Days of Shattered Faith by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I would like to thank Head of Zeus for a copy of this novel in exchange for fair and honest review

Publisher – Head of Zeus

Published – Out now

Price – £22 hardback £6.02 ebook

Welcome to Alkhalend, Jewel of the Waters, capital of Usmai, greatest of the Successor States, inheritor to the necromantic dominion that was the Moeribandi Empire and tomorrow's frontline in the Palleseen's relentless march to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world.

Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time.

As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, she's here as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly - Gil to her friends - needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she must fight at midnight.

Outreach, that part of the Pal machine that has to work within the imperfection of the rest of the world, has a lot of room for the illegal, the unconventional, the unorthodox. But just how much unorthodoxy can Gil and Loret get away with?

As a succession crisis looms, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger.

Just as well they are both very, very good with a blade.

NB – this is a book in the Tyrant Philosophers series which are loosely linked by being set in the same world. Other books so far are the excellent City of Last Chances and House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky you can though read each as a standalone

War in fantasy is often the final act. It settles the battle for good and evil, restores honour and grimdark to one side often is the happy ending for our characters’ long journey. Of course, some could instead that is equally as much a fantasy in itself. Wars seldom simply start between simple forces of good and evil, they are culminations of many events and often don’t settle. War can also be itself just one square on a huge chessboard of powers playing against one another. In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s extremely impressive novel Days of Shattered Faith we explore the prelude and the aftermath of war and a reminder that war being a form of diplomacy by other means doesn’t mean less violent diplomacy is not also hiding an agenda of its own.

The Kingdom of Usmai is ancient and respected. A place where many faiths have learnt to live with one another, well located between various key powers in the world and is a popular trading state for its ports. In its Kingdom’s capital of Alkhalend there has been a tussle as to who will next get the throne. The war-hungry Gorbudan has been exiled for displeasing his father and the peaceful and reforming Dekamran is now set to take over his father’s place as Alkhand in the future. Aiding that choice was Gil the Palleseen diplomat from it’s Outreach department who has found a friend in Dekamran as they recognise kindred spirits in one another. Hard work that should pay off in in the many years to come. But sometimes no one can predict what may trigger an avalanche. Gil gets a strange and useless aide in the form of Loret who hates to share her secrets, the elderly  Alkhand plans a new trip across his kingdom and a Palleseen agent is trapped in a prison after finding her own prize. Usmai is valued by all who live in it but also by those who surround it and opportunities are never wasted by the Palleseen.

This is another excellent addition to the Tyrant Philosophers series that centres around the idea on the Palleseen an empire that seeks to perfect the world by removing religions and ensuring everyone follows the same order but is not afraid to use magic (stolen from anyone it finds) to aid its progression. Initially the Palleseen though are largely off-stage, and we focus on Gil and her aide Loret but as the story progresses the Palleseen are becoming a looming presence. Days of Shattered Faith is a fantasy novel that becomes in many ways a tragedy exploring how bigger powers use their resources to force their own agendas on weaker ones and we get to see them reap the consequences.

In the first half of the novel, we find a host of characters we get to like. In particular, Dekamran and Gil are very sympathetic characters who have clicked in the years living around each other while Gil has been stationed, and she has decided to aid her friend knowing that eventually Gorbundan could not allow someone else to rival his throne. Both characters work out of best intentions and indeed Gorbundan as we see is very much a future leader who would enjoy more wars and gaining power. When events go in a very unexpected direction Gorbundan becomes a huge threat to the peaceful direction we as readers grow to want. That’s helped by the reader in the books first half slowly absorbing Usmai’s fascinating culture and politics. Religions that support the poor that worship a giant frog god sit alongside the Death cult that manages the mysterious prison fill of trapped ghosts known as the House of Hard Angles and the royal family are protected by the silent but deadly Louse Monks. There are pirates, priests, smugglers and fans of the series may also recognise a strange bunch of healers hiding out from the Palleseen. This first half makes us forget about the Palleseen out in the wider world and we focus on how Usmai works, its own internal issues and most of all it feels alive and a place we get to know and like. We as readers want to protect it. When Gorbundan uses an unexpected event to his advantage then we want the right side to win. For that Dekamran and Gil work out he only solution is to approach the Paleseen and ask for some help.

In many ways this book is also a way to help us explore the unique Palleseen again. If so far we have seen it up against a revolution and fighting a war in this story we see how the Pallesen being a mighty power in their own right sometimes don’t just need to invade. They have amazing weapons but they’re also innovative. As Gil represents Outreach we also meet a department known as Ventures that is more like a mercantile army that fights a cause provided it pays well and doesn’t play by the book. In this story one fascinating angle is how its leader Flint is experimenting with he first demonic soldiers who are loyal to the empire themselves. The Palleseen in some ways are like a dark mirror to Discworld’s Ankh-Morpork Guards where everything slowly gets absorbed into their way of life serving a purpose but here not an altruistic one just one serving an empire’s agenda. The book has a beautiful tense centre piece of a civil war halfway through. Danger for both sides, bravery, insane tactics and even a giant frog and it is both huge fun and an emotional pay-off for the characters we meet having to get themselves out of danger.

And yet what I think makes this book stand out is that Tchaikovsky doesn’t end the story there as I suspect many other novels would. The war is a set piece but it is the aftermath where things really pay-off and the tragedy comes to fruit. The ‘right’ side wins but this story explores the price. Gil and Dekamran suddenly find themselves both with power and now very beholden to the Palleseen too who are delighted with their new foothold. This story brings to mind the realpolitik stories of the Cold war where powers help one side but only then do people realize the too good to be true demonic pact comes with a price. The horrible thing is we like the people who won but ultimately everyone is a chesspiece and we get to see the next stage where Outreach and ventures hand over power to other forces. Gil and Dekamran then need to find out how can all these aspects of Usmai life help stop one of the most powerful forces in the world. There is some light but as you’d expect still a cost that packs an emotional punch.

An intriguing angle centres around Loret a strange enigmatic young woman who is clearly hiding a secret which starts to hint at a bigger set of changes beginning in the world of this series. What happens to all empires that think they never change is perhaps starting and while things are left open-ended I get the sense that a few characters from the previous novels will meet again in the future. Its not central to this story but a simmering plotline I sense will come to the boil at a later date. What I can say is that this plotline explores some of the various strange gods of the world that the Palleseen seek to remove the presence of and replace with heir own ordered perfection and a wilder magic that wants its own agenda may be a worthy opponent to watch out for.

Days of Shattered faith was an immersive read that I loved especially in how we get to know and understand and most of all actually learn to like Usmai and its inhabitants only to see it changed hugely by the war and aftermath to come. This is fantasy very much exploring real world politics and making us feel how soft power often is hiding claws that it’s owner will use when it can get what it really wants. Further cementing this series as one of the most interesting ongoing series at the moment and I strongly recommend it.