Author: Sarah Ettritch
Publisher: Norn
Rating: WORTHY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration of any kind for this review. Since this is a new novel, this review is less detailed so as not to rob the writer of their story, but even so, it will probably still be more in-depth than you'll typically find elsewhere!
I loved this story from the off, and I recommend it.
Is Sarah Ettritch a cool name or what? She has some interesting titles showing on her web site, but this is the first of hers I've read. I may try to track down some others if I like this one. I don't know what nationality Ettritch is, but she writes like someone who grew up in Australia or perhaps England, and I love her phraseology especially when she gets very slightly potty-mouthed in her dismissive phrases. There's something rib-tickling about "nuns" using some bad language, even if only mildly.
The name 'Salbine' made me think of Sabines and Roman times. I find myself wondering if the author (authoress? Already linguistic genderism strikes!) chose it to reflect that, but there's no indication as to where this story takes place, or when, or even if it's on Earth. (I'm not saying this is a bad thing). It was only later that I discovered that Ettritch is pronouncing 'Salbine' as 'Salbin'!
The Salbine sisters is exclusively a female religious order which worships the god Salbine (yes, it's a goddess, but why are we putting ourselves into a position where we must distinguish between them? I mentioned this gender specific terminology in another review, and it's the same argument here: if we bring female deities under the banner of 'god', then do we insult them or equalize them? Maybe we should quit using 'god' and use the gender neutral 'deity' instead?
I found myself counting the number of times Ettritch uses the main two character's names on the very first page, because it seemed such a lot! It was in the twenties for each, but it's hard to see how that could be changed significantly given what she was conveying. Maybe it's just me being weird. The main protagonists are Lillian and Maddy, with an emphasis on the latter. Lillian is a woman in her early forties, who is - I was going to say 'a master', but that's wrong, as indeed is 'a mistress'! so let me say - 'an adept' at the magical arts, which in this case means control over the four so-called elements.
I have to say I found this latter cliché somewhat tiresome. Can we not get away from magic fantasy stories which are mired in the trope of air, earth, fire, and water? From the scientific PoV, none of those is actually an element. I know it's not meant in that way literally in these fables, and some hundred eighteen real elements are a bit much to handle, but even that large number can be simplified into as few as ~10 groups, as the periodic table demonstrates. I'd have a lot of respect for a fantasy story which tried using that in place of what we typically get. Indeed, wouldn't it be a refreshingly different story if we started out with the trope, but the story was about how a young and gifted new mage actually discovers that there is much more to these four 'elements' than meets the wand?
In the same way that real scientists discovered that the atom (something which the 5th<\sup> century Greeks named as such because it was the smallest thing of which they could conceive) was itself discovered to be comprised from smaller component parts, so, too, could the four elements. What could be more magical than the discovery that water, something which typically douses fires, could be split into two elements that cause fires to rage, thereby impressively linking fire and water? Anyway, having whined about that, I'm committed to reading this story because I really liked it, so this is one amongst a set of pet peeves we readers may be required to hang up at the door as we enter!
Lillian, in her early forties, has been a the monastery for a long time. Long before the story begins, she had a relationship with another woman, Caroline, who left her in the lurch. Now she has begun, very nervously, a new relationship with Maddy, a brand new initiate who may or may not have Lillian's best interests at heart. But Maddy, in her early twenties, is a whole thicket of issues herself. In this world, young women sometimes receive the mark of Salbine (a tree pattern on their hand). Once this happens, the woman can choose to take up the call or to ignore it. If they come to this (or another) monastery, they're initiated into the order, and are shown how to harness those four elements. It seems that Salbine is the only god there is. If there are others, they're not mentioned - not this far, anyway! And Salbine is definitely an absentee landlord!
Maddy is having some serious problems with picking up the elemental practice. She can't raise fire except in the most, er, elementary way (sorry, I couldn't resist that!), and one day while trying, she feels like her entire body is on fire and she collapses. From this event she learns from the Abbess that she is 'malflowed'. This isn't the first time this has ever happened to anyone, but what it means for Maddy is that she cannot continue in the magical studies because she could cause great harm to herself or to others.
This is so devastating to her that she feels crippled, rejected, second-hand, malformed. She fears that she will lose Lillian or have to leave the monastery, but she is not rejected by her sisters (although she is abused somewhat by another initiate). She begins, at the abbess's advice, to study other malflowed initiates, to learn more about what she is, and what became of others who were in these same circumstances. She's repeatedly told that this is not the end of her life with the order, that she was chosen for a reason, but this is little consolation to Maddy, who, despite her severe disappointment at her status, resolves to pursue a means by which to handle it. This involves her leaving Lillian for a while, and I have to say that Maddy, the younger of the two, is the more mature in this development. And this parting does precipitate the revelation of a secret which Lillian has been withholding from Maddy.
To reveal more details than the many I've now given would be to tell Ettritch's story for her which is not my goal in my blog, so I'll wind this up with general observations, and leave you to read the novel. This novel seems obviously to have been written from a lesbian PoV, and so one observation I have now is that the novel left me feeling that there is a latent prejudice against heterosexuals underlying its philosophy! Let me explain that. The monastery is for women only. They have men to 'guard' them, especially when they go on journeys. I have some issues with this on several fronts!
As I've intimated, this is, overall, in general terms, a strong novel and it drew me in quickly and held my attention. There were some minor quibbles (such as, for example, a tavern having glasses. Given that this novel appears to be set in medieval times, I seriously doubt your typical roadside inn would have glassware! And there was a bit of telegraphy in play regarding the fortune of one character, but I can forgive all that because the story is otherwise so good. In fact, that one character proved to be as charming, enjoyable, and entertaining as the two main characters.
Here's a pet peeve of mine regarding witches, magicians, mages and wizards - why are they so useless?! These stories (and this isn't aimed at this novel in particular, which I enjoyed very much, but at magical stories in general) always extol the power of magic and/or the particular mage/witch/wizard in question, but when it gets right down to the nitty gritty, these powerful magical people are useless. Take the Harry Potter series as a case in point. Dumbledore was praised as the most powerful wizard there was, yet he was essentially helpless against the rise to power of Voldemort, and it was down to Potter, not through any magical skill, but through luck and pluck to save the day.
The same was true of The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf was supposedly this magnificent wizard, yet he could do nothing to transport the ring to the volcano! All of his skill and power, and his magic was useless. He couldn’t protect Frodo from harm, he couldn’t give him magic to see through the wiles of Gollum, he couldn’t make him invisible, or speed his legs! So what good was his magic, honestly? Why even include magic in a story if you're not going to go anywhere with it? In the end, it was all on Frodo, and Gandalf couldn’t even summon up one of his giant eagles to give him a ride there! This is also true of gods. The Bible talks of the most powerful being in the universe - indeed, the creator of the universe - yet the bottom line was that this creator could do nothing, and it was down to the Israelites to savagely take the land they were supposedly promised! How pathetic is that?!
So how does this relate to The Salbine Sisters? In the same vein as the problems I addressed above, what I don’t get about this novel, given that they have this supposedly strong and pervasive control of the 'elements' at their fingertips (quite literally!), is why is it that they have to resort to sending letters by messenger to communicate with another monastery? They can't use magic to communicate? If not, then why? This isn't explained and I think it needs to be, otherwise the story is letting the reader down. We're being asked to take something on faith and given no reason for it, and I think this reflects badly on an author. I don’t do well on faith alone!
Why, for example, does Maddy have to physically travel to the other monastery to read their documents? Yes, I know there has to be this separation to move Maddy and Lillian's story along, but the question of why their magic is so unhelpful in this regard is unaddressed. For me, it's now sitting there, the bull elephant in the room, reminding me that this is just a story, and I shouldn’t take it too seriously or become too engrossed in it, because this separation seems awfully artificial now - like it didn’t arise truly organically from the story, but was tossed in randomly just because. The problem which Ettritch has caused here is that I want to get engrossed in this story! It’s all her fault! She made me love these characters, but I feel she's cheated me out of a piece of their world.
They can't use their magic to copy and send these documents? If not, then of what use is the magic? What do they actually do with it? This is important given the awful events which befall Maddy on her journey, but it's something which the novel hasn’t covered. Magic plays very little part in the story. I don't get why it's there, because precisely the same story could have been told without any magical element to it at all.
If there's a limit to the magic, it ought to be depicted, spelled-out, shown, or hinted at, to explain the even more pervasive need for the mundane in a magical story, otherwise it just looks like the idea hasn’t been thought through properly. I know that in order for this to be a really good novel, it can’t be just about the magic, with the people being merely props. There has to be a people factor, of course, but the other side of that coin is that it can't be just about the people, either, not if you're going to bring magic into it! And of course I mean the magic of fantasy, not the magic which comes as part and parcel of a really cool relationship, which is actually what we also have here.
If the magic is in, then it has to be an intelligent and integral part of who they are, and of the world in which they live, otherwise why have it? If it’s not integral, then it’s just a patch on an otherwise perfect pair of pants and it stands out as such. If this fails, then the novel becomes loose and disjointed and the author is left relying on telling just a people story, hoping the holes in the magic don’t turn off the reader. Fortunately for Ettritch, she had me at "Maddy ran her hand up Lillian's arm…" and she hasn’t turned me off this story, but she has imbued me with the vague feeling that something's rotten in the state of Denmark, as Marcellus would phrase it.
Okay, pet peeve off! Moving along. I found this story hard to put aside, but put aside I had to from time to time and I missed it when I did. That's a really good sign! It's probably also a good thing, otherwise I would have finished it must more quickly and then have found myself pining for more. That's the sign of a really engrossing novel, and that's what Ettritch has charmed me with. I definitely want to read more of this author.
So in conclusion, the story did go where I thought it would, and where I hoped it would, and my eyes were moist at the end! There, I said it! I loved this story and would definitely be interested in a sequel, or failing that, in reading other materials from Sarah Ettritch.
