REVIEW: The Adamantine Palace

Stephen Deas
The Adamantine Palace (Memory of Flames #1)
Roc
ISBN-10: 0451463137
ISBN-13: 978-0451463135
Fantasy
February 2, 2010

The Adamantine Palace lies at the centre of an empire that grew out of ashes. Once dragons ruled the world and man was little more than prey. Then a way of subduing the dragons alchemicly was discovered and now the dragons are bred to be little more than mounts for knights and highly valued tokens in the diplomatic power-players that underpin the rule of the competing aristocratic houses. The Empire has grown fat. And now one man wants it for himself. A man prepared to poison the king just as he has poisoned his own father. A man prepared to murder his lover and bed her daughter. A man fit to be king? But uknown to him there are flames on the way. A single dragon has gone missing. And even one dragon on the loose, unsubdued, returned to its full intelligence, its full fury, could spell disaster for the Empire. But because of the actions of one unscrupulous mercenary the rivals for the throne could soon be facing hundreds of dragons . . . Stephen Deas has written a fast moving and action-fuelled fantasy laced with irony, a razor sharp way with characters, dialogue to die for and dragons to die by.

Never let it be said that a beautiful cover can’t suck a reader right in. Because this book (it’s U.S. edition) has one gorgeous cover rendered by artist Stephen Youll. It never got tired closing the book just to look at that gorgeous cover as well as the Adamantine Palace beckoning in the distance. True to the tale, it all helps to set the mood. For me, unfortunately, the book couldn’t live up to the cover.

Let’s start off with things I did like, an exercise I like to do when I’ve ended up pretty disappointed in a book. The writing is superb. And I mean this wholeheartedly. Debut? This is a debut work? I look on that with a little suspicion because this author can write in ways that made me want to keep going despite an ever growing chasm of apathy toward it all.

The worldbuilding was also a thing of beauty. It’s not a complex world by any means, but the author’s realization of it on these pages is solid. I would have loved – publishers – to see it all laid out on a map. I’m aware that some don’t think maps are necessary in fantasy books, but this was such a lushly realized one, and the characters do a hell of a lot of traveling, that a map would have really allowed me to enjoy it a lot more even. So, the author does a great job of allowing the reader to buy into this world without any disbelieving. There are, of course, dragons (the two main types being those bred for hunting or those bred for war) as well as other fantastical creatures, and the landscape is so vast it is a little hard at times to imagine it all. Magic is present, in a fashion, though it has changed somewhat from what it used to be and we don’t necessarily see it. It’s more in the periphery. I liked the author’s unique way of  naming conventional things or types of people, for example, mercenaries becoming “sell swords” instead. I do think the book teased readers well though, and I would look forward to the next book to see how the worldbuilding alone strengthens.

The dragon named “Snow”. She is where the book excels. I have to admit that I was stone cold bored throughout most of the book, and I’ll explain why below. Snow has her own point of view several chapters into the book and plays a major roll as the plot progresses. These became the only parts of the book that truly remained interesting for me. It was actually painful to go back to the human character POVs. Snow’s plight was at first what made me root for her, and you can guess why when you read the blurb above – dragons have at this point in history basically become slaves. It wasn’t hard to begin to want to root for Snow because of this. But soon I began to question even Snow…

So now, the things I didn’t like so much:

The characters, the human ones at least. As the blurb also implies, this book is built upon one treasonous, evil act and lie upon another, without end. Maybe I’ve been spoiled. Maybe it’s unrealistic of me, even, but I want a character, at least one, to root for. I want one to have some honor, some realization of it at least, at some point in the book, even if they begin as the scum of the earth. One or two of the characters, Queen Shezira for example, seem to be that one I could focus some support on, feel something for or identify with in some way. It didn’t take long at all to see this wasn’t going to happen. All of the characters are selfish, politically driven or survival-of-the-fittest driven to accomplish a personal goal. I found that the book grew increasingly unenjoyable as a result.

Prince Jehal is the mastermind of a sick game to stop at nothing to becoming the ultimate power of the Empire. The way he goes about it is increasingly unbelievable, until I realized everyone else was just as selfishly motivated. Jehal simply honed his talent at the game better than anyone else. And they all fell victim to his scheme at some point, all of them duped in some form or fashion. As a result, none really had any redeeming qualities, not even his wife, who is too innocent of a princess to ever suspect anything. Which doesn’t say much about her considering all the intrigue and political maneuvers fluttering around her.

There were no surprises here. The way Jehal maneuvers everyone to his advantage was the exact same scenario of watching a horror movie. Everything horrible that is about to happen has already been painfully and obviously revealed to the viewers; it’s just the characters in the movie who are walking right into a stupid, dumb trap. You’re yelling at them to wake up, no, don’t go there, etc. I don’t think Jehal was masterful at all. More like everyone else around him was just too dumb to see beyond their own nose.

To top it off, we’re treated to a lot of Jehal’s other sterling villain characteristics that got old way too fast: his womanizing, his obviously false butt kissing, the way he would occasionally feel guilty at the thought of murdering his wife one day and actually feel sentimental towards her. Really? I was supposed to buy that? What was the point when he continues his villainous path without a single moment’s hesitation? I truly don’t understand what sort of, if any, growth that was meant to convey about his character. The only growth I saw was of the pure black mold variety.

Snow. Snow, Snow, Snow. I can well see why the alchemists – mages who administered a special liquid to the dragons – subdued the dragons for…well, I think it was centuries. At first, it was easy to root for her. When is it not for a group that has been oppressed, their plight illustrated so well? At first Snow is interesting. Her thoughts are awakened and she grows more intelligent and cunning. She wants to avenge her species and sets out on a path to do so, killing anyone associated in any way with the oppression of dragons. Then it became uncomfortably obvious why her kind were subdued by the alchemists. Though how they ever got any power over dragons is a huge, burning – no pun intended – mystery. A dragon in full awareness of itself is invincible. But Snow’s actions become more systematic and selfish as she continues her mission. She allows other dragons she frees to even eat humans that had no part at all in enslaving dragons. She in essence begins to become the very monster alchemists claimed the need to subdue.

And this is where I began to wonder what the point of this book was. We have on one hand dragons who are really super intelligent beings, beautiful and graceful, yet also terrifyingly monstrous. They eat people. They think of nothing but themselves in their monstrous pursuit of freedom. I wondered, was it any wonder humans rose up long ago to subdue them completely. Granted, it hasn’t been revealed completely what happened so long ago except that before dragons were subdued, it was really a miracle humans survived at all.

Alongside that dragon who speaks for them all, Snow, were some human characters, one a Scale (handlers that cared for the dragons from birth, afflicted with a disease caught from dragons) named Kailin, who was Snow’s caregiver. He is perhaps the only character in the book I could ever have rooted for. He has a genuine love for Snow that also becomes a danger to him as he neglects his health in favor of hers. Granted, he’s in a pretty extreme situation and without the means to properly care for himself anyway. Then the unthinkable happens, and this is where my opinion of Snow changed for the worse.

There are also two sell-swords, Sollos and Kemir, who have decided to take it upon themselves to right a few wrongs. Kemir especially harbors a grudge against dragon riders and other members of the dragon realms for a horrific past. He begins to actually help Snow, even going so far as to voluntarily root out out humans for her to kill, even if his life is in danger should he refuse to aid her. It’s pretty clear he wants to aid her, though he would prefer she also do some killing that she’s against. Yay, yet another selfishly motivated character. Chuck him into the pile with everyone else.

On the other hand we now have a human culture that lives off the fact that they have control over dragons. Long ago, humans were oppressed by dragons (Is there any worse a way to oppress people than to F-ing EAT them?), and now the shoe is on the other foot. The dragons’ breeding and every move is controlled by the dragon kings and queens. The culture of humanity hinges on who has the most power in this dragon-infused life. And the politics are so insanely over the top that they drowned out anything enjoyable for me. However, if political intrigue is what floats your boat in fantasy fiction, I daresay this will be the Fantasy Political Intrigue Theme Park you’ve always wanted to visit. It never stops. It…it, my god, the politics just loves itself to pieces in this book. With every major character mentioned engaging in it, it became more droll than I can say.

I will give the book one more positive – the end. It was written to such a great point that even I, who was more than happy to be d.o.n.e. was also regretfully intrigued by how the author ended it all. This perhaps was the most shocking part of the book for me, that a book I couldn’t wait to be done with could actually have the nerve to hook me a little at the end.

As I said earlier, I like a person to root for or with. At the very least give me a plot goal that is something to pull for. The way things went in book one, though, I don’t see how any of the scenarios major characters are trying to bring about would in any way be good. At the end of the book there wasn’t a character left that I felt good about in any way, and while I love me some evil villains being fully villainous, Prince Jehal and everyone else engaging in the political intrigue nightmare that was this plot merely became farcical. It was all so over the top, and unfortunately obvious while reading. Each scenario Jehal passive aggressively maneuvers to his advantage an exercise in not closing the book completely and forever. For me, this was a dud. Great writing, great worldbuilding, but characters that made me quite numb to anything they might possibly retain in order to make them remotely human. The political intrigue mallet, I’m afraid, was beaten over it all one time too many.

Rating: Two Scoops