The Alchemist

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

The Alchemist and The Executioness caught my eye as soon as it went up at Audible.com. Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell offering linked fantasy novellas that take place in a shared world? Bacigalupi's story read by Jonathan Davis? What could be more promising? (It turns out that had I been familiar with Katherine Kellgren, who read Buckell's story, I would have been even more excited about this one!)

In this shared world, the use of magic causes the growth of bramble, a fast-growing, pervasive, and deadly plant that has taken over cities, making them uninhabitable. Crews of workers must fight back the bramble daily, burning it and collecting its seeds. Magic is forbidden and those who are found using it are executed, yet some citizens are willing to risk their lives if a bit of magic might help them. Who cares if a patch of bramble sprouts in a stranger's garden if a magic spell might heal their only child?

The Alchemist is about a metal and glass worker who has given up all of his riches and is building an instrument which he hopes will destroy the bramble, restore his fortune, and give him the license to use magic to cure his daughter's wasting cough. When he presents his invention to the city government, things start to go wrong.

I liked Bacigalupi's characters ??? the focused scientist who's so task-oriented that he misses important social cues and the strong woman whose support is crucial but mostly goes unnoticed ??? and I enjoyed the laboratory setting because it reminded me of my own frustrating days at “the bench.” It was intriguing to explore the idea that small and secret lawbreaking, even for a good cause, can accumulate to destroy a nation or, as one of Bacigalupi's characters says: “If we grant individual mercies, we commit collective suicide.” That got me thinking of all sorts of current political, economic, and social parallels.

With The Executioness, Tobias Buckell becomes the hero of middle-aged mothers everywhere. Since I'm now one of those, I loved this story about a mom who loses her family and finds herself. Tana is a desperate woman who just does what any mother would do in the same circumstances. It's hard for me to imagine becoming a hero, but Tana's story is completely believable and after hearing it, now I wonder if maybe I could be...

The Executioness was read by Katherine Kellgren, whom I'd never heard before. She was incredible and brought so much personality to Buckell's protagonist. She sounded lost, distressed, frightened, and brave at just the right times. I already adored Jonathan Davis (I heard him read Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar books) and I now have a new favorite in Katherine Kellgren.

I can highly recommend The Alchemist and The Executioness to fantasy lovers of all ages. I wish it had been longer. It's exclusively available on audio at Audible.com. So far, everything I've listened to by Audible Frontiers has been of the highest quality ??? excellent sound quality, excellent narration, and a large collection of superior fantasy works.

I like this one much better than the paired novella, The Executioness. This one follows an ill-fated alchemist whose noble goal was twisted into a horrific purpose and being forced to take part in it.

It is set in the same city, and the events happen more or less simultaneously with the other novella. There's two or three places that hint at the events that happened in the other novella.

The reason I preferred this treatment of the world is because it goes down into a more personal level. It follows the challenges faced by the alchemist forced to juggle between his dream, his life, and his daughter. The inner struggles and self-justification of the use of magic was well portrayed. It showcases the dark side of human nature, being collectively unable to resist temptations and always focused on the self, damning the many, to benefit the few.

It suffers a similar problem with The Executioness though, in the ending of it. A bit of problem with realism - it just happened too fast and too easily, it's just “the end”. The unbelievable bit is how the daughter could even have made it through the city gates "leaking" a blue glow. Unmanned city streets and gates I suppose. And how a scholarly man who was locked up and weakening in a cell for two years, poisoned by bramble, and resuscitated (read: scorched and jolted) from near-death able to make an escape on foot out of a city is just incredible.

But don't look at it too critically and it's actually a nice story. The plot is not exactly fresh (genius forced to work for villains) but it's a good take. Like the other novella, it would probably be a lot better as a full-length novel, with greater room for developing not just the protagonist, but the supporting characters as well.

A cute, short window into a world where magic exists but comes as an awful price. The world has been taken over by brambles that are death to touch. Each small work of magic causes more brambles to take root and grow and the only way to fight back is fire and the people are losing the fight. The Alchemist makes it his life's work to find a way to fight back that will free the world from the choking hold that the bramble has on them. But will it come at the cost of his family?
I just wanted to read more of this world. What came before when magic was used freely? What came after?