Over at STARBURST Towers we’ve grown rather fond of Jen Williams. The Copper Cat trilogy was hands down one of our favourites. We were delighted that The Ninth Rain, the first book in her new series, The Winnowing Flame Trilogy, was just as good. The Bitter Twins carries on this cinematic and rapidly paced tale of invasion, lost empires, mythic beasts and weird histories.
The world of Sarn is under dire threat. A great evil has awoken; the Jurelia are an alien-like race of invaders who consume everything in their path and poison all that they touch. In the past, these monster have been driven back by the pale and super-strong Eborans, a race of long-lived and decadent beings with access to their own magical riding beasts. Alas, the last time the Jurelia came they were almost defeated, but at great cost. The Eborans are in decline, their capital city all but abandoned, many of them killed by diseases caused by their own hubris. As The Bitter Twins opens, we have a weakened (but no less deadly) Jurelia invasion force and a rag-tag band of heroes, made of humans and Eborans, who are the only ones who can stop them.
The book splits into various subplots. One is a quest for more resources (which doubles as world-building exposition), one deals with the growing power of the Jurelia and the rest flesh out the growing war. The main problem with all this is that events seem to take place pretty close to the end of the previous novel and the story covers quite a short window of time. We get the feeling of growing menace but without any stakes. Despite a few shocks and twists, the whole story feels like it’s biding its time for some sort finale and we don’t really get one. There are some key scenes that are very thrilling and some nice new characters introduced, but the villains all feel a little too predictable. It’s notable that one of the most interesting new characters is also the least erudite.
Part of this is the split focus. For example, the character of Vintage (a lady explorer who doesn’t fit into any easy stereotype) has a great story about her lovers growing disenfranchisement and confusion; yet we don’t quite see enough of it to care. Same with the other relationships; Williams writes really cool characters and yet it feels like none of them gets enough screen time.
This is, of course, middle-book syndrome and it’s understandable. Set-up it may be, but the thrills are thrilling and the story is still pure fantasy fun. The Ninth Rain set up a great world and The Bitter Twins just felt too short (despite being pretty hefty). It’s all to play for in the final book and as always, we look forward to it.
THE BITTER TWINS / AUTHOR: JEN WILLIAMS / PUBLISHER: HEADLINE / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 8TH
