Oleander Sword

[ursula]

Tasha Suri's novel The Oleander Sword is the middle book in a planned trilogy that began with The Jasmine Throne. It's the kind of book that comes with maps and lists of characters from different countries, and it opens with a war, as Malini, who has just crowned herself Empress, seeks to defeat her fanatical, princely brother. But Oleander Sword doesn't sprawl across new viewpoint characters and their disconnected subplots, the way one might expect from a book in this sort of package. It's fundamentally a very focused story. Half is how Malini will balance her drive to consolidate power with her love for Priya, once a servant girl. The other half is how Priya, newly filled with magical force from the treelike yaksa she worshipped as a child, will square the demands of her own power with her love for Malini. There are sudden betrayals and the fulfillments of mysterious prophecies--the book's title, in particular, cuts in an unexpected way--but if you've read Jasmine Throne, the confrontation that Oleander Sword sets up for the final volume will not astonish you. The satisfaction is not in authorial sleight of hand, but rather in game pieces clicking into place.

Suri's fantasy novels are inspired by medieval India, rather than vague impressions of England or France, and I particularly enjoy the way that this upends fantasy conventions. Inheritance isn't driven by birth order, for instance, and the trope of the ambitious priest carries different weight.

Comments

[krait]

Thank you for this writeup! This series is definitely going on my list for consideration next time I'm standing in a bookstore..