The Twelve Houses series by Sharon Shinn

Having just finished the last of the Gillengaria books (?), I thought I'd write down my thoughts about the Twelve Houses series.  

I'll quote from my review of the first book, Mystic and Rider to explain the set-up of the series.   

"Gillengaria is experiencing enough unrest for King Baryn to send out a scouting party. This party consists of both mystics and Riders (thus, the book’s title). Senneth, a female mystic with power over fire, leads the group into the hostile southern territories in order to determine if the rumors of treason against the king and persecution of mystics have basis in truth. Kirra, a healer and shapeshifter, and Donnal, another shapeshifter, are along to offer assistance, and Tayse and Justin, King’s Riders, are there to offer protection and legitimacy to the enterprise.

The group’s journey into southern Gillengaria quickly becomes one frightening incident after another, and the disparate members of this group, who don’t like or trust each other in the beginning, must learn to rely on each other to survive. As they travel they are confronted with proof of atrocities being committed against mystics, rising religious fanaticism, and assembled bodies of troops. At the same time they hear rumors about King Baryn and his new wife that raise questions to which they have no answers. Senneth and the others are loyal servants of their king, but in the course of their journey each of them has to confront their own prejudices and decide what exactly they are willing to defend with their lives.

Mystic and Rider is a true adventure story and, to a lesser extent, a road romance. While Shinn introduces numerous conflicts within Gillengaria, the defining conflict of this novel is less obvious. Senneth, Kirra, Donnal, and Cammon, a mystic they befriend on the road, deal daily with the distrust of the King’s Riders, Tayse and Justin, who fear that mystics are corrupt and too powerful. And it’s a good thing that these four mystics are also people of integrity because that distrust is fairly ingrained within this society. When a mystic's power is discovered he or she is frequently disowned or persecuted. But as they venture deeper into anti-mystic territory, Tayse and Justin see firsthand how decent mystics can be and how monstrous regular folks often are. The metaphor here is a little obvious – insert your favorite persecuted minority for comparison – and the fact that all of the mystics represented are good and righteous people makes the book teeter a bit on the moralistic side, but there is still a good deal of enjoyable vicarious championing of the underdog to be had here. Most readers will like seeing bigoted fanatics get theirs at the hands of our talented miscellany.

And they are talented. Especially Senneth. She has got a cool magic power, that girl. She can make fire, tame fire, control fire, set things on fire. Living or dead, she can make it burn. This is a prodigious talent – both protective and practical. It’s hard to imagine a situation she would be at a disadvantage in. Yet, she remains ethical and devoted to protecting other mystics.

Her foil in this adventure is Tayse. He is rock solid, stone to her fire. A lifelong warrior, trained in every type of fighting and defense, he is very leery of her to begin with. His utter loyalty to his king demands that he protect her, but as he comes to know her, he takes his mission personally. Tayse is interesting as a romantic choice for Senneth. Their relationship works, partly because he is so stalwart and supportive. Like stone contains fire, his personality helps Senneth control and contain her engulfing power. But also like stone, he is somewhat inscrutable and slightly dull. Despite this, Shinn still manages to pull some touching emotions from him."

Read the rest of my review here.  My grade was a B.

Mystic and Rider was a good, solid read, a great beginning to what could have been a great series.  It was so good that I bought the second book in the series, The Thirteenth House in hardcover.  Here is the Booklist review:

"Declared heir to House Danalustrous, one of the Twelve Great Houses in politically troubled Gillengaria, Casserah must make a summer circuit of social gatherings and balls hosted by each house in turn. With Danalustrous arming for war, however, she refuses, feeling that her place is with her people. So her shape-shifter sister, Kirra, goes instead, disguised as Casserah, to scout out Casserah's potential suitors and discern which houses are aligned with the king. In Ghosenhall, Kirra is surprised to find some warriors and mystics she considers friends and with whom she bands to protect beautiful, quiet young Princess Amalie as she, too, makes the circuit. En route, Kirra begins an affair with Amalie's regent, Lord Romar, and that puts the whole party in great danger. Attacks on the princess, Romar, and others begin; innocent people start dying; and the question arises, who is so serious about controlling the throne? One of the Thirteenth House underlords? Lestra, the mystic-hating head of a group of religious extremists? Or someone much closer?"

Unfortunately, when I got into it I realized that at its heart, The Thirteenth House is an adultery book and that Kirra's love interest is a married man, a man she doesn't want to give up.  At that point I couldn't bring myself to care about the plot or what was happening in Gillengaria.  The resolution to the problem of the adulterous relationship is creative, I'll give Shinn that.  But it doesn't quite nullify the immorality of Kirra's actions.  And what Kirra is left with seems more like sloppy seconds - which is good enough for her, but not for the other party.  Basically, I gave this one a skim job, and not a comprehensive one at that.  Then I sold it on half.com.

The third book, Dark Moon Defender , I skimmed as well - twice.  I hadn't realized how much of it I'd actually read until I went back and gave it another shot.  This is Justin's book.  He is sent to southern Gillengaria to try and determine how much power and influence Coralinda Gisseltess has down there. Coralinda is the Lestra of a convent of worshippers of the Pale Lady, the moon goddess.  She hates mystics and is determined to find and eradicate all of them.  Justin gets a temporary job in a small town and in the course of his spying he meets a young novice at the convent.  Ellynor is from the Lirrenlands and is only at the convent accompanying her cousin who's there because of some family problems.  Ellynor has certain abilities that she doesn't realize are dangerous to her in her current surroundings.  She attributes her abilities to her worshipful relationship with the Dark Watcher, the goddess of night, but Coralinda Gisseltess would feel differently if she saw her at work...

Part of the reason I skimmed this one is because Justin really didn't appeal to me.  I didn't mind him so much as a part of the ensemble cast, but on his own, well, he's sort of annoying.  I don't care for fighting men, and his interactions with Kirra and others were just sort of off-putting.  The whole I'm-never-settling-down-because-of-my-tragic-past-and-dangerous-job thing has been done before.  Why Ellynor is the one to change and revolutionize this attitude is not very obvious.   She's good and kind and pretty, and she has a gentle sort of powerful magic, but she's not all that.

Also, the religious element of the story in Shinn's hands isn't quite objective.  The really religious at the convent are all fanatics and a bit mentally unstable.  The non-fanatics are there for a myriad of reasons, but unlike real religious people, few of them seem to find a calm sense of purpose to their vocation or any sort of joyfulness or peace in their faith.  Pragmatism in selecting a religious vocation I'm sure has always been a consideration - but lots of people join convents for truly spiritual reasons.  And not just fanatics.

On a related note, the theology in this series is totally undeveloped.  As a reader, I didn't really expect or even want an expanded theology for the plethora of gods at work in Gillengaria.   However, as the series progresses, more and more people attribute their abilities to the will of the gods.  But no one seems to have any sort of committed worship to any god, other than the convent, there is no mention of organized religion.  There aren't temples or religious rites.  Which leads me to ask: what's in it for the gods?  Why are they bestowing these abilities if they don't get any credit for it?  Now if this was all a mythology of a primitive people, I wouldn't care.  But it seems to be a genuine explanation.  The main characters are believers.  Given this, I would like to know a little more about how all of this works, with particulars.

There is a lot of action in Dark Moon Defender, but overall, the book felt padded to me.  It wasn't as tight a story as it might have been.  My grade: C+.

The fourth book, Reader and Raelynx, was a slightly better book.  Time has passed, tensions in Gillengaria have escalated and the war that everyone dreads in the first three books finally comes.  This gave the book more momentum and interest. 

Reader and Raelynx is Cammon's book.  Cammon is a very likable character and has a strong and wonderful gift - he can read minds and emotions and can also amplify other people's magic.  Basically there's not a lot he can't do with his brain.  Cammon is drawn into palace politics when he's asked to screen Princess Amelie's suitors.  As heir to the throne, Amalie's marriage is of vital interest to the kingdom and could potentially overt war if she selects right.  Cammon is asked to be there during the wooing of all of her suitors so they can tell who is honest and has good intentions toward the kingdom and the princess.  But it's not very long before Cammon starts hating all of Amelie's suitors and wishing he could match her with a different sort of man - himself.  

Cammon and Amelie's romance gets short shrift because of all the rest of the action in this book.  Both of them are likable characters with interesting magic, but they are also so very young.  Wise beyond their years, yes, but young.   And inexperienced at so many things.  It's hard not to wish they had more time or a calmer atmosphere to get their own emotions sorted out.  But they don't.

As far as the good vs. evil aspect of the book goes, it's what you would expect, but Shinn gives the fight a great deal of detail and it is pretty interesting.  The mystics with their incredible powers would seem to have the obvious advantage, so she has to come up with an inventive handicap to even out the odds.  

One thing I found distracting in all the books, but especially the last two was how well everyone got along.  Not just the original group of Senneth, Tayse, Kirra, Donnal, and Cammon, but the significant others picked up along the way, as well as a couple of short story heroes and heroines interspersed here and there throughout the narrative.  The original five form a family of sorts and have an amazing bond that remains strong despite numerous separations.   That in and of itself stretches believability.  But the fact that new beautiful and magical people get introduced and absorbed without any friction - well, that's practically impossible.  In almost any group that tight there are bound to be emotional highs and lows, petty squabbles, irritations, little jealousies, personality conflicts.  Extend the groups and the opportunities for interpersonal strife increase dramatically.  That doesn't happen here.  There are highs and lows, but those are what you'd expect from the storyline - fear for other's lives, sadness when someone is hurting, friend stuff.  This is one of the main reasons I tend to avoid series books.  Because no one ever does this right.  In real life Senneth, a very nice person, might not get along with Ellynor, another perfectly nice person, all that well because their communication styles would clash or because Ellynor would think that no one should eat meat or that homeschooling is the only way to educate or that Princess Amelie was a closet socialist, couldn't everyone see that plainly?  But those kinds of troubles are never present in romance novels because they would intrude on the Happily Ever After.

Finally, the series' message - tolerance - is a bit simplistically handled as is the "solution" to this problem.  The way the mystics are treated by many Gillengarians should be horrifyingly familiar to any reader of history.  But why they are treated that way - it's all chalked up to ignorant people's fear of difference.  This makes sense within the series context, given that almost all of the mystics we meet are good people just trying to get along.  But in reality, wouldn't it make more sense if mystics were a more complex group of good and bad?  Given the mystics' sometimes awesome powers, it would make sense for people to fear the less altruistic mystics out there.  And couldn't bad mystics contribute greatly to a general sense of fear and disapproval?  In other words, the mystics shouldn't only be victims of prejudice.  Life is generally a bit more give and take than that, but it is not portrayed so here.   

My grade for the last book, Reader and Raelynx, is a B-.  

"Fortune and Fate is the fifth book in Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses series and picks up several years after the war that divided the country of Gillengaria in Reader and Raelynx.

Wen is a King's Rider in self-exile. When war erupted and King Baryn died while she, sworn to protect him unto her death, survived, she lost her reason for living. Since then she has been traveling the country helping people in trouble and refusing to take anything for it. As the book begins, Wen encounters Karryn, heiress to the House of Fortunalt, struggling to get away from her kidnappers, she rescues her and moves on. But, as she will see, the remnants of the rebellious House of Fortunalt will require more of her skills than just foiling a kidnapping.

In fairly short order Wen finds herself with the job of Captain of Security for the manor house Fortune, supervised by Karryn's uncle Jasper Palladar, an intriguing man whose interests and abilities are the exact opposite of hers. Why then does she find herself so drawn to him?

Approximately half of the book concerns Wen's journey back to being part of society. These parts were enjoyable. Wen, though fairly mannish – one of my least favorite types of heroines – was, nevertheless, sympathetic and easy to relate to. Jasper was a less intriguing sort. Their gentle romance is not substantial enough to keep the pages turning, though it wasn't the book's major weakness."

The rest of the review is here.  

For the series as a whole, I wouldn't go higher than a B- either, unfortunately.  Worth reading, but not my favorite by Shinn.  

tags: sharon shinn  books  fantasy