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Daniel Fox: Jade Man's Skin
Nov. 24th, 2009 11:07 pmDisclaimer 1) Daniel Fox (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
moshui here on LJ) is a friend, or rather, the pseudonym of a friend. He is also one (or two) of my favourite writers.
Disclaimer 2) Jade Man's Skin is the second book of a trilogy: 'Moshui - the Books of Stone and Water'. I've written before about the first volume, but if that didn't persuade you to read Dragon in Chains, don't let this persuade you to start with book two. This is not the kind of trilogy which is three linked novels, it's the kind of trilogy which is a story too long to be contained within a single volume.
So Jade Man's Skin begins precisely where Dragon in Chains left off, which is already impossible to discuss without giving away that spectacular, unexpected, inevitable ending. The situation and the characters are those that were introduced in the first book, yet everything has been transformed: Old Yen still sails his ramshackle boat across the straits, relying on the protection of his goddess, and yet... Han still struggles to maintain some sort of control over the dragon, but...
It was implicit from the first that although this is a heroic fantasy in which the boy emperor - young, brave, romantic - has been ousted from his throne and pursued to the outer rim of his empire, it is not the kind of fantasy in which the reader cheers on the young hero who regains his throne for no better reason than that he is the Rightful Heir. Daniel Fox shows us too much of the price paid, not just by those who fall nobly in battle but by those who have the misfortune to live along the route taken by the armies, those whose cities are plundered, those whose lives are destroyed. As long as the boy emperor is more boy than emperor, compelled by circumstances and adult advisors, falling in love, feeling his way, he is a sympathetic figure; but sooner or later he must grow up, start to make his own decisions, or forfeit that sympathy. What happens when he decides, in this book which bears his name, to become more emperor than boy, to command his army and to demand obedience?
If one of the pleasures of Jade Man's Skin is that it shakes up all the pieces which were already in play in Dragon in Chains, another is that it continues to introduce new elements. Something which had been said from the very beginning turns out to be true, introducing a major new force into the narrative: but it would be a pity to spoil this skillfully arranged surprise. Since the mysterious jade tiger appears on the cover of the book, it's probably not giving anything away to talk about it: unfortunately - or fortunately - it appears and vanishes so enigmatically that I have nothing to say about it but: ooh! jade tiger! tell me more...
"Tell me more!" is pretty much the sum of what I want to say about Jade Man's Skin. It is a book in which things happen, many of them exciting or touching or terrifying, and by the end of it, I really want to know what happens next.
moshui here on LJ) is a friend, or rather, the pseudonym of a friend. He is also one (or two) of my favourite writers.Disclaimer 2) Jade Man's Skin is the second book of a trilogy: 'Moshui - the Books of Stone and Water'. I've written before about the first volume, but if that didn't persuade you to read Dragon in Chains, don't let this persuade you to start with book two. This is not the kind of trilogy which is three linked novels, it's the kind of trilogy which is a story too long to be contained within a single volume.
So Jade Man's Skin begins precisely where Dragon in Chains left off, which is already impossible to discuss without giving away that spectacular, unexpected, inevitable ending. The situation and the characters are those that were introduced in the first book, yet everything has been transformed: Old Yen still sails his ramshackle boat across the straits, relying on the protection of his goddess, and yet... Han still struggles to maintain some sort of control over the dragon, but...
It was implicit from the first that although this is a heroic fantasy in which the boy emperor - young, brave, romantic - has been ousted from his throne and pursued to the outer rim of his empire, it is not the kind of fantasy in which the reader cheers on the young hero who regains his throne for no better reason than that he is the Rightful Heir. Daniel Fox shows us too much of the price paid, not just by those who fall nobly in battle but by those who have the misfortune to live along the route taken by the armies, those whose cities are plundered, those whose lives are destroyed. As long as the boy emperor is more boy than emperor, compelled by circumstances and adult advisors, falling in love, feeling his way, he is a sympathetic figure; but sooner or later he must grow up, start to make his own decisions, or forfeit that sympathy. What happens when he decides, in this book which bears his name, to become more emperor than boy, to command his army and to demand obedience?
If one of the pleasures of Jade Man's Skin is that it shakes up all the pieces which were already in play in Dragon in Chains, another is that it continues to introduce new elements. Something which had been said from the very beginning turns out to be true, introducing a major new force into the narrative: but it would be a pity to spoil this skillfully arranged surprise. Since the mysterious jade tiger appears on the cover of the book, it's probably not giving anything away to talk about it: unfortunately - or fortunately - it appears and vanishes so enigmatically that I have nothing to say about it but: ooh! jade tiger! tell me more...
"Tell me more!" is pretty much the sum of what I want to say about Jade Man's Skin. It is a book in which things happen, many of them exciting or touching or terrifying, and by the end of it, I really want to know what happens next.
