Ken Scholes

The Psalms of Isaak — (2009-2010) Publisher: An ancient weapon has completely destroyed the city of Windwir. From many miles away, Rudolfo, Lord of the Nine Forest Houses, sees the horrifying column of smoke rising. He knows that war is coming to the Named Lands. Nearer to the Devastation, a young apprentice is the only survivor of the city — he sat waiting for his father outside the walls, and was transformed as he watched everyone he knew die in an instant. Soon all the Kingdoms of the Named Lands will be at each others' throats, as alliances are challenged and hidden plots are uncovered. This remarkable first novel from an award-winning short fiction writer will take readers away to a new world — an Earth so far in the distant future that our time is not even a memory; a world where magick is commonplace and great areas of the planet are impassable wastes. But human nature hasn’t changed through the ages: War and faith and love still move princes and nations.

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Forthcoming:
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Lamentation

Lamentation is a promising start to a new fantasy (or at least semi-fantasy) series, which is a bit ironic as its own start is a bit bumpy. The story begins with a bang — literally. We're witness to the utter destruction of an entire city — screams, flames, toppling buildings, searing winds, etc. Many novels would end with the scene, but Ken Scholes chooses to make it the starting point of the plot, an original beginning which I liked a lot.

Unfortunately, Scholes seemed to like it a lot as well and so he gave us the same basic scene — the city's destruction — from one viewpoint, then another, then another, then another. Not the details themselves, but the immediate aftermath. At first, I thought it a nice touch — a relatively innovative way to introduce more than a single main character. But the repetition grew a bit annoying. Even worse were the overly-quick-cuts from one character/setting to another. The too-fast movement might have worked had it involved fewer characters or if it had slowed immediately after we met all the major characters, but it went on far too long and skipped among too many characters. Once Scholes drops the frantic approach though, and allows us to settle in with the characters for more than a minute or two of reading, the book becomes far more compelling and far more enjoyable.

The destroyed city was the seat of the Androfrancine Order — keepers for the past two thousand years of the Great Library, where artifacts and knowledge of the Old World (which seemingly ended in cataclysm) have been collected and studied while the Order decides what knowledge can be released and which is too dangerous. It was one such piece of knowledge — an ancient spell known as the Seven Cacophonic Deaths — that destroyed the city of Windwir, though whether the brothers brought the destruction upon themselves or it was unleashed on them isn't clear at the start. Hoarding and dispensing knowledge, the Order had been the dominating power in the Unnamed Lands and with both the Library and most of the Order gone, the fighting begins to fill the power vacuum, as well as to avenge the city's destruction.

Among those dealing with the pieces: Rudolfo, the Gypsy King and allied by "kin-clave" to Windmir; the Overseer Sethbert whose depth of involvement in Windmir's destruction remains unclear for some time; Jin Li Tam, introduced as Sethbert's consort but who quickly becomes much, much more; Jin's father, a king and a puppetmaster (though how long and how many strings remains a mystery); a young orphan of Windmir who witnessed the city's destruction; a mechanical man who not only survived the city's destruction but may have caused it; the mysterious Marsh King; and two Popes vying to be seen as the "true" leader of the devastated Order.

The story switches perspectives among all of these as they play a version of the Great Game, seeking alliances, trying to strengthen their positions, all while trying (some of them at least) to find out how and why Windmir was destroyed. Save for the first frantic 50 pages or so, transitions between characters are handled quite smoothly. The more time we spend with them the more interesting most of them become, as what we thought we knew becomes less certain. Rudolfo, who probably gets the most text, is likeable and interesting enough, but relatively static until the near-end. Sethbert is pretty stock and minor. The others are more complex, more shaded, more slowly revealed, and thus more compelling, Jin and her father especially so.

As the story moves along, some questions raised at the start are answered while new ones arise, keeping the plot interesting. For a book about a land engulfed in war, battles themselves are given relatively short shrift. Anyone looking for huge, exciting battle scenes will be disappointed; as mentioned this is more about the Great Game of politics and manipulation than it is about thousands of people trying to cleave each other to pieces. Personally, I didn't bemoan the lack of battle detail. I wouldn't have minded more details, however, on the Old World — with its conflict between science (represented by the founder of the Order) and magic (represented by the witch king who devised the Seven Deaths spell as vengeance for the murder of his seven sons) — and on the New World politics prior to Windmir's lost. Details do slip out as the book goes on, especially toward the end, and I'd expect more to come in book two; we seem to be clearly heading in that direction, so this is a relatively small complaint.

Ken Scholes has a natural, seemingly effortless style which makes the reading zip by. Dialogue is a bit stilted at the start, but, as with the pacing of the cuts, quickly improves. It's a fast read, helped by the short scenes (sometimes too short), the lack of sprawling battles, a relatively cursory sense of setting (adequate though minimalist relative to most fantasy novels), and a compelling plot.

Lamentation is a mostly original mix: it has a post-apocalyptic feel of A Canticle for Leibowitz or Hiero's Journey, complete with the religious underpinning, woven in and around a more typical medieval fantasy. With characters and a plot that that deepen as the story progresses and an ending that closes down one storyline while opening up another, it's a promising start to a series that feels a bit different from the same old same old. I found myself growing more engrossed as I read and when I finished felt disappointed I'd have to wait some time for book two. Recommended. —Bill Capossere

Canticle

PLOT SUMMARY: It is several months after the events of Lamentation. At the Keeper’s Gate, which guards the Named Lands from the Churning Wastes, a strange mechanical figure appears, with a message for Petronus, the Hidden Pope. Petronus though has retired back to his old fishing village after having dissolved the Androfrancine Order and is now trying to decipher the Rufello cipher that are the events surrounding the Desolation of Windwir.

Vlad Li Tam, who has fled into the Scattered Isles with his entire family — all save Jin Li Tam — is also trying to solve this Whymer Maze and seeks the source of the threat that frightened the Androfrancines so much that they were willing to bring back Xhum Y’Zir’s Seven Cacophonic Deaths. Meanwhile, many noble allies have come to the Ninefold Forest for a feast in honor of General Rudolfo’s firstborn child. Jin Li Tam, his wife and mother of his heir, lies in childbed. On this Firstborn Feast night, several acts of unmitigated violence are sprung, setting into motion events that will change the Named Lands forever.

CLASSIFICATION: Despite featuring robots and other science fiction elements, the The Psalms Of Isaak are mostly character and plot-driven epic fantasies that in terms of tone, style, and prose strongly reminded me of Daniel Abraham’s THE LONG PRICE QUARTET. The books have also evoked Lian Hearn, Daniel Fox and Elizabeth Haydon, and are recommended to readers who like their fantasy fast-paced, mystical and emotional.

FORMAT/INFO: Page count is 384 pages divided over twenty-six chapters, a Prelude and a Postlude. Also includes a map of the Named Lands. Narration is in the third-person via returning protagonists Rudolfo, Jin Li Tam, Petronus, Neb and Jin’s father Vlad Li Tam, with each viewpoint marked by the character’s name. New viewpoints include Winters the Marsh Queen, General Lysias who previously served under the Overseer Sethbert, and Rae Li Tam, another of Vlad’s many daughters. Canticle is the second volume in the five-part The Psalms Of Isaak saga, and like its predecessor, is somewhat self-contained with a definite beginning, middle and end, although it also serves as a bridge novel to overarching events. The third volume, Antiphon, will see publication sometime in 2010. October 13, 2009 marks the North American Hardcover publication of Canticle via Tor. Cover art once again provided by Greg Manchess.

ANALYSIS: Ken Scholes’ debut novel, Lamentation, really impressed me, although I felt the book suffered from a number of problems. Some of those same issues, like minimalist world-building (a glossary or refresher of certain topics would have helped immensely, i.e. House Y’Zir), an unimaginative magic system (powders, dreams, prophecies) and underdeveloped subplots (Vlad Li Tam’s betrayer) are still present in Canticle, the second volume in The Psalms Of Isaak, but as a whole the new book is a much stronger effort.

The reasons why Canticle is stronger than its predecessor are simple and twofold. The first is that Ken Scholes is just a much better writer the second time around. In Lamentation, it felt like he was trying to figure out how to write a long form novel as he went, while also juggling characters, plot and world-building. As a result, Lamentation was a bumpy reading experience. Reading Canticle on the other hand was like cruising in a Mercedes Benz or a Lexus. The flow of the novel was much smoother and more engaging, the author’s command of the story and its many branching subplots was executed with greater effect, and the prose was once again elegant bordering on poetic. In short, the progress made in Ken Scholes' writing between the two novels is simply amazing and a large factor in why I enjoyed Canticle so much more than his debut.

The other reason is that there’s just so much more happening in the sequel. Basically, Canticle is a bridge novel that picks up several months after Lamentation, which served as the foundation of the series. With much of the setup already established in the debut, Ken Scholes was able to jump right into the action at the beginning of Canticle and kept the pedal floored all the way through the Postlude: Rudolfo and Jin Li Tam’s baby who is born sick and dying. A betrayer among House Li Tam. Assassins using the forbidden — and what was thought — forgotten blood magick which is five times as potent as earth magick. Winteria bat Mardic (Winters) announcing herself as the Queen of the Marsh. Petronus and Vlad Li Tam facing their reckonings. Civil wars and political machinations among the Entrolusian City-States, Pylos and Turam. A journey into the Churning Wastes in search of Sanctorum Lux, or what is believed to be a complete copy of the Great Library that was destroyed in the Desolation of Windwir. The Great Mother, Child of Promise and Home. A Y’Zirite resurgence.

These and many other subplots make up the story of Canticle, which is jampacked from start to finish with one amazing mystery or revelation after the other. Seriously, nearly every single character section — which on average is only 3-4 pages long — unveils some new intrigue or shock, and after a while I began to doubt whether the author could keep it up for the whole book, but he does, saving the best surprises for the end.

For me personally, I enjoyed learning more about the unknown forces threatening the Named Lands and the various references to the book’s title:

• And it shall come to pass at the end of days that a wind of blood shall rise for cleansing and cold iron blades shall rise for pruning. Thus shall the sins of P’Andro Whym be visited upon his children. Thus shall the Throne of the Crimson Empress be established.
• But the events of recent weeks had shown him that life was a nonmetrical song at times, one that went where it needed to for the melody without respect for the rhythm of history and tradition. Truly a canticle that one danced to as best one could.

You would think that the characterization would suffer in Canticle, with so much happening plot-wise, the constantly switching viewpoints, and the short amount of time dedicated to each section — but that’s not the case. Instead, Ken’s characters are one of the book’s greatest strengths, which goes back to the author’s improvement between novels. In other words, Ken Scholes has learned to maximize the time spent with each character, constructing characters that are not only well developed and interesting, but also resonate with the reader on a higher level emotionally compared to Lamentation, especially if you’re a parent, in love, or plagued by guilt. Of the already established viewpoints, I was most moved by Vlad Li Tam’s plight and the dilemmas faced by Rudolfo and Jin Li Tam in regards to their newborn child, while I found Winters’ narrative the most compelling of the new perspectives. In truth though, every single point-of-view in the book is compelling in its own way, even if Rae Li Tam’s seemed a bit pointless.

Negatively, apart from the issues I mentioned above, I was annoyed by the number of times that Jin Li Tam was described as “formidable.” Of course, this is more of a personal complaint than an actual problem with the book.

CONCLUSION: After finishing Lamentation I felt the book was a good, but flawed debut written by an author with a lot of promise. A novel on the same level as other second/third-tier debuts by the likes of Daniel Abraham, Brandon Sanderson, Robert V.S. Redick, etc. After finishing Canticle however, I feel that Ken Scholes has already made the leap from good to great, and I’m super-excited by the potential that the rest of The Psalms Of Isaak has to offer. In short, if you thought Lamentation was impressive, then just wait until you get a hold of Canticle. —Robert Thompson

Canticle

Canticle, the follow-up to Ken Scholes’ Lamentation, shares some of the same flaws and strengths as the first novel, including a rough start, but like its predecessor overcomes its flaws to turn into an engrossing, if not action-packed, novel.

Canticle picks up a few months after the events of Lamentation. It’s Scholes’ concerted effort to recap those events that makes the opening somewhat flawed, as much of the exposition feels forced and awkwardly inserted. I think he would have been better served with a simple prologue recap, rather than filtering the events through the conveniently-placed reminiscences of his characters. Luckily, the clumsiness only lasts for a few dozen pages before Scholes deems us sufficiently caught up and lets us move into the new plot.

And there is a lot of plot here to get to. Similar to Lamentation, which opened with the destruction of the entire city of Windwir and its priceless storehouse of old knowledge, Canticle starts with a bang when a celebratory feast hosted by Rudolfo, the Gypsy King, is attacked by a wave of assassins magicked into invisibility by old, forbidden “blood magics.” At the same time, Rudolfo’s wife Jin Li Tam is in labor with their firstborn child. In short order (and I mean short), several rulers are dead (though Rudolfo has been purposely and mysteriously spared). Jin Li gives birth to a sickly, apt-to-die son. The former Pope Petronus is attacked. The hidden girl-queen of the Marshers — Winter — is forced to come out from her concealing shadow and declare herself Neb, the Marshers’ prophesied homefinder, becomes part of an expedition chasing a rogue mechanical man into the Churning Wastes in hopes it will lead them to a second Great Library. Vlad Li Tam — Jin Li’s father and architect of much of what happened in Lamentation — is made captive. Civil war threatens to rage across the Named Lands. And an ancient and up-to-now unknown prophecy rises, built around the long-dead Wizard Kings responsible for the Churning Wastes.

Continuing the style and structure begun in Lamentation, the point-of-view shifts quickly among a raft of characters, with most chapters being only a few pages long. The sheer amount of plot plus the quick point-of view and chapter shifts combine to create a fast-moving read. The plot tends to focus on political machinations; like Lamentation, this is not a book filled with battles or swordplay (though it has a few small fights). This isn’t a complaint, merely an acknowledgement. Those who like epic warfare or small bands of stalwart underdogs fighting their way through armies should look elsewhere. Personally, I liked the focus on schemes, politics, and characters, the strange alliances and sudden betrayals. The subplot involving Jin’s father Vlad is especially tense and gripping, while the story of Winter’s ascension to queen has much the same potential though it isn’t mined quite as intensely or richly.

At times Canticle shares with its predecessor the problem that the quick shifts sometimes rob us of some depth of characterization, not allowing us the time we’d like to spend with any single character or in any single scene. Vlad is the most compelling character, due to his sharp, long-range thinking and probing; his personal moral complexities; and the intensely emotional situations he’s placed in. Jin, one of the stronger characters in Lamentation, unfortunately isn’t as interesting here, her dual roles of new mother and new queen feeling a bit perfunctorily acted out. Petronus, Isaak the mechanical, and Neb also feel a bit washed out in comparison to their roles in Lamentation, but this is offset by the emergence of Winter into a strong character and the introduction of several new and intriguing characters.

World-building remains a bit thin, both in terms of a full sense of place and politics and vivid setting, though the unveiling of the Churning Waste opens up a bit more of the world and its history. And there were times I thought Scholes could pull back a bit from the internal monologue, the filtering of emotion or motivation through the characters’ interior thoughts, such as the effect of becoming parents on Rudolfo and Jin, or Winter’s anxiety.

Several of the plots come to resolution by the end, others remain hanging, and still new ones are raised in the last few chapters. The Psalms of Isaak series as a whole has a good sense of rising intensity, as villains lie behind villains and the crises move from small-scale to epic clashes. Complex, frightening change looms in the air. While most of it seems ominous, some of it is also less sinister in the reader’s eyes, such as the burgeoning movement toward democracy rather than autocracy in some of the regions. And without knowing the full history of this world, the reader doesn’t yet feel fully comfortable in pigeonholing the proponents of such change. This is a bit more sophisticated than “Dark Lord bad: Status Quo good.” Lamentation was a strong opening despite its flaws and Canticle similarly more than compensates for its own faults while also side-stepping the usual problems with a series’ bridge book. Recommended. —Bill Capossere

Antiphon

PLOT SUMMARY: The ancient past is not dead. The hand of the Wizard Kings still reaches out to challenge the Androfrancine Order, to control the magick and technology that they sought to understand and claim for their own.

Nebios, the boy who watched the destruction of the city of Windwir, now runs the vast deserts of the world, far from his beloved Marsh Queen. He is being hunted by strange women warriors, while his dreams are invaded by warnings from his dead father.

Jin Li Tam, queen of the Ninefold Forest, guards her son as best she can against both murderous threats, and the usurper queen and her evangelists. They bring a message: Jakob is the child of promise of their Gospel, and the Crimson Empress is on her way.

And in hidden places, the remnants of the Androfrancine order formulate their response to the song pouring out of a silver crescent that was found in the wastes...

CLASSIFICATION: Despite featuring robots and other science fiction elements, the Psalms of Isaak series is mostly character & plot-driven epic fantasy that in terms of tone, style, and prose strongly reminds me of Daniel Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet. The books also bring to mind Lian Hearn, Daniel Fox and Elizabeth Haydon, and are recommended to readers who like their fantasy fast-paced, mystical and emotional...

FORMAT/INFO: Antiphon is 384 pages long divided over twenty-nine chapters, a Prelude and a Postlude. Narration is in the third-person via returning protagonists Rudolfo, Jin Li Tam, Petronus, Neb, Winters, and Jin’s father Vlad Li Tam with each viewpoint marked by the character’s name. New viewpoints include Charles, Arch-Engineer of the Androfrancine School of Mechanics and Technology. Antiphon is the third volume in the five-part Psalms of Isaak saga after Lamentation and Canticle. It is recommended that readers finish both Lamentation and Canticle before starting Antiphon. September 14, 2010 marks the North American Hardcover publication of Antiphon via Tor. Cover art this time is provided by Chris McGrath.

ANALYSIS: Antiphon is a novel I couldn’t wait to get my hands on, especially after the jaw-dropping events that transpired in Canticle and how much author Ken Scholes improved between Lamentation and Canticle. At the same time though, I worried about Antiphon suffering from middle book syndrome and being unable to continue the momentum from Canticle. Fortunately, I had nothing to fear. Antiphon is every bit as good as the superb Canticle, and then some...

First and foremost, the story is blossoming into something special. In both Lamentation and Canticle, Ken Scholes was merely establishing the groundwork for the series and its characters, even if the latter volume was much more action-packed, driven by engaging mysteries and shocking revelations. Antiphon though is where the myriad threads of the author’s tangled web start coming together, giving readers a clearer sense of the big picture in the Psalms of Isaak. In particular, we start to learn how Rudolfo and Jin Li Tam’s “Child of Promise,” the Homeseeker, the Crimson Empress, the Matchvolk (previously known as the Marshers), the Moon Wizard’s Tower, the Li Tam family, the Book of Dreaming Kings, Frederico’s Canticle, dreaming mechoservitors, the Behemoth, and the Younger Gods (Y’zir, Whym) are all connected. We also start to learn how some of the major characters fit in the grand scheme of things as specific roles are defined, with Jin Li Tam’s appointed task my favorite revelation in the book.

There are many other surprising revelations involving Neb’s parentage, Brother Hebda, the Y’Zirite resurgence, Vlad Li Tam’s heritage, an ancient metal man from the days of the Younger Gods, and the Desolation of Windwir, but nothing as emotionally gut-wrenching as what happened in Canticle. What Antiphon may lack emotionally though is more than made up by how the book rewards its readers with answers and some of the best action scenes found in the series yet. Plus, even though Antiphon answers many questions, there still remains a sense of mystery throughout the novel. For instance, we have yet to see the Crimson Empress in person, while many new mysteries – Lasthome, Continuity Engine of the Older Gods, Shadrus’s children, Barrens of Espira, Library of Elder Days, Frederico’s Bargain, et cetera – are introduced in the book, waiting to be solved.

Writing-wise, Ken Scholes doesn’t display the same kind of progression between Canticle and Antiphon that he showed between Lamentation and Canticle, but he didn’t need to. In Canticle, the author demonstrated much greater command of his writing and better execution, bolstered by graceful prose. So with Antiphon, Ken Scholes just needed to show consistency, which he does. That said, the book does show off some minor improvements in the form of better-developed subplots and slightly deeper characterization. I did find a couple of the viewpoints (Rudolfo, Petronus) in Antiphon less engaging than they were in the previous volumes, but that’s more because of the characters themselves than through any fault of the author.

As far as the book’s title, Antiphon continues the musical theme that has been running through the series. In this case, ‘antiphon’ refers to a “response,” specifically a response to the light-bearer’s dream to save the light. It also refers to an actual object revealed in the novel...

Negatively, Antiphon suffers from the same issues I had with the first two books in the Psalms of Isaak; namely, world-building that I wish was deeper, and unimaginative magic/technology. By this point, however, I’ve already accepted the series’ shortcomings, which are insignificant anyway compared to what the Psalms of Isaak has to offer.

CONCLUSION: As the middle volume in a five-part series, I had my concerns about Antiphon, especially when measured against Canticle, one of my favorite novels from 2009. Against all odds though, Ken Scholes delivers a middle book in Antiphon that is actually better than its predecessors. Even more impressive, Antiphon is a novel that rewards its readers, at the same time setting the stage for even greater things to come... —Robert Thompson

Antiphon

Antiphon is the third book in Ken Scholes’ The Psalms of Isaak series, following Lamentation and Canticle, both of which I rated strongly despite a few relatively minor flaws. Antiphon continues in the same quality vein and, as with the others, leaves the reader wanting more by the end (and there is more to come; two more to be precise).

We return to the same characters we’ve been spending most of our time with. Rudolfo, the gypsy king, is under siege both from without and within and the character who has always known the “right path” begins to start doubting his choices as his kingdom (The Ninefold Forest) starts to unravel around him. His wife, Jin Li Tam, seeks strange and unexpected safety in the Marsher’s land, under the zealously religious protection of Ria, who usurped the Marsher’s throne from Winter (who joins Jin in her homeland and has to decide whether she will accept or fight the usurpation). While there, they discover a surprising new character.

Off in the wastelands, Nebios is pursued by women “runners” (magicked into superior abilities) who consider him an “abomination,” while Petronus, suffering disorienting visions, races to Nebios’ succor. Isaak the metal man and his inventor, Charles, head off on a mission of their own, Charles slowly recognizing the increasingly human nature of his creation. And finally, Vlad Li Tam is chasing an apparition across the seas to an unknown destination.

This sounds like a lot of plot, but in actuality, Antiphon is less packed than the prior novel, Canticle. Instead, Scholes winnows events down to a few basic story-lines and as they develop individually, he begins to weave together lots of prior threads as well as show us some of their heretofore-cloaked-in-mystery origins. By the end of the book, we end up with enough answers to sate some of our curiosity but enough old or new mysteries to whet our appetite for more.

The plots are well balanced and each is compelling in it own fashion. Some contain a lot of straight action (though never solely action), while others focus less on action than on character development. We get chase scenes, fight scenes, and big surprises, along with quiet revelations, painful realizations, emotional connections and separations. And the end offers up some unexpected directions and explanations.

By now the characters are familiar to us and so feel pretty fully formed, and we do see several changes in some of them. That said, I’d say characterization this time is a bit uneven. Some of the stories, being more plot-focused, don’t give us a lot to deal with in terms of character (Vlad and Petronus, for example are pretty singly-focused) and others are either a bit abrupt or rely too much on telling (Rudolfo, for instance, and especially his drinking). But the characterization of Jin, Winter, Charles, and Isaak is strong as they develop well beyond where they were in the previous books. Jin, for example, is changed by motherhood, Charles by the emotional development of Isaak, and Winter by returning home and facing her responsibilities to her people.

Antiphon is similarly structured to the other books: quick little chapters in different points of view. I thought this actually did a disservice to the story early on, not giving the reader enough time to settle into the characters or each particular scene; it was too much quick-cutting for me. By the halfway point, however, it was less bothersome, though here and there throughout the rest I would have liked to have lingered a bit more in a few scenes, either for plot, or character, or emotional impact.

As highlighted in my earlier reviews, the world building still runs a bit thin for my liking. I can’t say I have a truly firm grasp of this world, visually or otherwise. By now, I’m guessing it’s just what it is. I continue to enjoy the mix of technology, magic, and religion, though I could, as before, do with a fuller sense of all three. But these are relatively small complaints; I like where we’ve been and I especially like where Scholes appears to be taking us. Well-recommended.  —Bill Capossere