Author: Daniel Abraham
Cover Artist: Stephan Martiniere
Publisher: Tor
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: March 2006

Daniel Abraham is something of a rising star in speculative fiction. Since the publication of this novel, his début and the first of a series of four, he has co-authored a novel with George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, fell in with the Wild Cards crew and agreed to write a six issue Wild Cards comic. The third book in this series, An Autumn War, has been published in July (BSC hosts a sample chapter of that novel here). The last of the Long Price novels, The Price of Spring, is expected sometime in 2009. My copy of A Shadow in Summer has been gathering dust on the to be read pile for way to long but during my vacation this summer I finally got around to reading it. And I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

A Shadow in Summer is mostly set in the city of Saraykeht. A city that thrives on trade particularly in cotton. To maintain their leading position in this trade the city uses an ancient form of magic that allows a poet to create an Andat. Basically a creature based on the poets description of it, Abraham gives a much more sophisticated view of the process in the books, but for the purpose of this review think of it as magic harassed by the words of the poet. The process of creating an Andat is irreversible. Any mistakes made by the poet, flaws in his character or unforeseen consequences of the poets work are permanent. The poet retains control of his creation but has to live with the result of his poetry for the rest of his life. Not an easy task. In the distant past this form of magic was more fully understood than it is now. In fact the craft is slowly disappearing.

Saraykeht’s current Andat is Seedless. His talent is removing the seeds from cotton, making it cheaper to produce and thus guaranteeing Saraykeht’s dominance in the cotton trade. His powers go beyond cotton though. He can make people drop their “seed” as well. It makes him a weapon as well as an economic asset. Seedless passionately hates the poet that created him, a man named Hensai, and actively tries to make his life miserable. When Hensai agrees to a “sad trade”, an abortion performed by the Andat, Seedless considers it an opportunity to strike at his master. The resulting affair sends ripples though Saraykeht’s society and influences the lives of countless people. Among them the poet in training Maati, the senior overseer of a large trading house Amat, her apprentice Liat and the common labourer Itani.

This book is relatively short in fantasy terms, my hardcover has 331 pages in a market where double that number is no exception. I am impressed at the detailed vision of the city and it’s society Abraham nonetheless manages to put into it. The story itself is tightly written, after the prologue he pretty much throws his characters right into the action without elaborating on their pasts or the state of the wider world. He shows us the city though the actions of his characters. The society Abraham depicts in his books is one of a city secure in it’s power, regarded by it’s inhabitants as one of the greatest cities in the world. They appear blind of the shaky foundation of their wealth.

Abraham puts a lot of interesting details on Saraykeht’s culture in his book. Verbal communication is aided by an elaborate set of gestures and poses adding nuance to the words. A great disadvantage to those who don’t master these gestures, it sets them apart, labels them foreigners. It made me think of Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear, where the prehistoric clan communicates with gestures using words of emphasize instead of the other way around. I’ve always wondered how you can talk and do something at the same time using a language where gestures add so much to what is being said. Abraham seems to reserve the most elaborate use of gestures for formal occasions though.

The central part of the book relies heavily on the characters and their personal problems, quirks and dilema’s and much less on worldbuilding or the politics of the world. So much so in fact that both the prologue and the final part of the books seem set themselves apart from the book at bit. I suspect that the prologue will turn out to be important, A Betrayal in Winter, for the second book in the series. That one is still somewhere near the bottom of my to be read pile so I’ll have to wait and see. In the final part of the novel Seedless introduces the other main characters to the political reality of the world in a rather brutal fashion. If you read between the lines carefully you will see it coming but the change in focus is rather abrupt.

A Shadow in Summer is one of the more successful début novels I have read recently. The book shows promise, it makes me wish I had picked it up a bit sooner. It has definitely made me move up the second book in this quartet a few places on the to read list.

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Topics: A Shadow in Summer, Daniel Abraham, Long Price Quartet, Stephan Martiniere, Tor