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Amberlight #1
Amberlight
Tellurith, the head of a great ruling House in Amberlight, inexplicably finds a battered outlander left for dead in the streets of the legendary city -- and an oracle reveals that he must not die. The man, although stripped of his memory, may know of a threat to Amberlight's unique the motherlodes of the qherrique, the pearl-rock that gives their world its most powerful tool. Tangled in intrigue, insurrection and brutal warfare, it will take a cataclysmic upheaval for Tellurith and the stranger to begin to grasp the more-than-human mystery that brought them together.
272 pages, Paperback
First published November 27, 2007
1 person is currently reading
200 people want to read
About the author
Sylvia Kelso
32 books19 followersSylvia Kelso lives in North Queensland, Australia. She writes fantasy and SF set in analogue or alternate Australian settings. She has published six fantasy novels, two of which, The Moving Water (2006) and Amberlight (2007) were finalists for best fantasy novel of the year in the Australian Aurealis genre fiction awards.
Her most recent novel-length work is a two-volume contemporary fantasy, the Blackston Gold series, The Solitaire Ghost, and The Time Seam.
Her novella, "Spring in Geneva," a riff on Frankenstein , came out from Aqueduct in 2013.
She has also published short stories in Australian and US anthologies, including "The Cretaceous Border" in Neverlands from Susurrus Press, "The Sharp-Shooter" in New Ceres Nights from 12th Planet Press, and "An Offer You Couldn't Refuse" in Love and Rockets from DAW. She lives in a house with a lot of trees but no cats.
Her most recent novel-length work is a two-volume contemporary fantasy, the Blackston Gold series, The Solitaire Ghost, and The Time Seam.
Her novella, "Spring in Geneva," a riff on Frankenstein , came out from Aqueduct in 2013.
She has also published short stories in Australian and US anthologies, including "The Cretaceous Border" in Neverlands from Susurrus Press, "The Sharp-Shooter" in New Ceres Nights from 12th Planet Press, and "An Offer You Couldn't Refuse" in Love and Rockets from DAW. She lives in a house with a lot of trees but no cats.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 12, 2009
As other readers will tell you, Amberlight is a very unique, very interesting read-- most unique for Sylvia Kelso's writing style. I've never seen anything like it. Kelso's prose reads like modern poetry in the literal sense. Every word is strong and chosen with an eye for imagery and effect. In fact, the imagery is brilliant:
There is a question that slowly, exquisitely unfolds during the novel. Kelso drops tantalizing hints as the heroine unravels the mystery of the hero's threat or asset to her people. Part I reads like a subtle romance and dance between two intelligent enemies. If you like your spy stories or intrigues, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this. Part II, which I enjoyed more, was action-packed. (Maybe my French teacher was right. I'm bloodthirsty.) The tone is consistently tense and exciting throughout but especially here, when the angst and dashing drama are worthy of Shakespeare himself. Rooted in intrigue to their cores, Tellurith and Alkhes never do anything by halves. Even their love is complicated.
I was worried that like Anne Bishop's Black Jewel series, Kelso's girl-power world would simply be wish fulfillment, but even though some signs seemed to point to Female Fantasy, the power between the two main characters is always in flux, always questioning, and by the end, there's no clear winner. Now that I can get on-board with.
My only complaint is about the second to last scene or thereabouts when we're launched into an apparently aimless coffeehouse discussion on the origins of an element of Amberlight city that is a character unto itself. It was absolutely unnecessary in my opinion and stalled a train of a narrative. I also didn't enjoy the heroine asking the same question again and again. "No, but really, why [insert Q here]..." I think the author thought this would be cute, but it was mostly just irritatingly silly and reminded me of the little kid in class going, "But why?" Because they have wings, Timmy. "Why?" Thankfully, this scene is brief and doesn't detract from the rest of the book for me, all 200 some pages of it.
So, if you have a love for poetic, high language, as engrossing as it seems daunting, and you think you can keep up with a challenging narrative that slows for no one, I highly recommend this. Romance, intrigue and adventure to spare. Riversend is the sequel.
If you have an account, you can also check out the Washington Post review.
"High moon over Amberlight, commanding the zenith, radiant, imperial, the city's fretted-ink porticoes and balconies gnawing that torrent of aerial snow."The phrases are so economic as to be fragments rather than whole sentences, sometimes doing away with useless helping verbs, sometimes pronouns or articles. I've since learned that this style is called "sprung-rhythm." I never knew there was a tradition behind this technique.
"Then the lips set. 'I'll do it, you know.' Ice-cold now. 'There are ways. Even like this...'The active scenes speed along like this, even with the extra time necessary to discern who's speaking when, remembering this person or that one. Reading Amberlight requires care, that's for sure. This is not a fast read. This short book is packed, and with the exception of the hero's eyes, Kelso rarely repeats herself. Either pay attention or fall behind to confusion. I could have kissed the author. Repetition kills me.
Wrench on the restraints. A fresh view of wiry but muscular body that she remembers surprisingly well."
There is a question that slowly, exquisitely unfolds during the novel. Kelso drops tantalizing hints as the heroine unravels the mystery of the hero's threat or asset to her people. Part I reads like a subtle romance and dance between two intelligent enemies. If you like your spy stories or intrigues, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this. Part II, which I enjoyed more, was action-packed. (Maybe my French teacher was right. I'm bloodthirsty.) The tone is consistently tense and exciting throughout but especially here, when the angst and dashing drama are worthy of Shakespeare himself. Rooted in intrigue to their cores, Tellurith and Alkhes never do anything by halves. Even their love is complicated.
I was worried that like Anne Bishop's Black Jewel series, Kelso's girl-power world would simply be wish fulfillment, but even though some signs seemed to point to Female Fantasy, the power between the two main characters is always in flux, always questioning, and by the end, there's no clear winner. Now that I can get on-board with.
My only complaint is about the second to last scene or thereabouts when we're launched into an apparently aimless coffeehouse discussion on the origins of an element of Amberlight city that is a character unto itself. It was absolutely unnecessary in my opinion and stalled a train of a narrative. I also didn't enjoy the heroine asking the same question again and again. "No, but really, why [insert Q here]..." I think the author thought this would be cute, but it was mostly just irritatingly silly and reminded me of the little kid in class going, "But why?" Because they have wings, Timmy. "Why?" Thankfully, this scene is brief and doesn't detract from the rest of the book for me, all 200 some pages of it.
So, if you have a love for poetic, high language, as engrossing as it seems daunting, and you think you can keep up with a challenging narrative that slows for no one, I highly recommend this. Romance, intrigue and adventure to spare. Riversend is the sequel.
If you have an account, you can also check out the Washington Post review.
May 7, 2008
This book has a very interesting premise and at times the prose is beautiful, but it is seriously underwritten. There is not enough context to understand the different cultures of the area or the tensions within the city of Amberlight itself. And the names are confusing -- for example, is Shia or Shuya the housekeeper of Telluin House? Is Dinda the adjective describing a resident of Dasdhein or the ruler of another country entirely?
The most basic problem with the book is that the economic structure of the city makes no sense -- everyone seems to be either directly involved in working with the stone qherrique, in the Navy, or else a casteless, unemployed outsider. Where are all the construction workers, tailors, weavers, pastry cooks, actors, fishmongers, booksellers, and countless other occupations needed to support the central industry and population of a city that size?
Neither do the sex roles in the book make sense. Men do not have the ability to work with querrique. How exactly this led the women to systematically exclude them from all public life and professions, artificially restrict their numbers by exposing male babies at birth, and incarcerate them in harems is never made clear. Nor is it inevitable, as the heroine seems to assume from her hard-fought struggle to protect the querrique-handlting "secret."
And that brings us lastly to the motivation for the plot, which makes sense least of all. If the querrique (or the Mother goddess, it's not clear) senses that it's being used for evil purposes and it has the power to destroy itself, why drag four nations into a bloody and unnecessary war?
The most basic problem with the book is that the economic structure of the city makes no sense -- everyone seems to be either directly involved in working with the stone qherrique, in the Navy, or else a casteless, unemployed outsider. Where are all the construction workers, tailors, weavers, pastry cooks, actors, fishmongers, booksellers, and countless other occupations needed to support the central industry and population of a city that size?
Neither do the sex roles in the book make sense. Men do not have the ability to work with querrique. How exactly this led the women to systematically exclude them from all public life and professions, artificially restrict their numbers by exposing male babies at birth, and incarcerate them in harems is never made clear. Nor is it inevitable, as the heroine seems to assume from her hard-fought struggle to protect the querrique-handlting "secret."
And that brings us lastly to the motivation for the plot, which makes sense least of all. If the querrique (or the Mother goddess, it's not clear) senses that it's being used for evil purposes and it has the power to destroy itself, why drag four nations into a bloody and unnecessary war?
November 1, 2009
I almost gave up on Amberlight five pages in. Overly-dramatic prose, too many contrived names, a lot of complicated references to fictional politics- I've read enough bad fantasy novels to heed the warning signs. But it was 3 a.m. and the only unread book in my room, and as it turned out giving it an extra chance was worthwhile. I eventually got sucked in; the world was creative, the characters didn't entirely make sense but had a painful relationship I could relate to, and it brought up a number of interesting ideas about gender and religious belief.
It was disappointing, at the end, when these ideas were dropped in such an uninteresting way. I felt that the book could have come to the same conclusion while still leaving a tiny bit of room for doubt in our minds about the truth of the protagonist's spiritual beliefs, the rightness of the war that was fought, the places of men and women in society. But I liked it enough to reserve the sequel.
It was disappointing, at the end, when these ideas were dropped in such an uninteresting way. I felt that the book could have come to the same conclusion while still leaving a tiny bit of room for doubt in our minds about the truth of the protagonist's spiritual beliefs, the rightness of the war that was fought, the places of men and women in society. But I liked it enough to reserve the sequel.
October 23, 2017
Actions were sometimes obfuscated behind clever words which made it difficult to follow. The love story was completely predictable, but I really liked the gender reversal. The fantasy politics were too complicated to follow - there were 13 houses and 13 househeads, all with complicated fantasy names -
and I never entirely got why the war started in the first place. It was a nice change of pace to have a self-contained story within just 250 pages, though.
EDIT: Oh shit, it's a series. Not sure I'll continue it.
and I never entirely got why the war started in the first place. It was a nice change of pace to have a self-contained story within just 250 pages, though.
EDIT: Oh shit, it's a series. Not sure I'll continue it.
February 3, 2013
“Amberlight” is a really light book as you all can see with its 272 pages and people can be deceived by its length, thinking that this is a quick read. Well I say that this book is everything but a quick read. The novel is political fantasy and a well crafted one as well, intertwining politics and customs of all types to create a complexity to the plot.
The story itself is quite simple. Upon returning from a House wedding, Telluirith, Head of Telluir house, finds a dying man on her way home. He seems to be an outlander with a severe case of memory loss, but it’s clear enough that he is a strong man with possible military background. Telluirith takes care of this man and shows him the customs and deepest secrets of Amerlight and the qherrique, also referred to as pearl-rock with mystical properties. The fact that an outlander is taken care of in one of the 13 Houses of Amberlight causes quite a stir among the community. In the process of restoring his memory, Alkhes as the outlander is named, both fall in love with each other, Amberlight is in a crisis and he escapes twice, the second time causing Amberlight to war with its neighbors and resurfacing as the enemy general. The cause and object of the war is the precious pearl-rock, which in the ultimate end explodes and destroys the city, since it can only be cut by women and tends to explode touched by men.
Sylvia Kelso is a very talented and erudite author, who utilizes some of the more overlooked, yet beautiful words in the English dictionary. I personally had a very, tough time adapting to her style and sentence structure, which continued towards the 100th page I think. From then I was quite able to follow the author’s thoughts. If anybody is looking for brain candy literature, this isn’t it. The novel itself is written through the 3rd deep POV of Telluirith and in present simple tense, which automatically transports to the action at hand. I have so far never read a novel quite like this and I am glad I did. Another aspect is the great tension between the characters as the love relationship between Telluirith and Alkhes is superbly built and opposing them as enemies puts their love to the test. A brilliant performance.
The world of Amberlight is matriarchal, totally matriarchal and it works perfectly. Women are the ones; chosen by the pearl-rock to cut them as the stone is sentient in nature, thus they rule society and can use its powers. Miss Kelso doesn’t hold back on its uses too. The pearl-rock is Amberlight’s energy source and its women use light guns, moving vehicles and ships made from this rock that gathers sun light and transforms it into energy. This fact puts the accent on the female gender. Standard men’s roles as soldiers, crafters, rulers are taken by women, while men are being pampered and have no skills whatsoever. I have never thought that such a world can be built to strike the reader as believable and logic and yet this novel proves it.
Of course this book had its issues with me, once it came to understanding the novel. The narrative of the main character Telluirith is chaotic at times, changing the point of view from 3rd to 1st in a very confusing manner for me. I would have appreciated seeing her thoughts actually marked as thoughts and separated from her internals. Due to this narrative issue and the heavy style - which at times is overwrought, especially in the beginning- the introduction of characters and the world itself become all too confusing. Dialogue was an issue at first too as the author creates expressions with their own meaning in the world itself and finding out from context what they were simply exhausted me.
In the end of the day, everything balances out and I have to say that the concept is interesting, but the execution makes comprehension a tough task. I highly recommend this for the hard core fans of political fantasy that want to experience the authentic feel of royalty and political intrigue.
The story itself is quite simple. Upon returning from a House wedding, Telluirith, Head of Telluir house, finds a dying man on her way home. He seems to be an outlander with a severe case of memory loss, but it’s clear enough that he is a strong man with possible military background. Telluirith takes care of this man and shows him the customs and deepest secrets of Amerlight and the qherrique, also referred to as pearl-rock with mystical properties. The fact that an outlander is taken care of in one of the 13 Houses of Amberlight causes quite a stir among the community. In the process of restoring his memory, Alkhes as the outlander is named, both fall in love with each other, Amberlight is in a crisis and he escapes twice, the second time causing Amberlight to war with its neighbors and resurfacing as the enemy general. The cause and object of the war is the precious pearl-rock, which in the ultimate end explodes and destroys the city, since it can only be cut by women and tends to explode touched by men.
Sylvia Kelso is a very talented and erudite author, who utilizes some of the more overlooked, yet beautiful words in the English dictionary. I personally had a very, tough time adapting to her style and sentence structure, which continued towards the 100th page I think. From then I was quite able to follow the author’s thoughts. If anybody is looking for brain candy literature, this isn’t it. The novel itself is written through the 3rd deep POV of Telluirith and in present simple tense, which automatically transports to the action at hand. I have so far never read a novel quite like this and I am glad I did. Another aspect is the great tension between the characters as the love relationship between Telluirith and Alkhes is superbly built and opposing them as enemies puts their love to the test. A brilliant performance.
The world of Amberlight is matriarchal, totally matriarchal and it works perfectly. Women are the ones; chosen by the pearl-rock to cut them as the stone is sentient in nature, thus they rule society and can use its powers. Miss Kelso doesn’t hold back on its uses too. The pearl-rock is Amberlight’s energy source and its women use light guns, moving vehicles and ships made from this rock that gathers sun light and transforms it into energy. This fact puts the accent on the female gender. Standard men’s roles as soldiers, crafters, rulers are taken by women, while men are being pampered and have no skills whatsoever. I have never thought that such a world can be built to strike the reader as believable and logic and yet this novel proves it.
Of course this book had its issues with me, once it came to understanding the novel. The narrative of the main character Telluirith is chaotic at times, changing the point of view from 3rd to 1st in a very confusing manner for me. I would have appreciated seeing her thoughts actually marked as thoughts and separated from her internals. Due to this narrative issue and the heavy style - which at times is overwrought, especially in the beginning- the introduction of characters and the world itself become all too confusing. Dialogue was an issue at first too as the author creates expressions with their own meaning in the world itself and finding out from context what they were simply exhausted me.
In the end of the day, everything balances out and I have to say that the concept is interesting, but the execution makes comprehension a tough task. I highly recommend this for the hard core fans of political fantasy that want to experience the authentic feel of royalty and political intrigue.
September 27, 2010
Remind me to avoid books with "Beautiful Prose". While I liked the story, I basically read the dialogue only, reading the prose I got to the end of a paragraph and had no idea what was happening.
July 4, 2019
3.5 stars, and a content warning for rape.
I believe I had this on my bookshelf because it was on a list of fantasy featuring strong women/matriarchal societies, but it's been so long, I honestly can't remember. I picked it up recently when I went to do a read a chapter thing, and the unique writing style and setting drew me in. In the end, I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one, although I enjoyed it enough that I'd like to continue with the series at some point.
First, the writing style. As I said above, it's what drew me into the story at first. It's a challenging style, simultaneously beautiful and excessively abrupt. When it works, it works very well, creating an atmosphere and a sense of urgency that I enjoyed. However, when it doesn't work... The middle of this book dragged a lot for me, despite its lack of length, because the writing style really requires a lot of concentration. Everything is so condensed that if your attention wanders for a line, you probably miss something important.
I also felt like the writing style enforced a sense of distance on me. I never really connected with the characters until almost the end of the book, which made things doubly hard. And when it wasn't making events opaque with the attention required, it was making them too obvious. I rarely guess what's going to happen in a book, especially when it comes to military strategy, and I prefer it that way. But with such a sparse writing style, it quickly becomes clear that every little thing that's mentioned is significant, which caused me to guess a thing or two near the end of the book. Which isn't too terrible, but I got the feeling that the author intended at least one of those things to be a shock, and it definitely wasn't.
My other bit of criticism is that I didn't care for the romance. I understood where Tellurith was coming from, but I found it really hard to trust her love interest, and I couldn't find it in me to really enjoy the pairing. Since a lot of the middle section focuses on that, that made things doubly hard for me.
I did really enjoy the ending. There was a lot of action packed into the sparse lines, and I really got drawn in by it all. I liked the conclusion that the story came to a lot, actually, because a lot of things that weren't quite clear earlier became quite clear, and that wasn't at all something that I was expecting.
I also really liked the societal commentary. The book centers on a matriarchal society, which is a novelty, but it also comments on the follies of that society, along with those around it. I will be interested to see where that commentary is taken in the second book, especially with the male main character. I felt like even though he was often criticizing Amberlight, he wasn't nearly as clear-sighted about his own country's issues, which made me like him a bit less.
Anyway, this was definitely an interesting and challenging read, that can be rewarding if you're patient enough.
I believe I had this on my bookshelf because it was on a list of fantasy featuring strong women/matriarchal societies, but it's been so long, I honestly can't remember. I picked it up recently when I went to do a read a chapter thing, and the unique writing style and setting drew me in. In the end, I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one, although I enjoyed it enough that I'd like to continue with the series at some point.
First, the writing style. As I said above, it's what drew me into the story at first. It's a challenging style, simultaneously beautiful and excessively abrupt. When it works, it works very well, creating an atmosphere and a sense of urgency that I enjoyed. However, when it doesn't work... The middle of this book dragged a lot for me, despite its lack of length, because the writing style really requires a lot of concentration. Everything is so condensed that if your attention wanders for a line, you probably miss something important.
I also felt like the writing style enforced a sense of distance on me. I never really connected with the characters until almost the end of the book, which made things doubly hard. And when it wasn't making events opaque with the attention required, it was making them too obvious. I rarely guess what's going to happen in a book, especially when it comes to military strategy, and I prefer it that way. But with such a sparse writing style, it quickly becomes clear that every little thing that's mentioned is significant, which caused me to guess a thing or two near the end of the book. Which isn't too terrible, but I got the feeling that the author intended at least one of those things to be a shock, and it definitely wasn't.
My other bit of criticism is that I didn't care for the romance. I understood where Tellurith was coming from, but I found it really hard to trust her love interest, and I couldn't find it in me to really enjoy the pairing. Since a lot of the middle section focuses on that, that made things doubly hard for me.
I did really enjoy the ending. There was a lot of action packed into the sparse lines, and I really got drawn in by it all. I liked the conclusion that the story came to a lot, actually, because a lot of things that weren't quite clear earlier became quite clear, and that wasn't at all something that I was expecting.
I also really liked the societal commentary. The book centers on a matriarchal society, which is a novelty, but it also comments on the follies of that society, along with those around it. I will be interested to see where that commentary is taken in the second book, especially with the male main character. I felt like even though he was often criticizing Amberlight, he wasn't nearly as clear-sighted about his own country's issues, which made me like him a bit less.
Anyway, this was definitely an interesting and challenging read, that can be rewarding if you're patient enough.
June 2, 2022
Lost a point for the disappointing ending, if predictable.
The style. So unusual - at first it reminded me of struggling in high school English with reading Chaucer, with the use of archaic words, some made-up words, along with some archaic grammar, sentence construction, and poetic forms. However, with a bit of mind-bending I was able to "translate" on the fly and found the style genuinely added to the world-building.
I enjoyed the story for the most part, and even most of the women characters, but not the men. The 'romance' was overdone and detracted from the themes. I would have preferred more world-building, more exposition of the political structures, more character development, and less romance.
The style. So unusual - at first it reminded me of struggling in high school English with reading Chaucer, with the use of archaic words, some made-up words, along with some archaic grammar, sentence construction, and poetic forms. However, with a bit of mind-bending I was able to "translate" on the fly and found the style genuinely added to the world-building.
I enjoyed the story for the most part, and even most of the women characters, but not the men. The 'romance' was overdone and detracted from the themes. I would have preferred more world-building, more exposition of the political structures, more character development, and less romance.
January 24, 2016
Not sure what made me pick this book up, but I'm glad I did. It's Austrailian author Sylvia Kelso's 3rd novel, and I hadn't read her before. Sometimes, it's good to just take a chance, and this was one of them. This book has a somewhat unusual plot/storyline. It's fantasy, but not your typical sword & sorcery fantasy. It's got a female-dominated society, within a more traditional society, and of course, the males want to take over, and take control of what makes the women powerful. I thought the book dragged in some spots, but writing this review, a few days later, I find I really liked it, and I look forward to more of Ms. Kelso's work. Check it out, and see if you agree.
December 22, 2011
Amberlight is an interesting fantasy that focuses on a matriarchal society, gender reversals, and even touches (but not through said guy's POV) male rape. It's a short read, and an interesting one, and while I had some problems getting through it, I'm glad I did. I'll be picking up the sequel when it's released this year.[return][return]The full review's in my LJ, if you're interested. Fair warning, it does contain spoilers: http://calico-reaction.livejournal.co...
October 16, 2012
Adult fantasy–I loved the characters and the story, which teetered just on the edge of cliche but never tipped over. Also had a great sense of setting and place, which is one of my Things. Kelso’s style is very…style-y, which bothered me at first. After a bit, I managed to settle in, but others might be a bit off-put. Do give it a chance, though.
September 2, 2010
Australian author Kelso writes a story of intrigue and magic in an extreme matriarichal, capitalist society threatened by its neighbors. Sophisticated storytelling, but very, very dense and fraught style. Not an easy read, but an engrossing one. Similar to Guy Gavriel Kay.
January 8, 2014
3.5 stars
November 15, 2014
Challenging read, probably because I'm not very familiar with speculative fiction. Enjoyable despite the challenge!
dnf
August 31, 2017Until the half time mark it was a vivid read with a confusing though interesting background, but how for the love of everything is it ok to deal with trauma after being raped by coercing the victim into a sexual relationship to "protect" him? How? Why? How can this be portrayed as anything but the disgusting thing it is and instead is being shown as a means to heal even as romantic?
Ugh, no, it's not romantic, it's creepy
Ugh, no, it's not romantic, it's creepy
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews