Friday, 29 March 2024 09:11 pm
Book Review: Six of Crows
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deckardcanineI have not read any of Leigh Bardugo's Shadow & Bone or watched the TV adaptation, but this book takes place in the same world. It can be called a flintlock fantasy; the technology goes as far as military tanks but feels pre-20th century, and there are pseudoscientific mages known as Grisha, met with varying levels of social acceptance.
The title is a little quirky. The six main characters are never nicknamed crows. It's just that the team leader, Kaz Brekker, owns the Crow Club. Which, yes, hosts card games.
Jan Van Eck, a member of the Merchant Council, tells Kaz about a new drug, jurda parem, that greatly increases Grisha's powers and is addictive enough to enslave them to the provider's will. So far, only inventor Bo Yul-Bayur is believed to know how to make it, and he was last seen imprisoned in the notoriously secure Ice Court. Jan offers a huge financial reward if Kaz can extract Bo alive, hopefully before his captors learn the recipe.
The plot, while pretty exciting, is simple enough in concept to feel borderline hackneyed. More of the fun, for both Bardugo and the readers, is in the six and how they interact. Every one of them is crucial to the heist, and every one, while talented, could easily become a point of failure:
-Kaz, field leader of the Dregs gang, may not be at the top of the slum "food chain," but he has made himself something of a legend. He's highly perceptive and adept at cheating and stealing, tho he makes a point to honor deals. Despite a perpetually broken leg, he fights well. He's rude to allies and largely merciless to enemies. He's not likely to express any emotion except occasional anger. Of course, there's a reason Kaz keeps most of his past and half his present a secret. He has his psychological vulnerabilities.
-Inej Ghafa may be all the more legendary as "the Wraith," for her seemingly impossible stealth. A former sex slave turned Dreg, she has developed acrobatic prowess, helping her dig up information and sometimes assassinate with knives. She hopes to pay off her indenture and return to her homeland. She and Kaz come closest to true friendship among the six, and a suppressed part of Kaz wants her as more than a friend.
-Adrenaline junkie Jesper Fahey is handy in a shootout but unlucky at gambling, so his debts run higher than Inej's. Why go on a mission where he can't take his beloved pistols for long? Well, he has talents that he'd rather keep hidden as much as possible. Oddly enough, he may be more open about his homoerotic desires.
-Nina Zenik is a Grisha specializing in body manipulation, whether to hurt or heal. She may know the most languages and international customs of the bunch. Unlike the other Dregs, she cares less about money than about making sure nobody ever gets jurda parem again, so she's thinking of killing Bo if it's not too late.
-Muscular, stuck-up religious zealot Matthias Helvar used to belong to a band hunting down Grisha, until circumstances required him and Nina to depend on each other for survival. Another shift had her send him to a prison less secure but no less nightmarish than the Ice Court, and busting him out months later doesn't quell his resentment. The two have quite the love-hate relationship. Matthias too would like to kill Bo -- and possibly Kaz, who talks him into betraying his countrymen only on the promise of acquiring a full pardon.
-The only one of the six who gets no focal chapters (and thus no flashbacks) is Wylan Van Eck, hired more for leverage against disapproving father Jan than for his adequate demolition and other skills. Raised in luxury, he lacks the gritty experience of the rest. Jesper alternates between giving him a hard time and admiring his growth.
Note that they're all 16 to 18. To me, that's the only sign that this is a young adult novel. Most of the time, I imagine them older, because they had to grow up fast in the face of adversity. That would explain why Jesper doesn't believe Wylan's claim to be 16.
The opening chapter is not designated a prologue but serves a similar purpose to the intro of A Game of Thrones: an early taste of magical elements and an assurance of darkness, seeing as everyone in the scene dies. Thankfully, that's about the worst of it. Bleakness soon gets tempered by fun action, witty banter, and causes for hope.
Not everything is resolved at the end, but at least it's a nice stopping point. I've put the sequel on my wish list. I may also want to check out more of the Grishaverse, which doesn't follow the same characters but reportedly goes further into world building; here it feels relatively skimpy.
My next read is The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older. I could use a space mystery outside of Asimov.
The title is a little quirky. The six main characters are never nicknamed crows. It's just that the team leader, Kaz Brekker, owns the Crow Club. Which, yes, hosts card games.
Jan Van Eck, a member of the Merchant Council, tells Kaz about a new drug, jurda parem, that greatly increases Grisha's powers and is addictive enough to enslave them to the provider's will. So far, only inventor Bo Yul-Bayur is believed to know how to make it, and he was last seen imprisoned in the notoriously secure Ice Court. Jan offers a huge financial reward if Kaz can extract Bo alive, hopefully before his captors learn the recipe.
The plot, while pretty exciting, is simple enough in concept to feel borderline hackneyed. More of the fun, for both Bardugo and the readers, is in the six and how they interact. Every one of them is crucial to the heist, and every one, while talented, could easily become a point of failure:
-Kaz, field leader of the Dregs gang, may not be at the top of the slum "food chain," but he has made himself something of a legend. He's highly perceptive and adept at cheating and stealing, tho he makes a point to honor deals. Despite a perpetually broken leg, he fights well. He's rude to allies and largely merciless to enemies. He's not likely to express any emotion except occasional anger. Of course, there's a reason Kaz keeps most of his past and half his present a secret. He has his psychological vulnerabilities.
-Inej Ghafa may be all the more legendary as "the Wraith," for her seemingly impossible stealth. A former sex slave turned Dreg, she has developed acrobatic prowess, helping her dig up information and sometimes assassinate with knives. She hopes to pay off her indenture and return to her homeland. She and Kaz come closest to true friendship among the six, and a suppressed part of Kaz wants her as more than a friend.
-Adrenaline junkie Jesper Fahey is handy in a shootout but unlucky at gambling, so his debts run higher than Inej's. Why go on a mission where he can't take his beloved pistols for long? Well, he has talents that he'd rather keep hidden as much as possible. Oddly enough, he may be more open about his homoerotic desires.
-Nina Zenik is a Grisha specializing in body manipulation, whether to hurt or heal. She may know the most languages and international customs of the bunch. Unlike the other Dregs, she cares less about money than about making sure nobody ever gets jurda parem again, so she's thinking of killing Bo if it's not too late.
-Muscular, stuck-up religious zealot Matthias Helvar used to belong to a band hunting down Grisha, until circumstances required him and Nina to depend on each other for survival. Another shift had her send him to a prison less secure but no less nightmarish than the Ice Court, and busting him out months later doesn't quell his resentment. The two have quite the love-hate relationship. Matthias too would like to kill Bo -- and possibly Kaz, who talks him into betraying his countrymen only on the promise of acquiring a full pardon.
-The only one of the six who gets no focal chapters (and thus no flashbacks) is Wylan Van Eck, hired more for leverage against disapproving father Jan than for his adequate demolition and other skills. Raised in luxury, he lacks the gritty experience of the rest. Jesper alternates between giving him a hard time and admiring his growth.
Note that they're all 16 to 18. To me, that's the only sign that this is a young adult novel. Most of the time, I imagine them older, because they had to grow up fast in the face of adversity. That would explain why Jesper doesn't believe Wylan's claim to be 16.
The opening chapter is not designated a prologue but serves a similar purpose to the intro of A Game of Thrones: an early taste of magical elements and an assurance of darkness, seeing as everyone in the scene dies. Thankfully, that's about the worst of it. Bleakness soon gets tempered by fun action, witty banter, and causes for hope.
Not everything is resolved at the end, but at least it's a nice stopping point. I've put the sequel on my wish list. I may also want to check out more of the Grishaverse, which doesn't follow the same characters but reportedly goes further into world building; here it feels relatively skimpy.
My next read is The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older. I could use a space mystery outside of Asimov.