Green
July 9th, 2009 by Green-Eco-Path-Finder
From Publishers Weekly
Lake (Escapement) makes a shift from steampunk to lush fantasy filled with exotic locales and exquisite descriptions. Sold as a child, raised and educated as a courtesan and secretly trained as an assassin, strong-willed Green retains her unyielding sense of independence, leading her to make drastic, unwise choices. Often used as a pawn and occasionally betrayed, she perseveres in trying to gain a measure of control over her life and a place to call home. Her …
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It’s not easy being Green. While still a small girl, she’s sold by her impoverished, widowed father to a stranger from another country. There, in the great city of Copper Downs, in her glorified prison-home of The Pomegranate Court, she begins several years of stern tutelage at the hands (and other instruments of punishment) of various mistresses, each an expert in an aristocratic art, such as cooking, sewing, or dancing. But despite her cultivation, the nimble-bodied and -minded girl remains an alien tigress, rebelliously clinging to her native memories and customs and, above all, an irrepressible yearning for freedom. As Green grows in size and skill, she discovers she’s being groomed as a concubine for the city’s apparently immortal duke — but also, by secretive allies, as something more. Soon enough, she becomes a living weapon who will forever change the countries on both sides of the sea; but will she wreak a storm of bloodshed or help the lands find peace? As penned by the prolific and prodigiously talented Jay Lake, Green’s autobiography is at once classic and distinctive. While remarkable for its world-building (which includes another humanoid race, steam-powered ships, and rudimentary pistols) and eloquent authenticity in Green’s narrative voice, the novel can, at least in part, be considered as a definitive bildungsroman of an otherworldly, yet all-too-human, ninja. It includes elements of *The Name of the Wind*, *Assassin’s Apprentice*, and *The Joy Luck Club* (while Green herself is a close cousin of Joss Whedon’s warrior-girls, such as River Tam); but it still finds a niche of its own. Writing such as this certainly helps: * I wish that the past were so much more open to me, as it is to the blue-robed men who sit atop the shattered heads of ancient idols in the Dockmarket at Copper Downs. * The last of his pleasure fled as a bird before a storm. “It is not a lesson to be taken. Your circumstances and hers are as different as the stars are from the lamps of your house. “ “Both light the night,” [I replied. ] * “We each carry a measure of grace, and we each carry a measure of evil. There is never enough grace to banish the evil, and there is never enough evil to smother the grace. “ In sum, Green is a compelling, gritty chronicle of one girl’s struggle to make her mark on the world without shattering either it or herself. At times, I hoped for a touch more insight into the other humanoid race (the pardines), the magic system, and the exact nature of Green’s ultimate opponent. Also, a couple of unlikely events felt more like plot-points than parts of a naturally unfolding tale; and I’d alert sensitive readers to the significant presence of (non-gratuitous) violence and (homo)sexual content. Nonetheless, Green could easily endure as a minor classic and is highly recommended for mature fantasy fans, especially those partial to exotic settings or thieves and assassins. I have no doubt this will be one of the best fantasy books I’ll read this year. 4-1/2 dripping blades.
5.0 out of 5 stars
exciting somewhat simplistic action-packed fantasy
The stranger who bought her from her father the farmer named her Emerald. The child does not know her birth name or recall anything about her mom; she only remembers her father…
Green is a second world fantasy that beings as the detached, distant reminiscing of a woman recalling what she can of her family in a tiny rural commmunity via her grandmother’s funeral, and the family ox: ”The ox Endurance bore a burden of sound that day. His wooden bell clopped in time to his steps. The twenty thousand bells of my grandmother’s silk rang like the first fall of rain upon the roof of our hut after the long seasons of the sun. Later in my youth, before I returned to Selistan to see the truth of my beginnings for myself, I would revisit this memory and think that perhaps what I heard was her soul rising up from the scorching stones of this world to embrace the cool shadows of the next. “ . . . ”There must have been a washing, a laying out, a painting of the white and the red. These things I know now from my experience of later years, learned upon the corpses of those I helped prepare for the next life, as well as the corpses of those I have slain with my own hands. “ So early on we learn that there’s a story of past mayhem and murder to be recounted. Also, the early detachment transforms into something more directly experiental quite shortly: ”There was some small argument, then the maggot man slid a silk bag into my father’s hand, closing his fingers over the burden. Papa knelt in turn to kiss my forehead. He placed my hand in the maggot man’s grasp, where the silk had so lately slid free. He turned and walked quickly away, leading Endurance. The ox, ever a mild-mannered beast, bucked twice and shook his head, snorting to call me back. ”My bells,” I cried, as I was tugged away by the maggot man’s strong hand. So the belled silk was lost to me, along with everything else to which I had been born. That is the last thing I remember of that time of my life, before all things changed: a white ox, a wooden bell, and my father forever turned away from me. “ A young girl sold is then taken away, where she undergoes years of training for what appears to be aimed at producing a saleable young female that can fit in in wealthy, noble, surroundings, in all ways. This is a training of years, and not very caring, giving how young she is when taken. In fact, the group of Mistress trainers, in general, perhaps have gravitated this job out of psychosexual kink, as well as aptitude for food preparation, language, fashion, shopping, deportment, or whatever: ”"Turn and bend to grasp your knees. “ Mistress Tirelle began to beat me across the buttocks and thighs with the silk tube. It had been filled with sand, then wetted, so it was heavy and struck me with a harder, deeper blow than the flat of her hand could do. I cried out at the first, which earned me a growl to silence and another, sharper blow. She laid into me for the count of twenty. Then: “Don your shift, and continue with Mistress Leonie’s instruction. “ Sitting was agony, but I did not dare show it. As I brought my shaking hands to the needle and thread, I saw the flush on Mistress Leonie’s cheeks. She looked happy. “” An adult version of this occurs later, too. One of the Mistresses is a non-human however, and as well as dancing instruction, appears to be training her for something like catburglary or spying, teaching defensive martial arts, moving in the dark, on rooftops, etc. As she grows older and more competent, her attitude and fear changes: “It amused me to see these mean and bitter women snipe at each other all the more. They sniped at me as well, but at least they were not conspiring at my humiliation. “ Enterting adolescence and beginning to understand what may be in store for her, now that she is sexually aware and ready, Green, as she names herself finally rebels. Very violently. The area she lives in is controlled by a Duke, and has been for several centuries. The same guy. Some people aren’t too happy about this, and here’s where the magic and gods start to come into play, becoming a greater and more important influence on events in Green’s life as the book progresses. Then it is time for the run away and seek passage on a ship, preferably passing as a boy, and learning how to make really good stir fried Chinese to keep the sailors paws off your coltish girly bits. Eventually ending up under the control, in another city, of the Lily Goddess Cult, and her priestesses. Her preferences lead her to the ‘Blades’ or martial arm of this particular religious order. You could describe them as a little like as the Judges (in the Dredd sense) of this particular low tech society. Green, needless to say, doesn’t completely agree with those running the place here, either, and when an old mentor turns up, things get riotous, leading her back where she came from to a very deity overrun supernatural conflict. A very well-written more traditional fantasy–although featuring female oppression and punishment by females in the majority–from Lake, that I liked a lot more than I thought I would.
I had the strangest experience while reading Jay Lake’s Green. I kept feeling like I’d read it before while absolutely knowing I hadn’t. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing derivative about the story and the plot turned in ways that surprised me. What it felt like was that this was a book that I’d read and loved, but so long ago that I’d completely forgotten it. I finally realized that it was because the character Green was so real and vivid to me that I recognized her the way I’d recognize a friend. You know how you meet someone and feel like you’ve always known them. I had exactly that experience with this book. This is seriously good first person writing from word one. I adored Green the character and loved Green the novel. I highly, highly recommend this book, particularly if you’re looking for a strong female protagonist.