The Tangled Lands

December 11, 2017
Buckell and Bacigalupi’s shared setting has some solid worldbuilding, but the four novellas that comprise this collection (two by each author) vary in quality. Bacigalupi’s “The Alchemist” has the most difficult task: introducing the city of Khaim, where magic has been outlawed because it attracts bramble. The plant grows relentlessly, can barely be contained, and sends people into a coma or kills them with the slightest thorn-prick. The story succeeds on all fronts by focusing on the titular Jeoz, a widowed alchemist working on a way to destroy bramble whose invention becomes corrupted by the villainous magister Scacz. Scacz consolidates power so that only he may use magic, and all others who use it are put to death. That’s the background for the other tales, which all embrace the grimdark vibe with varying degrees of success. Buckell’s “The Executioness” involves war, revenge, and motherhood, and its bleak ending offers at least the sliver of hope against potential tragedy. There’s less of that to be found in either Bacigalupi’s “The Children of Khaim” or Buckell’s “The Blacksmith’s Daughter,” both of which take their tragedies almost to the level of absurdity without any sense of irony. Without an emotional payoff or overarching plot resolution, these gloomy works serve the book poorly. Even staunch fans of the authors will wish there were more to this collection.

January 1, 2018
Sci-fi superstars Bacigalupi and Buckell team up in this story suiteinterconnected novellas meant to be read as a novel. In Khaim, even average citizens can cast simple magic. The problem is, every spell cast is fodder for bramble, a sinuous, indestructible plant that kills anyone who touches it. To stop the growth of bramble, the major of Jhandpara makes magic illegal, and a device that illuminates with a blue hue anyone who has cast magic begins a government-led bloodbath. The first two novellas were published earlier by Subterranean Press but have been updated and expanded upon in the last two parts. Altogether, the suite follows characters in Khaim and neighboring cities, all dealing with bramble-related political upheaval. A mother loses her children to raiders, then becomes a leader for women. A boy tries to wake his sister from a bramble sleep. A blacksmith's daughter escapes a duke's anger. World-building details feel off-the-cuff at times, but readers drawn to powerful ethical questions will be immensely rewarded by the rich themes of the price of freedom and the corrupting quality of power.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)