Shadow and Betrayal
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Average rating3.6
The city-state of Saraykeht dominates the Summer Cities. Its wealth is beyond measure; its port is open to all the merchants of the world, and its ruler, the Khai Saraykeht, commands forces to rival the Gods. Commerce and trade fill the streets with a hundred languages, and the coffers of the wealthy with jewels and gold. Any desire, however exotic or base, can be satisfied in its soft quarter. Blissfully ignorant of the forces that fuel their prosperity, the people live and work secure in the knowledge that their city is a bastion of progress in a harsh world. It would be a tragedy if it fell.
Saraykeht is poised on the knife-edge of disaster.
At the heart of the city's influence are the poet-sorcerer Heshai and the captive spirit, Seedless, whom he controls. For all his power, Heshai is weak, haunted by memories of shame and humiliation. A man faced with constant reminders of his responsibilities and his failures, he is the linchpin and the most vulnerable point in Saraykeht's greatness.
Far to the west, the armies of Galt have conquered many lands. To take Saraykeht, they must first destroy the trade upon which its prosperity is based. Marchat Wilsin, head of Galt's trading house in the city, is planning a terrible crime against Heshai and Seedless. If he succeeds, Saraykeht will fall.
Amat, House Wilsin's business manager, is a woman who rose from the slums to wield the power that Marchat Wilsin would use to destroy her city. Through accidents of fate and circumstance Amat, her apprentice Liat, and two young men from the farthest reaches of their society stand alone against the dangers that threaten the city.
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4 primary books#1-2 in Long Price Quartet
Long Price Quartet is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 2006 with contributions by Daniel Abraham.
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I???ve been meaning to read Daniel Abraham???s THE LONG PRICE QUARTET for years, because that???s how long Bill and Rob have been talking about it. Since it has just been released in audio format by Tantor Audio, I decided now is the time. I really enjoyed the first book, A Shadow in Summer, which didn???t surprise me at all, and I look forward to reading the next book, A Betrayal in Winter, this week.
In A Shadow in Summer, we???re introduced to a small cast of main characters who live in Saraykeht, an Eastern-inspired land where magic is created and controlled by poets who, through some inborn potential and some training, manage to figure out how to understand and poetically describe some force of nature which is then under... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/a-shadow-in-summer-2/
Been a while since the last time I felt this swept away by a novel, even though it took me way longer than usual to read. The characters in A Shadow in Summer feel like old friends, and being in their skin and seeing them act on their fate is almost like feeling the hurt and disappointment yourself. Really, I hoped I wouldn't like this as much as I did—now I'm gonna have to seek out the sequel eventually.
I'm a huge fan of the Expanse series, but this is the first time I've read Daniel Abraham's work outside of his co-writing. I'm happy to say that the sense of scale and depth of characters is as strong in this fantasy setting as it is in space. Abraham is a master of writing complicated characters with complicated relationships, and it shows. It's also a magic system that I've never seen done before. My only quibble is that the world-building as a whole seems so directly pulled from Japanese history as to feel a bit appropriation-y. It's not offensive (at least not to the white woman writing this), but I'd be curious to here what a Japanese person thinks of it. On the whole, I enjoyed it and plan to continue the series.
