The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell

Title: The Tangled Lands
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell

My Rating: 4 stars


Magic has been banned in Khaim because it causes the bramble to grow, choking out the cities and life.  If the bramble touches you, you fall into a deep sleep, never to wake. Only the Majister Scacz is allowed to use magic and yet, so many others do, causing the bramble to continue to grow.  Stories of magic, yes, but these are really tales of the lesser people fighting back, while losing people along the way.

At first I was disappointed to find out this was a book of four stories set in one world, instead of a novel, but I actually found it to be well written and the stories were moving.  Each author writes two of the stories.  I think my favorite was the Executioness.

In the first story, an inventor is trying to protect his young daughter who is sick.  He creates a device that can fight the bramble, but Scacz and the duke discover it can be used to find those that are using magic...

The second story is that of the Executioness.  When the story begins, the woman is the daughter of an executioner, but her father is sick.  She is just a butcher, until her village is raided and her chidren are taken.  She goes after them, and earns the title of the Executioness.

In the third story, two children (actually I was never sure if they were children or teenagers?) are orphans that used to be well-off in Alacan, but they have lost their family since the bramble overtook the city.  Now they are refugees and have to work to fight the bramble and are considered lesser than the other people.  The girl falls to the bramble, and the boy loses her.  This is a story of him looking for her body, and trying to keep her alive.

Finally there is the story of the blacksmith's daughter.  The family of blacksmiths are commissioned by the duke to create a suit of armor for the duke's son.  But they are not given enough money or time to create what the duke wants.  They are punished when it is not complete, and the daughter is left to make difficult choices.

These people all learn the hard way how to fight back when they have lost their loved ones.  These stories are difficult and sad, but somehow empowering.