Shattered Pillars

January 28, 2013
Imperial intrigue and dark magic haunt the pages of Bear’s second Mongolia-inspired fantasy epic installment (after Range of Ghosts). The necromancer priest al-Sepehr is bringing war to the world, placing his allies and minions throughout the nations to see them crumble. But beyond his control are Edene, who has stolen the green ring that makes her ruler of the ancient and treacherous realm of Erem; bold imperial scion Temur; the wizard and once-princess Samarkar; Hrahima, a warrior of the tiger people; and the silent monk Hsiung, who is touched by the madness of Erem. Temur and his companions wade through court politics until war finds them and they make their way to al-Sepehr’s stronghold to free Edene, not realizing she has already escaped. Bear drives the plot forward through darkness and loss, allowing her heroes little respite between trials as her villains gain power. The building danger and sense of impossible odds beautifully set up the concluding volume. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Starred review from February 1, 2013
Second entry of a complex and beautifully rendered historical-fantasy trilogy (Range of Ghosts, 2012). Prime mover in all the churning plots and intrigues here is ambitious necromancer and blood-sorcerer al-Sepehr, head of the Nameless assassin cult. He has arranged to install usurper Qori Buqa as ruler of the nomad horse-warrior Khaganate Empire, although he failed to kill Temur, the true heir and Qori Buqa's nephew. Having captured Edene, Temur's woman, al-Sepehr conveyed her to his remote, impregnable fortress, Ala-Din. Resourceful Edene, however, stole a mysteriously powerful green ring and escaped--though Temur doesn't yet know this. Edene flees to Erem, capital of a long-extinct empire whose magic was feared by all, where now heavily pregnant, she's declared queen by the nonhuman ghuls because of the ring. Hoping to rally the horse-clans to his cause, Temur sets off with his companions, Samarkar the wizard and Hrahima, a huge human-tiger Cho-tse warrior, to rescue Edene. Al-Sepehr sends his daughter and agent, Saadet--she carries in her head the mind of her slain brother, Shahruz, previously slain by Temur--to beguile and bamboozle Qori Buqa, his supposed ally. Meanwhile, al-Sepehr studies the magic of Erem, forcing slave-women to read aloud from books of magic so powerful that the mere act of reading them causes blindness. And the Rasan Empire, riven by internal politics and treachery, suffers a lethal plague whence tiny demons hatch in the lungs of its victims. All this is less tightly woven than the first volume, and in one or two places, Bear forgoes logic for furious action and writes herself into a corner. Still, these are minor blemishes amid the meticulously detailed cultural and geographic backdrop. A compelling follow-up that no fan of Book 1 will want to miss.

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February 15, 2013
Bear's astonishing world building is in full swing here, and she builds the arcs of her two major characters into what hopes to be a brilliant whole in the forthcoming final book. Temur and Samarkar still search for Edene, captured by the leader of the Uthman cult, who are bent on sowing war in the lands of the Celadon Highway. Edene, escaped, travels under the deadly sky of a vanished empire. The wizards' city is besieged, a sickness felling the population. Tsering is at the heart of studying it, and she is a tremendous force despite never having developed the wizard's power. Temur and Samarkar's journey, under the skies of many people, is epic. But Bear maintains the nuance she is so capable of, in the way characters interact with and respond to new places, not quite subverting genre but pointing out how much more it should be. This is a novel with no padding: everything is necessary and linked, and the politics that run through the various empires are rooted solidly in believable human motivation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)