“Beneath the rule of tyrants,
monsters may become heroes.”
Walter Rhein gives us something different
in the way of heroic fantasy – a story set in a future world where it is
forbidden to learn how to read, forbidden to teach people to read. In the
hierarchy of Erafor, reading and writing has been outlawed for decades, though basic
iconography is allowed for the sake of keeping records. The mysterious and
powerful Seneschals are charged with eliminating all texts and “readers” in
this brave new world, a world I hope to never myself living in. For this is
also a world where slaves are kept as animals, and are doped up on a brain-rotting
drug called Bliss that keeps them docile, so they won’t rise up and pose a
threat to their masters. But one slave, named Kikkan, manages to murder his
master and mistress, and eventually escape to explore his world, in search of
freedom and knowledge and understanding. But he chooses not to kill the slave
owners’ children, and thus they vow revenge. This is not only the story of
Kikkan’s murderous revolt; it is also the story of his education and his growth
as a character, and as a human being. And then there’s Quillion, a rebellious soldier
patrolling the border just north of the lands of Acheron, who also commits
murder when he kills his buffoon of a commanding officer, a man who risks
everyone else’s life but his own. Quillion has a rudimentary knowledge of
reading, and wants to learn more because there are things he desires to know,
and he believes that knowledge is his right to own. When he and Cole, his
friend, companion and fellow soldier are conscripted to help in the hunt for
the Reader of Acheron – someone who is teaching people to read, in violation of
all the laws of the land – they find themselves caught up in politics and
social ideals, and ideas…which are dangerous,
and what the hierarchy is dedicated to stamping out.
At one point in Rhein’s masterful tale,
Cole asks Quillion why he wants to read, and Quillion tells him: “Because I’m
told not to! Why would anyone go through the effort to forbid something unless
it was important, and that importance posed a threat to them?”
“Maybe they’re forbidding it
for your own good?” Cole replies.
This, short and sweet, sums up perfectly
Quillion’s character, the nature of his heart and soul, and gives us a hint of
what his overall arc will be in subsequent volumes in this series.
And then there’s a boy with an eidetic
memory, who is being taught to read by the Reader himself. How will he play
into all this? What will become of Kikkan, the murderous slave, now a fugitive
who finds himself involved with a group of rebels hiding out in the forests of
Acheron? And what of the children of the slave owners murdered by Kikkan? Will
they find him, exact their revenge? There is a lot going on in this novel:
ideas and adventure, action and social commentary, all skillfully blended and
beautifully written by a natural-born storyteller. There is something deep and
dark and frightening lurking at the core of this fine novel that speaks volumes
about our own world, governmental control of the media, and the conspiracy of misinformation
– all without interfering with the
flow and pace of this action-packed adventure. A key passage halfway through
the story sums it all up nicely, I thought:
“Not for the first time, Quillion
recognized the power to be gain from cursory record-keeping – or none. In the
absence of recorded facts, only the hierarchy could give guidance. Without
decisions based on recorded evidence, those in power chose preferred truths. It
was convenient and efficient, the only thing sacrificed was reality.”
There is power in knowledge, and therein
lies the truth of it all: the pen is mightier than the sword, and words are
more powerful than weapons. This is a thoughtful novel, filled with insight, mystery
and suspense, and as I said before…it’s heroic fantasy of a different breed. I
highly recommend it.
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