Author: Glenda Larke
Cover Artist: Larry Rostant
Publisher: Orbit
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 2006
Mirages are images without substance – sometimes sensory illusions, but they can also be hopes and illusions that never can be realized. Heart of the Mirage is the first instalment in Glenda Larke’s trilogy The Mirage Makers, and it offers a narrative that explores the nature of the illusions and delusions that can make and unmake a person. It is a story about the sometimes illusory nature of identity, of loss and betrayal and of the possibility of redemption.
Heart of the Mirage is first and foremost the story of one woman’s journey towards self-discovery and of the recovery of her heritage, hidden beneath layers of callous deceptions. As a young child Ligea Gayed was stolen from her people by its conquering enemies. Adopted by a high-ranking general, she is raised as a citizen of the Tyranian Empire and employed in its service as a member of its fearsome secret police The Brotherhood. When rebellion breaks out in Kardiastan, the land of her birth, Ligea seems the obvious choice to hunt down and eliminate the Mirager, the mysterious and elusive leader of the rebel insurgency.
Upon her arrival in Kardiastan, Ligea devotes herself to her mission with patriotic zeal and ruthless cunning, but the deeper she infiltrates the leadership of the rebellion, the harder it becomes for her to maintain her disciplined self-image as a loyal Tyrianian citizen. There are deep secrets in Kardiastand, secrets that intimately defines the land and its once ruling elite, the Magor. These secrets are also the key to Ligea’s forgotten heritage. As she learns more about her people and her unique heritage, Ligea begins to question the values of her upbringing and her very identity in an ever increasing degree. Ultimately, she is faced with a difficult choice between the values of her upbringing and the nature of her birthright. It is a choice that not only will affect her sense of self, her loyalties but also the future of two nations.
Glenda Larke creates a vivid and exotic world that departs from the more conventional pseudo-medieval settings of fantasy fiction. Thus the Tyrian Empire displays many similarities with the Roman and Byzantine Empires of the Mediterranean world. It is a civilization with a highly sophisticated culture, but it is also an aggressively militant culture, built upon conquest and slavery, a culture where racism and casual cruelty is the norm and where ruthlessness and corruption is rewarded above decency and compassion. Kardiastan is in many ways the direct opposite to Tyrans. Where Tyrans has a Roman or Byzantine “feel”, Kardistan is more reminiscent of Arabian or North African culture. The Kardis are a desert people, hardy and fierce but also very generous and trusting when it comes to people other than their Tyranian oppressors. In the entire Empire, the Kardis are unique in their refusal to bend their neck to their oppressors and assimilate their culture and values. They cling to their own culture and mores with a fierce desperation that quietly disrupts the administration of the Tyrian occupiers. The Magor, the Kardi aristocracy, exists as a unique culture within the larger Kardi society. Set apart by their magical abilities and closely connected to the land, they live by rules and values that are significantly different from those of the ordinary Kardi people. After the invasion, the Magor has retreated to the Mirage, a mysterious and inaccessible piece of land in the heart of Kardiastan. The Mirage is a strange place, where the landscape constantly changes and it leaves a lasting imprint upon Ligea’s soul.
The Mirage is the heart of the Kardi insurgency and the source of the Magor’s powers, but it is not the only mirage in this story. Narrated in the first person, Heart of the Mirage is essentially the story about the illusions and deceptions that has shaped Ligea’s life and person. Structured in four parts, each section titled after the various names that Ligea is given or assumes throughout the story, Heart of the Mirage is ultimately a novel about the illusory nature of identity itself.
With Heart of the Mirage Glenda Larke has written a very enjoyable and utterly compelling story that unflinchingly probes into the psychology of a person who has been robbed of her family, her people and her culture. Ligea’s origins have been stolen from her; her heritage has been denied her – a crime that is compounded by the fact that she has been raised by the very person who has killed her family. Larke has obviously been inspired by real events, mainly the Disappeared Ones of Argentina and the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal Australia, a fact that imbues Ligea’s story with a deep-felt resonance.
Characterization constitutes the novel’s greatest strength. It is Ligea’s character that drives the plot and Larke takes the time necessary to build up Ligea’s personality as well as the events and experiences that prompt her to question herself and her values, thus making the manner in which her character evolves plausible. When it comes to characterization, Larke’s work reminds me very much of Robin Hobb. Like Hobb, Larke uses a first-person narrative and she takes the time necessary to build a quite complex character. And like Hobb, Larke is never shies away from revealing the less savoury aspects of the protagonist’s personality. Ligea is in many ways not very likeable. Throughout a large part of the story, she comes across as arrogant, self-centered and cruel, but as Larke slowly reveals the forces that have shaped her one can’t help to feel for her. Likewise, the experiences that cause her to change and mature as a person ring absolutely true.
Heart of the Mirage is a very strong novel that offers a multi-facetted and deeply flawed protagonist as well as a well-paced and deeply compelling story about betrayal and identity. Larke has a fluid prose that often emphasizes sensuous detail and if she sometimes veers towards the overly descriptive then this is a very minor complaint. Likewise, the rather ridiculous names – gorclacks and shleths – are but a minor quibble. The only thing that detracted a bit from an otherwise wonderful reading experience was that the novel failed to elicit that “tingling” sense of wonder and enchantment that I associate with truly great fantasy. This is, however, simply a matter of personal taste and it certainly won’t prevent me from recommending it highly.
Trine D. Paulsen
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