Author: Daniel Abraham
Cover Artist: Stephan Martiniere
Publisher: Tor
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: July 2008
In my review of Betrayal in Winter I said I wouldn’t wait as long picking up the next book in Abraham’s Long Price Quartet as last time. Of course a number of other, very good books objected so I am afraid the gap is just as big this time. And like last time I feel I should have picked it up sooner. Many people seem to think this is Abraham’s best book yet. I am not sure I agree with that, A Shadow in Summer was very good, but if it was not better is was certainly awfully close. The last book in the quartet, The Price of Spring is scheduled for this summer. If Abraham keeps delivers a book on the same level as An Autumn War the Long Price Quartet will be a must on the bookshelves of any fantasy reader.
Some fourteen years after the events in A Betrayal in Winter, Otah still unwillingly runs Machi. His break with the tradition of marrying many women and fathering many sons, who will end up killing each other for the right to succeed, have alienated him from most of the great houses in the city. His rather interesting past gives him an unusual perspective on the world for a ruler though. He has witnessed the problems of relying entirely of the Andat for defence and prosperity and tries to prepare the city for a future without these magically enslaved beings. When his former lover Liat shows up in Machi his suspicions that the Galts are up to something appear to be confirmed.
Maati in the mean time is deep into his research on the binding of Andat. The price for getting it wrong is all too often a horrible death but Maati suspects there is a way to avoid paying that price. He even hopes his ideas can get him into the good graces of the Dai-kvo, the head of the Poet order, again and end his exile to Machi. Liat’s arrival in Machi, in the company the son he fathered on her, greatly upsets his life though.
Meanwhile in Galt the ambitious general Balasar is planning to crush the power of the Khaiem once and for all. He thinks he has discovered the means to remove the Andat at a single stroke. This will not be enough to eliminate the treat posed by the Khaiem though. He needs to destroy those who hold the knowledge to bind new Andat. Burn libraries, kill the Poets, raze the fourteen cities Khaiem and all of it in a single season. Before the Poets have time to prepare another binding. His plan is audacious, the price of failure is high. But it may just succeed.
I guess you can tell right from the start this book is going to be a tragedy. Not entirely surprising given the previous two books. The characters we already know from previous books are still embracing the profoundly unethical enslavement of the Andat, something not even Otah has the courage to walk away from. Even when the foundation of their power and prosperity is about to crumble the Maati’s response is to dig even deeper into his research to recapture the strength of the empire. On the other side we have a general who is unable to see anybody who has a nastier weapon that he has, as anything other than a threat. Regardless of the fact that the Khaiem do not seem to be interested in the outside world as long as trade keeps flowing. Balasar is not even interested in conquest, as long as the power of the Khaiem is broken.
You’d think these characters doing a lot of short-sighted, selfish and sometimes plain stupid thing would make them a rather unlikeable bunch. They’re not. The characterization is absolutely one of the strong points of this novel. When I read a Maati point of view I still hope he’ll manage to get into the good graces of the Dai-kvo, even though I know he lacks the spine to really amount to something within the order. When I read a Otah chapter is enjoy the way Abraham manages to make this tired man rise to the occasion and rally his people, even if their resistance in a feeble gesture at best. When Balasar casts the dice and marches on Khaiem I still root for him and hope can somehow pull of his campaign to take out fourteen cities in a season even if his reasons for doing so are totally irrational.
As I said, this can only go wrong, and it does on just about every level. In the end though tragedy strikes from a direction I didn’t particularly expect. In a way it is the sort of traditional fantasy novel finale, the big battle at the end, if you will permit me a tiny spoiler. I like it an awful lot though. The shocking event that decides the conflict between Khaiem and Galt it sets the stage for an interesting final book as well. Starting this review, I wasn’t sure if this book was better than A Shadow in Summer. After having written it, I think An Autumn War may finish a nose length ahead after all. Abraham shakes his world up good in this novel. Fortunately the release of The Price of Spring is not too far in the future. I eagerly await it’s release.
Bookspot Central has a sample chapter of this novel hosted here.
