Book Review | The Price of Spring (Daniel Abraham)
Another fifteen years have passed and we return one last time to The Long Price Quartet.
In A Shadow in Summer, we met Otah and Maati as teenagers, still unmatured, still forming into what they would one day became. The repercussions of the Galtic plot to undermine Saraykeht, which Otah and Maati became entangled in, would echo throughout the books.
In A Betrayal in Winter, we meet them again as adults. They have matured more. Otah, at least, must stop "winning by fleeing" and Maati is given a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the Dai-kvo. In the midst of this, a plot to place someone new as the Khai Machi. But the consequences are ugly, the plot unsuccessful.
In An Autumn War, we meet them as middle-aged men. Otah has a son and a daughter whom he loves very much, while Maati meets his own child (even if that child is Otah's by blood). Meanwhile, the Galts march, freeing the andat from bondage and then rolling through the cities of the Khaiem. In a desperate attempt to stop them, Maati attempts to bind the andat Corruption-of-the-Generative, aka Sterile. The consequences, usually suffered by the poet, and deflected from him - and onto all of Galt's men and all of the Khaiem's women.
Finally, in The Price of Spring, we meet them as old men, each of them doing their best to try and put the world back together.
Fifteen years on from the autumn war, both Galt and the Khaiem are on the verge of collapsing as their populations age without a new generation to pick up the slack. Other countries - the Westlands, Eymond, Eddensea - wait and watch and even act, as the pirates of Obar State do.
Otah's plan is to marry the women of Galt to the men of the Khaiem and unite their peoples. But few like this plan. His own daughter opposes it. They remain very much two peoples: us, and them, not we.
Maati's plan is to cobble together something daring and new to restore the balance of the world to how it was before. Most of the books of the old Empire, its histories, its bindings, have been burned. He and a small group of students are working together to create a women's grammar for binding andat.
Naturally, they come into conflict: Maati is aided by Eiah, Otah's daughter, while Otah himself must turn to the mothers of Galt for appeal.
In time, Maati's project is successful, and one of his students, Vanjit, binds Clarity-of-Sight. Once again, the implications of the andat are expanded and explored upon. The example of Water-Moving-Down is brought up: Yes, it could bring rain, but it could also stop it. It could withdraw its influence. And so Vanjit, and Clarity-of-Sight, are able to withdraw that influence, and render people blind.
Vanjit herself is a troubled, damaged person. Her family was killed by Galt. She turns gradually from savior to deranged dictator, determined to have her way. She manages to blind all of Galt. In doing so, even if by accident, she ensures Otah's plan will succeed, because thousands of newly-blinded men and women will die.
Eiah manages to bind an andat she calls Wounded. In the end, Vanjit's actions are reversed, but the damage is done.
Naturally, there is other stuff. The plan to unite Galt and the Khaiem requires a high-profile marriage, and so it is that Otah's son (and heir) Danat must marry Ana, a daughter of Galt. Ana, a strong-willed woman, has a lover of her own. Complications emerge.
The Price of Spring, after so many books of Otah and Maati and a couple others, cuts it down. We only have the viewpoints of Otah and Maati (and Eiah, in the prologue, but the prologue viewpoints don't count, in my opinion).
The weight of what Otah has done, and even more so the weight of what Maati has done, weighs on both their shoulders and informs everything they do. It's intense reading, painted as beautifully as always.
And with this, The Long Price Quartet is complete. Abraham himself has said he has smoked the world down to a filter. What more can be said? What more can he say? Not even five months ago in an informal AMA on Reddit, there was this exchange:
mushroomyakuza: Will you ever return to the world of the Long Price? I miss it. I have to say the Eastern aspect of it as opposed to traditional Western fantasy was really enjoyable. I wish more people did it! Great job and thank you for the inspiration as an aspiring writer :)
DanielAbraham: Ty keeps trying to get me to write a novella there, but it hasn't taken root yet. I have another fantasy project in mind, but it's in a different universe than either Long Price or Dagger & Coin.
It is one of the most stunningly original fantasies in a long time, set in a unique world, with a wholly new system of magic fully integrated into the world. It's told through beautiful, even lyrical prose. The characters are richly portrayed and every one of them nuanced and complex.
The characters evolve and grow, not only in the books themselves, but between them. Each of them is readable as a standalone, but as a series, it adds up to something truly great.
The first time I read The Price of Spring, when I read the epilogue, I cried. The second time I read it, I almost cried again, and only stopped myself because I was in the library at the time. I'm sure that, a year or two or three or whatever, when I read it again, I will cry then, too.
With The Long Price Quartet Daniel Abraham has created one of the most unique fantasies ever. This series carries my highest recommendation to anyone who enjoys fantasy, and to anyone who enjoys fantasy and is getting a little tired of the familiar old tropes. At the present time, this is my favorite book series. I do not expect anything to displace it for a long, long time.
I've now reviewed the entire Long Price Quartet. If you're just joining me, here are links to the reviews of the first three books, A Shadow in Summer, A Betrayal in Winter, and An Autumn War.
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