A review by nghia
Those Below by Daniel Polansky

3.0

“‘What did you suppose? That the new age would be a golden one, bereft of misfortune, of inequality, of pain or of suffering? That you could murder your way into paradise?’”

Those Below picks up almost two-years after its predecessor ends. It feels a bit jarring, which is in keeping with Polansky’s approach to the entire series. The whole thing feels like it is written to try to keep us off-balance. It isn’t “subverting expectation”, really. I’m not sure what it is trying to do, to be honest. But it doesn’t read or feel like a typical epic fantasy.

Those Below has a bit more going on than its predecessor but that’s a pretty low hurdle. The four characters are largely driven by their interactions with others, so much so that you could be forgiven for calling this a character-driven, rather than plot-driven book.

Bas’s story is a perfect example. He’s the most successful general in the history of the most successful human empire in history. And in this book…he gets demoted to figurehead of the army, has no input in the strategy, and spends the entire book in a kind of doomed fascination about the Eternal ambassador attached to the army. They have a picnic together and that's actually kind of the climax of his arc.

“‘The external threat must be dealt with first.’ Having been wrong in every past prediction did not prevent the Lord of the House of Kind Lament from further augury.”

Again, I’ll credit Polansky’s skill as a writer for making this as readable as it was. To be honest, I’m still not really sure why he chose to tell this particular story in this particular way.

Given everything that happens in the end, it is hard not to ascribe a kind of nihilist philosophy to the whole endeavour. Is that a commentary on the typical epic fantasy plot of “we’ll overthrow the dark lord and I’m sure everything will just be peachy after that?”

“‘The new world will be the same as the old. The weak and the foolish and the ill-fortuned will suffer, the strong and the cruel will flourish.”

In a clash of civilizations it feels like everyone comes out a loser. Was that the point? I dunno.