Memories of Empire [Paperback]

In Memories of Empire, Django Wexler creates a fantasy world with both depth and breadth, pitting numerous nations, factions, and personalities against each other in a setting that oozes with a "lived-in" feel. This ambitious debut novel primarily follows the story of Veil and Corvus, an escaped would-be slave and a seemingly unstoppable mercenary, and the story of Kei and Kit, a pair of drake-riders sent to escort an arrogant noblewoman as she hunts a rebel sorcerer.

Wexler lays out a profusion of plot threads and then leaps between them deftly, braiding them into each other one by one until the novel reaches its climax. While it can be a bit of work to keep track of who's plotting what against whom, the characters are all strongly-drawn and easily distinguished from one another. The "big picture" doesn't become clear until the endgame, when no fewer than four factions collide in competition for what are finally revealed to be colossal stakes.

It's all a bit dizzying but, as with Steven Erikson's books, the individual characters make it work. Wexler makes it easy to cheer for Veil or Kei to get out of various tight corners, even if the reasons they were in those corners to begin with are rarely clear. While there are plenty of standardized fantasy trappings in evidence, Wexler provides more than enough twists and surprises to keep the whole endeavor from feeling overly-familiar. And if it's hard to keep track of what's happening when it happens, the ending does an excellent job of revealing who's been doing what to our heroes and why.

It has its flaws, to be sure. The characters' motivations can come across as murky and arbitrary; in the early going, Veil in particular seems to be "going thataway" just for want of anything better to do. And with this many main and ancillary characters roaming the landscape, I do wish Wexler would have chosen names that were as easily distinguishable from on another as the personalities; witness the scene involving Kit, Kei, and Karl.

Most troubling, however, is the wretched condition of the text. This is, without question, the most poorly-edited novel I have ever purchased. Medallion Press is a legitimate small publisher, but based on the standards of line-editing represented by Empire, one could be forgiven for thinking they're a vanity press scam-house. The text is liberally sprinkled with obvious misspellings, spaces in the middle of words, random punctuation and capitalizations, and absent carriage returns.

The typos are merely annoying and unprofessional; it's the missed section breaks that can yank the reader violently out of the story to pause and figure out just what the hell is going on. The text does no favors in helping the reader keep track of Wexler's numerous plot threads; way too many scenes arbitrarily blur into one another. The most egregious mistake happens during what were clearly supposed to be a pair of short scenes showing Kit and Kei waking up at their campsite, and then flying above the countryside on their mounts. With the section break missing, it reads as though the two riders somehow have set up bedrolls and a campfire while in the air.

For the sake of both Medallion Press and its authors, one would hope that the editor responsible for this debacle has been fired and replaced by somebody who knows how to read.

Still, warts and all, Wexler's debut outing is a worthwhile read. Fans of George R. R. Martin, Steven Erikson, or Japanese anime will find plenty to enjoy. If you have a taste for Byzantine magic-powered scheming, if you like to see larger-than-life heroes prowling a landscape populated by powerful, cunning spirits and well-developed cultures that feel like they exist even when the reader isn't watching, give this novel a look.

The Imperial Empire had become complacent and hedonistic so it wasn't very difficult for the Khaevs to conquer and occupy the Imperials. Far away in the desert, a caravan is attacked by Corvus dressed all in black who kills everyone except Veil and that was because she was hidden under a dead woman's body. Having been sold into slavery by her father, Veil has no place to go except with Corvus who grudgingly accepts her company.

Corvus is a man on a mission, an annesiac who wants to find out who he is. The duo travels out of the desert to Corsa where he takes his sword to an expert to find out the providence. It belonged to a person also named Corvus two hundred years ago who was the First of the two Hundred best Khaev swordsmen. Veil and Corvus are of interest to the spirits Sybian and Saya who arrange mortals both Imperial and Khaev like chess pieces until they can exploit them.

It is hard to believe that this is Django Wexter's debut novel because it is as well written and character driven as a Terry Brooks or Robert Jordan novel. Veil humanizes Corvus through her force of her personality changing him from an obsessed individual be a man who cares about others. The Imperials and the Khaevs are reminiscent of the Romans. Sword and sorcery fans will find MEMORIES OF EMPIRE a very enjoyable one sitting reading experience.

Harriet Klausner

Sword and sorcery fantasy is pretty much my favorite thing to read and after skimming the first two pages of Memories in the bookstore I was well and truly caught. No, this isn't the most original plotline in the store, and yes the editor should be shot on general principles, but honestly, I enjoyed this book too much to care. Wexler takes some great stock characters (unbeatable swordsman, child genius, cocky nobles, plucky foot soldiers, dangerously self-interested higher beings) and puts them into a fun, clever, well written story. I can't wait for next book.