Shadow and Betrayal by Daniel Abraham

The city-state of Saraykeht dominates the Summer Cities. Its wealth is beyond measure; its port is open to all the merchants of the world, and its ruler, the Khai Saraykeht, commands forces to rival the Gods. Commerce and trade fill the streets with a hundred languages, and the coffers of the wealthy with jewels and gold. Any desire, however exotic or base, can be satisfied in its soft quarter. Blissfully ignorant of the forces that fuel their prosperity, the people live and work secure in the knowledge that their city is a bastion of progress in a harsh world. It would be a tragedy if it fell.

Saraykeht is poised on the knife-edge of disaster.

At the heart of the city's influence are the poet-sorcerer Heshai and the captive spirit, Seedless, whom he controls. For all his power, Heshai is weak, haunted by memories of shame and humiliation. A man faced with constant reminders of his responsibilities and his failures, he is the linchpin and the most vulnerable point in Saraykeht's greatness.

Far to the west, the armies of Galt have conquered many lands. To take Saraykeht, they must first destroy the trade upon which its prosperity is based. Marchat Wilsin, head of Galt's trading house in the city, is planning a terrible crime against Heshai and Seedless. If he succeeds, Saraykeht will fall.

Amat, House Wilsin's business manager, is a woman who rose from the slums to wield the power that Marchat Wilsin would use to destroy her city. Through accidents of fate and circumstance Amat, her apprentice Liat, and two young men from the farthest reaches of their society stand alone against the dangers that threaten the city.

Been a while since the last time I felt this swept away by a novel, even though it took me way longer than usual to read. The characters in A Shadow in Summer feel like old friends, and being in their skin and seeing them act on their fate is almost like feeling the hurt and disappointment yourself. Really, I hoped I wouldn't like this as much as I did—now I'm gonna have to seek out the sequel eventually.

I'm a huge fan of the Expanse series, but this is the first time I've read Daniel Abraham's work outside of his co-writing. I'm happy to say that the sense of scale and depth of characters is as strong in this fantasy setting as it is in space. Abraham is a master of writing complicated characters with complicated relationships, and it shows. It's also a magic system that I've never seen done before. My only quibble is that the world-building as a whole seems so directly pulled from Japanese history as to feel a bit appropriation-y. It's not offensive (at least not to the white woman writing this), but I'd be curious to here what a Japanese person thinks of it. On the whole, I enjoyed it and plan to continue the series.

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).