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A review by skycrane
Beneath the Twisted Trees by Bradley P. Beaulieu
4.0
This book was very good. I was waiting for it to come out and read it in just a couple days. It feels even more fast-paced than the previous two. Things in the desert have devolved into complete chaos, with many different competing factions, and individuals scheming against each other within those factions. It feels very much like most of the characters are being dragged along by events, unable to exercise anything more than the barest amount of control over their direction.
Cheda, of course, is the exception. Hunted though she is, she is generally able to keep the initiative against her enemies. She's become more of a leader than before, and in some ways her stubborn willfulness is tempered (to some small extent) by her sense of responsibility for those who follow her. Also, now she has friends who are able to stand up to her and tell her when they think she's making a mistake; though she often overrules them, she does listen.
Here's one of my few complaints about the book: some of the character development is way too fast. For Cheda, it mostly makes sense: her mother prepared her when she was young, and she's been training for this her whole life. She's had experience in the slums, in the palaces, and in the deserts. She's studied history and religion. She's gone through a lot in the earlier books, and learned from other people as well as her own mistakes. Plus, she's got some kind of super power. It feels odd that she's the most powerful person in the universe, but I can buy it. Emre, on the other hand, has barely set foot out of the city before, and is now in charge of a diplomatic mission as well as a whole ship. Does he even know how a sandship works? What does he know about rigging, about the terrain, about navigation? Why would anyone listen to him give orders in ship-to-ship combat? What has prepared him to sit with kings and chiefs, follow diplomatic protocol, and discuss weighty issues? I can see him learning some of these things over the course of the books, but not all of them.
I think this only really bothered me with Emre. Otherwise, character development generally makes sense. People grow, and a major part of books like these is seeing the characters learn from their struggles. I feel like many of the relationships are taken more seriously than in the previous books, and the side characters feel more realized.
My other complaint is kind of petty. I feel like the author does waaay too much to try to explain things to people who might've forgotten or haven't been paying attention. The book starts with a brief summary of previous events, which is a nice refresher. Then throughout the book, when something from a previous entry is brought up for the first time, it's explained even when it doesn't make any sense for the narrating character to be reminding themselves of it. This is sort of awkward, but is often helpful. However, sometimes things that were explained just chapters or even mere pages before are reexplained again. This is annoying. I think there's one time where a whole sentence was repeated word-for-word from just a few paragraphs later, for no reason I can fathom. Maybe it slipped through proofreading, or the editing was kind of rushed? Maybe there was some rhetorical purpose that just went over my head.
And speaking of editing, there's something really interesting the way the chapters are put together that at first I wasn't sure how to feel about. Many of the chapters are out of order. You'll have a chapter from one character's point of view, then a chapter set a week earlier from another's point of view. In one chapter there'll be a confrontation in the desert that ends unresolved, and in the next some of the characters will already be back in the city. Then a few chapters later, it'll jump back to the desert right after the battle. I think this happened in the previous books, but it wasn't as noticeable. At first it was a little confusing, or sometimes anticlimactic. However, I think I get it now. The number of times characters split up and then meet up again, or major events affect several different plotlines simultaneously, is massive. Planning out this book must've been quite a feat, and as far as I can tell, it all fits together to the day. I think a decision must've been made to prioritize the flow of the narrative over strict adherence to chronology, and ultimately it works out really well. Throughout this series, I've been really impressed at the way different sections are woven together. There's always a very strong rhythm, with a good alternation between faster and slower sections, without ever sacrificing momentum in key scenes.
In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and eagerly await the next one. If you've been enjoying the series so far, there's no reason to stop now.
Edit: I just re-read this in preparation for starting the recently released When Jackals Storm the Walls. My complaints above seem even more petty than they did when I wrote them. I did notice the issue I had had with the explanations in general (though this time through I was a little more grateful and less annoyed), but I didn't catch the specific part I had complained about, and now I don't remember what it was. As for the characters, I think I hadn't taken into account how much time had passed, and Emre's involvement in the actual management and direction of the ship mostly consisted of encouraging his underlings, who did most of the real work. He was chosen to lead the mission because of his personal qualities and Macide's trust in him, not because of his expertise.
On the other hand, the things I liked about the book stood out to me even more on a second reading. The story feels unpredictable. There are plots and betrayals, plans and reversals, enemies become allies become enemies again. It's all very exciting, and the paces matches the escalation in the story. A minor rebellion has given way to a full-blown war of four nations, and you really feel the chaos of the situation. No one person has a chance of plotting their way through the mess, and it seems like even the gods themselves are really only along for the ride at this point. The best anyone can hope is to react gracefully to the twists in fate, or at best to stay one step ahead.
Overall it's a very good book, and I enjoyed reading it again as much or more than I did the first time.
Cheda, of course, is the exception. Hunted though she is, she is generally able to keep the initiative against her enemies. She's become more of a leader than before, and in some ways her stubborn willfulness is tempered (to some small extent) by her sense of responsibility for those who follow her. Also, now she has friends who are able to stand up to her and tell her when they think she's making a mistake; though she often overrules them, she does listen.
Here's one of my few complaints about the book: some of the character development is way too fast. For Cheda, it mostly makes sense: her mother prepared her when she was young, and she's been training for this her whole life. She's had experience in the slums, in the palaces, and in the deserts. She's studied history and religion. She's gone through a lot in the earlier books, and learned from other people as well as her own mistakes. Plus, she's got some kind of super power. It feels odd that she's the most powerful person in the universe, but I can buy it. Emre, on the other hand, has barely set foot out of the city before, and is now in charge of a diplomatic mission as well as a whole ship. Does he even know how a sandship works? What does he know about rigging, about the terrain, about navigation? Why would anyone listen to him give orders in ship-to-ship combat? What has prepared him to sit with kings and chiefs, follow diplomatic protocol, and discuss weighty issues? I can see him learning some of these things over the course of the books, but not all of them.
I think this only really bothered me with Emre. Otherwise, character development generally makes sense. People grow, and a major part of books like these is seeing the characters learn from their struggles. I feel like many of the relationships are taken more seriously than in the previous books, and the side characters feel more realized.
My other complaint is kind of petty. I feel like the author does waaay too much to try to explain things to people who might've forgotten or haven't been paying attention. The book starts with a brief summary of previous events, which is a nice refresher. Then throughout the book, when something from a previous entry is brought up for the first time, it's explained even when it doesn't make any sense for the narrating character to be reminding themselves of it. This is sort of awkward, but is often helpful. However, sometimes things that were explained just chapters or even mere pages before are reexplained again. This is annoying. I think there's one time where a whole sentence was repeated word-for-word from just a few paragraphs later, for no reason I can fathom. Maybe it slipped through proofreading, or the editing was kind of rushed? Maybe there was some rhetorical purpose that just went over my head.
And speaking of editing, there's something really interesting the way the chapters are put together that at first I wasn't sure how to feel about. Many of the chapters are out of order. You'll have a chapter from one character's point of view, then a chapter set a week earlier from another's point of view. In one chapter there'll be a confrontation in the desert that ends unresolved, and in the next some of the characters will already be back in the city. Then a few chapters later, it'll jump back to the desert right after the battle. I think this happened in the previous books, but it wasn't as noticeable. At first it was a little confusing, or sometimes anticlimactic. However, I think I get it now. The number of times characters split up and then meet up again, or major events affect several different plotlines simultaneously, is massive. Planning out this book must've been quite a feat, and as far as I can tell, it all fits together to the day. I think a decision must've been made to prioritize the flow of the narrative over strict adherence to chronology, and ultimately it works out really well. Throughout this series, I've been really impressed at the way different sections are woven together. There's always a very strong rhythm, with a good alternation between faster and slower sections, without ever sacrificing momentum in key scenes.
In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and eagerly await the next one. If you've been enjoying the series so far, there's no reason to stop now.
Edit: I just re-read this in preparation for starting the recently released When Jackals Storm the Walls. My complaints above seem even more petty than they did when I wrote them. I did notice the issue I had had with the explanations in general (though this time through I was a little more grateful and less annoyed), but I didn't catch the specific part I had complained about, and now I don't remember what it was. As for the characters, I think I hadn't taken into account how much time had passed, and Emre's involvement in the actual management and direction of the ship mostly consisted of encouraging his underlings, who did most of the real work. He was chosen to lead the mission because of his personal qualities and Macide's trust in him, not because of his expertise.
On the other hand, the things I liked about the book stood out to me even more on a second reading. The story feels unpredictable. There are plots and betrayals, plans and reversals, enemies become allies become enemies again. It's all very exciting, and the paces matches the escalation in the story. A minor rebellion has given way to a full-blown war of four nations, and you really feel the chaos of the situation. No one person has a chance of plotting their way through the mess, and it seems like even the gods themselves are really only along for the ride at this point. The best anyone can hope is to react gracefully to the twists in fate, or at best to stay one step ahead.
Overall it's a very good book, and I enjoyed reading it again as much or more than I did the first time.