A Betrayal in Winter (The Long Price Quartet)

No cover — Daniel Abraham: A Betrayal in Winter (The Long Price Quartet) (Hardcover, 2007, Tor Books, Tor)

Hardcover, 320 pages

English language

Published Aug. 20, 2007 by Tor Books, Tor.

ISBN:: 978-0-7653-1341-6
OCLC Number:: 78792006

(1 review)

Daniel Abraham delighted fantasy readers with his brilliant, original, and engaging first novel, A Shadow in Summer. Now he has produced an even more powerful sequel, a tragedy as darkly personal and violent as Shakespeare's Macbeth.

As a boy, Otah Machi was exiled from his family, Machi's ruling house. Decades later, he has witnessed and been part of world-changing events. Yet he has never returned to Machi. Now his father--the Khai, or ruler, of Machi--is dying and his eldest brother Biitrah has been assassinated, Otah realizes that he must return to Machi, for reasons not even he understands.

Tradition dictates that the sons of a dying Khai fall upon each other until only one remains to succeed his father. But something even worse is occurring in Machi. The Galts, an expansive empire, has allied with someone in Machi to bring down the ruling house. Otah is accused, the long-missing brother …

Daniel Abraham delighted fantasy readers with his brilliant, original, and engaging first novel, A Shadow in Summer. Now he has produced an even more powerful sequel, a tragedy as darkly personal and violent as Shakespeare's Macbeth.

As a boy, Otah Machi was exiled from his family, Machi's ruling house. Decades later, he has witnessed and been part of world-changing events. Yet he has never returned to Machi. Now his father--the Khai, or ruler, of Machi--is dying and his eldest brother Biitrah has been assassinated, Otah realizes that he must return to Machi, for reasons not even he understands.

Tradition dictates that the sons of a dying Khai fall upon each other until only one remains to succeed his father. But something even worse is occurring in Machi. The Galts, an expansive empire, has allied with someone in Machi to bring down the ruling house. Otah is accused, the long-missing brother with an all-too-obvious motive for murder.

With the subtlety and wonderful storytelling skill of his first novel, Abraham has created a masterful drama filled with a unique magic, a suspenseful thriller of sexual betrayal, and Machiavellian politics.

1 edition

Kadomi@buecher.pnpde.social reviewed A Betrayal in Winter (The Long Price Quartet) by Daniel Abraham

Greatly improved sequel

4 stars

A Betrayal in Winter greatly improves the premise of the first book in the series. It's set 14 years after the fall of Saraykeht in the first book, and set in Machi, a city far in the north. The andat, the servant demon of the city, is Stone-Made-Soft, and just like Seedless in the first book, he longs for his freedom, in a less menacing way. The ruler of Machi is dying, and as is tradition, his sons are now meant to kill each other, to determine succession. The first son is killed, but as it turns out not by the brothers, and Maati from the first book, the poet without an andat, is sent to investigate. And of course there's Otah Machi who has left his family behind, who is a legitimate heir and suspected to be behind the first murder.

This description should already point at the main …

A Betrayal in Winter greatly improves the premise of the first book in the series. It's set 14 years after the fall of Saraykeht in the first book, and set in Machi, a city far in the north. The andat, the servant demon of the city, is Stone-Made-Soft, and just like Seedless in the first book, he longs for his freedom, in a less menacing way. The ruler of Machi is dying, and as is tradition, his sons are now meant to kill each other, to determine succession. The first son is killed, but as it turns out not by the brothers, and Maati from the first book, the poet without an andat, is sent to investigate. And of course there's Otah Machi who has left his family behind, who is a legitimate heir and suspected to be behind the first murder.

This description should already point at the main strength of the book, political intrigue. It's very slow, and the reader knows all along who's behind the killings.

If I have to nitpick, it's that yet again, my least favorite trope, the love triangle, rears its ugly head. Though it's hard to even describe it as love.

I was ultimately satisfied with the outcome, and am looking forward to seeing where this goes next. A thing I have to mention is that Abraham manages to make this culture seem utterly alien to me. It's not classic Western fantasy at all. I appreciate that a lot.

Subjects

Science Fiction And Fantasy
Fiction
Fiction - Fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy - Epic
Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
Fantasy fiction
Suspense fiction