Forgotten Friday’s: Kage Baker Writes Fantasy Too

Kage Baker is best known for her short fiction and a series of SF books – The Company. What is less known is that she has written fantasy as well, and it’s quite good. The Anvil of the World (US, UK, Canada) is a mosaic novel that is heavy in satire and subversion of fantasy norms – a book that I enjoyed quite a bit (full review – it’s one of my earliest, so don’t hold that against me :).

About The Anvil of the World:

And now, a fantasy. The cast:

The CHILDREN OF THE SUN are an energetic, mechanically-minded race, offspring (so their legends say) of a blacksmith-god and a fire-goddess, long ages ago. Sanguine, optimistic, quarrelsome, artistic, inventive yet a bit careless with their technology. They live in stone cities. Long ago some immense catastrophe nearly wiped them out, a fact they cheerfully ignore as their slag heaps grow ever higher, as their cities grow ever more crowded.

The YENDRI are a forest-dwelling people, refugees from ancient slavery in another land, led to freedom by a Holy Child. They have long since settled into a pastoral life of meditation and other spiritual pursuits, which would be perfectly idyllic but for two things: they can’t abide the Children of the Sun, whom they see as vulgar and destructive, and their Holy Child grew up and married someone they despise even more bitterly than the Children of the Sun.

DEMONS. No, we’re not talking about Eeeevil and the hosts of Hell. These demons are elementals, insubstantial unless given bodies, with a ratio of Good to Evil about the same as any other race. Some of them are quite intelligent; some of them are abysmally stupid. All are powerful and dangerous if crossed. Many of them have gone into service in exchange for corporeal forms, and they serve a shadowy figure known as the Master of the Mountain… who happens to be the husband of the Green Saint, formerly the Holy Child of the Yendri.

Complications:

A Child of the Sun going by the alias of Smith, for reasons best known to himself, has a hidden destiny. It requires that he change addresses a lot. He’s not getting any younger, though, and, times being what they are, he accepts a job as a caravan master…

The Master of the Mountain and the Green Saint have had children. A lot of children. In fact, they have released a rather large brood of semidivine semidemonic highly-conflicted offspring on the world. Certain extremist elements amongst the Yendri are really, really angry about this, regarding the children’s very existence as Sacrilege…

The Children of the Sun have reached critical mass, and their fate is about to be shaped on the anvil of the world. Will they perish or survive? The past rises like a ghost, old scandals are raked up, long-buried secrets are brought to light—and Smith discovers he is not the only one with something to hide…

She is returning to fantasy with a new release coming from Tor in September – The House of the Stag (US, UK, Canada), set in the same world as The Anvil of the World.

The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker

The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker is an intriguing first effort in the fantasy genre (Baker is better known for her sci-fi). The book is a bit hard to classify or pigeon-hole, which is a good thing. If you combine the classic fantasy motif of a mysterious protagonist with a shady past with a dash (or two) of Terry Pratchett, then you’re getting close to what Baker has created with in The Anvil of the World.

Smith is a Child of the Sun running from his past and looking for work in the breadbasket city of Troon. His cousin has hired him as the caravan master for a journey to Salesh by the Sea. Smith anticipates an easy trip across the land, and is disappointed when events do not allow this. It seems that the caravan is full of ‘Smith’s’ – we have Mrs. Smith the gourmet cook, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their three children, some other Smith’s, a runner, a courier, Lord Ermenwyr and his nurse, and a mysterious traveler of the Yendri race. No one is of course who they seem, and are any of them actually named Smith?

Attacks, death, demons, injuries, destroyed cargo, and a crying baby keep things interesting as the caravan journeys to the sea. We even learn who some of our mysterious travelers are along the way.

The tale continues in Salesh as Smith once again changes careers in his quest to avoid the past, and of course, a journey of destiny with the fate of the world at stake.

The Anvil of the World starts off with something of a slow start – I found myself waiting see what’s going on and not particularly caring about the characters. However, don’t despair – sticking with the book is well rewarded. Slowly, Baker’s subtle use of humor and pun sinks in and the characters are masterfully rounded out. The subtle humor becomes not so subtle at times and social commentary begins to bleed from the story, all in clever, humorous ways that I thoroughly enjoyed. A magical duel between mages may well be the best I’ve ever read and brings a whole new understanding of the old saying: ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’.

The book is fast paced, a quick read, and overall, well done. The writing can be inconsistent at times, but its witty nature easily overcomes this. Kage Baker is an author whose books I will now be on the lookout for, and recommend you do the same. On my 10 point rating scale where 10 is unsurpassed and 5 is a take-it or leave-it novel, The Anvil of the World rates a solid 7 – a hearty recommendation.