Title: |
In a Garden Burning Gold |
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Author: |
Rory Power |
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Category: |
Fantasy / Science Fiction |
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Rating: |
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Date Reviewed: |
December 30, 2023 |
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n a Garden Burning Gold is the first book in the Argyrosi duology. In my opinion, it really puts the ARGGHHH into Argyrosi. I did not like this book at all. I had high hopes for it, after reading a positive review in Bookpage, but I was greatly disappointed. The further I got into the story, the easier it was to set the book aside and the harder it became to pick up and resume reading. Finally, with about 50 pages to go, I could not bring myself to read any further, and so for 2 months it sat untouched on my nightstand while I read books that had much better stories to tell. Finally, when I had exhausted any further library renewals, I trudged through the final painful fifty pages and completed the arduous read. I am astonished to learn that Rory Power is a NY Times best selling author; In a Garden Burning Gold struck me as a debut novel by an eager amateur writer still learning about plotting. I will not read the second half of this duology, nor any other future works by Power. |
The novel begins with Rhea riding home in a carriage. She is in trouble, because it took her too long to murder her husband. The reader quickly learns that Rhea takes on the aspect of Thyspira, the goddess of seasons. Four times a year, Rhea must marry a consort and then kill that person so that the current season can end and the next season can begin. The reader also learns that although Rhea appears to be in her twenties, her god-like powers have gifted her with a long lifespan, and that she is in fact more like a hundred years old. Hmmm, so she has been killing four spouses a year for more than 80 years? The blood of 320 people is upon her hands!
Rhea's father, referred to as Baba, is the Stratagiozi (the ruler) of the land of Thyzakos. Baba has magical powers of his own, he can kill people by saying their name in a magical chant. Baba is portrayed is a heartless and cruel father who bullies his four children (Rhea's mother died years ago). Baba is upset that Rhea extended autumn by a few extra weeks because she did not kill her husband on schedule. When Rhea arrives at the home manor, she must placate Baba's temper (all of the scenes with Baba interacting with his four children show the reader what a horrible, verbally-abusive father he is). Now it is time for a ceremony in which representatives from the provinces send a potential mate to be selected as Rhea's spouse for the winter season. There are only five people who show up to be chosen, though it is a "high honor" to be selected to be married to the goddess Thyspira. (The logistics of this bothered me a lot. Given that Rhea has to kill four people every year, there would have to be at least 80 provinces for any steward's offspring to live long enough to not be murdered by Rhea.) Baba wants Rhea to select Tavoulos as her mate, but Rhea's twin brother, Alexandros, wants her to select Michali Laskaris of the Ksigoran province, because Alexandros' spying has convinced him that the Ksigorans are rebellious and pose a threat to the family.
Rhea loves her twin brother Alexandros, and so she selects Michali, in defiance of her father's wishes. She can infiltrate the Ksigorans and learn their plans, and of course Michali will die at the end of winter. Alexandros also has magical powers, he can go up into his tower and raise and lower the tides. Alexandros also causes the stars to appear in the sky. I wondered - so what happens if Alexandros takes a day off to travel to a conference of conspirators - are there no tides on that day? The stars will not appear? Normally, there are two high tides and two low tides a day - Alexandros has been directing these tides for a hundred years? It must be a tedious existence! Unlike Rhea with Thyspira, Alexandros does not have an aspect of a god
You probably have noticed that all of the names appear to be Greek. But why? They don't worship the Greek gods, they don't have Greek culture, they don't live on Greek islands. This isn't an alternate world fantasy, like the stories that Guy Gavriel Kay writes so well. Power has created her own fantasy world, and yet for some reason she decided that the inhabitants should speak Greek. This inexplicable choice distracted me more than it should have; I kept wondering if there was some kind of parallel universe crossover that allowed the Greeks to influence this world (there is no crossover).
Good fantasy worlds often have a map, but In a Garden Burning Gold does not have one. A map might have helped me understand the confusing politics. There is a cast of characters to aid the reader trying to keep track of the many people in this book.
The rest of this review discusses what I felt were bad plot points, so I will include them in a spoiler section. Power seems careless in her fantasy world creation; much of the story made no sense to me, it seemed that Power just threw stuff together to advance her storyline without thinking things through. Because of this disappointing plotting, I have no interest in reading the resolution of this story and will avoid all future works by her.