Rutabaga's Reads 2019: Part 21

As Laini Taylor’s writings are works of beauty and art that most can only dream of achieving, I decided it would befit this duology to have its own post. Note: Spoilers are present in the “Muse of Nightmares” section.

Strange the Dreamer (Mar. 28, 2017) by Laini Taylor.

Growing up as a foundling, alone and unloved, and given the name Lazlo Strange (“Strange because that was the surname given to all foundlings in the Kingdom of Zosma and Lazlo after a monk’s tongueless uncle” since the monks didn’t think he’d live anyway), it is perhaps unsurprising that Lazlo is sustained by his dreams and stories of a city called Weep. It had a different name once, but when the Godslayer came, Weep’s true name disappeared as if by magic. Fate perhaps looked upon Lazlo when once he had to deliver manuscripts to the Great Library of Zosma. He never returned to the monks. Delving deep into folktales, fairytales, myths and legends, hiding under dust though they were, Lazlo was engrossed. He was found days later by Master Hyrrokin, who told him, “The library knows its own mind. When it steals a boy, we let it keep him.” On his own time, Lazlo pieces together whatever he can about Weep (which he calls the Unseen City), even teaching himself what he can of their language. Imagine his surprise when the Godslayer himself, Eril-Fane, arrives in Zosma with a contingent of Tizerkane, but it is Thyon Nero, the alchemist (who distilled azoth), who steals his spotlight. Until. Until he bursts aloud to Eril-Fane, in Unseen, not like a language coated in dust and commonness, but in reverence, like the precious gem it is. So Strange the Dreamer goes with Eril-Fane and the Tizerkane.

            Sarai, the Muse of Nightmares, is a nightmare-weaver. One of five blue-skinned godspawn, she is one of the child survivors of the Carnage. In that attack, it wasn’t only the savage gods that were slain, it was the children, too. Age didn’t matter. Blue skin = death. When Sarai takes one smithereen of darkness (a moth) to visit Lazlo’s dreams, she’s thrust into a place, not of fears and nightmares, but of strange loveliness and imaginative wonderment. Sarai, Sparrow, Ruby, Feral and Minya reside in the floating citadel overhead, which blocks out the sunlight for the townspeople below (the people of Weep do not know they exist). Minya wants Sarai to be nightmare victorious; the nightmares Sarai weaves in a person’s mind should be as bad as can be “for vengeance.” And how easy it is for Sarai to take a person’s dreams and make them into nightmares, “For what was a person but the sum of all the scraps of their memory and experience: a finite set of components with an infinite array of expressions” (p. 146). Lazlo changes that for her. He isn’t a nightmare; he is her dreamer.

            There is magic in the title and within the story, just as there is the beauty of connection and the ugliness of discrimination. Taylor’s writing is so lyrical that it’s like reading a graceful dance. The world-building is remarkable, the plot has depth, and the setting can be dark or lush or both at once. I was enthralled and could bask in the gorgeousness of the author’s prose for several wandering days. For anyone who’s read Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, this is a must-have for one’s bookshelf, not solely because of the elegant writing, but for the references to that trilogy, one that has me hoping she’ll write more books that tie together with these two series.

Muse of Nightmares (Oct. 2, 2018) by Laini Taylor.

Not everyone has fled Weep. Eril-Fane and Azareen remain, along with some of the Tizerkane, including Ruza and Tzara, faranji Calixte Dagaz and Thyon Nero (the “golden godson”) and Eril-Fane’s mom, Suheyla. The last time anyone saw Lazlo, he was flying on a mesarthium creature (called Rasalas, but remade) up to the citadel, bearing the body of Sarai a.k.a. the Muse of Nightmares, in his own Mesarthim blue. There, he has met the other demigods (or godspawn, derogatorily): Sparrow (Orchid Witch), Ruby (Bonfire), Feral (Cloud Thief) and Minya (Minya is all there is). Minya, jealous of Lazlo’s gift and with a hold on Sarai’s tether, plans to use the threat of Sarai’s evanescence to exact her revenge on the city, no matter that she looks like she’s six years old. They incapacitate Minya (for her own good), so her violent threat is at bay, but Lazlo and the others need to decide where to go next. There’s also the matter of supplies, as they could use real food and decent clothing.

            Also centering in this tale are sisters Kora (Korako Nyoka-vasa) and Nova (Novali Nyoka-vasa). Seen in Nova’s flashbacks, they were inseparable until a young Skathis kept Kora for her astral (“of the stars”) gift and dropped Nova out of the ship like trash, not because she lacked a gift, but because he feared it. She’s a pirate. Hundreds of years ago, Kora asked Nova to do the impossible and travel across worlds – entire worlds! – to find her. Nova did, but she was too late. Instead of her beloved sister, she sees someone who looks like Skathis and has his gift, but isn’t, and she steals it anyway. Wraith, known for winking in and out of existence, is more obviously present, but why? And what will Nova do when she’s in denial of Kora’s absence?

            Anyone familiar with Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy will recognize references to the worlds in which they take place, which pleases me greatly, as I hope these characters will all one day converge like a new Avengers masterpiece, but literary. Taylor’s character-driven plot and impressive world-building are fluid and graceful. It’s like gliding down an exhale after dancing up an inhale. The writing is ornate and beautiful. “Muse of Nightmares” is an exquisite fantasy where moths are epic, nightmares are the norm and dreams are lovely things just out of reach (unless you’re Lazlo Strange; his Dreamer’s Weep is a sight). The story is weighty and complex, luxurious and rich. I am captivated yet again by Taylor’s wordsmithing.

Additional Notes:

·   Cataclysm: when one of the two Sixes cut a door too far between worlds, opening into darkness and loosing the darkness that’s alive

·   Continuum: the great All, an infinite number of universes lying pressed together like pages, which can be traversed through portals

·   Faerers: the lightbearers, seraphim who created those portals between worlds

·   Mesarthium: blue metal of the Mesarthim (“Mesarthium is no ordinary metal, for it is perfectly adamant: impenetrable, unassailable.”)

·   Uzumark: an intricate network of waterways carving through the bedrock of Weep

·   Yeldez: a courtyard house

Gods/Goddesses:

·   Skathis: god of beasts and high lord of the Mesarthim, “most monstrous of them all”

·   Isagol: goddess of despair

·   Korako: goddess of secrets

·   Letha: goddess of oblivion

·   Vanth: god of storms

·   Ikirok: god of revelry who served as executioner “in his spare time”

Terms:

·   al-Meliz: toward Meliz

·   ez-Meliz: away from Meliz

Worlds:

·   Earth: world of people like you and me

·   Eretz: world of the chimaera, which runs parallel to Earth

·   Meliz: world of the seraphim

·   Mesaret: world with the extraordinary blue metal that made its people like gods. “With their skyships and soldier-wizards, they were invincible. For a time.”

·   Var Elient: world with the red sea, called Arev Bael, which contains impressive monsters and tezerl stalks grow out of the sea

·   Zeru: world in which this duology takes place