#Review - Gallant by VE Schwab

Gallant
VE Schwab
Titan Books, 1 March 2022
Available as: HB, 320pp
Source: Advance copy
ISBN: 9781785658686

I was very excited to see this new standalone novel from VE Schwab was coming, and so very honoured and grateful to the publisher to received an advance copy of Gallant to consider for review, which I sat down and read in a day, its just THAT good.

How can I sum up Gallant? 

Reaching for comparisons, Dickens inevitably came to mind. Imagine Oliver Twist being sent from his workhouse to Wuthering Heights - only dialled up to twelve. Rather than Oliver we have Olivia Prior, an orphan sixteen years old who has lived most of that time at Merilance School for Girls. Merilance is a pinched, cold, grudging institution that brings up its charges to have expectations low in all respects, save for years of grinding service. For Olivia, the School is doubly limiting: she's non-verbal, and the other girls use this as a reason to freeze her out. They are at least scared of her, after the way she responded to bullying, but it's a very lonely existence with little love from the school's "Matrons".

Olivia's companions, therefore, seem mainly to comprise the "ghouls" that she encounters around the school. Possibly revenants of dead pupils and teachers - and oh, how many tragic deaths they seem to represent - these seem harmless creatures, quietly haunting particular spots. Schwab is deliberately vague about whether the ghouls are somehow special to Olivia, or whether they might be a wider phenomenon in this world (though it seems at least that nobody else at the school is aware of them).

Against this bleak background, it comes as a relief when Olivia learns that the "Gallant" mentioned in the diary that is her only inheritance form her dead mother is, in fact, her ancestral home; that she has living relatives there; has been called for - and is to leave Merilance. She does, though, reflect that she's been told in that same diary to stay away from Gallant, for her own safety...

In this opening part of the story, Schwab sets up an intriguing situation. Olivia is a fascinating hero, one who's had to become strong, at least outwardly. Blissfully (perhaps) she never dreams (what dreams might come?) but she certainly hurts. Her strength is despite some deep wounds - her isolation, the loss of her parents - not from lack of them. She'll need all that strength and more in the second part of the novel, when she travels to Gallant and isn't welcomed exactly as she had hoped.

Gallant - what is Gallant? Well, I'll not say too much as I don't want to spoil this book, but I can fairly say that Gallant is the Gothic mansion of all my dreams. Here you'll find a remote house in the mountains (as elsewhere in the story, Schwab is vague about the exact location). While Olivia seems, on her mother's side, to be part of a wealthy family, there's an air of decay or at least abandonment to much of Gallant, as though it was built to contain far more than her, her cousin Matthew and aged retainers Hannah and Edgar. And when I say "more" I don't necessarily mean, more family members. The place, as described, had for me a sense of unrealised potential, as though it could be more, host more possibilities, more goings-on, than Olivia finds. Imagine a decayed fortress still standing on the borderlands, stocked with weapons and supplies, but overlaid with dust and disuse. There's a sense of entrapment. For all the visits by the butcher's van, we see little of any outsiders - the driver who takes Olivia to Gallant just drops her outside and makes off again as quickly as he can. Clearly there are mysteries at Gallant; reasons that Olivia is forbidden from leaving the house in the dark; connected, perhaps, to her mother and what seems to be the tragic life she lived and lost.

And, of course, the mysteries come calling and, despite all injunctions, we know don't we, that Olivia will hear the call?

In short, Gallant - the house - is a wonderful, gothicy, deathy place, brooding over a story rich in conception, a story straddling the borders of fairyland and gothic horror, all about family, love and loss. Also, I think, a story about the traps we build ourselves into - and the shadow side of all those good things we want in our lives.

I especially loved the way that in this book the weird and the mundane combine. The space given lovingly to cooking, sketching or playing piano, even while the darkness - well, no spoilers, let's just say, while the darkness does what darkness always does. The reminders that, as an orphan, Olivia is still just reaching out for her parents, desperate to learn more about them, desperate to decode a lost journal written partly in words and partly in pictures. Or the way that her fate and future will be intimately bound with both sides of her family, not just one. There are big mysteries here - and we get some answers to those - but there are also little mysteries in all directions, and Schwab is content to leave many of those to puzzle and intrigue. 

It's a satisfying read, rich in atmosphere and menace and deeply entrancing. There is much more here, though - what I took most of all from Gallant was its depiction of strength from those who are overlooked, its affirmation that people have a right to shape their own lives, make their own mistakes - and its warning that even seeking to shield others can be a way of diminishing and sidelining them. 

In short, it’s pure gold.

For more information about Gallant, see the publisher's website here.

Review - The Near Witch by VE Schwab

Cover by Julia Lloyd

The Near Witch
VE Schwab
Titan Books, 12 March 2019
Available as HB (355pp) or e-book
Format read: HB
Source: Free copy from publisher (thank you!)

I was really excited and felt very privileged to be sent a copy of this, VE Schwab's first published book, which - as can be the fate of early books - had fallen out of print in the US (it was never published in the UK). It's wonderful that Titan have put it out again, in a handsome edition with some beautiful illustrations on the cover and title pages well as a new introduction by Schwab herself and an additional, related short story...

It starts with a crack, a sputter, and a spark...

So begins this story of yearning, prejudice, revenge and of love.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

If you ever visit York, do take in the Castle Museum, housed in the old prison. It has its share of the gruesome - you can visit the condemned cell where Dick Turpin spent his last night of life - but more interesting to me is that the wings have been adapted to house displays of everyday Yorkshire life though the ages. Among these is the interior of a moorland cottage form the 18th or 19th century. One family living in a single room, surrounded by the harrowing wind. It could be very cosy - or, if you are at all nervous, it could almost be a living nightmare.

In The Near Witch we see both sides of moorland living. The village of Near is - ironically - near nothing at all, surrounded by wild moors across which the wind plays, almost seeming to talk to the villagers inside the boundary. (And such a clear boundary, almost like that between different worlds). We learn little of the world in which Near is set - I think there is a wider world, but, in a way that reminded me of Meryvn Peake's Gormenghast and Titus Groan, that world isn't present, important or of much interest to anyone.

Instead we have the village - more a scattering of houses and fields than a heavily built up settlement - and the moor, where it's dangerous to go, though nobody seems sure why. Beset by old legends of a Near Witch, of the dangerous wind and by the expanses of the moor, the arrival of a stranger is a big event, a threatening event, announced in dream and visions rather than in the clear light of day. And he's greeted with suspicion as, at the same time, children begin to go missing, vanishing from their beds at night...

I simply loved this book. It reads as Wuthering Heights' younger, weirder sister, with much of the same atmosphere - the moorland otherworldliness, the sense of wild forces at play, forces nobody understand or can control, not Lexi, the hero, not the two Witch Sisters, not Otto, Lexi's Uncle, the fatuous Guardian of the village - but an extra layer of the dark, of the perverse.

Despite searches, the missing children can't be found and it soon seems more important to blame someone than to rescue them. As the teasing winds get stronger and something from the village's past seems to be stirring, a mob mentality, a desire to hurt and blame, begins to whisper through Near.

So there's a mystery at the centre of the story - in fact, two mysteries. Who's taking the children, and who's the stranger?

There's an atmosphere of claustrophobia, of finger-pointing, of fear and recrimination

There's also Lexi, into whom Schwab breathes a spirit of absolute reality. A young woman mourning her dead father, Lexi fiercely protects her sister, Wren, and tries to keep at bay the influence of Uncle Otto. But it's hard when her mother has become hollow and Otto insists on Lexi knowing her place and keeping to it. Lexi's family are hunters and trackers but Otto thinks she should tend the bread ovens and deliver loaves instead - and not carry a knife, wear boots - or interfere with mens' business, like the hunt for the missing kids.

As a Schwab hero, of course, Lexi has absolutely no time for this, setting the stage for a conflict with Otto and his gang. They have muscle, but Lexi isn't without her own resources, whether friendships, knowledge or simple determination. In a way - and I know this is being fanciful and using hindsight - I could see a bit of Lila Bard from A Darker Shade of Magic peeping out of Lexi.

And there's Cole, about whom I shall say nothing at all because you need to discover this elusive, haunted young man for yourself. (The story that's included, The Ash Born Boy, does tell more about him but you should definitely read that afterwards: it is itself a marvel of a story, turning complex emotional truth into unleashed power, but if you read it first you'll just know too much about him).

It all makes for a powerful, even heady story, romantic in all ways at once, imbued with the spirit of moonlight on the purple moor. A haunting story, about a haunted place but one which manages at the same time to keep itself rooted in humanity, in love and in family rather than going totally gothic.

A fine first novel, and I hope that if I'd read it in 2011 I'd have guessed the author was bound for great things.

Review - Vengeful by VE Schwab

Design by Julia Lloyd

Vengeful
VE Schwab
Titan Books, 25 September 2018
HB, 575pp

I'm grateful to Titan for an advance copy of Vengeful.

I was really excited to get this book, as Vicious, to which it is the sequel, was the first book by VE Schwab that I read. I hoped to see more of that world and the characters in it - and here they are! So when it arrived I rearranged my reading plans, and sat up till late on Sunday to finish it.

Both Vicious and Vengeful revolve around humans who have acquired superpowers after dying and being revived, becoming "EOs" (for "Extraordinary").

Don't call them "superheroes" though. Most are far from heroic and many are pretty heartless killers.  (I should warn you that the body count here is impressive.) But at the same time, they are surprisingly sympathetic, their actions understandable, often motivated largely by survival, and their situation both lonely and frightening.

Central to this story are Victor Vale and Eli 'Ever' Cardale, the medical students who, in Vicious, found the secret of superpowers but later fell out, Eli taking it upon himself to hunt down other "EOs" (for "ExtraOrdinary") and Victor seeking to end Eli.

Accompanying Victor are his surrogate family. Dom can step outside time; Sydney can bring the dead back to life; Mitch isn't an EO but is far from ordinary - indeed, he's the emotional heart of the group Dol is a the dog, and there extraordinary to begin with. One way or another, Victor saved or collected them all and they have stuck with him . But it's an uneasy life, always on the move, being hunted.

And now, something is going wrong for Victor.

Those are all characters from Vicious. Schwab also widens the cast, bringing in Marcella, widow of a gang boss, who is able to destroy things (and people) with a mere touch; Jonathan (who can generate a protective shield) and June who can steal others' appearances. Marcella's bloody path through the upper echelons of the city of Merit provides a counterpoint to Victor's violent search for an answer to his troubles. Once you're accustomed to the gore (as you will be if you've just read Vicious) the trail of death is grimly fascinating. Marcella isn't subtle, and it's all bound to come to  a bad end, the only question being how bad, and when.

While this end draws on, Schwab also delves back, letting us see, especially, more of Eli's tragic earlier life, of how he became fixated on what is "normal" and what isn't. There is more explanation here than in Vicious, and I find myself more sympathetic to him than before. The way that Eli's background is sketched, and the relationships between Victor, Sydney and Mitch, are done very well, making all four seem especially real, especially human. In places it is almost unbearably sad.

This is a lengthy book and Schwab builds up the story steadily, showing not only her characters' earlier lives but also the more immediate build up to the "now". So we get a building tension as the date and time counts down in chapters whose headings show just how much time is left. The book does dart backwards and forwards on different timescales - days, weeks, years - but it's very deftly done and is never confusing, the very different personalities of the different characters ensuring that it's always clear (apart from the headings) where we are and who is involved.

The world in which Vale et al operate is also well realised. Schwab's meticulous descriptions recall the distinct alternate reality of classic superhero comics: the plausible but other-reality names of possible US cities (Capital City, Dresden, Halloway and of course Merit, where much of the action takes place, as in Vicious - with, like all the best stories, a destructive confrontation downtown to round things off); the importance of city, rather than national, concerns and politics (the main authority in Merit seems to be EON, the organisation set up to control the Eos); the landscape of freeways, motels and apartment buildings. It's a breath away from Gotham City, maybe a plane flight from Metropolis.

That sense of place, the reality of this world, meant that even where the action became incredible, I found myself accepting what was going on. The action and reaction here has its own weird logic, such that once things got into motion, everything made sense. I couldn't see exactly how it would fall out but the prospects for characters I'd come to like - even love - didn't look good so the conclusion was nailbiting. (I knew from Vicious that Schwab doesn't spare her characters - or her readers - and the special powers granted the former are as likely to make things more difficult as to help.)

It is, overall, an explosive read, a gripping and electrifying narrative from an author who can write blazing prose and knows how to really hold the reader's attention. Just an excellent book, make sure you don't miss it.

Review: A Conjuring of Light

A Conjuring of Light (A Darker Shade of Magic 3)
VE Schwab
Titan Books, 21 February
PB, 666pp

I'm really grateful to Lydia at Titan Books for an advance copy of this book, which is one of my most keenly awaited books of 2017.

The precarious equilibrium among the four Londons has reached its breaking point. Once brimming with the red vivacity of magic, darkness casts a shadow over the Maresh Empire, leaving a space for another London to rise. 

Kell–once assumed to be the last surviving Antari–begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. Lila Bard, once a commonplace–but never common–thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry.

Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery and the Night Spire crew are attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible, as an ancient enemy returns to claim a crown and a fallen hero is desperate to save a decaying world…

I've said this before, but sometimes a book review almost seems beside the point. I wonder if I should simply say BUY THIS BOOK!!! - it is so good. And in any case, when it comes to a book which, like this, ties up a trilogy, those who have read the earlier books will know very well whether they want to read more.

But I do want to say something about ACOL because it's so... it's such a... it... well, the trilogy it's part of has, for me, come to be almost a monument in SFF. It's hard to believe that a few years ago, these books weren't there, now they are, and everything else fits around them (almost as though Kell had been at work here). That deserves some comment and some (spoiler light) analysis, I think.

And if you haven't read A Darker Shade of Magic and A Gathering of Shadows (where have you BEEN?) I hope that this will persuadfe you to do so.

So - why do I think this trilogy, and this book, are so great?

First, the characters. They are so real and so true. You may not end up loving everyone (except "bad ideas are my favourite kind" Lila, of course you'll end up loving her because LILA) but you will see them all as so real and the cost of what happens in this book as a real, crushing cost. And they're all so mixed up, so frustratingly human, not heroes - or villains - on a Quest.

Everyone you'd expect and hope to meet is here, and some others. Kell and Rhy, of course, royal princes, magical and non-magical, with their conflicts and history.  Lila too, as dangerous as ever (perhaps more so) and as wonderful as ever (Lila Bard! Yes!) And Alucard Emery with his on-off relationship with Rhy (what exactly did happen before ADSOM?) and... and... and stop, David, there are some others here you could mention that might count as spoilers. What I will say is that everyone we meet - even those who previously seemed unpleasant or even - is, over the course of the book, shown to be a good sight more complex than the judgmental reader ever gave them credit for: all the burdens, the noble motives gone bad, the impossible decisions, the weighing of least evils, is exposed.

Even the fears of parenthood (which are, simply, all consuming) have their place.

Then, the deft way that everything from the earlier books is brought together - even amidst new perils - and resolved... but still with that cost, with pain and blood and regret. It makes me think of the final part of The Lord of the Rings. Poor Frodo suffering what today we'd call PTSD and adolescent me not getting it, heedless that the book was written by a man who must have been suffering just that. Well here there's the same sense of dark. I don't know what Schwab must have imagined herself through to portray this but the empathy in this book simply shines out. Incredible.

And the worlds - we see new aspects here of the three Londons and their surroundings. There's a telling difference between most of the action on the books - taking place in one London or another - and some of the travel here which goes further, the book taking on an almost fairytale feeling with the geography vague - it's not clear whether beyond London itself these worlds are the same as ours and the haze of uncertainty makes very real the conceit of slipping into alternate realities.

And of course we have magic, fighting, ships... an epic scale for this conclusion, picking up right after AGOS left off, with Rhy dying and Kell trapped, and romping through those 666(!) pages.

If the book starts with peril and jeopardy it soon ramps up even further as worlds are at risk - Red London but also our, Grey London. While the nobles who came to London for the tournament fret and bicker, a dreadful threat is arising...

Oh, and the language. Schwab has such a way with language:

"The truth had claws, and they were sunk into his chest..."

For sure they were!

"If she was careful enough, sharp enough, then nothing bad would happen..."

I know that feeling. It doesn't work.

"Dead men can't hold grudges"

Is Schwab out Stevensoning Stevenson?

In short, this is all you could possibly want or expect from the final part of the trilogy, and much, much more besides. An epic read, a truly great book.

For more about the book, see here. To buy the book, go to your local bookshop or buy here, here, here or even here.

Review: A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab

A Gathering of Shadows
VE Schwab
Tor, 23 February
HB, 512 pp

I bought my copy of this book from The Book Depository (it's the US edition, because I wanted a hardback).

This book was (by me, anyway) eagerly anticipated. The second part of a series (after A Darker Shade of Magic), it returns to the magical world of Red London and to the lives of Kell, Rhy and Lila Bard.

Rhy is the heir to the kingdom, but has no magical ability.

Kell is a powerful young magician, Rhy's adopted brother and one of a very few who can cross between the worlds, between "Grey" London (our world, bare of magic), enchanted "Red" London and bone- hued, dying "White" London. As a magician, he serves the King, carrying messages between the worlds - and in the previous book, he dabbled with carrying other things, too, leading to trouble. As a result his wings are now clipped, and he's pretty frustrated.

Lila is a swashbuckling heroine and thief who came from Grey London and, at the end of ADSOM, was contemplating life as a pirate. Here we see what became of her on the high seas as she waits, cast adrift in a small boat, hands bound and awaiting her fate...

While picking up only a few months after the end of ADSOM, AGOS opens with a quite different tone. While the other book is action almost from the start, the pace here is slower. We learn a lot about Rhy and Kell (whose lives ended up magically linked in the last book, so that if one experiences pain, so does the other). The book isn't a reset: there are consequences. Kell is under suspicion, Rhy is racked with guilt at the price his friend paid and Schwab develops the feelings of the siblings rather at leisure - if you're expecting the book to open with a bang, you might be disappointed although what we get instead - a measured, mature explanation of two compelling characters - is equally absorbing.

We also learn more about Lila, and her relationship with her pirate (sorry, privateer) captain, Alucard (I know!) Lila is, as we saw before, incredibly prickly and defensive: she's also pretty ruthless (she has no compunction at killing) so you can expect sparks to fly.

Throw in, as the book develops, an international magical games in London (think London 2012 with spells) and a past relationship between Alucard and Rhy, and you get a heady mix. I enjoyed the way that Schwab uses perhaps familiar ideas but in a subtly new way to illustrate the characters of, especially, Lila and Kell.

It must be tempting, when writing a series like this, for the second book to be essentially a rehash of the what worked the first time and it's to the author's credit that she doesn't do that here. I think some readers may bridle slightly at the fact that the red London vs White London vs Black London plot strand isn't to the fore through most of the book, as it was before, but we do learn a bit about goings on in White (and even Grey!) London and I'm sure these will feature in the next book (and I don't think it's a spoiler to say there surely will be a next book).