A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham

The powerful city-state of Saraykeht is a bastion of peace and culture, a major center of commerce and trade. Its economy depends on the power of the captive spirit, Seedless, an andat bound to the poet-sorcerer Heshai for life. Enter the Galts, a juggernaut of an empire committed to laying waste to all lands with their ferocious army. Saraykeht, though, has always been too strong for the Galts to attack, but now they see an opportunity. If they can dispose of Heshai, Seedless's bonded poet-sorcerer, Seedless will perish and the entire city will fall. With secret forces inside the city, the Galts prepare to enact their terrible plan. In the middle is Otah, a simple laborer with a complex past. Recruited to act as a bodyguard for his girlfriend's boss at a secret meeting, he inadvertently learns of the Galtish plot. Otah finds himself as the sole hope of Saraykeht, either he stops the Galts, or the whole city and everyone in it perishes forever.

Executive Summary: This pretty much seals it, I apparently really enjoy everything Mr. Abraham writes. This series likely won't be for everyone though.Audio book: The sad truth is I consume far more books in audio these days than in text. The reviews of this series in audio has been pretty mixed towards negative, so I was leary to give it a shot.I'll say that for me Neil Shah, was an alright narrator. He actually reads really well, and does a variety of voices. Some of them just annoyed me. Especially Seedless. For the most part though, I didn't find myself distracted by the narration, so while this isn't a series I'd call a must listen, I think most people should find doing it in audio a viable option.Full ReviewI've been planning to check out this series for a bit now. After how much I loved [b:Nemesis Games 22886612 Nemesis Games (Expanse, #5) James S.A. Corey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1407524221s/22886612.jpg 42456264] and [b:The Spider's War 20404905 The Spider's War (The Dagger and the Coin, #5) Daniel Abraham https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410969828s/20404905.jpg 28929652] delayed to next year, this seemed like the perfect time.Often times, the problem I have with reading an older series after reading an author's later work is the quality may seem lackluster by comparison. While I probably enjoy Dagger & Coin more, I still found this to be quite good.Since I'm doing this in audio, I struggled badly with the names though. Probably worse than usual. I still really don't know any of the character's names. I wish every audiobook came with a list of character names and their spellings. It would make both my reading and my review writing far easier.Much like Dagger & Coin, this is pretty much a low fantasy series. There is almost no magic to speak of. One of the characters, Seedless, is a magical construct called an Andat who is a conduit for magic of a practicer who is referred to as a poet. You don't really see much of the magic, and it's not really explained. How exactly the poets are able to do anything isn't clear. It seems to be a struggle of wills with the andat they control.Mr. Abraham likes focusing on the politics of his fictitious worlds, and this is no different. He has built a world where much of one's emotions and dilogue is actually done through a series of complex hand gestures. It's a society that relies of the power of the poets and condones fratricide among the sons of the rulers as a means of succession.Young sons are often relegated off to the school that is responsible for cultivating the next generation of poets to save them from being murdered. So you'll never guess who are protagonist it? You guessed it, he's a younger son of one of the city rulers. Go figure.Overall I found both the world building and the characters to be pretty good/memorable, though less so than his other series. It's going to be hard for me to talk about the characters by name though, since I couldn't tell you what any of them are. I think all the main characters offered depth where no one really felt good or evil. They are just people with desires and faults trying to do what they feel they must for a variety of reasons: values, outside pressures, self interest, fear, etc. I like that sort of characterization. My favorite character is probably the older 50-something overseer. I wish more SFF novels did this. Abraham seems to have at least one of them in all of his series I've read, and they've all been great. While this one is no Avasarala or even Clara, she is still pretty memorable. Now if only I could tell you her name. :(The pacing is also a bit slower, especially coming from one of his Expanse books. I don't think it's that much slower than Dagger & Coin.This pacing, and the general lack of action and fighting may turn some fantasy fans away. If you're looking for military battles, and sword wielding adventurers, you've come to the wrong place.I however seem to enjoy the more political fantasy novels, so the pacing was never an issue for me. I jumped right into book 2, and will likely finish this whole series pretty quickly.

Pros: lots of intrigue, complex characters, fantastic world building

Cons: characters make disappointing choices

Otah Machi, sixth son of the Khai Machi, gives up his chance to become a poet and leaves the training school he was sent to without a brand, in order to make his own way in life. Years later, one of Otah's pupils, Maati, comes to Saraykeht to apprentice with its poet. Poets keep Andat, spirits made flesh who perform particular tasks. Saraykeht's Andat, Seedless, helps with the cotton trade. The Andat does not wish to be a slave and has plotted to bring his poet down.

Otah has built a new life for himself in Saraykeht, with a powerful trading house and a woman he loves. But everything changes when the overseer of the house finds out about Seedless's plot.

This is a very complex book. There are plots within plots and it's hard to know what will happen next. I loved all of the characters. Each one felt like a real person, with problems and strengths. In fact, when Maati makes a decision that would normally have angered me, in this book, it worked. I felt sorry for the characters involved and understood their complicated emotions when things went wrong.

The world also felt real. Abraham created a complex vocabulary of hand gestures meant to explain one person's rank in relation to another's, to ask questions, to give thanks. There's a flourishing bath culture for escaping the heat of the day as well as for doing business and learning gossip. The court ceremony and trade bureaucracy are intricate and time intensive. Though the greater politics between nations is only touched on in this volume, I expect it to show up more in later books.

Seeing the characters as real people made the ending difficult as I didn't like some of the choices they ultimately made. The good thing about having a two in one volume is that it's natural to keep reading, where I might otherwise have stopped, having enjoyed the book but not being sure I want to learn what happens next (as I suspect it will be bad).