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Troubled Waters review - audiobook
Jul. 4th, 2011 10:07 amTroubled Waters is the latest novel from Sharon Shinn, and hopefully the start of a new series.
I chose the audiobook version, as I like the narrator who usually does her books, and it was really good.
The story did seem a little unbalanced. The whole of the first half was leisurely, gentle, but hugely enjoyable set-up. Then, just when I was starting to wonder if there would be any conflict at all, the second half suddenly involved potentially threatening creepy foreign ambassadors, startling revelations about the king's health and the parentage of the princesses, royal assassination attempts, and the near destruction of the palace.
However, none of this really affected the heroine directly, so it was all still a little remote.
What I really loved about the book, though, was the world it was set in, which was beautifully drawn and very appealing. All the people in the kingdom claimed affinity to one of the elements, with an attached affinity to a physical/mental attribute - earth and flesh, water and blood, air and soul, fire and mind, wood and bone. This fed into the rather nebulous magical system, whereby the heads of the most powerful families each had power over the relevant element and attribute. Therefore, the heroine, as head of the water clan, could control the river and also analyse people's blood on touching them (hence the parentage revelations). There was also a system of superstition surrounding what were termed "random blessings". These were symbols for various traits and gifts (resilience, intelligence, joy, wealth, etc) stamped on coins and stored in large barrels in temples. At birth, each child was bestowed with three random blessings (selected from a barrel by three random people encountered by the faher on the day of the birth), which were supposed to predict their personality and fortunes. People could also visit a temple at any time to draw a blessing for themselves as guidance. The appropriateness of the various selections throughout the book did seem to imply a certain controlling influence from somewhere, but this was never conclusively proven.
There was a lot of scope for further stories in this world, and I'm hoping Shinn will revisit it in further novels.
I chose the audiobook version, as I like the narrator who usually does her books, and it was really good.
The story did seem a little unbalanced. The whole of the first half was leisurely, gentle, but hugely enjoyable set-up. Then, just when I was starting to wonder if there would be any conflict at all, the second half suddenly involved potentially threatening creepy foreign ambassadors, startling revelations about the king's health and the parentage of the princesses, royal assassination attempts, and the near destruction of the palace.
However, none of this really affected the heroine directly, so it was all still a little remote.
What I really loved about the book, though, was the world it was set in, which was beautifully drawn and very appealing. All the people in the kingdom claimed affinity to one of the elements, with an attached affinity to a physical/mental attribute - earth and flesh, water and blood, air and soul, fire and mind, wood and bone. This fed into the rather nebulous magical system, whereby the heads of the most powerful families each had power over the relevant element and attribute. Therefore, the heroine, as head of the water clan, could control the river and also analyse people's blood on touching them (hence the parentage revelations). There was also a system of superstition surrounding what were termed "random blessings". These were symbols for various traits and gifts (resilience, intelligence, joy, wealth, etc) stamped on coins and stored in large barrels in temples. At birth, each child was bestowed with three random blessings (selected from a barrel by three random people encountered by the faher on the day of the birth), which were supposed to predict their personality and fortunes. People could also visit a temple at any time to draw a blessing for themselves as guidance. The appropriateness of the various selections throughout the book did seem to imply a certain controlling influence from somewhere, but this was never conclusively proven.
There was a lot of scope for further stories in this world, and I'm hoping Shinn will revisit it in further novels.
