Aliette de Bodard

Obsidian and Blood — (2010-2011) Publisher: Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan the capital of the Aztecs. The end of the world is kept at bay only by the magic of human sacrifice. A Priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. Acatl, High Priest, must find her, or break the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead. Aliette De Bodard is the hottest rising star in world SF and Fantasy, blending ancient crimes with wild imagination. This is her debut novel. FILE UNDER: Modern Fantasy [The Aztecs / Locked room mystery / Human sacrifice / Destroy the Gods]

Servant of the Underworld

Servant of the Underworld by Writers of the Future winner Aliette de Bodard is an interesting and, especially for a debut, well-executed cross-genre novel that successfully combines several disparate elements into an original story.

If ever a novel could be called cross-genre, Servant of the Underworld is it: the story is set in the 15th century Aztec empire (1. historical fiction) but magic and gods are real (2. fantasy). When a priestess is murdered, Acatl, the High Priest of the Dead, gets involved in finding the murderer (3. mystery), especially when it turns out that his brother is one of the prime suspects. Add to this some blood rituals and some other dark scenes that verge into horror territory (4!) and you've got a novel that bookstores could shelve in a few different places. When reading it, I frequently thought of Liz Williams' DETECTIVE-INSPECTOR CHEN stories, which combine fantasy, SF and mystery with touches of both humor and horror, and are also set in a non-Western culture — so it didn't come as a surprise that de Bodard listed those novels as an influence.

Maybe the most impressive thing about this novel is the fact that Aliette de Bodard manages to combine these different elements into a smooth cohesive story. Right from the opening scene, in which one of High Priest Acatl's blood rituals is interrupted when he finds out about the murder that sets off the plot, the exotic setting feels natural and the inclusion of magic becomes almost normal. As the story progresses, with Acatl interviewing various people to find the murderer and exonerate his brother, Aliette de Bodard gradually paints a vivid picture of life in the Aztec city of Tenochtlitan, filled with interesting anthropological tidbits, while at the same time keeping the "whodunnit" plot going and building up the religion/magic angle. (And speaking of religion: the few scenes where human characters interact with the gods were, for me, the best parts of the novel. Aliette de Bodard does an excellent job describing the reaction of puny humans to the awe-inspiring gods.)

Servant of the Underworld's main weakness is its main character, Acatl, who is simply very hard to connect to. While the author attempts to make him more human by emphasizing his complex family life, it's still hard to empathize with the dispassionate Aztec High Priest of the Dead — and ironically, the priests who work for him seem to feel the same way for most of the book. The exotic setting of the novel is fascinating, the mystery plot is initially very intriguing, the magic is at times impressive, but once the novelty wears off, the main character isn't engaging enough to carry the novel... and because the story is told from Acatl's first person perspective, this one flaw is constantly in the spotlight.

Still, Servant of the Underworld is a highly original debut novel. Thanks to a solid mystery plot and Aliette de Bodard's extensive research into pre-Conquest Meso-America, this novel should strike a chord with more than just fantasy readers. —Stefan Raets

Harbinger of the Storm

Servant of the Underworld, Aliette de Bodard's début novel and the first book in the OBSIDIAN AND BLOOD series, was one of the most interesting books I'd read in a while. Not many people write a novel in a second language and manage to get it published, and I'm always mildly envious of people with that kind of language skill. De Bodard's work (Harbinger of the Storm is her second novel, but she has written lots of short fiction) usually features non-western cultures, something not that many writers take on, making Servant of the Underworld an unusual novel. I enjoyed her depiction of the pre-Columbian Mexica (Aztec) empire a lot. Harbinger of the Storm is the second book in the trilogy.

Harbinger of the Storm is set about a year and a half after Servant of the Underworld. Worrisome events have taken place in the Mexica empire. The Revered Speaker, the link between the world of the living and the god Huitzilpochtli, their shield against the deities who are aiming to end the fifth world and make it anew, has passed away and left the people unprotected. Selecting a successor is no easy matter. The council from which a new Revered Speaker is to be elected is hopelessly divided. Time is pressing though, with each day that passes the pressure on the spiritual defences of the empire grows. The terrible star-demons are waiting for their chance to rip the empire apart.

Acatl, High-Priest for the Dead, once again finds himself caught up in the court intrigues he so much despises. Although most of the council members are aware of the threat to the empire and the need to restore their link with Huitzilpochtli, all of them are too busy expanding their personal influence to really care. To make the situation even more volatile, a council member is murdered shortly after the Revered Speaker's death. Acatl is called in to investigate the death and finds out that someone is not ready to wait for the star demons to arrive. They summoned one to do their dirty work for them. The empire is in even more danger than Acatl assumed.

In the previous volume Acatl tries to stay clear of politics, something he does not entirely succeed at. This time there is no escaping it. Serving Mictlantecuhtli, the Lord of Death, he has a part in the funeral ceremonies for the departed Revered Speaker. This makes Harbinger of the Storm a lot more political than Servant of the Underworld. De Bodard goes into quite a lot of detail on the downright Machiavellian politics practiced by some of the priests and military leaders of the empire. Some of the shameless manoeuvring by the priests who ought to be busy preventing a very real supernatural disaster is worthy of the Borgias. It thoroughly disgusts Acatl, who is... perhaps not entirely naive but a bit too unwilling to accept that not everybody will put the common good before their own interests.

The succession de Bodard describes is a very curious one. It often wasn't a father-to-son affair like one would expect. Often brothers and even cousins had a good shot at the position as well, making the succession uncertain. The author uses this to great effect in the novel, creating a struggle for the throne put under an immense pressure by the need to provide the empire with a link to their patron god. The peril to the empire is made very clear by the appearance of a number of supernatural beings; Aztec mythology does not seem to have a shortage of scary figures. Not everybody may like their historical fiction (or is it historical fantasy?) with this much supernatural influence, but I think the author uses it cleverly to build the tension.

Servant of the Underworld was a bit more contained to the city of Tenochtitlan, with the city itself as historical background, not so much the characters and events. In this volume we get to see a bit more of the way what we think of as the Aztec Empire was organized. It mentions the alliance with the cities of Texcoco and Tlacopan and a lot more of the layout of the city than the previous book. The departed Revered Speaker Axayacatl is a historical figure, as are a number of other characters in the novel. From what I can tell the historical details on the succession, or even the events in that particular year, are not that well documented, giving de Bodard some leeway to tell her story. The book does not pretend to be fully historically accurate but it was nice to see a bit more of the historical context.

The book is written in the first person, and I think this restricted de Bodard a bit. The novel involves a lot of political intrigue, all of which we see from the point of view of a character neither particularly skilled nor very interested in the process. Acatl's pretty good at telling when he's being lied to, but motivations often elude him. Some of the finer points of what is going on in Tenochtitlan's ruling council might have benefited from another point of view. That's a personal preference, though; one could just as easily argue that since de Bodard started the story in the first person, she should stick with it.

I found Harbinger of the Storm to be a worthy successor to what I consider to be a very successful début. The emphasis in this book has shifted a bit from a murder mystery to political intrigue but the setting hasn't lost any of its appeal in the process. The novel zooms out a bit to allow room for more religious and political aspects of Aztec society to slip into the story. Despite my preoccupation with the historical aspects of the novel, Harbinger of the Storm is mostly a race against the clock to deflect a supernatural attempt to end the empire and the world. De Bodard works a great sense of urgency into the story, making it a fast read. She has once again managed to deliver a very interesting book. I'm looking forward to reading the third book in this series, Master of the House of Darts. —Rob Weber (guest)
FanLit thanks Rob Weber from Val's Random Comments for contributing this guest review.

Master of the House of Darts

Master of the House of Darts is the third novel in Aliette de Bodard's OBSIDIAN AND BLOOD series. The first novel, Servant of the Underworld, was one of my favourite reads of 2010 and its sequel Harbinger of the Storm was, if possible, even better. In between writing these novels, de Bodard has also made an impression with her short fiction. Her novelette The Jaguar House, In Shadow, set in her Xuya alternative history, was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula award, while The Shipmaker, set later in the same timeline, won the BSFA award for Best Short Fiction. Neither the Hugo nor the Nebula went her way, but I would be very surprised if she didn't win one of those in the future. In other words, I was really looking forward to reading Master of the House of Darts.

Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, has been deeply involved in the recent struggle for succession. With more than just the position of Revered Speaker at stake, not interfering would have meant the end of the fifth world, and so Acatl and a number of other priests performed a feat of magic that helped Tizoc to power. His hold on power is far from solid, though, especially since the coronation war is less than a success. Various parties doubt the ability of the new Revered Speaker to protect the empire and bring them glory. When a mysterious disease breaks out in the palace as well, Acatl has a new mystery on his hands. Gradually it becomes clear that the way Tizoc came to power offers enemies of the realm the opportunity to destabilize the empire. Acatl will have to deal with the unintended consequences of his actions if he is to save the empire again.

The OBSIDIAN AND BLOOD novels are often characterized as Aztec murder mysteries, but like the previous book, this one leans a lot more to political intrigue. We do start with a corpse of course, and a murder that needs to be solved, but it is the first clue in a conspiracy that runs much deeper than the fate of one (rather unpleasant) man. Master of the House of Darts presents a complete story and can be read separately, though it would be a challenging read as the power structure and pantheon of the Aztec Empire are very important to the story and will most likely be unfamiliar to the reader. It helps to have that background from previous books. They also provide insight into Acatl's motivation.

Like the other two books, Master of the House of Darts is entirely written in the first person. We see the story though Acatl's eyes and experience his thorough disgust of power politics, selfishness and injustice. He has lost some of his impatience with it, though. I wouldn't say he's become a diplomat but he has developed more of a feeling for when pushing will get him the desired result and when letting go is the least frustrating course of action. He's also a bit more self-assured. Where in previous novels the disapproval of his parents weighed on him significantly, it has faded into the background a bit in Master of the House of Darts, although it does come up in the conversations with his disgraced brother Neutemoc.

One area where Acatl certainly does not lack confidence is his duties as High Priest of the Dead. One of the more interesting scenes is the conversation in which he berates his priests for sacrificing the life of a slave to save a high official. Acatl feels that lives cannot be ranked like that, and that one life is not more valuable than another. It is an interesting example of his sense of justice, but also stresses that a culture that practices what we see as barbaric human sacrifice does have a clear moral code. One that can be very unforgiving on people who don't live up to the status and privileges society accords them, in fact. It is hard to wrap your mind around some of the practices Acatl accepts as a matter of course, but in this novel at least, they do fit the larger framework.

Unlike the previous two volumes, this novel relies a bit less on action and leans more heavily on unravelling the mystery, figuring out who had a motive and how certain crimes were perpetrated. The real action in the novel is saved for the explosive finale. Acatl needs a little more time to sort through the tangle of hatred, greed and lust for power that surrounds the Revered Speaker; it is most certainly his most challenging and complex investigation yet. As with the previous novel, I felt that the first-person point of view limited de Bodard a bit in exploring the intricacies of the intrigue. Events follow each other quickly and some do not make sense to the reader until Acatl figures them out, or thinks he does. Some of it relies pretty heavily on the properties of various deities in the Aztec pantheon, which makes his trains of thought challenging to follow sometimes.

I enjoyed reading Master of the House of Darts as much as the previous two novels. We see a more confident Acatl in this novel, despite the fact that he is dealing with unintended consequences of his own actions. He is not a particularly optimistic character, but his dark moods fit the dire situation the Mexica Empire is in. It was a nice touch to see that even the gods fear what might happen if the fifth world (the current one according to Aztec mythology) were to come to an end. Readers of de Bodard's other works will appreciate the intrigue and vividly realized Mesoamerican setting. As usual, the author leaves me hungry for more. I understand her next project will be the first full length novel in the Xuya alternative history. If possible, I look forward to that novel even more than I did Master of the House of Darts.
—Rob Weber (guest)
FanLit thanks Rob Weber from Val's Random Comments for contributing this guest review.