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Vespera
For blood shed long ago . . .
Vespera – the Heart of the World. A brilliant, cosmopolitan city at the heart of the equatorial archipelago of Thetia. A city whose turbulent, argumentative people have made it the greatest port on Aquasilva, whose culture and splendour no other city can match. A city which has become a beacon in a land torn apart by civil war, maintaining a fragile neutrality in the face of ambitious princes, the rising power of a new empire, and the rumours of an ancient enemy reborn in the frozen north, half a world away.
Returning from a decade of self-imposed exile to hunt down an Emperor's assassins, Raphael Quiridion – clever, proud, dangerous; intelligencer, musician, iconoclast – finds himself drawn into a world of memories and nightmares in search of the shadowy Lost Souls. As he forges his own path between his sinister uncle Silvanos, the astute clan leader Leonata, and the unforgiving Empress Aesonia, Raphael uncovers a trail of vengeance and murder leading to a horrifying secret buried for decades in the mines of the high arctic.
A truth which reaches to the heart of Raphael’s own family, and sets him against the might of the Empire and the powers of the terrifying Dream Twisters, in a battle for Thetia’s soul – and his own.
Vespera – the Heart of the World. A brilliant, cosmopolitan city at the heart of the equatorial archipelago of Thetia. A city whose turbulent, argumentative people have made it the greatest port on Aquasilva, whose culture and splendour no other city can match. A city which has become a beacon in a land torn apart by civil war, maintaining a fragile neutrality in the face of ambitious princes, the rising power of a new empire, and the rumours of an ancient enemy reborn in the frozen north, half a world away.
Returning from a decade of self-imposed exile to hunt down an Emperor's assassins, Raphael Quiridion – clever, proud, dangerous; intelligencer, musician, iconoclast – finds himself drawn into a world of memories and nightmares in search of the shadowy Lost Souls. As he forges his own path between his sinister uncle Silvanos, the astute clan leader Leonata, and the unforgiving Empress Aesonia, Raphael uncovers a trail of vengeance and murder leading to a horrifying secret buried for decades in the mines of the high arctic.
A truth which reaches to the heart of Raphael’s own family, and sets him against the might of the Empire and the powers of the terrifying Dream Twisters, in a battle for Thetia’s soul – and his own.
- GenresFantasy
520 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 26, 2015
En el cuarto libro sobre Aquasilva, la trama se centra en Raphael, un espía de Thetia a quien se le encarga investigar el asesinato del emperador. Si unimos el uso de la tercera persona (a diferencia de los tres primeros tomos de la saga), la aparición de escenas en las que el protagonista no está presente (y por tanto añaden profundidad), un protagonista mucho más ambicioso (es decir, que no se limita a verlas venir, como hacía el prota de la primera trilogía, sino que crea él mismo sus ocasiones para intervenir), y una narración centrada sobre todo en la ciudad de Vespera (una suerte de Venecia, deseosa de una república), el combinado resultante es una narración más fresca y viva, que, a pesar de seguir pecando de ciertos excesos en el número de maquinaciones, nos deja ver un poquito mejor los detalles de ese mundo llamado Aquasilva.
January 8, 2012
From http://theinfamousj.livejournal.com/4...
I shall begin this review with a disclaimer that I was given a free eBook copy of this book to review. Had I not been given a copy, I am not sure that I would have otherwise stumbled upon this novel, however that was the only influence that the gift had upon my review.
Vespera is a novel that is set in the world of Aquasilva. It is about a city by the same name that holds the distinction of being the central city for what is considered to be the known world, though if you ask the members of some outlying tribes if they even know where Vespera is or consider it important, no doubt they will look at you as if you are daft. Nonetheless, the city seems to be the heart of the civilized world {Thetia}.
In this world, the landmasses are organized as an archipelago. I am not sure if such a genre of literature exists, but I would like to propose that Vespera belongs to the archipelagan genre along with such books as The Lies of Locke Lamora. I had originally thought to name this genre the venetian genre, however Vespera feels more like the Aegean Islands and less like the Venetian Archipelago.
The book opens with a scene of an Empress being deposed to turn Thetia from an empire into a republic. Having not read any of the three previous books of the Aquasilva world, it was only implied {though I'm sure the previous books cover it in great detail} that Thetia was previously both republic and empire, so this is nothing new. A lot of the book focuses around the governing style of Thetia and the politics thereof.
The first chapter is set two generations in the future. Thetia is still a republic, though there is a declared emperor who is hoping to reunite back into an empire. As you can imagine, the clans of Thetia aren't having any of it. Clans are the ruling houses/bloodlines of Thetia and come from wealthy merchant ventures. The requirement necessary for maintaining clanhood, and thus a seat in the republic's council, is that you own two functioning sea vessels called mantas {a type of very large submarine that is more biological than mechanical}. There are the really wealthy clans and the barely-qualifying clans much as there are major and minor houses in "daes dae'mar" {to steal a term from The Great Hunt}, and the positioning and alliances for power are just as subtle and subversive. If you like this sort of political maneuvering, you will find this book to be exactly what you desire, especially if you enjoy a perfect blend of that with military tactics.
This story focuses around an intelligencer named Raphael Quiridion who is tasked with investigating the assassination of the man declared as Emperor {Cataline} when the main plot of the book opens. In so doing, Raphael learns the history of what has transpired since Thetia was declared to be a republic and that certain grudges are still born and desire to be given life as civil war.
In so doing this, Raphael learns that the religious magic is more powerful than can be imagined, the Empress/Empress Mother Aesonia is an excellent daes dae'mar player who spins complicated, lengthy, patient, and subtle webs of intrigue, and that no one's loyal, purpose, or identity is as publicly stated; not even his own.
I shall begin this review with a disclaimer that I was given a free eBook copy of this book to review. Had I not been given a copy, I am not sure that I would have otherwise stumbled upon this novel, however that was the only influence that the gift had upon my review.
Vespera is a novel that is set in the world of Aquasilva. It is about a city by the same name that holds the distinction of being the central city for what is considered to be the known world, though if you ask the members of some outlying tribes if they even know where Vespera is or consider it important, no doubt they will look at you as if you are daft. Nonetheless, the city seems to be the heart of the civilized world {Thetia}.
In this world, the landmasses are organized as an archipelago. I am not sure if such a genre of literature exists, but I would like to propose that Vespera belongs to the archipelagan genre along with such books as The Lies of Locke Lamora. I had originally thought to name this genre the venetian genre, however Vespera feels more like the Aegean Islands and less like the Venetian Archipelago.
The book opens with a scene of an Empress being deposed to turn Thetia from an empire into a republic. Having not read any of the three previous books of the Aquasilva world, it was only implied {though I'm sure the previous books cover it in great detail} that Thetia was previously both republic and empire, so this is nothing new. A lot of the book focuses around the governing style of Thetia and the politics thereof.
The first chapter is set two generations in the future. Thetia is still a republic, though there is a declared emperor who is hoping to reunite back into an empire. As you can imagine, the clans of Thetia aren't having any of it. Clans are the ruling houses/bloodlines of Thetia and come from wealthy merchant ventures. The requirement necessary for maintaining clanhood, and thus a seat in the republic's council, is that you own two functioning sea vessels called mantas {a type of very large submarine that is more biological than mechanical}. There are the really wealthy clans and the barely-qualifying clans much as there are major and minor houses in "daes dae'mar" {to steal a term from The Great Hunt}, and the positioning and alliances for power are just as subtle and subversive. If you like this sort of political maneuvering, you will find this book to be exactly what you desire, especially if you enjoy a perfect blend of that with military tactics.
This story focuses around an intelligencer named Raphael Quiridion who is tasked with investigating the assassination of the man declared as Emperor {Cataline} when the main plot of the book opens. In so doing, Raphael learns the history of what has transpired since Thetia was declared to be a republic and that certain grudges are still born and desire to be given life as civil war.
In so doing this, Raphael learns that the religious magic is more powerful than can be imagined, the Empress/Empress Mother Aesonia is an excellent daes dae'mar player who spins complicated, lengthy, patient, and subtle webs of intrigue, and that no one's loyal, purpose, or identity is as publicly stated; not even his own.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews