Aug. 15
1:17 PM
Things I Love #201101: Ekaterina Sedia’s HEART OF IRON
This year hasn't just gotten away from me, it's knee-capped me, turned out my pockets, and backed over my hands before speeding off in a cloud of blown deadlines and broken promises. Yet I'm back on my feet, and like any Terms of Enrampagement afficionado worth his 30.6, I'm in pursuit like Lee Marvin at his most ornery. First order of business is trying to get this blog back in something resembling working order, and since I've been feeling increasingly miserable over the state of national and global affairs down these last few months, I think a good way to get the mojo back is to focus on the positive. And also the shamelessly self-centered. Hence, the occasional blog entry about things I love, starting with Ekaterina Sedia's new novel, Heart of Iron. I should mention that some of the things I'll be posting about are not necessarily great, or even good, as I unreservedly love a good many truly awful things, but that's not the case here--since this is the first run of a New Thing, let's start with something that I love which also happens to be pretty goddamn great:
I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy of this, and then July exploded in my face and I dropped the ball on posting a proper review when it launched. Better late than never, granted, but still--this book deserves attention, and a lot of it. Sedia's one of those authors who mines something new with every project rather than working the same material ad nauseam, and this one should have the broadest appeal yet while still tackling the weighty issues Sedia's never shied away from. Her fiction always deftly balances escapism with engagement, and the juggling act she pulls off here is tremendous. Although not marketed as such, it should appeal every bit as much to young-adult readers as the grown folks, and serve as a grand introduction to Sedia's work for audiences of all ages and predilections.
I won't get into into the plot, as I prefer to go into book's as clueless as possible, but the AV Club's review of the novel hit the nail on the head in pointing out that the main draw of the book isn't the plot but our narrator Sasha Trubetskaya. She's such a great, perfectly-realized protagonist that even without any plot whatsoever Heart of Iron would be an engaging read, but I enjoyed Sasha's literal journey every bit as much as her internal one. The supporting cast, in particular Sasha's aunt Eugenia, are deftly rendered and enjoyable, and Sedia's tweaking of history is both clever and ingenious--rather than assuming that actual persons would be the same individual in any mildly altered version of our history, Sedia twists familiar figures into intriguing new shapes. It's a great subversion of our expectations, and enjoyably raises more questions than it answers regarding other discrepancies between our historical record and Sasha's world.
Heart of Iron takes its time in carefully detailing its characters, world, and action, and yet still whizzes by at such a tremendous clip that the the reader can scarce believe it's over when the story rolls into its final destination. It's a great piece of storytelling that is every bit as beautiful and elaborate as the costumes and locales that Sedia describes in loving (but never excessive) detail, and one that is a testament to the author's prodigious prowess. This smart and relevant literary progeny of the wuxia adventure and the penny dreadful is a grand tale for fans of history, steampunk, and anything and everything in between.
And that's the news from Trubetskoye--expect more reviews in the coming days of John Hornor Jacobs's Southern Gods, Gemma Files's A Book of Tongues, John Langan's Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters, and plenty more. As always, I'm eager to hear what others are reading, so that my towering to-read stack may stretch ever higher into the firmament. Cheers!