An Alchemy of Words

[bibliogramma]

The Poison Master, Liz Williams

Doctor John Dee is a 16th century English alchemist, astrologer, and mathematician who becomes enchanted with the ideas of flight and of other worlds, and the possibilities of travelling between them to escape a growing climate of religious fanaticism. Seeking knowledge of what lies beyond this world leads to a meeting with a being unlike anything he has even known, and an offer of an unknowable future for him and those who, like him, fear the climate of hatred surrounding them.

Alivet Dee is an alchemical apothecary living in the city of Levanah on the planet of Latent Emanation, creating medicines, perfumes, drugs, and hallucinogens for her clients; she is also a Searcher, one of those who experiment with drug-induced altered states of consciousness in an attempt to recover the knowledge of how humans came to Latent Emanation and how they came to be ruled by the mysterious and terrifying Lords of Night. Wrongfully accused of the murder of a client, Alivet is drawn into an uneasy alliance with Poison Master Arieth Gharien, of the planet Hathes, who offers her the chance to bring down the Lords of Night by blending her knowledge of plants and their spirits with his own mastery of Poisons.

In doing so, she will close the circle, learn the answers to the Search, and bring to fruition the quest begun centuries earlier by Dr. Dee.

This book had my interest right from the start. Alivet Dee is a strong protagonist, and Williams’s blending of alchemy, Kabbalah, and shamanistic traditions of psychotropic drugs and dream journeys, and the poison garden of Rappacini’s daughter provides a fascinating context for what could otherwise have been a fairly commonplace tale of revolt against alien overlords.

This is the second of Williams' novels that I have read, and I have nothing but praise for the depth and originality of her work.