Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

[mme_hardy]

There are books that are like nothing other than themselves. Gormenghast. Lud-in-the-Mist. The Worm Ouroboros.

The Hands of the Emperor is one of those. I love it so much that I can say nothing but here. Here is this book I love. Kermitflail. I hope you love it too.

THotE is about Cliopher 'Kip' Mdang. If, in his native land, you asked Kip who he was, he would respond, "I am Cliopher Mdang. My island is Loaloa. My dances are Aoteketetana." (thanks, edenfalling!) If, within the Empire, you ask who Cliopher is, you will be told that he is the Hands of the Emperor. Kip is an emigrant from the Vangavaye-Ve to the Empire. Kip is a two-cultures child, someone who was raised in one culture and became a bureaucrat in the second. Kip is a man who set out to change the world, and succeeded.

THotE is competence porn. Kip succeeds because he has a gift for the particular and the widespread. Kip can perceive both the local and the Empire-wide consequences of his decisions. Kip wants to change the world. He does. There's a lot of thought about colonialism, and about the importance of colonialized cultures, and about the importance of knowing who you are.

The world is changed, ultimately, because Kip recognizes that his Emperor needs a vacation. From that, the remainder of the novel flows. The novel also flows from Kip's slow, slow realization that his home doesn't recognize what he's done, and his home culture's slow, slow realization of how his work has changed their lives.

THotE is a 900-page novel. It's a big ask. I have read it at least five times since I bought it, in a time when I have barely been able to read novels at all.

e: For an alternate, well-reasoned take on the book, see Skygiants. They are absolutely right that this book is idfic. It hits my id, so. This is the only book I've ever read in which the performance of a ceremonial dance is a page-turner that I stayed up late to finish.

Comments

[edenfalling]

His dances are Aoteketetana! (I think I am missing an accent mark somewhere in there, alas.)

Also I love that book so much. The loyalty porn and competence porn is just amazing ♥

[mme_hardy]

God, I love this book so much.

[mme_hardy]

Just.. I needed this book. I need everyone to need this book. Kermitflail.

[meara]

Yes! Someone on b.org recommended it and it took me a bit—I think I read a novella first? But eventually got into it and really liked it. I have not read the Fitzroy Angursell book yet though?

[mme_hardy]

It will be a great joy, trust me.

[liadnan]

Contra VG's own suggested reading order, I think I made a good decision in reading the 6 (so far) Greenwing and Dart books before The Return of Fitzroy Angursell

[mme_hardy]

Absolutely, positively, read Return last! I read the Greenwing books second, and I think that worked for me; I think she grew a lot as a writer between the first one and HotE.

[liadnan]

Yes. Quite a different tone to the Greenwing & Dart ones, a bit of Aiken, a bit of Wynne Jones, a bit of Lud in the Mist, I actually read them after HotE (having read a few reviews etc)precisely because I wanted to see how she would do something different.

Kindle recommendation of HotE was what got me into them. Though I went and read a blogpost on, I think, Tor before jumping in.

[mme_hardy]

Oh, what a good summary. I wouldn't have thought of Lud-in-the-Mist as a parallel, but you are quite right.

[mme_hardy]

That blogpost would have been Alex Rowland's, I think.

[mme_hardy]

I assume you've also read the side stories about the Red Company? There's one unpublished one here. (Everybody else, do not read until you've finished HotE.)

[liadnan]

I hadn't read that -I've read all the published ones, ie those listed here https://www.victoriagoddard.ca/pages/reading-order - except the Tales from Ysthar, which I was saving for later.

[coughingbear]

I have these on my 'to get' list after your recommendation.

[dsrtao]

Acquiring on your recommendation.

[mme_hardy]

This is always a comment that fills me with terror -- what if they regret the decision?!?! I hope you have fun.

[dsrtao]

I think you can relax, now. I have just reached:

His Radiancy had said, first: “There has been an eruption in the Vangavaye-ve,” and second: “It did not hit the city,” and third, when he finished reading the report: “That serves them right.”

and I had to read it aloud to Eliz.

[dsrtao]

And now you can be thoroughly relieved and thanked: you're right, that was an excellent book.

[sabotabby]

That sounds like a whole bunch of things that I like.

[schulman]

I loved this book so much too, and have also reread it several times. It's not just the competence porn and the loyalty porn that make it such an instant comfort read, but also the beautiful fantasy of a well-meaning and effective government. (I also love this in Graydon Saunders' "A Succession of Bad Days".)

"The Return of Fitzroy Angursell" was a lot of fun, but I keep bouncing off the Greenwing & Dart books.

[castiron]

I just finished this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. As you say, idfic aimed right at my id. There are bits where Kip reminds me of Cazaril in Curse of Chalion, same quiet hard-won competence. I also enjoyed the worldbuilding and the cultures.

[kernezelda]

I described THotE to someone as a love letter/travel guide to Cliopher's home, his culture. One cannot help but fall in love with his islands, his family, the Emperor in Astandalas and the family Cliopher formed there, as well. I've read the novel twice through in a month, and read the follow-up and a semi-prequel, and have downloaded several more of VG's fics set in the world. It's just astounding to me how much this novel moved me.