Review: Acacia Trilogy by David Anthony Durham

Epic fantasy has traditionally tended to be a conservative genre at its heart. The overall goal of the quest to save the world is generally to preserve the status quo, not to create fundamental change for the better of people and their society. It’s typically a pretty standard hero, often of modest, rural (and therefore generally conservative) origins who saves the day and ascends to the role of the next monarch. And while this is perhaps changing the most, the hero is also quite often a young, good-looking white male.

Epic fantasy of the last ten years or so often seeks to subvert many of the tropes I just mentioned. Heroes are grey, often not quite so heroic. The worlds and people within them are often now ‘gritty’, darker and more dangerous. The term ‘realistic’ often comes about, regardless of just how absurd the concept of reality is to whatever the term graces. Perhaps some change is sought, or maybe the good guys don’t win, or maybe the world is set in a place where the bad guy has already won, or just maybe no real victory is won at all. But with the Acacia Trilogy David Anthony Durham goes in a different direction. Real, fundamental change occurs. Realization of the evils that the rule of the ‘good guys’ inflict is a key component. Class divisions, drugs, slavery, political elite, political movers and shakers, the corruption of power and magic, invading barbarians, ethnic tensions, and real ethical concerns dominate both the words of the trilogy and what’s written between those words. And there is actual discussion of whether outright slaughter/genocide of the ‘bad guys’ should be the goal.

However, the politics and ethics that I describe above are integrated seamlessly into the plot that drives the trilogy. They are often fairly subtle and things are never didactic. The trilogy is still epic fantasy – there are cool beasts and monsters, there are dragons (of sorts), there is magic, there are vast armies that meet in battle and single combat between champions. Acacia embraces many of the essential elements of epic fantasy, only through a different moral and ethical lens.

The trilogy follows a group of four brothers and sisters from childhood to adulthood and (in some cases) to death. The Akarans are the children of the King of the Known Lands and are the latest in a long ruling dynasty from the island and ethnic group of Acacia. The Akaran dynasty rules over what is essentially an empire of many subjected small nations and the reader soon learns that they rule through very disturbing means. Selected children of the population are sold into slavery in a distant and unknown land in exchange for a drug that the ruling elite use to mollify the population. After the initial set-up and introduction to the Akaran children, we follow them as they grow, as Akaran rule is usurped and regained, as magic is rediscovered and as people from the distant Other Lands invade and the world grows larger.

The series begins with Acacia: The War With the Mein (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound, my review) and something of a slow start. Durham’s roots as a writer lie in literary and historical fiction rather than SFF and he shows some of his naivety as he embraces tropes that often feel far too close to other epic fantasy works. Some of his characters come across as too great and achieve the status of Mary/Gary Sue. And Durham’s distinctive writing style is just a bit different than much of what is more common in the epic fantasy world – it’s not that it’s a hard style to read, just one that takes some adjustment. However, by the end of The War With the Mein, Durham finds his stride and the series quickly evolves into one of the most important epic fantasy series to be published in years.

The second, The Other Lands (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound, my review), and third, The Sacred Band (Book Depository, Powell’sBooks, Indiebound, my review), books are each better than what comes before. The series evolves in scope as it moves beyond the Known Lands and implications become even greater as the moral and ethical challenges grow in importance through in time. And, the series has another triumph to boast about – a great ending. All too often the end of a series just doesn’t work as well as the build-up would imply. While I can see a case for disagreeing with me, I think that Durham pulled off the ending in a near-perfect fashion. The ending is idealistic – the good guys win, though not necessarily survive. Hope for the future is real. Systemic societal problems actually seem to be solved. I think many may complain that the ending is too neat and pretty, too unrealistic. But I think this is the point – Durham wants to show what a progressive message in epic fantasy can look like. Not the conservative, nostalgic end so common and not a cynical response to that conservatism. He presents a truly progressive move forward rather than backward or a simple reestablishment of a status quo – a vision of hope that could translate into our own lives and society.

Durham’s Acacia Trilogy provides an encouraging departure from both the traditionally conservative fantasy and the increasingly common cynical response. Durham presents an epic fantasy that is hopeful and progressive – I would even consider the use of the word liberal if it weren't so politically tainted these days. In doing so, he never loses site of the goal to write an engaging story that fans of epic fantasy can embrace. Acacia is one of the most exciting and important fantasy series that’s been published in the last 10 years, and it’s a shame that more aren’t reading it.

Giveaway: The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham

Sometimes when a publisher sends me books they never arrive – and sometimes when a publisher sends me books I get double. Thanks to the latter, I have an extra copy of The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound). This book finishes up the Acacia Trilogy in great fashion (read my full review) and I highly recommend this largely underrated series (my reviews of book 1 and book 2).

With the first two books in the Acacia Trilogy, Acacia and The Other Lands, David Anthony Durham has created a vast and engrossing canvas of a world in turmoil, where the surviving children of a royal dynasty are on a quest to realize their fates—and perhaps right ancient wrongs once and for all. As The Sacred Band begins, one of them, Queen Corinn, bestrides the world as a result of her mastery of spells found in the ancient Book of Elenet. Her younger brother, Dariel, has been sent on a perilous mis­sion to the Other Lands, while her sister, Mena, travels to the far north to confront an invasion of the feared race of the Auldek. Their separate trajectories will converge in a series of world-shaping, earth-shattering battles, all ren­dered with vividly imagined detail and in heroic scale.

David Anthony Durham concludes his tale of kingdoms in collision in an exciting fashion. His fictional world is at once realistic and fantastic, informed with an eloquent and dis­tinctively Shakespearean sensibility. (Read Chapter 1)

So, the giveaway is simple. Just send an email to nethspace ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com. Remove and replace the ‘at’ and ‘dot’ with the appropriate symbols or use the email link in the sidebar. Use the subject of ‘SACRED’. Include you're name and mailing address. The deadline is Friday, October 7^th. Only one entry please and this is open to all. Good luck!

Review: The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham

The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound) is the third and final book of the Acacia Trilogy. Durham’s ambitious trilogy takes the largely conservative genre of epic fantasy in a new direction of rather progressive thought and action and builds things up to a very fitting and satisfying conclusion.

As always with the third book in a series, any sort of description of plot is difficult as it would spoil any events in the earlier books and feel largely out of context to those not familiar with the books. So, I’ll just say that events in the second book are continued forward, destinies are realized, battles fought, mistakes atoned for, and poetic justice found as Durham neatly ends the trilogy.

Ultimately epic fantasy is traditionally a conservative genre, in spite of the recent trends to spice up the genre with grit and subversion. Generally, monarchies or other essentially authoritarian governments rule and even the good guys fight for such institutions. Good and evil is typically laid out in recognizable form (in spite of the shades of gray so often used). But I feel what makes epic fantasy most conservative is that it is typically infused with some form of nostalgia that looks backward in time rather than forward. It’s that nostalgic, backward look that brings the comfort to so many readers that generally seeking an entertaining escape. And I’m not condemning that, as it’s more or less the same goal I have in my own reading.

Durham blends his form of epic fantasy with the nostalgic backward look but infuses the societies of his world with our own world’s current and past issues in a much more realistic and applicable form than seen in typical epic fantasy. Nationalism, racism, drug addiction, slavery, corrupt government, outside interests controlling government affairs, the rich and elite immune to the troubles of the common person, etc. In Durham’s world the Acacia Kingdom (though really it’s more of an empire) rules by addicting its population to drugs to keep it pacified as children are sold into distant slavery. This leads its leaders into various ways of dealing with their guilt – drug addiction of their own, inspired yet unrealistic idealism, or corrupt certainty that they are only doing bad things because it’s what’s best for the people whether they know it or not.

The battles fought contain the full range of human motivation – greed, power, freedom, survival, etc. Yet it’s always clear who the good guys are and leaders actually learn from their mistakes and become better for it. True sacrifices are made. Justice is found. Inspired solutions reached. Peace found with understanding if not forgiveness. The ending is idealistic – the good guys win, though not necessarily survive. Hope for the future is real. Systemic societal problems actually seem to be solved. I think many may complain that the ending is too neat and pretty, too unrealistic. But I think this is the point – Durham wants to show what a progressive message in epic fantasy can look like. Not the conservative, nostalgic end so common and not a cynical response to that conservatism. He presents a truly progressive move forward rather than backward or a simple reestablishment of a status quo. A vision of hope that could translate into our own lives and society, though obviously the series is still limited to ultimately less complicated depictions that don’t show details on how things actually move forward.

Durham’s writing style initially took some getting used to in the first book, but in The Sacred Band seems to flow freely – either his writing has gotten a bit more accessible through time, I have adjusted to his style, or most likely, a bit of both. One strategy Durham employs is to end seemingly every chapter on a bit of a cliffhanger. I find this both frustrating and rewarding. It gets a bit annoying that nearly every chapter ends with a cliffhanger only to move onto a completely different part of the world. However it also keeps the tension high throughout the book and invited me to be even more invested in the book.

Durham walks a very delicate balance with the number of points-of-view he presents. He verges on having too many and loosing the necessary focus of the book. Yet he has enough that a wide variety of events are seen and experienced by the reader. The balance he achieves is probably about as good as one could expect.

All in all, The Sacred Band and the Acacia Trilogy as a whole is a wonderful breath of fresh air. It has all the cool sense of wonder that great fantasy can have – unique and weird animals, dragons (of a sort), magic, mad sorcerers, a corrupt powerful queen, an idealistic prince, a warrior princess, and a dashing brigand. Each deals with their place in realistic ways that serve to transcend the cliché. And the action and setting are just what fantasy fans look for. It’s a really well put together work and a satisfying conclusion to an often underrated trilogy.

Durham’s foray into fantasy ends successfully. And it leaves me craving for more. Durham has said that for now he wants to move on to the next thing in writing – back to historic fiction and perhaps some more literary fiction. I can only hope he comes back to the SFF world again with another breath of fresh air.

Review: The Other Lands by David Anthony Durham

With Acacia: The War with the Mein (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound), David Anthony Durham made the relatively rare leap from literary to genre fiction. Reactions were mixed, but generally positive and lead to Durham winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Building on this momentum, The Other Lands (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) is the second book in the Acacia Trilogy.

The Other Lands picks up about 9 years after the events of Acacia. Princess Mena hunts fowl-creatures created as an unexpected consequence of the release of Santoth sorcery that plague the land. Prince Dariel is haunted by decisions of his past and seeks his place in the empire. Queen Corinn maintains an iron grip on her empire while lacking the mist drug that previously kept the population numb. The seeming calm of Corinn’s rule changes as multiple plots surface and threats emerge from beyond the Known World.

I liked The Other Lands a good bit more than I did Acacia. In my review, I mentioned that Acacia gets off to a relatively slow start – I didn’t feel that way about The Other Lands. This time we start with action, and while the remainder of the action is largely in the political and personal arenas, it still hums along at a pretty good pace. While the shear number of political plots at hand dwarfs the standard political thriller and had me anxious to see how they unfold.

The Other Lands is in many ways a very typical middle book of a trilogy. Acacia stood fairly well on its own – it had complete story arcs that came to fruition. The Other Lands picks up about 9 years after the end of Acacia and seems to largely serve as a bridge from the first to the last book in the trilogy. And it ends with something of a cliff-hanger – a pending war and pretty much nothing resolved.

In Acacia Durham tackles some weighty topics under the guise of epic fantasy. Four princes and princesses learn after the death of their father that the wonderful empire they will inherit is actually pretty evil, thriving on trade in slavery and drugs – they provide the slaves and in turn, get drugs that keep the populace controllable. As if that wasn’t enough, in a coup d’etat, an oppressed ethnic group takes control of the empire and actually makes things worse. With Acacia Durham takes on drugs, slavery, ethnic/racial tensions, gender disparities, personal responsibility, and much more.

In The Other Lands, Durham builds on this foundation. Can ideals reform the empire, or must the empire be ruled by a pragmatism that largely reinforces the status quo? What happens when royalty meets slaves his family sold? If you take away one drug, must it be replaced with another? Actions have consequences, some of which get dealt with in The Other Lands and many are yet to be realized.

The above questions and more mold the various characters of The Other Lands. They all dwell on the past while looking to the future. Each grows in their own way, and not always in a positive direction. These basic struggles of human nature that show through these characters in their extraordinary situations are the underlying strength of Durham’s writing.

The Acacia Trilogy is shaping up to be a cerebral, yet entertaining take on second-world fantasy with a little bit for everyone. The Other Lands builds on the potential of Acacia as Durham finds firmer footing in the genre arena and leaves me waiting anxiously for the third and final book. Fantasy fans should definitely give this series a go. 8/10

Related Posts: Review of Acacia, David Anthony Durham Answers Questions Five

David Anthony Durham Answers Questions 5

David Anthony Durham is new to the speculative fiction world, but has authored historical fiction books such as Pride of Carthage, Gabriel’s Story, and Walk Through Darkness. His newest book is Acacia (my review), an epic fantasy that has quickly gained a lot attention.

I am pleased that David could take the time to participate and answer Questions 5.

Haggis or cow-skin soup? Why?

DAD: What a way to start and interview with a vegetarian! (Okay, I’m not a real vegetarian. I’m one of those fish-eating veggies. I haven’t eaten anything from a sheep or a cow in twenty years, though, and I won’t be going back soon.)

I have enjoyed veggie-haggis on occasion, but I wouldn’t go near the real thing. In case you don’t know, dear reader, Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish made from sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, some oatmeal and spices and then boiled in an animal’s stomach. Yum.

Cow-skin soup I’m not as clear on... I certainly ate my share of curried goat and pig’s feet when I was young in Trinidad. Been known to suck on chicken toes… But this was in my youth. No cow-skin soup as far as I remember.

I appreciate you opening with a question that draws on my Caribbean ancestry and my more recent sojourn in Scotland and marriage to a Shetland lassie. So, if I could offer alternatives…

How about Codfish Cakes (fishcakes made from dried cod, onions and chives and fried until golden brown) from Trinidad and Cullen Skink (a soup made from smoked Haddock and Onion cooked in milk) from Scotland? Yum.

Name one thing a pretentious literature professor will hate about Acacia.

DAD: Ah, only one?

Okay, how about this. Pride of Carthage has earned out its rather substantial advance. Acacia – part of the same book deal – looks set to do the same. It’ll take a while, and my publisher will hold out as long as possible and bookstores can return books whenever they want to… But the earn-out is gonna happen!

What’s that mean? It means I haven’t failed at writing the books I really want to, books full of plot and drama and substance, books that people seem to want to read. It may seem strange, but I can tell you from experience that success at things like that rubs some people the wrong way, especially (some) pretentious literature professors.

Please describe one reason Acacia would inspire a reader to strip naked and run screaming into the desert?

DAD: I’d suggest it should inspired readers to strip naked. Focus on the plural. This need not be a solo activity. The things that go down on the battlefields of Talay provide a great excuse to stage a mass nude event. Chances are, the scene I’m thinking of can’t quite make it into film (should that lucky hope become reality), so I think the only way fans might get to see that scene in living, breathing detail would be if they brought it to life themselves.

So somebody stage it; I might even come and participate, hang out, so to speak.

What other peculiar qualities of Acacia should readers be aware of?

DAD: Honestly, I think readers will find that Acacia offers all the things people love in epic fantasy and a bit more. I tried to take care of business in terms of crafting a grand adventure with engaging characters facing massive struggles, with quite a few twists and turns of fate along the way. I also brought to it all the tools I have as an experienced writer of literary and historical fiction. My first three novels were well received and each award-winning. I could have stuck to that material, but I saw fantasy a wonderful challenge, a genre so full of potential that I couldn’t resist it.

I also wanted to craft a large-scale fantasy suited for our new century. Like our globalized world, the Known World of Acacia is a complex stew of races and ethnicities, languages and beliefs, complicated politics, economic realities and compromised idealism. I just don’t think there’s anything quite like it out there right now.

Why should Acacia be the next book that everyone reads?

DAD: My kids need to go the dentist… No, wait, I take that back. Pity doesn’t have the selling power I’m after.

If all that stuff above sounds groovy I’m glad. If it sounds a bit too grand… Well, know that I’m also out to tell a great story that gets more exciting as it progresses. Acacia’s got mass battlefield nudity, tusked-beasts, a good bit of spilled viscera, pirates, a love story or two, wacked-out sorcerers that call giant worms from the sky, undead ancestors hungry to walk the earth again, a sword-wielding warrior princess, invading marauders from the other side of the world...

Hey, when I think about I kinda want to read it again myself. Of course, I’d rather you did.

Confessions of a Formerly Color Blind Reader

First, read this post by David Anthony Durham about the oft used argument of being a ‘color blind’ reader.

I’m a pretty standard example of an American upper-middle class upbringing and could serve as a great example of the term W.A.S.P. (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). As such, I’m almost certain that I’ve at some point claimed to be ‘color blind’ regarding reading and some issue or another – and when I made the claims I considered this to be a positive example of a lack of racism.

Over the last several years I’ve noticed that I can’t really make that argument anymore. I actively seek out diversity of one kind or another in my reading. I want to read a book from a different perspective. I bought ___ because the author is from Columbia, and ___ because it’s originally a Russian work, and ____ because it’s from Japan, and ___ because her perspective sounds intriguing, and ____ because he’s African, and ____ because he’s homosexual, etc. Were these the only reasons – maybe? I don’t know, but they were reasons. And I certainly don’t do this for every book I get – I get a lot of books because they sound good (and I may not know anything about that author), and I of course get books specifically because I know of the author even if I don’t know of that particular book. But, I can say that I know longer buy books blindly, and my reading experience has been greatly enhanced as a result.

And in spite of the entire previous paragraph, a study of my bookshelf would reveal that a large majority of the books were written by white males. It sure makes me think.

Interview with David Anthony Durham

Here is an interview with David Anthony Durham that was put together by Pat over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist with contributions from myself, Rob of SFF World, and Larry of Wotmania OF. It is a very long and in-depth interview that offers a lot of insight into Durham and his newly released book Acacia (my review). It was a fun one to be a part of.

Acacia by David Anthony Durham

Acacia begins a new epic fantasy trilogy by David Anthony Durham, acclaimed author of historical fiction such as Pride of Carthage and Gabriel’s Story. While it may represent a big change in venue for Durham, after a bit of a rough start he pulls together a notable entrance to SFF and story I enthusiastically await the continuation of.

Acacia, Book One: The War With the Mein begins in an unfortunate and underwhelming way. The reader is introduced to an assassin of the Mein journeying from the inhospitable, frozen north to kill the distant ruler of the Known World. From here we meet the King, his two sons, two daughters, and a small host of other important players. Combined with an invasion of a militarily superior yet barbaric race out of the ice fields allied with the Mein, the kingdom is thrown into chaos and the royal family sent far from home among distant cultures as the revolution settles with a new leader atop the Known World.

The first third of Acacia seems to serve only the purpose of introducing the world and those of importance as the story progresses – this in and of itself would be fine, if not for a couple of equally grievous issues. First, the writing is just plain dull – I’ve said before that the best writers rarely tell the reader anything, instead they show it. Durham fails by telling the reader a lot while showing very little. The second issue of concern is the striking similarity to the much praised series by George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire. The Akaran royal family is at times so similar to Martin’s Starks that I wanted exchange the names – we have the noble patriarch, haughty heir, a princess’s princess, and ‘Arya’ and ‘Bran’ along for the ride. Throw in the seemingly unbeatable menace from the far north and story feels all too familiar.

Acacia is divided into three ‘books’ with a short epilogue where a period of several years passes between book one and book two. I felt as if I were reading a whole new story (a much better one) when I started book 2. Durham’s writing improves markedly as he begins to show me the story rather than telling it. The similarities with Martin almost completely vanish as Acacia comes into its own as a unique epic saga following the four displaced Akaran children (now adults) as they struggle to regain themselves, the kingdom they lost, and vengeance of past wrongs. Thankfully, it appears that the writing of book 2 is the norm as Durham serves up one of the more engaging novels I’ve read in a while.

Along with an ultimately gripping plot, Durham addresses the corruption of power in some interesting ways as he portrays the leaders of the kingdom as little more than slaves to a system that insures great wealth for the aristocracy while relying on slavery and drug addiction to quell the masses. Equally interesting, but not as fully developed as it could have been, is the depiction of a racially diverse world and the divisions that arise. To some degree, each of the Akaran children must face and overcome their feelings of racial superiority as they seek to reunite a kingdom that was far from pleasant under the rule of their ancestors.

Characterization is a bit of mixed bag with plot generally taking precedence. Some of the characters achieve a fullness that seems appropriate and believable, while others never quite do. This is do in-part to Durham’s mixing of an almost first person narration style with a third person-limited style that can either allow or disallow a full view of a character. In the end, the characterization is strong enough to drive a powerful plot forward and to justify actions taken.

While Acacia has a few downsides, I cannot deny that it is a powerful story and one that I enjoyed immensely. The latter two-thirds completely engaged me leaving me craving for the next installment of the trilogy. This first installment is one complete arc as the stage is set for a great expansion of the Known World. The first third of the novel is unfortunate, yet I still enthusiastically recommend Acacia – 7/10.

Related Posts: Review of The Other Lands