"Moon's Artifice"
Review copy receive through the courtesy of the publisher
In a quiet corner of the Imperial City, Investigator Narin discovers the
result of his first potentially lethal mistake. Minutes later he makes a
second.
After an unremarkable career Narin finally has the chance of promotion
to the hallowed ranks of the Lawbringers - guardians of the Emperor's laws and
bastions for justice in a world of brutal expediency. Joining that honoured
body would be the culmination of a lifelong dream, but it couldn't possibly
have come at a worse time. A chance encounter drags Narin into a plot of gods
and monsters, spies and assassins, accompanied by a grief-stricken young woman,
an old man haunted by the ghosts of his past and an assassin with no past.
On the cusp of an industrial age that threatens the warrior caste's
rule, the Empire of a Hundred Houses awaits civil war between noble factions.
Centuries of conquest has made the empire a brittle and bloated monster;
constrained by tradition and crying out for change. To save his own life and
those of untold thousands Narin must understand the key to it all - Moon's
Artifice, the poison that could destroy an empire.
Lately there seems to be a new trend on the
rise, there are a couple of titles that mix the epic fantasy with the mystery
genre, putting together their elements for new forms of plot and stories. And
when sword and sorcery is thrown into the blend you can get a novel as Tom Lloyd’s “Moon’s Artifice” as a result.
In what seems to be a routine night Investigator
Narin knocks unconscious an unknown, enigmatic man. Very soon after this event
one of empire’s Gods enters into the scene and Narin finds himself with a
mystery on his hands. Following a separate incident Kesh, a young woman with
her life thrown upside down and threatened with death, is brought together with
Narin, his friend Enchei and the enigmatic man, who discovers that his memory
is wiped clean after the events of the night of his chanced encounter with
Narin. The four of them are shortly on a mission of untangling the threads of
the mystery at hand, but as they soon learn on a race against time for saving
the people of Imperial City.
These four characters are also the main cast of
the novel. Narin is an investigator within the empire’s law forces, a commoner with
a promising career ahead of him, but also with a secret that could compromise
it for good. Enchei is Narin’s friend and mentor, with fighting skills and
prowess coming from a dark and secretive past. Kesh is a young woman with her
existence twisted cruelly by latest events of her life, but whose qualities,
feelings and resilience made her the best character of the novel for me. Irato,
the mysterious man, is the heart of the mystery and the trigger that sends the
domino tiles tumbling and scatters the pieces of the puzzle only to help
putting them together. As I said, Kesh became quickly my favorite character of
“Moon’s Artifice”, although her presence is not as important as Narin’s or
Enchei’s she still seems to walk upon the morality’s grey shades more often
than them and in spite of the fact that Narin and Enchei have dark secrets
buried behind them, hidden things with the potential of making these characters
ambiguous in terms of righteousness. These secrets, however, in the end, affect
less the characters, have surprisingly little importance on the entire canvas
of the novel and touch only slightly the general plot. It is only a small
complaint, but I have to make considering the unfulfilled potential of this
aspect of the story.
From the same little inconvenience suffer the
side characters. Starting with Lawbringer Rhe, an almost god figure among the
law forces of the Empire and mentor of Investigator Narin, to Synter, one of
the negative characters, and Ayel Sorote, a member of the Imperial house
holding interest in the matters at hand, they hold a promise that in the end is
failed. The impeccable and immaculate Rhe manifests a very interesting internal
conflict, capable of changing things around the law forces but also within the
Empire, but this turmoil comes only at the end of the novel, when it’s too
little too late. Synter is too much of a bad character, too much used to
emphasize the negative aspects of the opposing side despite that she is one of
the characters keeping the things engaging. Ayel Sorote is even more disappointing
from my point of view. Another appearance shrouded in secrecy (although he is the
author of the chapter entries revealing the history of the empire, so one could
guess his occupation to a certain extent) he holds the potential of bringing
the political games and intrigue into play and that with have for certain added
more spice to the plot. But in the end he proves to be just a means to an end,
especially when this entire possibility of intricate political game is thrown
to the side by an interest in the city’s well being, an unanticipated path considering
the efforts Ayel Sorote made in keeping himself as indecipherable as possible.
“I will help you, Master Narin,’ he said, ‘if for nothing else than to
try and keep this city from catastrophe.”
Of course, since a second novel with the same
characters and in the same world was recently announced it might be possible
that my small complaints would be rendered void, but taking into consideration
that “Moon’s Artifice” is a novel that can stand on itself I’ll keep them on
their feet. What I’ll also keep standing tall is my admiration for the world
within the events of the story take place. Confined to the walls of one city
Tom Lloyd still creates the sense of a large setting, a wide world these
characters inhabit. Imperial City, the heart of the empire, is a complex and
wide settlement reflecting the way the empire is governed and the layout of its
vast conquered lands. Each important house with an important role within the
empire’s politics has a section of a city that reflects the features and
characteristics of their home land. It is a fascinating cog in the novel’s
world mechanism and I could almost picture the amalgam and complexity of such a
city. Add to all these the Docks or Coldcliffs, for example, as some kind of
neutral ground and it will result a truly imaginative setting.
The complexity of the empire and of Imperial
City is reflected in the society’s hierarchy and the social stratification of
its inhabitants. It is a world where the personal heritage is hard to escape,
the lineage, position and occupation being clearly stated through tattoos made
on each person’s skin, even if they are allowed or not to use guns can state a
position within the society. But that is not the singular element that keeps
the social classification in a status quo, each caste contributes to the
situation by the fierceness with which it guards its group indifferent of their
position, be that of nobles, imperial servants or barge drivers. The religious
aspects are as elaborate as the empire’s geography, city’s pattern or caste
organization. The ruling family built the Empire of a Hundred Houses on the
bones of an older one and the Imperial City on the ruins of a previous one. At
some point in the history of the empire a secret of the previous civilization was
unearthed, the Emperor and Empresses discovered the secret of godhood and in
time ascended to the heavens.
“Narin had to remind himself that all of the Gods had once been mortal
men and women. In the earliest days of the Empire a king and queen had found
the secret of immortality and ascended into the heavens. Exctly how they did so
remained the greatest mystery the Empire had to offer, but their closest cadre
of advisers had joined them in the years to follow. Over the next centuries
that passed others has also been granted their own divine constellations by the
Gods, after achieving enlightenment through the perfection of some art or
skill.”
The old deities still manifest themselves,
demons roam the city and the new gods keep an eye from above on the things
running in the world. Almost all of them will also have a role to play in the
conflict of the story, a plot derived from the religious aspects and the hunger
for power. The mystery at the core of the novel is unraveled gradually with
every piece of the puzzle coming nicely into place and keeping the reader
entirely interested in the development and outcome of the story. There are no
loose threads to hang around the plot, everything is wrapped nice and tightly.
And the package comes with plenty of action scenes, fighting in small rooms and
alleys, chases over streets and rooftops, underground ventures and daring
rescues, sword and sorcery characteristics to make things even more exciting.
My only problem with long running fantasy series
is that sometimes I catch sight of one that proves to be interesting to me when
it reached its half-way through or two or three of its volumes are already
published and in this situation getting up to date with the reading of a
started series, more often than not, ends sacrificed in favor other books. As
is the case for me with Tom Lloyd’s “Twilight Reign”, a series I became
aware of after the release of “The Grave
Thief”, but that was every single time left to the side because that was
already its third volume. Therefore when Tom
Lloyd’s new novel, “Moon’s Artifice”,
independent of his series, was published I jumped on the occasion to finally
discover his writing. And I was not in the least disappointed, the mix of epic
fantasy, mystery and sword and sorcery is remarkably used to create a
compelling and engaging reading.
