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Title | Range of Ghosts
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Author | Elizabeth Bear
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Cover Art | Donato
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Publisher | Tor - 2012
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First Printing | Tor - 2012
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Title | Shattered Pillars
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Author | Elizabeth Bear
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Cover Art | Donato
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Publisher | Tor - 2015
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First Printing | Tor - 2013
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Title | Steles of the Sky
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Author | Elizabeth Bear
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Cover Art | Donato
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Publisher | Tor - 2014
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First Printing | Tor - 2014
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Category | Epic fantasy
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Temur, Samarkar, Hrahima, Hsuing, Bansh, Tsering, Edene, al-Sepehr
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Main Elements | Wizards, gods, djinn
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Website | elizabethbear.com
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 Range of Ghosts
Temur, grandson of the Great Khan, is walking away from a battlefield where he was left for dead. All around lie the fallen armies of his cousin and his brother, who made war to rule the Khaganate. Temur is now the legitimate heir by blood to his grandfather's throne, but he is not the strongest. Going into exile is the only way to survive his ruthless cousin.
Once-Princess Samarkar is climbing the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth. She was heir to the Rasan Empire until her father got a son on a new wife. Then she was sent to be the wife of a Prince in Song, but that marriage ended in battle and blood. Now she has renounced her worldly power to seek the magical power of the wizards.
These two will come together to stand against the hidden cult that has so carefully brought all the empires of the Celadon Highway to strife and civil war through guile and deceit and sorcerous power.
Shattered Pillars
From the eastern end of the Celadon Highway to the western, chaos reigns. The great Khanate is shattered, and with it the peace. High in his desert fastness, the sorcerer Mukhtar ai-Idoj, al-Sepehr of the Nameless sect of the Rahazeen, plots to bring all of the world under the rule of his Scholar-God. He is very close to success; his enemies war with each other, and none see the true author of their downfall.
Re Temur and the Wizard Samarkar have reached the great city of Asitaneh and the house of his powerful grandfather. They intend to mount an assault on the fortress of the Rahazeen, to rescue Temur's beloved. It seems impossible, but Temur has sworn a magical oath, and he has a Wizard of Tsarepheth at his side.
Far to the east, the attack on the Rasan Empire has taken the form of plague. The imperial city struggles against a terrible disease that kills all who contract it, and if the Emperor Songtsan falls to the disease, so too might the Rasan Empire - he has no heir who is of age.
But al-Sepehr has made one error. He has allowed the escape of his hostage Edene.
Steles of the Sky
Re Temur, exiled heir to his grandfather's Khaganate, has finally raised his banner and declared himself at war with his usurping uncle. With his companions - the Wizard Samarkar, the Cho-tse Hrahima, and the silent monk Brother Hsiung - he must make his way to Dragon Lake to gather in his army of followers.
Temur has many enemies, and they are not idle. The sorcerer who leads the Nameless assassins, whose malice has shattered the peace of all the empires of the Celadon Highway, has struck at Temur's uncle already. To the south, in the Rasan Empire, a magical plague rages. To the east, the great city of Asmaracanda has burned, and the Uthman Caliph is deposed. And in the hidden ancient empire of Erem, Temur's son has been born, and a new moon has risen in the Eternal Sky.
I was so excited to read this series. I'd read a fictionalized but historical account of Ghengis Khan and was eager to see what an author could do with the Mongol culture if she threw a little magic into the mix. Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed. It wasn't that the Mongol/Chinese/Turkish/Ukrainian/etc cultures weren't there, with that little magic thrown in. And the characters were interesting and varied enough. But there was just some sort of spark missing that would take it from a way to pass the time, to be a world where I could disappear into, characters I'd like to meet and know. But if I were to try to tell the author that one key ingredient that was missing, I wouldn't be able to do it. Fortunately I got the first book for free from Tor so I only had to pay for two of them (and those trade paperbacks are expensive!!)
What I did like? The very unique idea that depending on who ruled a particular territory the skies would change. I thought that was a lovely idea, completely magical and unlike anything I'd read before, and I was eager always to see what the new skies would be like (some had more than one star, some multiple moons, some were pale blue, some almost purple, and one was deadly). Also the various mythological creatures from the various cultures appear, from Chinese dragons, the Russian Indrik and the Arabic rukh and djinn.
And then there was Bansh, she might be a Steppe mare, trained for battle, but those ponies are a breed apart with their metallic coat of one of the 64 sacred colours.
On the negatives, it seemed like unless they were neutered like the Wizards of Tserapeth, all the women were getting pregant all the time. And if they weren't pregnant they were talking about getting pregnant, or had just been pregnant, and this even applied to the horse. I know this is a natural process, and back then there were a lot more women getting pregnant all the time, but in a book where there are a lot of strong women I almost got distracted from that with all the babies popping out of them all the time...
The second book also included a very bizarre, and horrifying plague which felt like a massive distraction to the overall storyline. After all Temur and company are the protagonists, but they achieve almost nothing in the second book, all the page space was dedicated to this seeming unrelated disease. Though those characters and even the plague itself will play a roll in the third book, it prevented me from caring about Temur and company because, well, they're mainly spinning their wheels and so not very interesting.
But for what it's worth, while I found the first two books uninspired, about halfway through the third book I suddenly connected and got truly involved. I honestly didn't see how all the various storylines would resolve, but they do and they resolve well. The final battle wasn't rushed as sometimes happens, the ending was very satisfying, and in fact, very unexpected!
In conclusion, overall it was an ok read. It wasn't bad, and it definitely had a lot of unique and interesting worldbuilding concepts, it just wasn't as good as other books I'd been enjoying lately and I had a high expectation going in. I'm not sure I'll read it again, but in the end didn't feel I'd wasted my time reading it either.
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