David Anthony Durham

Acacia — (2007-2011) Available for download at Audible.com. Publisher: Leodan Akaran, ruler of the Known World, has inherited generations of apparent peace and prosperity, won ages ago by his ancestors. A widower of high intelligence, he presides over an empire called Acacia, after the idyllic island from which he rules. He dotes on his four children and hides from them the dark realities of traffic in drugs and human lives on which their prosperity depends. He hopes that he might change this, but powerful forces stand in his way. And then a deadly assassin sent from a race called the Mein, exiled long ago to an ice-locked stronghold in the frozen north, strikes at Leodan in the heart of Acacia while they unleash surprise attacks across the empire. On his deathbed, Leodan puts into play a plan to allow his children to escape, each to their separate destiny. And so his children begin a quest to avenge their father's death and restore the Acacian empire — this time on the basis of universal freedom.

Acacia

David Anthony Durham's Acacia has some of elements of epic fantasy we’ve all seen before: a large empire, a resentful race, a king’s children scattered and forced to grow into previously hidden strengths, a near-ritualized style of sword fighting, political intrigue, large battle scenes, and a few others. But anyone thinking to write off Acacia as simply another cookie-cutter fantasy would be missing a highly rewarding read — for Durham gives us these familiar set-ups only to repeatedly yank them out from under our feet.

The title of the book is also the name of the empire we meet at the start, an empire that has ruled the “known world” for generations and whose symbol is the acacia tree that adorns its home island. But Acacia is built on a deeply immoral foundation. Long ago, it agreed to a Faustian bargain with the Lothan Aklun, a mysterious and powerful group on the other side of the world. In return for a guarantee of peace, Acacia sends to the Aklun an annual “quota” of thousands of people. What happens to them is something the Acacian kings have never had much interest in pursuing. Along with freedom from attack, the empire also receives from the Aklun a ready supply of “mist,” an opiate drug that keeps the people docile.

The current king of Acacia, Leodan, (like perhaps others before him) once dreamed of stopping this immoral trade, but history, politics, inertia, and the death of his wife have buried this dream. A mist addict himself, he now focuses on maintaining the empire and on the comfort of his four children — Aliver, Dariel, Corrin, and Mena — while dreaming of his wife at night.

Meanwhile, up in the frozen north, Hannish Mein, chief of the Mein people, who were long ago defeated and driven out of the milder climes by the Acacians and placed under a terrible curse, is setting in motion a plan to regain his people’s traditional homeland.

The set-up is typical and clearly, when Acacia falls and the children scatter, the reader will be rooting for them to put it back together. But then you remember that this monarchy is built on blood and slavery. So do you really regret its fall? So Durham challenges us nearly immediately with an uncomfortable warp of the familiar. And this was perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of — its pattern of surprise; each time you thought the book was heading down a predicable writing path in terms of either plot or character, it took an unexpected turn. Oh, look — here comes the set-up for one of those grand several-day battles I’ve grown accustomed to. Umm, wait. I took a sip of my beverage and came back to the page and the big battle was already over. Oh, look — yet another spoiled beauty of a princess. And look where he’s placed her. Obviously she’s going to... Oh. Didn’t quite expect that. At least, not in that fashion. And on it goes.

This isn’t the superficiality of just a cool plot twist (especially those “twists” we’ve seen so many times that they’re old hat). Nor do any of these turns feel arbitrary, gimmicky, or forced. Instead, they grow naturally out of character or situation (though sometimes we don’t see this until later). Durham substantially, thoughtfully uses our pre-programmed reading habits against us. I’d love to give some supporting examples, but I’d hate to deprive a reader of the same pleasure of unpredictability that I had.

The characters are another strength to this book. Not just the four children, each of whom gets spun off into their separate stories for a large chunk of time, but other characters as well: Hannish, Leodan’s chancellor Thaddeus, Leodan’s top general. Each must, at some point, make a decision between preservation of the status quo (which for many equals contentment or security, if not comfort) and change (which for many equals sacrifice, insecurity, and chaos. And all of them give you reasons to pull for them and to root against them. Hannish’s overthrow of Acacia is incredibly brutal and dishonorable (and here again, as you detest this you’re pulled off-stride by recalling that the same could be said of Acacia’s rule) but we are given access to other sides of him that paint him in a much different light. The same is true of the others; all are flawed. You’re not sure you’d trust any of them with power. But at some point each attains it; the question then becomes: "what will they do with it?"

Beyond the unpredictable plot and the strong characters (including several secondary characters), what about the book’s other aspects? For the most part, the book is well paced. The beginning may be a bit slow, sometimes we get a few info dumps that interrupt the flow, and it feels a tad overlong, but never bloated. Local settings vary in their detail; some are quite sharply drawn, while the overall view of the world remained a little abstract for me. Durham peppers the book with side-stories and myths told by one character to another, to mixed success. At times the stories worked quite well at shedding a light or adding a sense of history; at other times they felt a bit forced. The shifts in point-of-view were well handled, never confusing, and the timing of when we left a character and came back to them added to the book’s suspense. Finally, for all that I enjoyed in Acacia, I have to admit that it was a curiously detached enjoyment at times. For whatever reason, for many of the different storylines I never felt emotionally invested. Intellectually, yes. As wanting to learn what happened, yes. But in that visceral sense of empathy (if that’s the right word) I have in those books I truly love? Not really. I’d love to nail down a reason, but I have yet to figure it out.

But while I can’t therefore say I “loved” Acacia, I can say that I strongly recommend it. And maybe that emotional attachment will come in book two which I will eagerly await (Acacia, by the way, ends with a sense of resolution to much of the story but leaves more than enough hanging to warrant another book).
—Bill Capossere

Acacia

Acacia is David Anthony Durham’s debut into fantasy, and it is one that has impressed me. He has written in another genre I like, namely historical fiction, but I have never read any of his work before.

Durham’s purpose is to explore themes that are evident throughout human history: the myths that nations and empires build to justify their existence; their reliance on oppression; the difficulty in being an idealist; the difficulty in changing the status quo; the ease with which a person is corrupted; and that there are not really “good guys” and “bad guys.” The main players are the Acacians, the rulers of an empire based on slavery and a drug trade, and the Mein, who were exiled to a northern tundra region of the same name, and who were literally cursed so that they could not properly die. This book is about the Mein overthrowing Acacian rule, and the royal family’s struggle in the wilderness afterwards. There is also the League, which is a shipping monopoly that controls the seas, and the unseen Lothan Aklun, who supply the drug “Mist.” There are other peoples who figure into the mix also. The reader does not overly sympathize with either the Acacians as a whole or the Mein as a whole. There were Acacians I liked and ones I hated. I had similar reactions to the Mein. No one likes the League, but everyone must deal with them. We are not introduced to the Lothan Aklun, so we don’t know much about them. Everyone else is just plain human.

Acacia is crisply written and moves along at a good pace. There is not a lot of description of the Acacian world, and I personally think this could have been beefed up a bit, but I was certainly not bogged down by a bunch of strange place names or an arcane history that I could not identify with. The best authors release these things slowly and constantly, so that the body of work, at least in epic fantasy, builds over time. However, much of this is lacking in this book, and we only get the occasional detail. The characters are distinct, they grow in interesting ways, and the plot serves this end while it moves in ways that one does not expect.

My main difficulty is that I did not connect with Acacia. I read it, and enjoyed it for the most part, but I could not connect with the characters, who were going through some very difficult trials. Despite their struggle, and the moral choices that they faced, I was relatively unmoved. This is a story that involves loyalty, deception, betrayal, redemption, forgiveness, revenge, love, guilt — you name it. Despite all of this well-written content in the character development, I was merely entertained. This book did not change me. I don’t know exactly what is missing that caused this lack of feeling for the characters or the story, but it was a feeling that I could not get over. It was actually somewhat disturbing, particularly when examined in hindsight while writing this review.

I also get mad at authors sometimes when they kill a character that is interesting and could be explored at length. George R.R. Martin does this with regularity, and Durham did this once in this book. However, I saw the reason shortly after the death, and taken in context, it makes sense, even though to me it was a lost opportunity.

Were I to place Acacia in a sub-genre, I would have to say epic, as it is a multiple-volume book, but it is of the low, realistic fantasy type, as magic is downplayed, particularly in the first half of the book. This is not a surprise given that Durham’s background is in historical fiction. I believe it to be a good start to what will probably be a good series, but I am not committing to another hardcover purchase. Three stars, and a solid fantasy debut. —Angus Bickerton

OTHER OPINIONS:

Stefan Raets

The Other Lands

PLOT SUMMARY: Several years have passed since the demise of Hanish Mein. Corinn Akaran rules with an iron grip on the Known World's many races. She hones her skills in sorcery by studying The Book of Elenet and dotes on her young son, Aaden — Hanish's child — raising him to be her successor. Mena Akaran, still the warrior princess she became fighting the eagle god Maeben, has been battling the monsters released by the Santoth's corrupted magic. In her hunt she discovers a creature wholly unexpected, one that awakens long suppressed emotions in her. And Dariel Akaran, once a brigand of the Outer Isles, has devoted his labors to rebuilding the ravaged empire brick by brick. Each of the Akaran royals is finding their way in the post-war world, but the queen's peace is difficult to maintain, and things are about to change.

When the League brings news of upheavals in the Other Lands, Corinn sends Dariel across the Grey Slopes as her emissary. From the moment he sets foot on that distant continent, he finds a chaotic swirl of treachery, ancient grudges, intrigue and exoticism. He comes face to face with the slaves his empire has long sold into bondage. His arrival ignites a firestorm that once more puts the Known World under threat of invasion — a massive invasion that dwarfs anything the Akarans have yet faced.

CLASSIFICATION: The ACACIA TRILOGY is epic fantasy fueled by compelling characters, realistic world-building and powerful storytelling in the vein of George R.R. Martin, Stephen R. Donaldson, Jacqueline Carey and Brian Ruckley, but defined by David Anthony Durham’s unique historical fiction-influenced viewpoint.

FORMAT/INFO: Page count is 464 pages divided over a Prologue, 3 titled Books, and 51 chapters. The Other Lands also includes a map of the Known World and the Other Lands, and a detailed summary of the first book. Narration is in the third person via several different characters, including returning POVs Corinn Akaran, her brother and sister Dariel and Mena, and Corinn’s councillor Rialus Neptos. Other POVs include the leaguemen Sire Neen and Sire Dagon, Barad the Lesser, Avril’s former companion Kelis Umae, Corinn’s informant Delivegu Lemardine, and Mór, a Known World slave now living in The Other Lands. The Other Lands is the second volume in the ACACIA TRILOGY after Acacia: The War with the Mein, and ends on a cliffhanger.

September 15, 2009 marks the North American hardcover publication of The Other Lands via Doubleday. The US cover art, which was originally used for the German edition of Acacia: The War With the Mein, is provided by Mikko Kinnunen. The UK edition of The Other Lands will be published on October 22, 2009 by Transworld.

ANALYSIS: David Anthony Durham’s first attempt at fantasy (Acacia: The War with the Mein) was a successful one and left many readers excited for the sequel, myself included. While The Other Lands doesn’t quite measure up to the standards set by its predecessor, the second volume in the ACACIA TRILOGY is another strong effort, once again led by David’s accomplished and poised writing, rich characterization, and world-building that wonderfully reflects the cultural and racial diversity of our own world.

On the flip side, I didn’t think the characters were as emotionally engrossing as they were in Acacia: The War With the Mein. I also felt that some of the POV choices, like Sire Neen and Delivegu Lemardine, were questionable, while others, such as Mór, were underutilized. As far as the world-building, it was great to finally be able to visit the Other Lands and learn more about the Lothan Aklun and the Auldek as well as the League of Vessels, but for the most part I felt that David Anthony Durham barely scratched the surface of these peoples’ interesting customs and philosophies.

Story-wise, The Other Lands is a mixed bag. On the one hand, there’s a lot going on in the book including the many problems faced by Queen Corinn: being pressured to marry and have a legitimate heir; quelling an uprising among the Known World’s common people; eradicating the foulthings created by the Santhoth’s corrupted magic; continuing to enforce the quota trade through a slave factory; deciding whether or not to reintroduce mist to the populace; famine; loss of trade; succession issues due to her sibling’s offspring; the unknown consequences of using the Song of Elenet; and so on. Add in conspiracies among the Numrek and the League of Vessels, a lizard/bird creature that Mena befriends, a nine-year-old girl who journeys in search of the Santhoth, Dariel’s trials faced in the Other Lands, and shocking revelations about the Auldek, Lothan Aklun, and what happens to the slaves, and there’s more than enough happening in The Other Lands to keep readers entertained.

On the other hand, there are problems with the story’s execution. Pacing is languorous and never seems to accelerate past a jog, a number of subplots take forever to develop, and the manner in which surprising information is revealed is anticlimactic to say the least. To make matters worse, The Other Lands is clearly a bridge novel, comprised primarily of setup and nearly zero resolutions, although the last chapter goes a long way in overshadowing the aforementioned issues.

The Other Lands creatively is also a mixed bag, in particular the magic system that revolves around the Giver’s tongue and many of the issues that Corinn has to deal with as a queen. Conversely, I loved the dangers faced by those traveling across the Gray Slopes (the Barrier Ridge, sea wolves, the angerwall), the soul catcher and its frightening properties, the totem clans of the Auldek, and David’s imaginative fauna (tenten, kwedeir, frékete, antoks, Elya) which are brought to life with startling vividness.

In the end, David Anthony Durham’s The Other Lands shares many of the same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessor, but because of a story that is mostly setup, less engaging character arcs, lethargic pacing, and questionable decisions regarding big reveals and POVs, the second volume in the ACACIA TRILOGY falls decidedly short of the mark left by the superb Acacia: The War with the Mein. Nevertheless, much of this can be forgiven because The Other Lands is a middle volume and because these are issues that can be easily remedied, but more so because the novel promises a spectacular finish to the ACACIA TRILOGY. —Robert Thompson

OTHER OPINIONS:

Stefan Raets

The Sacred Band

ABOUT THE SACRED BAND: With Acacia: The War with the Mein and The Other Lands, the first two books in the Acacia trilogy, David Anthony Durham created a vast and engrossing canvas where the surviving children of a royal dynasty are struggling to find their place in a world full of turmoil.

As The Sacred Band begins, Queen Corinn Akaran looms over the Known World because of her mastery of spells found in the ancient Book of Elenet. Meanwhile, her younger brother Dariel has been sent on a perilous mis­sion to the Other Lands, as her sister Mena travels to the far north to confront an invasion from the feared Auldek. Their separate trajectories will converge in a series of world-shaping, earth-shattering battles that will realize the Akarans’ fates — and perhaps right ancient wrongs once and for all...

CLASSIFICATION: The Acacia trilogy is epic fantasy fueled by compelling characters, realistic world-building and powerful storytelling. The series contains elements reminiscent of George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, and Brian Ruckley, but the series is defined by Durham’s unique historical fiction-influenced viewpoint.

FORMAT/INFO: The Sacred Band is 576 pages long divided over four Books, 73 numbered chapters and an Epilogue. Also includes a map of the Known World and the Other Lands and a detailed summary of the first two books in the trilogy. Narration is in the third person via several different characters including Corinn Akaran, her brother and sister Dariel and Mena, Corinn’s councilor Rialus Neptos, the leaguemen Sire Dagon, Barad the Lesser, Aliver’s former companion Kelis of Umae, Corinn’s informant Delivegu Lemardine, Mena’s husband Melio Sharratt, and a few others. The Sacred Band is the third and final volume in the Acacia trilogy after Acacia: The War with the Mein and The Other Lands. It goes without saying that readers should finish the first two books in the Acacia trilogy before attempting to read The Sacred Band.

October 4, 2011 marks the North American Hardcover publication of The Sacred Band via Doubleday. A UK edition has not been announced yet, but the first two volumes of the trilogy were published by Transworld.

ANALYSIS: Over four years ago, David Anthony Durham burst onto the fantasy scene with Acacia: The War with the Mein, the impressive opening volume in the Acacia trilogy. This was followed by The Other Lands in 2009, a respectable middle volume that was slightly disappointing compared to its predecessor but set the stage for a potentially awesome conclusion to the trilogy. Which brings us to The Sacred Band.

In the third and final volume of the Acacia trilogy, readers can expect a conclusion that not only fully answers questions about Tinhadin, the Santoth, the Song of Elenet, the League, the Lothan Aklun and the Auldek, but resolves major conflicts in a manner that was satisfactory, and occasionally surprising, while successfully wrapping up the trilogy’s numerous storylines — Elya and her children, the Free People of Ushen Brae and the Rhuin Fá, Corinn’s son Aaden and Aliver’s daughter Shen, the mist, the Numrek, et cetera.

Along the way, readers can also expect another well-written novel from David Anthony Durham, highlighted by accomplished prose, rich characterization, morally ambiguous characters, creative world-building that reflects real history and social issues — slavery, forms of government, racial tensions, etc. — and an imagination that breathes new life into such classic fantasy tropes as dragons, prophesied heroes and war.

At the same time, The Sacred Band suffers from the same lethargic pacing issues that I had with The Other Lands. In this case, however, I realized the pacing of the novel and its emphasis on characterization closely resembled Daniel Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet. Once I made that connection, I cared less about the book’s pacing and focused more on the characters and their compelling narratives: Corinn dealing with the pressures of leadership and trust issues, Rialus Neptos’ struggle for redemption, Dariel fulfilling his destiny, Mena’s warrior spirit, and so on.

CONCLUSION: Considering everything that occurred in the first two volumes, The Sacred Band had a lot riding on its shoulders. Thankfully, David Anthony Durham was more than up to the task, delivering a rewarding conclusion in The Sacred Band that successfully wraps up the Acacia trilogy.
—Robert Thompson

The Sacred Band

The most pleasant surprise about The Other Lands, the previous book in the ACACIA trilogy by David Anthony Durham, was that it broadened the scope of the series tremendously. Ushen Brae, the setting for a large part of the action in that book, proved to be a complex and interesting place, with its non-human Auldek tribes, several strata of human Quota slaves (from a warrior caste to an organized “Free People” resistance movement), the mostly extinct Lothan Aklun race, and a rich and fascinating history. The Sacred Band doesn’t expand the series’ fantasy world to the same extent as The Other Lands did, although it does reveal some inland areas of Ushen Brae that were previously unseen. Rather than expanding the world, The Sacred Band instead builds on what came before, reveals a few new and interesting details, and brings the various plot lines to a satisfying conclusion that, at the same time, leaves the door open for possible future stories set in this world.

As The Other Lands ended, the Known World seemed poised on the brink of climactic change. Queen Corinn’s magic had grown stronger and stronger, culminating in the shocking resurrection of her brother Aliver. The newly freed Santoth were on their way north, claiming that Corinn’s magic posed a threat to the world. The League of Vessels still had its claws in various plots, despite the failure of its Ushen Brae gambit. Mena had been given a task that seemed impossible and borderline suicidal: halt or at least slow the advance of the Auldek, who were marching across the frozen north with a huge army to invade the Acacian empire. And Dariel was still in Ushen Brae with the Free People, who thought he might be their savior, the Rhuin Fá.

Does The Sacred Band bring all of these threads to a satisfactory conclusion? Yes, with the caveat that your level of satisfaction with this series closer will depend on how sensitive you are to the issues that plagued the previous books. My chief complaint is still that David Anthony Durham occasionally relies on highly improbable coincidences and surprise revelations to advance his plot. I’m staying intentionally vague to avoid spoilers here, but in The Sacred Band there’s one major instance where an (up to that point) unknown ability miraculously and completely turns the tide. It’s really a shame that an otherwise well-written and original fantasy series has to resort to this, because it tarnishes its many positive aspects.

Aside from this, The Sacred Band is easily the strongest novel in the trilogy. By now, both the characters and the fantasy world have acquired a surprising amount of depth. On the Acacian side, there’s a melancholy atmosphere throughout the early parts of the book, as characters lead their lives with the knowledge that their world is about to change drastically. If they felt that they were more or less in control in the last book, they now become more and more aware of how untenable the situation really is. Meanwhile, the Auldek army is advancing, and their chapters reveal a few more surprising sides to the Auldek culture. And as the various plots advance, we also learn more details about the League of Vessels, who continue to play a complex game, and about the Free People and their history. All through the novel, Durham advances the plot while still occasionally revealing new layers of his fantasy world.

In the end, The Sacred Band is a rewarding book because it shows some of its major characters finding their destinies in ways that have considerably more resonance than anything that came before in the series. I think it’s safe to say that, if you’ve been following these characters’ story arcs with interest, you’ll be surprised, occasionally shocked, and ultimately satisfied with the way their stories come to an end. This trilogy started out with characters that were little more than templates, but puts them through so many changes and evolutions that, by the end, they’ve become unrecognizable and infinitely more interesting.

Looking back, I feel that the ACACIA trilogy has steadily been getting better as it progressed. Acacia: The War with the Mein had an uninspired start, but improved significantly after the end of its first section. The Other Lands added a whole new dimension to the fantasy world and continued to grow and evolve the characters in surprising ways. And as I hoped and expected, The Sacred Band continues this trajectory and delivers a worthy finale that more than makes up for some of the bumps along the way. If you enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy, this is practically a must-read. —Stefan Raets