Do not read this book

[luzula]

I usually wait until I have two books to review, but this one gets a post of its own...

Illusion by Paula Volsky
This book is terrible. I nominated it for fannish book club and the others voted for it, because we all thought "the French revolution with magic" sounded like a potentially interesting book! But no. It is not a badly written book on the sentence level--the badness is in the characters, setting, plot, and theme. But it is a brick of a book, so it was a slog.

Anyway. The setting is a fantasy version of France. The main character is a teenage girl who is a spoiled aristocrat from the countryside who travels to fantasy Paris to become a maid-in-waiting for the queen. Also important is a smart serf guy who she grew up with and who is the designated love interest. The aristocrats have inborn magic, which is how they originally came to power. Their magic seems to be 1) making illusions, 2) making sentient magic machines. But since they are now decadent, most of them don't actually know how to do magic anymore.

The French revolution happens. There are only two men with actual agency among the revolutionaries; one is the Bad Tyrant Revolutionary and one is the Good Rule-of-Law Revolutionary. The rest of the people are part of the Brainwashed Mob. The Bad Revolutionary gains power because his dad can do magic and manipulates the crowds while he is holding speeches. Then the Terror happens and the guillotine is a magic sentient machine that thirsts for blood. Arrrgh! I'm sure there are really interesting and complicated reasons why the Terror happened. But "everyone was brainwashed with magic by a cardboard villain" is NOT an interesting reason why.

Oh, and the spoiled aristocrat girl has to survive on the streets until she's found by her love interest, who is on the side of the Good Revolutionary. They defeat the Bad Revolutionary and get together, the end. I'm sure she's supposed to grow as a person or whatever, but she's still annoying at the end. The other book club members were more irritated than me at the pasted-on romance--not that I liked it, but I was more irritated at the political stuff.

I chose this book because I was interested in the interaction between magic and politics. Like, if some people have powerful magic, would democracy really be possible? I thought Sorcerer to the Crown kind of dropped the ball on that one, which is what started me thinking about it. But this book was NOT the book I wanted. One series which I do think does a good job with thinking about magic and politics is Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet. Chris Moriarty's The Inquisitor's Apprentice is also interesting, though the YA adventure kind of gets in the way of the politics.

Do tell me if you have recs for fantasy books that have interesting things to say about politics?

Right, I hope you have enjoyed this rage-review...

Comments

[skygiants]

I read Paula Volsky's The Grand Ellipse ten years ago and found it wildly imperialistic and kind of racist, and have read nothing else by her since! Based on this review, still feeling OK about that.

[rachelmanija]

I have not yet read it, but apparently Graydon Saunders' The March North is about how society might function when mages have world-shattering powers.

Sherwood's Inda books have an interesting, unusual (not democratic) system, with separated gender roles that are not exactly how they work in our world.

Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy is still my favorite for depicting a revolution.

Steven Brust and Emma Bull's Freedom and Necessity is a good depiction of real-world historical politics, with subtle fantasy touches.

[isis]

The beginning of this (aristocrats rule because they have magic powers that others don't) sounded a lot like to me was Vic James' Gilded Cage, which I liked a lot more than I thought I would. It is a fairly contemporary world, with cars and factories. (Here is my review.)

The first of the Divine Cities books, City of Stairs has interesting things to say about politics (and colonialism). It doesn't have magic in the same way as these books, though.

[oursin]

There is a French Revolution with occult rituals episode in Roz Kaveney's 'Rhapsody of Blood' sequence (I think this is in Vol 2, Rituals), but part of the much longer and convoluted narrative arc, which is currently at the cliffhanging ending of Vol 3. These certainly deal with issues of power and Powers.

[jesse_the_k]

Sorry, no suggestions. You give good rant.

[hurry_sundown]

Laughing my ass off at this post, darling. This is the sort of post I would write if I hadn't decided long ago that life is too short to read bad books and I have no compunctions about tossing aside unfinished a book that's disappointing ... although I suppose it's different if you're reading it for Book Club.

No recs, just a hug.

*hug*

[scribe]

At least we got to have a good cathartic group rant about it!

[luzula]

Huh, good to know. Not that I was going to pick up anything else by her...

[luzula]

The March North is on my list of books to check out, but it seems complicated to get hold of--someday I'll make the effort. I've been recced Westmark before and will probably read it fairly soon. Freedom and the Necessity wasn't on my radar, though, so thanks for that! It sounds like something I'd enjoy.

And I love the Inda books!

[luzula]

Huh, the first one sounds potentially interesting, thanks!

I know you like the Divine Cities books, but I tried the first one and sadly it didn't stick...

[luzula]

Ha, it turns out that was already on my list of books to check out, but I'd forgotten about it. : ) Thanks!

[luzula]

Heh, sometimes a good rant is just what you need.

[luzula]

Yeah, I usually have no compunction about putting books down if I'm not getting anything out of them, but as you say, this was for a book club. And sometimes a good rant can be satisfying...

[luzula]

Very true. : )