The Year of Our War
Steph Swainston
290 pages
published in 2004
I’ll admit it was the China Miéville blurb on the frontcover that made me pick up this novel. For some reason the Amsterdam library is overstocked with series after series of extruded fantasy product; if it hadn’t been for that quote I wouldn’t have looked twice. Steph Swainston isn’t somebody I had heard of before, or even seen mentioned, which goes to show how big fantasy is these days. The Year of Our War is her first novel and it promises much for the future. Since its publication Swainston has written two more books, both set in the same universe. But if it hadn’t been for that Miéville blurb I never would’ve known about her, so score one for marketing.
If you look at just the barebones plot, The Year of Our War sounds like bog standard fantasy. The Fourlands are threatened by the Insect invasion, a mindless almost unstoppale menace which has already taken over the northern part of the world, with only the Emperor and his Circle of fifty immortals standing in their way, leading the defence against the Insects since God has abandoned the world over 2000 years ago. Jant Shira, the hero and narrator of this story is the youngest of these immortals, a crossbreed of two races, winged but flightless Awian and slender, thin half-wild Rhydanne, the result of which is that he can fly, but he’s the only one in this world. Ever since becoming an immortal he has served as a messenger and it’s as such that he witnesses the disaster that undoes the costly stalemate the Circle has managed to create, when the Awian King, Dunlin Rachiswater dies in an attack on the Insect lands and his weak brother mounts the throne and withdraws his troops from the wall to protect him in his capital.