Grand Conspiracy: Alliance of Light (Paperback)

Wurts' major strengths that I appreciated so far are her ability to spin complex and intruiging plots containing elements of high fantasy, politics and passionate affairs of the heart. And a willingness to let her main protagonists suffer and her knack in exploiting these small tragedies to further raise the stakes in the story itself while enhancing the emotional attachment of the reader to the protagonists.

Alas Wurts has reached a level where she simply starts to wear out these talents. Her style of narration in Grand Conspiracy is full of heavy flowery phrases that it just gets annoying. She looses herself in the complexity of her plot, wanting to follow too many individual yet somehow linked story lines with the same intensity (i.e. chars like Jieret, Lirenda and other secondary protagonists). Also I think that she exaggerates in showing the falseness of Lysaer's crusade and the way he and his minions use various instruments (one being the same black art of spell casting that Lysaer is accusing Arithon of abusing) becomes rather stereotype. But the most annoying factor has become the level of whining and self-pity shown not only by Arithon, something we're used by now, but also a large scale of other characters (Elaira, Jieret, Fionn Areth and even to some degree the Fellowship Sorcerers). The biggest disappointment is Elaira, who still fails to win free from the hold of her Koriani sisters on her life and soul. Instead we get to see her once again exchange "heartbreaking" scenes of longing and dispair and of course lots of forgiveness between her and her lover Arithon. Where has the innovative passion gone from Ships of Merior when Elaira and Arithon discover their love during a combined magical effort to heal a fatally wounded civilian (a scene which will probably be among my all time favorite episodes in fantasy/sci-fi literature).

Of course Grand Conspiracy has still its strengths. Wurts' application of various types of magic and the descriptions of spell casting as a delicte art are first class. And the long awaited appearance of Davien the Betrayer occurrs with such a careful and elaborately carved introduction that I'm really eager for more of Davien in the next sequels.

But as a conclusion these few highlights aren't enough to make up for many disappointments in the overall progress of this otherwise great fantasy series.

I think Janny Wurts has stopped pandering to the thrill-a-minute faction of her readership and started writing for herself. Her style has blossomed and intensified a thousandfold. This series began with a promising paradox and the cruellest of curses and has gone on to extend and explore the possiblities of those origins in devastating style.

The tormented exiled prince, Arithon S'Ffalenn, Master of Shadow, who is so utterly human and so desparately unlucky that you cannot fail to love him, is, as ever, in hiding, maintaining leagues of seawater between himself and the seeresses who hunt him by magical means and seek to bring him to his doom as a convicted sorceror. As soon as he sets foot on dry land they can track him, and should he disembark on the same continent as his brother Lysaer of the Light, curse-induced madness will fall upon him to the extent that he will let no-one and nothing stand in his way until his brother is dead. His entourage of swordsmen, seamen, and the Mad Prophet Dakar, are a motley crew. Dakar is drunk most of the time, but when needed to work a powerful enchantment he usually rises to the occasion. He must save the dark prince from himself as often as he has to guard him from his enemies, and this creates a perverse and abiding tension in the relationship between the unlikely duo.

Prince Lysaer of the Light, however, is loved by his people, would never stoop to sorcery and rules with wisdom, humanity and impeccable judgement. Only one problem: he is perpetually insane in his determination to crush Arithon S'Ffalenn at all costs. His abiding hatred of his brother poisons every decision he makes, and his apparent kindness, wisdom, humanity and judgement are all simply means of achieving this one obsessive aim. He needs allies, and he has the gift of winning men's hearts wherever he goes. He is probably the most evil character I have ever had the pleasure to come across in fantasy literature. More men, women and children die in his campaign to defeat his already defeated brother than have ever been threatened by Arithon's occasional fits of madness. And yet he plays those around him to perfection, seducing them with his charismatic glamour and blinding them to the terrifying truth.

Arithon just plays music, and this to ease his soul from the plaguings of a deeply troubled conscience and his intellect from the frustration of thwarted magical ability. One of the novel's chief ironies is that he cannot even practise magic: his powers have been blocked and no recent charge of sorcery against him can possibly be true.

I love the way Janny Wurts plays with your morals, preconceptions and affections in this novel. I love the grim and violent hopelessness of Arithon's existence and the allure this lends to his already captivating character. I love the evil shining compassion of Lysaer s'Ilessid and the spiralling allegories you can trace through history of men who stood for the Light and committed unthinkable acts of darkness in its name.

But most of all I love Janny Wurts's command of the magical. The Fellowship Sorcerers and the Koriani Sisterhood, practising two very distinct forms of magic, the Sisters influencing the course of human events to their own ends and the Fellowship magicians attempting to protect and maintain the balance of the ancient paths of power, do battle on a grand scale, in a power play that is much more than a sideshow to the main action of the novel.

I would wish to ask the author a direct question: why are all the bad witches female, and all the good magicians male? With her twisting of accepted norms and examination of every angle of preconception and prejudice I'm surprised at this. But it's just a thought. The novel's wonderful, and you absolutely positively have to read it. Be prepared to read it slowly, savour each phrase and shade of meaning, and use your brain. Nothing worthwhile ever came easy....

It's rich in character development. I have followed Arithon's development as a character with the same enjoyment as I did Ursula K. Le Guin's character, Ged. She has real skill with major and minor characters, using them to continually reflect new angles and interpretations of the themes and characters of the series.

Wurts harkens back to a time when the land was held as something sacred. The Paravians represent lost innocence, and the compact a reminder that we borrow the land from future generations. Her descriptions of magic are multi-sensory journeys that take us towards a more subtle understanding of what world consciousness is and touches on the oneness of everything.

What I found most valuable in these books was the portrayal of the causes of conflict, and the machinations of war. She puts war and greed under an unforgiving spotlight, but also refuses to typecast. Lysaer is portrayed both as liberating leader and protector of the people and deluded tyrant. Arithon is at once freedom fighter and terrorist. We are not asked to choose a side and blame the other, but encouraged to have compassion and understanding, and to see the whole picture. We are shown graphically that war leads to further wars, there is never an end to them, unless there is dialogue and an attempt towards mutual understanding. We are not allowed to give into euphoria after 'justice' has been served, but read on and discover the horrific consequences. It makes us question what is true justice, and whether there is a place for human compassion in it.

The curse itself is an accurate and menacing metaphor for blind, ignorant prejudice that has the same effect on the leaders and followers of this world, as it does on Athera. She powerfully describes the effects of illusion and delusion that create mobs and narrow-minded communities. She neatly portrays blinkered opinion and assumption and shows how they develop into reasons for wiping out other ethnic groups.

When you read her books, suspend judgement. Don't get lost in plot and in trying to interpret the Black Rose Prophecy. Use a dictionary for the more difficult words. Let her writing take hold of your imagination and leave youself open to seeing the parallels of Athera to Earth. Identify with the characters, experience them as aspects of yourself. Make it a journey of discovery. Read each book twice.