Yes, it took me a good long while to get to this book. In my defense, this time it's by my own choice. Indeed, before the turn of the millennium, with fantasy authors such as Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin releasing a proliferation of installments in their respective series, I elected never to read an unfinished sequence until the last volume had been published. And though I did cheat a little over the years, for the most part I kept that promise to myself. Which is why I still own my Warner Books hardcover edition of J. V. Jones' A Cavern of Black Ice purchased in March 1999.
Why now? You may recall that the last installment in the Sword of Shadow series was released in 2010 and that we've been waiting for the fifth volume,
Endlords, ever since. A few weeks back, Jones announced on her Patreon that the novel was done. Unfortunately, claiming that the market for that type of fantasy has moved on, Tor Books turned down the manuscript. Since the author's contract with the publisher has expired, no one can't say what will now happen with
Endlords and the final installment in the series,
A Sword Named Loss. It appears that Tor Books won't prevent Jones from trying to find a new home for those two books, but at this juncture it's impossible to say if or when they'll ever see the light.
I started reading
A Cavern of Black Ice before the manuscript for
Endlords was turned down, hoping to help the Sword of Shadows regain some traction and attract new readers before the fifth volume hit the shelves. There is an entire generation of SFF fans who have little or no idea who J. V. Jones is. And yes, to a certain extent, other than for legacy authors that brand of epic fantasy appears to be on the way out. Time was, Jones was a rising star and one of the bright new voices out there. The Book of Words trilogy and
The Barbed Coil did quite well commercially, which prompted Time Warner to go for a 60,000-copy first printing in hardback. Too bad a number of personal and family problems forced the author to go on such a long hiatus. Here's to hoping that, wherever and whenever
Endlords gets published, it will help get Jones' writing career back on track.
Here's the blurb:
As a newborn Ash March was abandoned--left for dead at the foot of a frozen mountain. Found and raised by the Penthero Iss, the mighty Surlord of Spire Vanis, she has always known she is different. Terrible dreams plague her and sometimes in the darkness she hears dread voices from another world. Iss watches her as she grows to womanhood, eager to discover what powers his ward might possess. As his interest quickens, he sends his living blade, Marafice Eye, to guard her night and day.
Raif Sevrance, a young man of Clan Blackhail, also knows he is different, with uncanny abilities that distance him from the clan. But when he and his brother survive an ambush that plunges the entire Northern Territories into war, he yet seeks justice for his own . . . even if means he must forsake clan and kin.
Ash and Raif must learn to master their powers and accept their joint fate if they are to defeat an ancient prophecy and prevent the release of the pure evil known as the End Lords.
A Cavern of Black Ice takes place in the same universe as the Book of Words trilogy, but very far into the Northern Territories, in a vast subartic area known as the Great Want. The overall vibe is similar to that of Martin's Winterfell and the lands beyond the Wall, as well as that of Joe Abercrombie's High Places and the North in general. It may feel a bit clichéd at first, what with the primitive and shamanistic tribespeople that comprise the clans. And yet, Jones goes to great lengths in portraying the clanholds down to the smallest detail. It's evident that she did more than her fair share of research to make sure that her depiction of such people and their extremely harsh environment felt genuine. However, like Kate Elliott in her Crown of Stars series, Jones meticulous worldbuilding did impress me, but at times it was a bit over the top. Such a conscientious depiction of how to survive in a subartic world will please fans of worldbuilding, no doubt. But the author also has a tendency to overdo this, and there's no denying that it often gets in the way of the plot and also slows the pace throughout the book. Too often these bits and pieces meant to add a measure of realism to this fantasy universe bog down the narrative instead.
The characterization is well done but suffers from too much exposition, especially in the first third of the novel. I'm all for fleshing out characters, and more often than not more is better than less. Yet in this instance the over-exposition can be excessive and it often gets in the way of the plot. Every scene is longer than it needs to be, every conversation or inner monologue too long. Add to that the aforementioned in-depth descriptions of everything in sight, and that makes
A Cavern of Black Ice a very slow-moving beast. Still, there's no denying that the two main protagonists, Raif and Ash, are three-dimensional characters that show depth and substance. It's just that both their storylines take a very long time to finally get going. It's obvious from the very beginning that circumstances will push them to leave their current lives, but it takes nearly a third of the novel for this to happen. The antagonists could have used a bit more work as well. Indeed, they are somewhat cardboard cutouts to begin with, though they do come into their own later on, especially Mace Blackhail and Vaylo Bludd. The supporting cast is made up of an interesting bunch of people, chief among them Drey, Angus Lok, and Effie.
The first 250 pages or so of
A Cavern of Black Ice were a bit of a slog for me. Too much exposition, too many detailed descriptions, with very little forward movement as far as the plot is concerned. And then, finally, J. V. Jones decides to hit the gas and the tale takes off for good. The author's depiction of the Great Want was evocative, but so far she had kept her cards very close to her chest as far as the worldbuilding goes. But once Ash and Raif get going, revelations are made about the world's past history, about magic, about the mysterious people known as the Sull, and about our protagonists' strange powers. It's too early to tell whether or not the Sword of Shadows will echo with as much depth as Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen, George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, or Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings, but we now know that there is more to Jones' universe than meets the eye. We see some character growth, especially with Raif, whose love for the brother and sister he left behind continue to haunt him. As does the massacre of women and children he witnessed and which led to his exile from his clan.
Though it's not a grimdark series per se, there are some battle sequences and depictions of slaughter, as well as scenes of torture, that wouldn't be amiss in a George R. R. Martin or Joe Abercrombie work. Still, J. V. Jones doesn't necessarily go for shock value and many of the most gruesome scenes take place just "off camera." It's nothing that Martin, Abercrombie, Morgan, Bakker, Erikson, or any other epic fantasy/grimdark fantasy fans who've been around haven't seen before. But for newer fantasy readers who weren't there in the late 90s and early 00s, the wanton violence may come as a disquieting surprise.
Yes,
A Cavern of Black Ice does suffer from pacing issues. The first third is a slog and the second one picks up speed with each new chapter. The endgame is a sprint that goes a bit too fast compared to the rest of the novel, but it does deliver the kind of finale that will make you want to sink your teeth into the second volume as soon as you can get your hands on it. My hope is that this first installment was one overlong introduction and that the rest of the series will move in a more fluid fashion from now on. Time will tell. . .
The final verdict: 7.5/10
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