Title:

The Book of Gems

Author:

Fran Wilde

Category:

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

January 6, 2024
he Book of Gems is my first encounter with Fran Wilde. Although she has apparently been nominated for numerous Hugo, Nebula, Locus and World Fantasy Awards, I was unaware of her works. Maybe she specializes in shorter fiction, while I read mostly novels. The Book of Gems is a novella, just 138 pages long. I wish it had been longer. It is marketed as the third book "in the Gem Universe", though I don't think that means it is part of a trilogy. I did not get the sense when reading The Book of Gems that I was entering a story that was already two-thirds complete, it seemed like a stand-alone tale to me.

A gem research scientist named Devina Brunai works on synthetic gems, using a micrograph to compare the synthetic gem structure to that of the real ones. Dev is an apprentice to the grandiose Netherby, a credit-stealing, lying supervisor. Netherby has gone off to the dig in the Valley of Jewels where gems are being sought by miners. He is seeking fame and power, hoping to expand on some of Dev's ideas regarding the nature of the gems. (The gems seem to act as a magical power source, they are much more than just stones of beauty.) But now Netherby has gone missing, and the ethereal messages received from his escritoire sound half-insane. Dev applies to the Society to go after Netherby, and discover his fate; but the Society turns Dev down. Undeterred, Dev takes her meager life-savings and steals equipment from the lab, and resolves to make an unauthorized mission to Valley of the Jewels- Dev reasons that if she can find Netherby and bring him back, then her unapproved deeds will be forgiven and the Society will promote her to full status. Dev merely has to solve what happened to Netherby before the Society is aware of her transgressions. Dev has to work fast.

Arriving at the valley, Dev checks in at the Deaf King Inn. She must pay for the board with her extremely limited funds, but Dev knows that if the Society had financed her expedition, that she could easily afford to pay for a room at the Inn; and Dev must keep up appearances that she is on official Society business. It quickly becomes apparent that the valley inhabitants who run the inn have secrets of their own - why do they all wear silver wires twisted around their ears and fingers? It also soon becomes clear that the conniving Netherby ran up a big tab at the Inn, and now the young innkeeper wants to be paid.

This brief novella, The Book of Gems tells an intriguing tale. I was especially impressed with how Wilde was able to create a society where the heroine, Dev, finds herself in perilous circumstances. The atmosphere is always an ominous one, with Dev constantly at risk of being exposed and ruined by the secretive, powerful Society. Dev is a likeable character, and it always seems that something or someone is about to destroy her quest. The haunting half-coherent messages from escritoire, the disappearance of the inn keeper, the increasing earthquakes in the valley, the danger of contamination from the gems, and the belligerent attitude of Lannert, the suspicious leader of the dig, all of these strange events add to the sense of unease surrounding Dev. The Book of Gems isn't quite Lovecraftian in its forboding tone, but it certainly is atmospheric.

I liked this book, so I will look to see what other works by Fran Wilde our library system carries; I would like to read more stories by her.