Birds, stars and diamonds - Rated 
Catherine Fisher continues the tales of incarnate gods, desert kingdoms and plots that would shame Machievelli. "The Archon" suffers from some awkward, rushed storylines and an unfortunate heroine, but it does have a spellbinding quest story wrapped up in it.
The Archon, a peasant boy named Alexos, has been found, but things haven't improved. The drought continues, General Argelin is still plotting to seize power, and Mirany is still enmeshed in the lies and schemes of the Nine priestesses. So Alexos tells the people that he will bring back prosperity by making a journey to the mystical Well of Songs, to atone for stealing three stars. But he doesn't know that Argelin is blackmailing his pal Seth to kill him.
Meanwhile Mirany is trying to deal with the Oracle's corruption, and the fact that one priestess is secretly in league with Argelin's enemies. Plots are exposed and Mirany finds herself made into a puppet Speaker. Her only hope is that Alexos survives the journey to the Well of Songs...
In concept, there's very little wrong with a story like this. Fisher piles on the wonder and beautiful prose, including everything from a ragged bird-worshiping civilization to a mountain made of diamond. At the same time, she also exposes the frightening results when a religion tries to use lies for its own benefit.
But despite some tense moments, the schemes and plots never come to life, even when the god makes a convenient cameo to save a little girl. Fisher seems more comfortable in Alexos' desert quest, in which the god-boy has to deal with drunks, savages, fallen stars, and a master thief who thinks he's just a crazy little kid. Pretty wild.
The biggest flaw is the heroine Mirany. While Seth is struggling to protect his family, we're never really told why Mirany cares about any of this. She also seems a trifle wimpy and naive beside the mysterious desert thieves and the enigmatic Alexos, who can be a cheerful boy one minute and an overpowering god the next.
Though the scheming priestesses get tiresome after awhile, the desert quest for the three fallen stars is reason enough to read "The Archon." Not Catherine Fisher's best, but an intriguing read.
outstanding fantasy writing - sequel to The Oracle - Rated 
If you haven't read The Oracle, read it first because the complexity and brilliance of The Archon can only be fully appreciated if you understand this is a dramatisation of the tension between religious belief and unbelief. Fisher has imagined a Graeco-Egyptian world in which the god, or Archon, is regularly incarnated, and served by nine masked priestesses who interpret his will. Underneath their masks, the priestesses seethe with personal and political ambition, and few believe in the god anyway. Yet he exists, and it's only through him that rain can be brought to a dry land.
In the first novel, the Archon died, and his replacement - a mad little boy, Alexos - had to be found and brought back to thwart to potting of General Argelin and his lover, the priestess Hermia who is the god's Speaker. Mirany, the lowest priestess, doesn't believe in the god either but is made to and with the help of a drunken poet Oblek, a corrupted scribe, Seth, and a criminal lord known only as Jackal, brought him back.
All should therefore be well, but it isn't. The General is still plotting, and in the second novel, Hermia is poisoning anyone who gets in her way, and the land is still parched despite brief rainfall. Long ago, the Archon offended the Rain Goddess, and now Alexos is determined to make his peace with her by finding three lost stars. He leaves Mirany behind in a city under seige, and journeys with Oblek, Seth and Jackal across a desert haunted by strange beasts and powerful dreams. Corruption, betrayal and evil stalk them, and the boy-god's powers may not be sufficient to protect anyone - least of all himself.
The plot has a long fuse, and it's not until page 50 that it really gets going, but the tension and beauty of Fisher's writing is what makes it really remarkable. She conjures up both her desert world and the possibility of the supernatural with such conviction, you can almost taste the dust. A more complex series than The Snow Walker's Son, it's also about the loneliness of power and the need for friendship. She's one of those rare fantasy writers who can really write (she's also a good poet). Not all her novels are equally good, but this series is.
|
