Drakis has been through a lot in a short amount of time. Despite
being a slave, he was a respected warrior with friends and a devoted
lover. Then the truth came, and his lover went insane, his home was
destroyed, and he was forced to set North, not only to survive, but to
fulfill an insane prophecy thrust upon him. As he was herded forward,
destined to destroy the evil Rhonas Empire or die at their hands, he
faced treachery within the ranks of the dragons that had professed to
join his cause. Now, he is weary of battle, having faced the death of
his beloved Mala- but the world won’t let him leave. The stakes are his
own thousands of followers and the tyranny of the Rhonas Elves- not to
mention all of the other characters we’ve followed along the Annals of
Drakis. Is Blood of the Emperor a fitting conclusion, and does the time we’ve invested in this series pay off?
The novel begins with Drakis’s party
swooping in atop dragons to bring the Army assembled in Drakis’s name
victory in a battle against the elves. The Army of the Prophet has been
traveling, fighting all the while but mostly fighting to keep themselves
from being exterminated by the far more numerous and better trained
Legions of Rhonas. With the help of the dragons, the Army of the Prophet
quickly wins the battle, establishing Drakis as their figurehead and
Commander in Chief. Soen Tjen-rei, the Iblisi Inquisitor who set out
first to bring Drakis back to the Empire, and then to use Drakis and his
Army as a way of returning to power after being betrayed by Iblisi
Keeper Ch’drei, is now a member of the Army and an important source of
knowledge on Rhonas tactics.
From here, the already complicated story gets infinitely more
complicated. We’re treated to a brief glimpse at the politics of the
refugees- and brief as it is, it’s entirely possibly too much. I’m not
really sure whether I’m saying anything about the wisdom of including it
when I say that, more the fact that any glimpse into the political
workings of this camp gives you a glimpse into the headache that anyone
trying to lead this group must feel on a constant basis. It’s no wonder
why Drakis’s most important goal throughout this entire novel is not
conquest or victory, but to avoid this type of internal squabbling.
Drakis sends his inner circle out, both to rally support for their
cause, and on a secret mission to convince those who would rebel against
the Elves to travel North rather than to join them in battle in the
South. This leads to some padding as the cumbersome and difficult to
write Lyric- a human who was possessed by the spirits of the stories she
told after her mind broke during the initial failing of the Devotions
that caused the slave revolt- sacrifices herself in a scene that leads
absolutely nowhere and causes nobody to ask any questions later on.
On a more relevant note, Jugar- Dwarven Jester, lover of his own
voice, and sorcerer of Aer magic- and Ethis- whom we’ve come to learn is
one of the chosen of the Queen in Exile of the mysterious Chimerian
kingdom- each return home to their respective kingdoms. While Ethis
works out an arrangement to the mutual benefit of both the Army of the
Prophet, Jugar reveals himself to be Aerkan, the last King of the
Dwarves, on a crusade to both destroy Aether magic- the magic used by
both humans and elves, which is drawn more forcefully from the ground
than Aer and thus seen as unnatural by the dwarves- and to crush all
other races after the war with Rhonas is over. Jugar- that is to say,
King Aerkan- blames the lack of dedication of the other races for
Rhonas’s ultimate victory, the dwarves being the last race to defy them
and meeting what appeared to be their ultimate end in Song of the Dragon.
This being the third novel of the series, it’s only natural that if I
continue to explain everything at this rate, we’ll be here all day.
When it comes to the early chapters of Blood of the Emperor,
though, these are the highlights. We see a change in dynamics as Jugar
transforms from the well-meaning yet overbearing mentor to a secret
villain, sabotaging the attempts of his human counterpart, the Aether
Sorcerer Braun, to take control of Aether Wells along their path and
even resulting in both Braun’s death and the destruction of a city in
what by all accounts was the most bloody, inhumane manner possible as it
both physically and mentally fell apart. Around the same time, Soen
falls off the map of the Army, having been left behind as soon as his
uncertain loyalties became a liability. Apparently, bad times have
taught Soen more about morals than he ever wishes to know as a
successful Iblisi, and he passes that information on to a fellow
Inquisitor who captures him and witnesses her own Devotions- think of
Devotions as a spell to keep subjects of Rhonas thinking the way the
Emperor wishes them to think- crumble, leaving her with a moral crisis.
I don’t want to go too far into these plots, because the novel did
keep me in suspense and is not entirely without my recommendation.
Still, I find it’s important to talk about the resolution, because in a
lot of ways, there really aren’t any. Sure, Drakis finds a resolution,
and the almost-romance that this book seems to be shipping between him
and Urulani resolves, but a lot of the implications of decisions that
are made go completely nowhere. Soen and Jugar are worthwhile examples,
because I’ve already hinted at their character arcs. Soen transforms
from a neutral, pragmatic character with no real interest in moral
absolutes into a character who manages to twist the entire plot around
his desires and fool essentially everyone he speaks to, and not once do
we get a Soen point of view in this novel. Whether he’s truly interested
in utopia- and why- or if he’s continuing to look out for his own needs
is entirely ambiguous- rather, ambiguous in the hand-wavy way that
indicates “all is well” unless someone chooses to write a sequel, in
which case it’s the opposite. Jugar devotes his entire Kingdom to a
course of action, but when his story resolves, his Kingdom seems left
with no option but to flounder out of site.
When it comes to the main plot of the story, Tracy Hickman delivers
with action, emotionally charged scenes, and suspense, but it seems like
outside of the main target she loses focus. It’s strange in that we’re
very clearly following the same story threads that were set up in Song of the Dragon, but where in Song of the Dragon
we were entranced by a new universe filled with new species and new
characters, here, we’re living with the same characters that we’ve known
for three novels. Some reveal new dimensions, like the mysterious
Jugar, while most gain no new characterization. Between the three main
elven antagonists- the Emperor, Keeper Ch’drei, and Sjei (the elven
woman who routinely raped Drakis before he was released from his
Devotions)- not one gets a suitable climactic confrontation, and only
one gets anything I could consider a character resolution. In fact,
throughout the trilogy, the Emperor barely speaks and not once gives his
thoughts on something. The Emperor, up through his final scene, is not a
character. He is set dressing, he is background, he is even a
MacGuffin, but he is never a character. The woman whom the army opposing
Drakis is named after never meets Drakis during the main course
of the novel, and by the time she does, he (ironically or not) claims no
knowledge of who she is. This is not dramatic tension, and this is not a satisfying end to a story.
There is a battle at the end, yes. There is an adventure at the end
of the novel that leads to the conclusion. But because of the way it is
presented, much of the tension is robbed from it. By about three
quarters through the novel, virtually everybody in the novel’s universe
is dead certain on the fact that the Empire is going to fall, and by the
time the actual battle comes around, it’s essentially over in the space
between chapters.
Despite the disappointing ending, Annals of Drakis is more or
less a satisfying fantasy story. The universe is pretty unique, and it
keeps you on your toes as you try to understand the rules of this world
and the roles of the various factions within it. While I can’t bring the
full force of my enthusiasm behind reading this series, I also can’t
say that I regret having read it or wouldn’t recommend a friend do the
same. If you’ve got enough time on your hands to read through a decent
length trilogy and love fantasy novels, give this trilogy a try and you
should have a decent time.
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