Prefer to listen, instead? Here's a link to podcast.
The bone witch trilogy – Rin Chupeco
I’ve hardly ever read an author who is considered not Western, or American. So in our “Let’s try something new” era, we are picking up a series by Filipino author, Rin Chupeco. Who writes about a world that has witches, monsters and strange sorcery as part of their daily life. The author Rin Chupeco while born in Manila, hails a Chinese, Malay, Thai and Filipino descent. And the influence of all these is clearly visible in the world of The Bone Witch trilogy. The book has the unmistakable influence from Chinese nobility and social structure visible in the portrait of state and politics. While it also shows a clear influence of religion based on magic in this world rather than the mysticism of Taoism or Confucius thought, It also borrows from the Geisha school ideals. The whole concept of training young females to offer companionship and at times political commentary to the nobles of the kingdom, reminded me of the novel Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. Unfortunately, like I said earlier, I’m not much into Asian authors, so my comparison has to stop there.
Bone Witch is the story of Tea. Tea lives in a remote village with her
family. With a brother she loves, and a couple of sisters, she endures. In this
particular world, everyone is born with magic in them. Everyone typically knows
their gifts pretty early in their lives. Her sisters have identified their
gift. And are already harnessing them. They are the “normal” magic folk. Their
talent is about herbs and is tame. Tea however, hasn’t learnt what her
abilities are … yet. However, things change when her brother dies in a battle.
Tea is so heartbroken, she is so overwhelmed by her emotions, that she
resurrects him… during his funeral. And that reveals her talent… talents of
necromancy…. In this world, that makes her a Bone Witch.
While, Tea is raising her brother from dead, her village is
hosting another powerful Bone witch in the kingdom, called Mykaela. Mykaela is
also a healer and decides to take Tea under her wings, bringing Tea with
herself, to the town and enrolling her in an Asha school. An Asha is basically
this kingdom’s version of a Geisha. They are supposed to be masters at magic,
and one element… air, water, fire or Earth. While Asha’s who are the masters of
Death or Bones, are the Dark Asha. They are rare and typically feared.
Tea’s journey into becoming a fully grown Dark Asha is what
the first novel is all about. Like any typical school, there are bullies who
mistreat her, there are boys who are the love interest, people who help and
people who hinder. So in those terms the progression of the novel is very
routine. At times, it is actually rather boring. Rin Chupeco tries to weave so
many things in the narration that we are left with feeling too overwhelming at
times. There’s just too much details for the brain to process. Comparatively,
the story progresses very slowly. Nothing much actually happens. But the author
tries to weave at least a couple of threads in the story currently progressing,
making it rather convoluted experience.
Author wants us to know that this world, we are reading
about, has a long, rich and varied history. That there is a world outside the
limits of the city that Tea is currently in. We hear from the characters, the
story of creation, and mentions of the wars, and politics, and a myriad other
things, which all are on the periphery of the current location. However, none
of them have any impact on the current story…
at least not at the outset. Author is so busy, building a future
franchise, that the current story gets pushed aside at times. Rin Chupeco also
gets carried away with very verbose, very detailed descriptions of clothes
people are wearing, or food that they are eating. If we are like me, and want
to imagine it while you read it… you are going to be exhausted by the mental
gymnastics. I have nothing against descriptive narration, I love vivid imagery
that authors can paint, but I abhor it when authors sacrifice the pace of a
story to tell me how many colours of rainbow the character was wearing, instead
of why was he wearing it or what he was doing while wearing it.
Rin Chupeco manages to create a world that has a lot of
great elements. Some characters who make you smile and even some that you root
for. But for some reason, it doesn’t work. At least not the way it has the
potential to work. The story has all the elements that can make it work
fabulously. But it doesn’t rise to the level of fabulous. The series has two
more books that follow The Bone Witch… The Heart Forger, and The Shadowglass.
And they follow a similar structure that the first one has. A story that runs
on two timelines. One where Tea is talking to a bard, telling him the story of
her life… and one where the story she’s telling is happening. And just like the
first one, the other two leave you wanting more. For anyone who is a fan of
world-building, this might be a good fit. Especially, if you are fan of long
works like LOTR, you might just enjoy how long it takes for the story to
actually progresses. It’s not all doom n gloom through… the main characters of
the novel, are really wonderful. Tea’s relationship with her brother, Mykaela
and Tea’s bond, Tea’s struggles and the unlikely friends she makes along the
way, are really heartwarming. The novelty of a necromancer being a protagonist
is kind of cool. The idea of Daeva, a mythical beast or demons that come to
life periodically and then can only be defeated by a Bone witch… is also novel
enough to keep you entangled in the story. Like all such stories, there are elements
in this novel that are dull, especially the politics… but I guess it goes with
the territory…
So in all, if you are looking for something different, something
magical, something non-western.. this might be a good bet for you. Give this a
whirl and let me know how you like a tour through the world of Asha…
Comments
Post a Comment
Have an opinion... Shout it out...