an expedition of soldiers and colonists to restore Poloma. Maddyn is a member of the Kevleren family but lacking the ability to wield himself. Banishment in this way also sorts out the need for punishing Maddyn due to his lover's pregnancy, necessary because she's not part of the Kevleren family and diluting the blood-line is more than a little frowned upon. Unfortunately, this isn't even at the top of the list of Maddyn's bad personal decisions as that distinction goes to the affair he's had with his own cousin, a borderline psychotic duchess who is also the most powerful Wielder around.
As you can imagine, they travel to Kydan and it all seems to be going swimmingly until everything starts to collapse, largely in a series of abrupt plot-twists during the last fifty pages that are a sudden change from the gentle pace of the rest of the book. Having had a somewhat soft and unremarkable novel up to that point, the author seems to decide to crank matters up several gears for the ending, a decision that doesn't suit the style of writing particularly well.
As novels go, this one didn't make a whole lot of impact on me. To be fair, it's not the sort of high fantasy I tend to read much of. The impact and pace is low and while there are a number of central characters, this never really becomes sufficiently complex to make my brain work hard. Even the attempts at nastiness didn't really feel convincing, as though the author is simply too gentle and accommodating a person to really enjoy getting into the details of what some of his characters get up to.
When you're dealing with court politics, international dealings, social upheaval and family relationships, I really expect to have to make more effort than was required here. Additionally, I found myself somewhat frustrated by the more interesting concepts being quickly passed over for more mundane events. Things like the Beloved rebellion in Rivald and the new techniques in Wielding are noted, but considering how gritty and challenging they could potentially be it was a shame the novel's focus lay elsewhere. Then there's the quirk of magic involved, that a sacrifice is required to access it. Something about the way it was presented and pursued was profoundly unsatisfying. Since that's a crucial detail of characterising the world, this is a big problem for the book. As an idea, I like it. In the application, it lost something significant.
While I'm on the subject of focus, let's talk about main characters. Now some of my favourite books have no particular main character, instead using a fluid group to keep up with events, but here it just didn't work. Firstly, the novel is only 400 pages long so the amount of space that can be given to each of Poloma, Galys, Kitayra, Heriot, Maddyn, Yunara and Lerena is limited. When the prose is unremarkable, I didn't emotionally connect with any of the characters or feel caught up in the plot itself.
This isn't a novel I hated by any stretch of the imagination, but at the same time I couldn't find much of a reason to care. If you enjoy epic fantasy but not ones filled with over-powering grimness and brutality, perhaps this is for you. It certainly wasn't for me.
Tom Lloyd-Williams
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