Crossroads

[bibliogramma]

Spirit Gate: Book I of Crossroads, Kate Elliott

This is the first book I’d read by Elliott, and I quite enjoyed it, even though it left me with many unanswered questions – although that’s to be expected from the first book in a projected seven-volume series. A great deal happens in this book, but I had a very strong sense, even as it reached its conclusion, that we’ve just finished with the prologue. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make it difficult to wait for the rest of the series to be written so I can find out what’s going on.

The novel opens in a land called the Hundred, which for centuries has been protected by mystical guardians and patrolled by the Reeves, a kind of police force mounted on giant eagles. But there is a darkness spreading throughout the land. The Guardians have vanished, the Reeves are under a slow attack both from without and from within as their numbers dwindle and corruption enters in, and the future seems dire. Into the story comes the first of the key protagonists, Joss, a Reeve who is sent to investigate and restore order in the southern border area of the hundred, where bandits are threatening to cut off trade between the Hundred and the empire of Sirniaka.

Meanwhile, far to the southwest, we are introduced to Mai, a young woman whose people are living under an occupation force from the eastwardly-expanding Qin empire, and her husband Captain Anji, soldier and member of the imperial family, who are forced, by political unrest in which Anji could become an unwilling and endangered pawn, to flee east, beyond the lands controlled by the Qin – toward the southern borders of the Hundred.

The worldbuilding is very detailed and rich in cultural and political complexities. Anji, Mai and Joss are all well-developed and sympathetic protagonists, with very different perspectives, and are supported by a wide and varied cast of multidimensional secondary characters. The pace is somewhat slow for most of the book, but, as I said, this is just the first volume, and there is a great deal of foundation to be laid before the plot can advance. I am curious to see what Elliott is building on this deep and broad foundation.