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Dominions of Irth #3
Octoberland
A sorcerer's quest for eternal youth has spawned an invasion of earth from afar and could threaten to destroy the universe. Reprint.
- GenresFantasy
308 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 5, 1998
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127 people want to read
About the author
A.A. Attanasio
47 books360 followersI’m a novelist and student of the imagination living in Honolulu. Fantasies, visions, hallucinations or whatever we call those irrational powers that illuminate our inner life fascinate me. I’m particularly intrigued by the creative intelligence that scripts our dreams. And I love carrying this soulful energy outside my mind, into the one form that most precisely defines who we are: story.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 16, 2018
Among the many things I will give Adam Lee credit for (or his real name AA Attanasio) is his ability via ridiculously ornate prose to take that should be utterly mundane/silly and turn it into something profoundly unsettling.
Case in point: early in this novel where we find ourselves once again visiting the garden of the pregnant woman who is dreaming all these worlds into existence and while she's wandering around in what I imagine is some Barry Windsor-Smithesque baroque paradise, she suddenly ends the prologue by asking "Where did all the pixies go?" And while the snarky part of me imagined a scenario where Black Francis and his cohorts popped up with a "Slicing up eyeballs ha ha ha ho!" as a response, the actual answer to that question winds up not only driving the book but making this perhaps the most memorable entry in the series.
So far when experiencing the travails of Irth we've seen its near destruction and then its salvation from a more existential version of "Don't make me get your father." We have a better idea of the ascending structure of his worlds and what kinds of forces are at play. We've even see that our world lies beyond the Dark Shore, far from the heat of the Abiding Star and mostly devoid of magic.
But not that we know that, what do we know? One aspect of the series that I've enjoyed is having gotten the crisis out of the way early on, it delves more into what happens when a world crawling from the wreckage is beset by forces that want to take advantage of the weaknesses that have resulted, showing that evil sometimes is more opportunistic than anything else.
Here we're still dealing with fallout from the cacodemon invasion of the first volume and fortunately Lee realized that the only character really worth keeping was Jyoti because he brings her back again with former magus Reese to oversee the reconstruction of everything. Its slightly more dismaying that he brings back her annoying brother, who raises being irritating to an art form but its not long before we wish that Jyoti's annoying brother was the least of everyone's problems.
This time out he simplifies the plot structure massively, choosing to focus on either Dogbrick stuck on Earth and having to deal with a crazy cult leader named Nox who would like to live forever and is actually doing a pretty good job with it so far, or Jyoti and her problems, which on some level are way worse. Plagued with debt while trying to rebuild her home city and faced with the head of a rebuilding company that is just aching to foreclose, she's up against a problem she can't shoot or stab her way out of and it . . . doesn't go well to say the least.
There's a number of tactics Lee engages in here that are atypical for fantasy. The focus on the nitty-gritty details of financing are unusual, to say the least, and while arguing with a mortgage lender is probably no one's idea of epic, the concept of trying to keep the coffers flowing enough to keep everyone happy while the city gets back on its feet is fascinating in itself and a part of the "happy ever after?" we rarely see. Of course, being this is a fantasy Jyoti's biggest problem is astoundingly creepy goblins that are super-good at mind control and who won't stop until they've got everyone on their side.
From there Lee pretty much upends all fantasy expectations. His goblins are perhaps the most frightening thing in the entire series, both visually and in action, and with them he achieves what few prose writers ever manage . . . making a silent enemy utterly frightening. Every time they're encountered you wonder how its going to go and it very often does not go well.
Between that and "Dogbrick versus the cult" Lee keeps the plotting almost absurdly straightforward, which is a huge plus when you're dealing with such a strange setting . . . one of the problems that I thought hamstrung the first two was the splintering of the plotlines so much that it diluted a lot of their impact. Paring it down to a manageable two and keeping the book relatively slim gives the book more momentum . . . without much room to waste he has to keep things moving.
Doing that adds a nearly feverish intensity to the proceedings at times, as every time we check in with the characters things seem to be getting worse and worse. The goblins are bad enough but with magic man Nox doing his best bwah-ha-ha and Dogbrick doing a poor man's Wolverine while hanging out with a Sasquatch hunter its hard to tell who's getting the worse end of the plotting stick.
If cults and eerie goblins (the trolls are supremely strange as well, although Lee does like his faceless hordes of enemies, qv cacodemons and maggot dwarves from previous outings) aren't enough we're not even touching upon the book's prime claim to strangeness as fantasy gets invaded by a force even it can't resist . . . capitalism. Beset by a foe that has access to the goods of Earth, Lee gives you scenes that outside of urban fantasy you will probably never ever see, unless you imagine fantasy characters wearing wraparound shades and watching television in parachute pants while smoking crack. I wish I were exaggerating but it happens and its great. Maybe not for the reasons Lee wishes it was but its utterly bonkers and the book is far better for it.
The cult scenes are sort of nuts as well but not for the same reasons (sample line: "Together we will go down from this high place to the depths where the sex of all things begins" . . . which starts to trend toward Stephen R Donaldson territory) and while Nox's capering about and tendency to murder willing people has its entertainment value it isn't so good at justifying its place in the greater scheme of the plot. While the book does draw some connections later it doesn't totally explain why we've spent half the book with these people and not the more interesting Jyoti and weird goblins and assassins and everything else.
And as typical with this series the journey to get to the climax is more interesting than the climax itself although being its the last book we get to see more people than usual get what's coming to them. But he does give us an actual resolution of the survivors that in itself is nice and gives a cast to the events that isn't strictly good versus evil but something more . . . mystical?
Weaker moments aside, I will say this was definitely one of the more distinctive fantasy trilogies I've ever read . . . the combination of the unique prose style and Lee's conscious attempt to apparently avoid every fantasy cliche ever may not always make for an emotionally engaging experience (thank goodness for Jyoti, and even that warmth only goes so far) but it was never less than interesting. Despite being published in the long ago mid-nineties it seems to have fallen into obscurity and while it'll probably ultimately get categorized as "a road not taken" or a more charitiable "off the beaten path" I think its worth being dug out and reassessed. It doesn't do everything it wants to do perfectly but when it does its like nothing else I've read in a long while.
Case in point: early in this novel where we find ourselves once again visiting the garden of the pregnant woman who is dreaming all these worlds into existence and while she's wandering around in what I imagine is some Barry Windsor-Smithesque baroque paradise, she suddenly ends the prologue by asking "Where did all the pixies go?" And while the snarky part of me imagined a scenario where Black Francis and his cohorts popped up with a "Slicing up eyeballs ha ha ha ho!" as a response, the actual answer to that question winds up not only driving the book but making this perhaps the most memorable entry in the series.
So far when experiencing the travails of Irth we've seen its near destruction and then its salvation from a more existential version of "Don't make me get your father." We have a better idea of the ascending structure of his worlds and what kinds of forces are at play. We've even see that our world lies beyond the Dark Shore, far from the heat of the Abiding Star and mostly devoid of magic.
But not that we know that, what do we know? One aspect of the series that I've enjoyed is having gotten the crisis out of the way early on, it delves more into what happens when a world crawling from the wreckage is beset by forces that want to take advantage of the weaknesses that have resulted, showing that evil sometimes is more opportunistic than anything else.
Here we're still dealing with fallout from the cacodemon invasion of the first volume and fortunately Lee realized that the only character really worth keeping was Jyoti because he brings her back again with former magus Reese to oversee the reconstruction of everything. Its slightly more dismaying that he brings back her annoying brother, who raises being irritating to an art form but its not long before we wish that Jyoti's annoying brother was the least of everyone's problems.
This time out he simplifies the plot structure massively, choosing to focus on either Dogbrick stuck on Earth and having to deal with a crazy cult leader named Nox who would like to live forever and is actually doing a pretty good job with it so far, or Jyoti and her problems, which on some level are way worse. Plagued with debt while trying to rebuild her home city and faced with the head of a rebuilding company that is just aching to foreclose, she's up against a problem she can't shoot or stab her way out of and it . . . doesn't go well to say the least.
There's a number of tactics Lee engages in here that are atypical for fantasy. The focus on the nitty-gritty details of financing are unusual, to say the least, and while arguing with a mortgage lender is probably no one's idea of epic, the concept of trying to keep the coffers flowing enough to keep everyone happy while the city gets back on its feet is fascinating in itself and a part of the "happy ever after?" we rarely see. Of course, being this is a fantasy Jyoti's biggest problem is astoundingly creepy goblins that are super-good at mind control and who won't stop until they've got everyone on their side.
From there Lee pretty much upends all fantasy expectations. His goblins are perhaps the most frightening thing in the entire series, both visually and in action, and with them he achieves what few prose writers ever manage . . . making a silent enemy utterly frightening. Every time they're encountered you wonder how its going to go and it very often does not go well.
Between that and "Dogbrick versus the cult" Lee keeps the plotting almost absurdly straightforward, which is a huge plus when you're dealing with such a strange setting . . . one of the problems that I thought hamstrung the first two was the splintering of the plotlines so much that it diluted a lot of their impact. Paring it down to a manageable two and keeping the book relatively slim gives the book more momentum . . . without much room to waste he has to keep things moving.
Doing that adds a nearly feverish intensity to the proceedings at times, as every time we check in with the characters things seem to be getting worse and worse. The goblins are bad enough but with magic man Nox doing his best bwah-ha-ha and Dogbrick doing a poor man's Wolverine while hanging out with a Sasquatch hunter its hard to tell who's getting the worse end of the plotting stick.
If cults and eerie goblins (the trolls are supremely strange as well, although Lee does like his faceless hordes of enemies, qv cacodemons and maggot dwarves from previous outings) aren't enough we're not even touching upon the book's prime claim to strangeness as fantasy gets invaded by a force even it can't resist . . . capitalism. Beset by a foe that has access to the goods of Earth, Lee gives you scenes that outside of urban fantasy you will probably never ever see, unless you imagine fantasy characters wearing wraparound shades and watching television in parachute pants while smoking crack. I wish I were exaggerating but it happens and its great. Maybe not for the reasons Lee wishes it was but its utterly bonkers and the book is far better for it.
The cult scenes are sort of nuts as well but not for the same reasons (sample line: "Together we will go down from this high place to the depths where the sex of all things begins" . . . which starts to trend toward Stephen R Donaldson territory) and while Nox's capering about and tendency to murder willing people has its entertainment value it isn't so good at justifying its place in the greater scheme of the plot. While the book does draw some connections later it doesn't totally explain why we've spent half the book with these people and not the more interesting Jyoti and weird goblins and assassins and everything else.
And as typical with this series the journey to get to the climax is more interesting than the climax itself although being its the last book we get to see more people than usual get what's coming to them. But he does give us an actual resolution of the survivors that in itself is nice and gives a cast to the events that isn't strictly good versus evil but something more . . . mystical?
Weaker moments aside, I will say this was definitely one of the more distinctive fantasy trilogies I've ever read . . . the combination of the unique prose style and Lee's conscious attempt to apparently avoid every fantasy cliche ever may not always make for an emotionally engaging experience (thank goodness for Jyoti, and even that warmth only goes so far) but it was never less than interesting. Despite being published in the long ago mid-nineties it seems to have fallen into obscurity and while it'll probably ultimately get categorized as "a road not taken" or a more charitiable "off the beaten path" I think its worth being dug out and reassessed. It doesn't do everything it wants to do perfectly but when it does its like nothing else I've read in a long while.
March 7, 2010
This one redeemed the trilogy a bit, but did not hit the heights where Attanasio (aka Lee) has set the bar.
July 5, 2012
Fantastic! Was sad that it ended.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews