Series: Genre: Publication Date: June 16, 2017 Pages: 368 (Hardcover) Published By: Tor Books Website: Michael Johnston Soleri on Goodreads My review copy:
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Michael Johnston brings you the first in a new epic fantasy series inspired by ancient Egyptian history and King Lear.
The ruling family of the Soleri Empire has been in power longer than even the calendars that stretch back 2,826 years. Those records tell a history of conquest and domination by a people descended from gods, older than anything in the known world. No living person has seen them for centuries, yet their grip on their four subjugate kingdoms remains tighter than ever.
On the day of the annual eclipse, the Harkan king, Arko-Hark Wadi, sets off on a hunt and shirks his duty rather than bow to the emperor. Ren, his son and heir, is a prisoner in the capital, while his daughters struggle against their own chains. Merit, the eldest, has found a way to stand against imperial law and marry the man she desires, but needs her sister’s help, and Kepi has her own ideas.
Meanwhile, Sarra Amunet, Mother Priestess of the sun god’s cult, holds the keys to the end of an empire and a past betrayal that could shatter her family.
Detailed and historical, vast in scope and intricate in conception, Soleri bristles with primal magic and unexpected violence. It is a world of ancient and elaborate rites, of unseen power and kingdoms ravaged by war, where victory comes with a price, and every truth conceals a deeper secret.
The ruling family of the Soleri Empire has been in power longer than even the calendars that stretch back 2,826 years. Those records tell a history of conquest and domination by a people descended from gods, older than anything in the known world. No living person has seen them for centuries, yet their grip on their four subjugate kingdoms remains tighter than ever.
On the day of the annual eclipse, the Harkan king, Arko-Hark Wadi, sets off on a hunt and shirks his duty rather than bow to the emperor. Ren, his son and heir, is a prisoner in the capital, while his daughters struggle against their own chains. Merit, the eldest, has found a way to stand against imperial law and marry the man she desires, but needs her sister’s help, and Kepi has her own ideas.
Meanwhile, Sarra Amunet, Mother Priestess of the sun god’s cult, holds the keys to the end of an empire and a past betrayal that could shatter her family.
Detailed and historical, vast in scope and intricate in conception, Soleri bristles with primal magic and unexpected violence. It is a world of ancient and elaborate rites, of unseen power and kingdoms ravaged by war, where victory comes with a price, and every truth conceals a deeper secret.
(Goodreads)
The Soleri calendar held three hundred and sixty-five days - twelve months of thirty days each, which left five remaining days unaccounted for. During these five days, the people of the empire observed the high festival, the Devouring of the Sun. These days existed outside of normal time - no work was done, no animal was slaughtered, no field was plowed. Five days out of time -- a period of rest, five days to drink and play as the people of the empire waited for the sun to turn black
The Soleri calendar held three hundred and sixty-five days - twelve months of thirty days each, which left five remaining days unaccounted for. During these five days, the people of the empire observed the high festival, the Devouring of the Sun. These days existed outside of normal time - no work was done, no animal was slaughtered, no field was plowed. Five days out of time -- a period of rest, five days to drink and play as the people of the empire waited for the sun to turn black.
Soleri is a satisfying and well imagined high fantasy novel with roots deep in ancient Egypt. The scope of this book is impressive - to say the least - and it's obvious that the author researched the history, the customs and a thousand other relevant things thoroughly before setting out to write it. Though high fantasy isn't exactly my genre of choice, with Soleri, I found myself entirely immersed in the familiar yet very different world and absorbed in the story line. It was a strong beginning to what promises to be a truly epic fantasy series and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys complex and detailed world building, nuanced politics and fascinating historical backdrops.
Soleri is packed with interesting characters and told from multiple (5) points of view. Its action packed and deftly plotted, but I sometimes wished we'd stay with each character for a bit longer than a few pages. Perhaps, it's because I found the jumps a bit dizzying or maybe I'm just really bad at remembering who is who, because it took me a bit of time to really get a good grasp of the cast and their roles. That being said, once I had it all figured out in my head, I really enjoyed the fast paced action spiced up with a good amount of unexpected twists.
What I loved the most about this book was the fantastic world of Soleri, complete with customs and historical tidbits that made it feel familiar and real, all the while introducing me to a new place. Clearly, the author drew heavily from Egyptian and Roman history, and yet he also managed to make this world uniquely his own. I loved how instead of yearly floods, we had annual Devourings with sun eclipses at the core. I found the traditions surrounding this event both gruesome and fascinating.
Another thing that I can count as a big plus is the fact that Soleri does not shy away from character's brutality and darkness. In fact, a lot of the characters have flaws and are very realistically drawn, which made reading about their stories all that much interesting.
I really enjoyed reading Soleri and can't wait for the next book in the series!
Guest Post (Inspiration and Research behind Soleri):
Soleri is all about research.
The idea behind the book came to me in an art history lecture twenty years ago,
so the origin itself was academic in nature. I was fascinated by the idea of a
civilization that was so old (three thousand years!) that the Egyptians of the
New Kingdom thought of the earlier Egyptian kingdoms (the Middle and Old
Kingdoms) as ancient. The people of the New Kingdomactually visited the
pyramids of the Old Kingdom as tourists! There is something fascinating about a
civilization that is so old that it has forgotten its origins, that it believes
it will always exist. It’s a fascinating idea and equally fascinating to
imagine how such a grand civilization might fall apart.
Soleri is equal parts research
and imagination. We are not in antiquity. Soleri is a fully-realized, unique
world, but its roots are in ancient Egypt.It grew out of Egypt’s DNA, but
somewhere along the line in the book’s development Soleri became something completely unique.
So, yes, I did a lot of
research. I started with history of ancient Egypt. Then I found books about how
people lived at that time, about their daily lives. I wanted to know what fabrics
were available, what metals and jewels and stones were on hand at the time. I
wanted to know how they looked at their own image. They didn’t have mirrors,
but they did have polished bronze. I needed to know what the common folk ate
(bread and beer). So I found books on diet and raw materials. I’m trained as an
architect, so I also made certain to read about their building techniques, what
could and could not be accomplished technologically at the time. I amassed
quite a stack of books.
But copious research does not
necessarily make for great genre fiction. And I wasn’t writing non-fiction, or
even historical fiction. Soleri is high fantasy, epic fantasy, but in a new
setting. Honestly, I’m bored by medieval England or anything that resembles it.
The people and the culture are too familiar. So I turned to my research to find
a new setting, but I never let the research tie my hands. Soleri is speculative
fiction. It takes the real world as its starting point but imagines a
completely fictional place.
About the Author:
Michael Johnston was born in 1973 in Cleveland, Ohio. As a child and a teen he was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy. He studied architecture and ancient history at Lehigh University and during a lecture on the history of ancient Egypt, the seed of an idea was born. He earned a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University, graduating at the top of his class. Michael worked as an architect in New York City before moving to Los Angeles. Sparked by the change of locale, a visit to the desert, and his growing dissatisfaction with the architectural industry, he sought a way to merge his interests in architecture and history with his love of fantasy. By day he worked as an architect, but by night he wrote and researched an epic fantasy novel inspired by the history of ancient Egypt and the tragic story of King Lear. After working this way for several years, he shut down his successful architecture practice and resolved to write full time. He now lives and writes in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
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