N. K. Jemisin: Dreamblood Duology
Apr. 6th, 2018 05:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bibliogrammaIn the land of Gujaareh, they worship the Hananja the Dreamer, the Goddess to whom those who sleep go in dreams, and those who die go at the end, the goddess who brings peace. Among the holy men of the Dreamer, the Hetawa, there are those who gather the power of dreams, and these who can transmute that power into healing. There are different kinds of dream energy, dreams of fear, which yield dreambile for halting infections and tumours, dreams of lust, yielding dreamseed, which can promote growth, dreams of absurdity, yielding dreamichor. And then there is the dreamblood, harvested from the most potent of dreams, those that carry with them all the richness of a life, that is collected at the moment of death, as the Gatherer gives the dying one peace and aids their path to the land of the Goddess. In some ways, peace is the highest value, the ultimate goal, of Gujaareh society, peace above all. But there is corruption in the heart of Gujaareh, and the monstrous perversion of the Gatherer’s role, by a greedy and ambitious prince who would use the power of wrongly gathered dreams to instill fear, wage war, gain power that no one man should have.
This is the world of N. K. Jemison’s Dreamblood duology, a strikingly original fantasy inspired by Egyptian history and theology. In the first volume, The Killing Moon, Ehiru, a devout Gatherer and his apprentice Nijiri, become aware of the evil that dwells at the heart of both the kingdom’s ruling prince - Ehiru’s brother - and the Superior of their order. To root out the corruption and save both Gujaareh and the neighbouring state of Kisua from the devastation of war, they must ally with Kisuati ambassador Sunandi - whose dreamblood they have been ordered to take, leaving her dead. But war is not the worst of what the prince plans. He has created a killing monster known as a Reaper from a broken Gatherer, and intends to use its power to bring the world under his rule. But a mistake made during what should have been a simple gathering have brought Ehiru halfway to becoming a monster himself, and his control over the killing desires within him is weakening. If he somehow defeats his brother’s Reaper, will he succumb and become one himself?
The second novel of the Dreamblood series, The Shadowed Sun, takes place some years after the first. The Prince’s son, Wanahomen, is now an exile, having found refuge among the nomadic Banbarra following conquest of Gujaareh and his father’s downfall. Now an adult and a hunt leader, he is waging a long-term war against Kisua, hoping to return one day to Gujaareh as its ruler. And he has uneasy dreams, of his father’s spirit, wasted and corrupted, warning him of the coming of... something he does not understand.
Others are having bad dreams, too, and one Gujaraah man may have died from them. During a difficult healing, Hanani, the Hetawa’s only female Sharer, or healer, asks for more dreambile, but when the young apprentice Dayu tries to collect it from a man who has come to the temple plagued with nightmares, both die. Hanani later learns that the man’s nightmares were not ordinary things, but dreams of deep foreboding, a sense that something evil was waiting for him.
In Gujaareh, unrest seethes beneath the placid surface of a society that values peace. The Hetawa have so far supported the Kisuati occupation - under the governorship of former ambassador Sunandi - but if a better alternative comes along, they will not hesitate to shift that support, and the people still follow the Hetawa, though with less devotion than before. Trade laws favour the Kisuati, threatening the wealth of the upper and middle classes. The occupying army acts as occupying armies always act, with petty cruelty and random violence. Raiding by nomads has created fear within the city, though much of the damage seems restricted to Kisuati people and their property. There is, in reality, little peace in the city. When the old prince’s general Charris contacts them with offers of alliance from the Banbarra, they are not unwilling to listen - though Wanahomen does not endorse the alliance, blaming the Hetawa fir the death if his father.
Indeed, the idea of rebellion has advanced to the point that a group of wealthy Gujaareh nobles are ready to swear alliegiance - and more importantly, commit money and men - to Wanahomen’s cause. More than that, Sanfi, the leader of the rebel faction, has offered Wanahomen his daughter Tiaanet as first wife. But Sanfi has deeper plans, and is far more dangerous, not just to the Kisuati, but also to Gujaareeh. For he holds the key to the killing dreams that stalk the city, and there is nothing he will not encompass to achieve his ends and feed his desires.
Jemisin does not deal in easy characterisations. Here, there are few fully heroic, or fully villainous, only people who must learn and grow, or die, in soul if not also in body. And even as she writes the richness that is Gujaareh society, she includes a critique of some of its ways, a need for transcendence of the rigid roles that have long existed along with the deep desire for a peaceful society.
Jemisin has created a rich and complex world, in which to explore her themes of power and corruption, faith and deceit, ambition and sacrifice. These are the sorts of books you start reading one evening and suddenly notice that you’ve been immersed in its reality for hours.
Jemisin has suggested that there are other stories of Gujaareh to be told, and so, while this story is complete, I look forward to the possibility that there may someday be more tales set in this rich and intriguing world.
This is the world of N. K. Jemison’s Dreamblood duology, a strikingly original fantasy inspired by Egyptian history and theology. In the first volume, The Killing Moon, Ehiru, a devout Gatherer and his apprentice Nijiri, become aware of the evil that dwells at the heart of both the kingdom’s ruling prince - Ehiru’s brother - and the Superior of their order. To root out the corruption and save both Gujaareh and the neighbouring state of Kisua from the devastation of war, they must ally with Kisuati ambassador Sunandi - whose dreamblood they have been ordered to take, leaving her dead. But war is not the worst of what the prince plans. He has created a killing monster known as a Reaper from a broken Gatherer, and intends to use its power to bring the world under his rule. But a mistake made during what should have been a simple gathering have brought Ehiru halfway to becoming a monster himself, and his control over the killing desires within him is weakening. If he somehow defeats his brother’s Reaper, will he succumb and become one himself?
The second novel of the Dreamblood series, The Shadowed Sun, takes place some years after the first. The Prince’s son, Wanahomen, is now an exile, having found refuge among the nomadic Banbarra following conquest of Gujaareh and his father’s downfall. Now an adult and a hunt leader, he is waging a long-term war against Kisua, hoping to return one day to Gujaareh as its ruler. And he has uneasy dreams, of his father’s spirit, wasted and corrupted, warning him of the coming of... something he does not understand.
Others are having bad dreams, too, and one Gujaraah man may have died from them. During a difficult healing, Hanani, the Hetawa’s only female Sharer, or healer, asks for more dreambile, but when the young apprentice Dayu tries to collect it from a man who has come to the temple plagued with nightmares, both die. Hanani later learns that the man’s nightmares were not ordinary things, but dreams of deep foreboding, a sense that something evil was waiting for him.
In Gujaareh, unrest seethes beneath the placid surface of a society that values peace. The Hetawa have so far supported the Kisuati occupation - under the governorship of former ambassador Sunandi - but if a better alternative comes along, they will not hesitate to shift that support, and the people still follow the Hetawa, though with less devotion than before. Trade laws favour the Kisuati, threatening the wealth of the upper and middle classes. The occupying army acts as occupying armies always act, with petty cruelty and random violence. Raiding by nomads has created fear within the city, though much of the damage seems restricted to Kisuati people and their property. There is, in reality, little peace in the city. When the old prince’s general Charris contacts them with offers of alliance from the Banbarra, they are not unwilling to listen - though Wanahomen does not endorse the alliance, blaming the Hetawa fir the death if his father.
Indeed, the idea of rebellion has advanced to the point that a group of wealthy Gujaareh nobles are ready to swear alliegiance - and more importantly, commit money and men - to Wanahomen’s cause. More than that, Sanfi, the leader of the rebel faction, has offered Wanahomen his daughter Tiaanet as first wife. But Sanfi has deeper plans, and is far more dangerous, not just to the Kisuati, but also to Gujaareeh. For he holds the key to the killing dreams that stalk the city, and there is nothing he will not encompass to achieve his ends and feed his desires.
Jemisin does not deal in easy characterisations. Here, there are few fully heroic, or fully villainous, only people who must learn and grow, or die, in soul if not also in body. And even as she writes the richness that is Gujaareh society, she includes a critique of some of its ways, a need for transcendence of the rigid roles that have long existed along with the deep desire for a peaceful society.
Jemisin has created a rich and complex world, in which to explore her themes of power and corruption, faith and deceit, ambition and sacrifice. These are the sorts of books you start reading one evening and suddenly notice that you’ve been immersed in its reality for hours.
Jemisin has suggested that there are other stories of Gujaareh to be told, and so, while this story is complete, I look forward to the possibility that there may someday be more tales set in this rich and intriguing world.