Wells, Martha - The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy

[oyceter]

(consists of The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, and The Gate of Gods)

Ile-Rien has been under attack by the Gardier for a while, and they are losing. The Gardier possess magic that can disrupt anything mechanical, and Rienish wizards haven't been able to find anything that can counter the Gardier's magic, at least until they accidentally find a way to jump to different worlds using a sphere made by Tremaine Valiarde's eccentric uncle-figure Arisilde, who has been missing and presumed dead for a while. Ensuing attempts to battle the Gardier eventually encompass rogue wizards, a giant luxury liner, a lot of fighting, airships, and Tremaine's often dubious morals.

I especially enjoyed the trilogy's blend of plot, world building, and fun characters. Tremaine herself would probably admit that she is terrible as a model heroine, but very good at flying by the seat of her pants, being sarcastic, and having a complete lack of sympathy for the Gardier. And the Ilias and Giliead show always cracks me up.

The country of Ile-Rien felt very much like Britain in WWII to me, though that may just be because the bombing of Vienne, Ile-Rien's capital, reminds me of the Blitz. Nevertheless, this is a world that has radio, telephones, automobiles, and electricity, and it's probably good that I don't remember much of The Element of Fire at all, since the trilogy seems to take place much, much later.

I had some issues with the portrayal of the Syprians, particularly by how the narrative at times calls them a "primitive" people. It's usually a judgment that Wells tries to subvert: people who look down on the Syprians are frequently surprised, the Syprian "superstition" of gods has a nice twist, and they very obviously have cities, courts of laws, and etc. But every so often, "primitive" comes up on the text in an unexamined way, and it bugs me. It's thankfully much less racially coded than it could be—Sypria reminds me of Mediterranean cultures and there are blonde-haired and lighter-skinned Syprians as well as some who are more olive-skinned—but the contrast of British-empire-feeling Ile-Rien versus non-industrialized Sypria is still there.

I also really wanted more women in the narrative. It's not that the books lack women: Tremaine is a pretty awesome heroine, Florian gets to Do Stuff, and Syprian society is matriarchical. It just felt like much of the time, it was Tremaine + group of main guy characters with side female characters who aren't as important to the narrative. As mentioned, Florian gets to do some stuff, but she's really not very integral to the plot until the very end. Otherwise, most of the action happens around Tremaine, Giliead, Ilias, and Gerard, and a lot of the Rienish and Gardier people in power seem to be male.

Spoilers, some mention of suicidality

If you can't tell, I like Tremaine a lot as a heroine, though there are a few times I felt the narrative about Tremaine didn't really fit in with what I saw of her. The most striking thing to me is the emphasis on her being suicidal in the beginning. I know it's later explained to be Arisilde influencing her, but she also says that his despair only amplified her own. And obviously there is not a One Right Way to be suicidal, but Tremaine just did not read as despairing to me. Like, mention of her death wish pops up every once in a while in the narrative when it seems convenient, but otherwise, I read her as extremely reckless and not overly concerned about self-preservation, but not really in a lot of despair. There's also the mention that she used to be a flighty artist in the past—Ander obviously still thinks she is and Florian mentions it—and seriously, I cannot see Tremaine as flighty ever. Socially awkward, entirely too blunt, uncomfortable to be around, and eccentric, yes. Flighty, not so much.

Random stuff:

• The reveal about the wizards in crystals was suitably creepy, though I am still a little confused as to Orelis' goal in the end, or what she was.
• I kind of wanted Ixion to be more tied into the main plot reveals than he actually was.
• Love Florian using smaller magics to great advantage in the end, though as previously mentioned, I wish she had gotten more stuff to do throughout the books.
• Just around the point I was thinking, "Hey! A book that is not going to have the Obligatory Het Romance in it!" Tremaine and Ilias get married. I like them, and I like them as a couple, but as previously noted, seem to be in a really non-romantic mood lately.
• People already say not to have two main characters with names starting with the same letter, but Martha Wells compounds this by having "Gerard" and "Giliead" not only start with the same letter, but end with the same letter and have a fairly similar typed-out length as well.

In conclusion: I have some nitpicks, but the trilogy is really enjoyable, with settings I think you don't get that much in fantasy (I now want to check out the luxury ocean liner the Ravenna is based on) and a fun cadre of characters.

Comments

[oracne]

I enjoyed these when they came out - would like to re-read sometime.

[oyceter]

They were really fun! Especially all the snark with Tremaine, Ilias, and Giliead.