Book review: "The Skewed Throne," Joshua Palmatier.
The Skewed Throne [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxies] by Joshua Palmatier.
DAW Books, paperback
384 pages, epic fantasy I bet you don't know where your wallet is
Currently in print
***
The Skewed Throne was handed to me by someone whose opinions on books I was still learning to trust, accompanied by an enthusiastic "try this, you'll like it." Perhaps unsurprisingly, the book (and its two sequels) wound up sitting on my "to be read" shelf for the better part of six months, regularly passed over in favor of volumes that looked like they were more like the sort of thing I tend to read. I'm not a huge fan of epic fantasy, having overdosed on it during my teenage "Dragonlance is high art" years, and will usually opt for horror, urban fantasy, chick-lit, or a fistful of anthologies instead. It took getting annoyed at a horror anthology to make me decide to go ahead and grab the first volume of the trilogy, since hey, they were already in my house.
Sometimes I am very, very glad to push my boundaries, because of the amazing things it allows me to discover. This was one of those times. Because within ten pages, I was neglecting my chores, within fifty pages, I was neglecting my edits, and within a hundred pages, I was going for a long walk to make the cats stop bothering me. Yeah. It's that good.
The Skewed Throne tells the story of Varis, an orphan living in the city of Amenkor, which has basically gone insane after an event called "the White Fire." Streets are falling into disrepair, crime and violence are on the rise, and children like Varis are becoming increasingly common, trying to claw out an existence in the gutters of a part of the city charmingly referred to as "the Dredge." It's really no surprise that she's not a very nice person. It's a bit more of a surprise that she's managed to survive as long as she has, through a combination of luck, skill, and a special gift she calls "the River," which she can use to predict the actions of others.
Amenkor is ruled by the Mistress of the Skewed Throne, a legendary, borderline-religious figure who is in some way responsible for the health and well-being of the entire city. Her powers are sketchily defined, which is part of the book's appeal; we're never given more information than is available to Varis, our point-of-view and central character. Her perspective is so firm, and so skewed from the normal fantasy heroine, that it's easy to accept that this is just the way the world is, the way the world has always been, and the way the world is always going to be. There's just one major problem, a problem severe enough to rip Amenkor apart: the Mistress of the Skewed Throne has been acting erratically since the White Fire, and now signs begin to indicate that she just may be insane...
One of the most interesting aspects of The Skewed Throne is the fact that Varis is, through no real fault of her own, not a very nice person. She kills both in self-defense and semi-professionally. She's not attractive, she's not brilliant, she's not educated, and she's not repentant. Varis doesn't stand around mourning the fact that she's not a good girl. Varis steals your lunch and runs like hell, because she'd really like to eat today, thanks very much. In her world, sitting around feeling sorry for yourself is another way of saying "suicide."
I finished The Skewed Throne and immediately picked up the sequel, The Cracked Throne. I finished The Cracked Throne and bitched and whined at Chris because we were nowhere near the house, and I couldn't start immediately on The Vacant Throne. Three books, all from DAW, all awesome, all available right now. And no, I'm not going very deeply into the story, because it's a lot more interesting if you come into it blind, the way that I did. If you like well-handled epic fantasy with brutally honest, sympathetic-but-not-sweet female protagonists, this is the series for you. Joshua Palmatier does a fantastic job with his world, and I can't wait to see where he's going to go next. (Also, while there is violence, there's no swearing, and no sex. Hand it to a twelve-year-old with a decent vocabulary and watch the summer sweeten.)
I give The Skewed Throne four and a half out of five really creepy-ass iconic chairs, and a strong suggestion that it not walk down any dark alleys alone. I highly recommend it.
DAW Books, paperback
384 pages, epic fantasy I bet you don't know where your wallet is
Currently in print
***
The Skewed Throne was handed to me by someone whose opinions on books I was still learning to trust, accompanied by an enthusiastic "try this, you'll like it." Perhaps unsurprisingly, the book (and its two sequels) wound up sitting on my "to be read" shelf for the better part of six months, regularly passed over in favor of volumes that looked like they were more like the sort of thing I tend to read. I'm not a huge fan of epic fantasy, having overdosed on it during my teenage "Dragonlance is high art" years, and will usually opt for horror, urban fantasy, chick-lit, or a fistful of anthologies instead. It took getting annoyed at a horror anthology to make me decide to go ahead and grab the first volume of the trilogy, since hey, they were already in my house.
Sometimes I am very, very glad to push my boundaries, because of the amazing things it allows me to discover. This was one of those times. Because within ten pages, I was neglecting my chores, within fifty pages, I was neglecting my edits, and within a hundred pages, I was going for a long walk to make the cats stop bothering me. Yeah. It's that good.
The Skewed Throne tells the story of Varis, an orphan living in the city of Amenkor, which has basically gone insane after an event called "the White Fire." Streets are falling into disrepair, crime and violence are on the rise, and children like Varis are becoming increasingly common, trying to claw out an existence in the gutters of a part of the city charmingly referred to as "the Dredge." It's really no surprise that she's not a very nice person. It's a bit more of a surprise that she's managed to survive as long as she has, through a combination of luck, skill, and a special gift she calls "the River," which she can use to predict the actions of others.
Amenkor is ruled by the Mistress of the Skewed Throne, a legendary, borderline-religious figure who is in some way responsible for the health and well-being of the entire city. Her powers are sketchily defined, which is part of the book's appeal; we're never given more information than is available to Varis, our point-of-view and central character. Her perspective is so firm, and so skewed from the normal fantasy heroine, that it's easy to accept that this is just the way the world is, the way the world has always been, and the way the world is always going to be. There's just one major problem, a problem severe enough to rip Amenkor apart: the Mistress of the Skewed Throne has been acting erratically since the White Fire, and now signs begin to indicate that she just may be insane...
One of the most interesting aspects of The Skewed Throne is the fact that Varis is, through no real fault of her own, not a very nice person. She kills both in self-defense and semi-professionally. She's not attractive, she's not brilliant, she's not educated, and she's not repentant. Varis doesn't stand around mourning the fact that she's not a good girl. Varis steals your lunch and runs like hell, because she'd really like to eat today, thanks very much. In her world, sitting around feeling sorry for yourself is another way of saying "suicide."
I finished The Skewed Throne and immediately picked up the sequel, The Cracked Throne. I finished The Cracked Throne and bitched and whined at Chris because we were nowhere near the house, and I couldn't start immediately on The Vacant Throne. Three books, all from DAW, all awesome, all available right now. And no, I'm not going very deeply into the story, because it's a lot more interesting if you come into it blind, the way that I did. If you like well-handled epic fantasy with brutally honest, sympathetic-but-not-sweet female protagonists, this is the series for you. Joshua Palmatier does a fantastic job with his world, and I can't wait to see where he's going to go next. (Also, while there is violence, there's no swearing, and no sex. Hand it to a twelve-year-old with a decent vocabulary and watch the summer sweeten.)
I give The Skewed Throne four and a half out of five really creepy-ass iconic chairs, and a strong suggestion that it not walk down any dark alleys alone. I highly recommend it.