Eastern Tide

The Aldabreshin Compass #4

by Juliet E. McKenna

The Archipelago is still plagued by dragons and its peoples live in terror of their coming. Kheda, Risala, and Velindre chase rumors of a water dragon, as they alone have gathered secrets of how to repel these fearsome beasts. Yet this has won them no friends as they are forced to travel incognito, their lives at risk. The delicate political balance of the islands teeters as rival factions spar and warfare threatens. Kheda is reluctantly drawn into the fray as his dragon fighting powers become a powerful political tool—but he and his companions are tainted by the suspicion of forbidden magic. This not only places them in great danger but also has wider implications for the power structure of the islands. Kheda’s contact with northern magic has caused him to doubt the very foundations of his people’s ancient beliefs, placing his future as a warlord in doubt and the making the succession of his realm a dark and bloody question. The Archipelago was first established in McKenna's previous series The Tales of Einarinn.

Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Dragons, Epic Fantasy

608 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2006

About the author

Juliet E McKenna is a British fantasy author living in the Cotswolds, UK. Loving history, myth and other worlds since she first learned to read, she has written fifteen epic fantasy novels so far. Her debut, The Thief’s Gamble, began The Tales of Einarinn in 1999, followed by The Aldabreshin Compass sequence, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, and The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy. The Green Man’s Heir was her first modern fantasy inspired by British folklore in 2018. The Green Man’s Quarry in 2023 was the sixth title in this ongoing series and won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. The seventh book, in 2024, is The Green Man’s War.

Her 2023 novel The Cleaving is a female-centred retelling of the story of King Arthur, while her shorter fiction includes forays into dark fantasy, steampunk and science fiction. She promotes SF&Fantasy by reviewing, by blogging on book trade issues, attending conventions and teaching creative writing. She has served as a judge for the James White Award, the Aeon Award, the Arthur C Clarke Award and the World Fantasy Awards. In 2015 she received the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award. As J M Alvey, she has written historical murder mysteries set in ancient Greece.

Who’s to say what will come next?

Learn more about all of this at julietemckenna.com and on Twitter @JulietEMcKenna

Reviews

[Geoff Battle · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's not much that's new in the final chapter of this series, however McKenna works hard to ensure readers will see it through. Without any preamble the central characters are found engaging another dragon. The early action sequence sets the scene for a dragon filled final chapter, in which power struggles come to a head between man and beast, as well as a clash between kingdoms. What sounds like an epic end to the series is marred by a complicated series of political wranglings and redundant filler. McKenna's action sequences are well detailed and vividly written, fortunately enough to carry the attention, although the end is a welcome relief. The Compass series offer a fresh scenario and that alone ensures they are a recommended read, although McKenna's style is not emotive or creative enough to stand tall alongside the fantasy greats.

[Lois Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unexpected but very satisfying conclusion to a tale of interwoven cultures.

[Megan]

DNS 7/15/2021

[Eddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty satisying end to a decent series.

[Steven Poore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've mentioned in the reviews for the other three books in this series that Juliet E McKenna has constructed the narratives in a certain manner to reflect the disruption caused to Kheda's ordered life. At the end of the third book that pattern looked set to be overturned completely as Kheda lost all faith in the omens and auguries that are embedded in the Aldabreshin culture - and here, at the start of the fourth and final book, McKenna leaves Kheda high and dry, in strange domains, battling dragons with magic while desperately wondering what's going on at home.

McKenna's plot drives ahead to pick up nearly every loose thread that has been left dangling over the course of the series, everything tightly woven together into a brilliant attack on another warlord. But McKenna's too great a writer to tie everything into a pat happy ending and she throws a few neat twists into Aldabreshin continuity, ensuring that even the characters Kheda left behind develop and grow out of his shadow.

Life and politics in the Aldabreshin Archipelago are never anything less than amazingly brutal and yet it's a world that I really don't want to leave behind - the trade, the houses, the islands are all described with a depth that brings the whole culture to life. Spending time in the slightly more traditional fantasy spaces of the northern continent almost feels like a waste of pages, although it's certainly pertinent to the plot.

A wonderful reissue, and a fantastic conclusion to a series that really deserves to be shouted about a hell of a lot more than it was when Orbit first published it. Kudos to Wizard's Tower Press for bringing the Compass back to life!

[Pers · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent conclusion to this series, full of tension, suspension, action, and emotion. And a happy ending, too.