The Price of Spring, by Daniel Abraham, $27.99. The last volume of the Long Price Quartet brings to a close one of the most satisfying fantasy series I have ever read. Daniel Abraham has created a world that must adapt to horrific events and complex characters who must live with the consequences of bad judgments and moral failures.
The Khaiate empire, which had been held together by magic, is near ruin. It had depended on poets who didn’t write poetry but brought ideas to life. The ideas took a quasi-human form as andats, and a poet had to dedicate his life to holding that power in check.
Otah Machi rejected the chance to become a poet and became the emperor of a land trying to live without poets. He has made crucial decisions where his efforts to do the right thing seem to have brought worse consequences. He is trying to renew not just his land but also that of his enemies, the Galts.
The last act of an andat left the men of Galt and the women of Khaiate sterile. The only way for the Khaiate and the Galts to survive is for an alliance between the bitter enemies who have committed horrible crimes against one another.
The help of enemies is also required in Otah’s family when he needs the help of the sister who once tried to kill him. She must help him find the role of his daughter in destroying the alliance he is trying to build.
A complicated relationship has been developed in all four books between Otah and Maati Vaupathai. Abuse and forgiveness between the two started when they were boys at the Poets school. Otah has grown up to lead the world and Maati is the last poet.
Maati wants to save the world by reinventing the andats, this time creating them through the use of a female grammar to bring the ideas to life. As always in his dealings with the andats, Maati brings great risk to himself and the world.
A poetic explanation of “the Price of Spring” comes at the end. “We say that the flowers return every spring but that is a lie. It is true that the world is renewed. It is also true that that renewal comes at a price, for even if the flower grows from an ancient vine, the flowers of spring are themselves new to the world, untried and untested.”
Daniel Abraham brings the concept of renewal to life, in all its complexities of hope and grief.
The House Under the Sand, by Kage Baker, $8. Kage Baker’s letters to her niece have formed the basis of a charming children’s story.
A storm sweeps Emma to a desert island. The island is not entirely deserted. There is the ghost of a bell captain named Winston and a luxury hotel buried under the sand.
The winds that once buried the hotel also unbury it. Mrs. Beet, the cook, had been trapped in time while the hotel was buried. Emma, Winston and Mrs. Beet decide to open the hotel and soon, some odd customers show up.
The customers are followed by a pompous boy who is the grandson of the hotel’s builder and a pirate in search of the treasure buried with the hotel.
Baker’s first book for younger readers is a delight.
Who Killed Amanda Palmer: A Collection of Photographic Evidence, with stories by Neil Gaiman, $35. Planned liner notes for a CD grew into a large book of photographs, song lyrics and stories. This collection of photographs of punk-cabaret diva Amanda Palmer dressed up (or undressed) is a handsome art book.
Photos by Kyle Cassidy, Beth Hommel and others have short accompanying stories by Gaiman. Most are more evocative sketches than stories. A picture of Palmer struck down with a manual typewriter on her head is given an amusing explanation that also manages to ask a serious question about the purpose of art in the short space.
Fred Cleaver is a freelancer who writes regularly about new science fiction releases.
