Whew. I just finished this wonderful series last night (stayed up late to finish) and this definitely ranks as one of the best series I have read in a long, long time. I came to the Long Price Quartet via The Expanse series. After devouring all the available books by James S.A. Corey, I wanted to seek out some of the previous works by those authors. I chose this series randomly but also based on the reviews and the description. Also, I was just in the mood for a really long, epic, well-written Fantasy series that I could fall down a hole into. Check, check, check and check.
The Long Price Quartet is almost a thousand pages, and while that's just one book for someone like Peter Hamilton or Neal Stephenson, the way Daniel Abraham moves the story along, over the course of two or three generations was pretty much perfect. Between each book, a certain number of years passes, which allows you to move across the decades more quickly and see the results of actions taken in previous books. There are a few particular things about these books that are (to me) unique and are reasons that this series really stands out above most others.
First off the conceit of the "Andat." The single Fantasy element and main driving force of the narrative, the Andat are physical beings brought into reality by "Poets" who use a combination of personal will, the crafting of poetic description and an undefined magical element to distill and solidify descriptive ideas about the nature of reality into a human form who then has control over this aspect of reality. Each Andat is controlled by a Poet and these two are locked in a lifelong battle of wills, as each Andat is held against its own will and is forever seeking ways to get free and/or betray its master. Some are more devious and malicious than others. This depends partly on the nature of the Andat and partly on how they are bound. Each Poet ends up incorporating underlying aspects of his/her own nature into the Andat, many times aspects that have been ignored or suppressed. The Andat often use these as a weapon against the Poets. For example, two Andat discussed in detail during the course of these books are: Water Moving Down (who can control the flow of rivers, rainfall and any other movement of water) and Removing the Part That Continues (who is used to remove the seeds from cotton plants, allowing it's owners to corner the cotton market as well as the trade in ending pregnancies.) While each Andat is created for a specific purpose, the definition of each Andat's power can be amorphous and used to fit several different potential scenarios. That very amorphous nature combined with the problem of having a mortal being "controlling" a superhuman power is the heart of the conflict at work in The Long Price Quartet. It allows Abraham to explore a great deal of deep and affecting human issues, including the nature of power, the nature of relationship, institutional sexism and classism, loyalty, sacrifice, forgiveness... and ultimately love. I won't go into too much more detail because the main thing that's beautiful about these books is how each character takes their journey and what they learn along the way.
Not only is this a diverse and vibrant cast of characters, but you also get to see most of them grow and evolve over many years and how their individual journeys intersect with their relationships, weaving, and un-weaving again and again over decades. Besides great characters, Abraham is very adept at differentiating each character through the way they communicate. The main set of characters the reader follows are in the cities of the Khaiem of the southern region of this world. You also spend time in Galt which is the northern region. The people who inhabit the southern region communicate with body postures, poses, and hand signals as much as though verbal means. This is an ingenious writing device and allows for another layer of communication and emotion to carry on between these characters. This is always super effective and often devastating in its ability to get across deeper meanings of pain, confusion, agreement/disagreement, affection, anger, etc... It's something I haven't seen done before and makes The Long Price Quartet stand out to me as utterly unique in its storytelling. This technique really comes into play during the climax of each novel, and especially during the climax of the last novel, The Price of Spring.
It's nice when starting a series to know that it's "going somewhere." Or in other words, that the author knows where the characters and the story are going - and that they get there in the end. In this series, Abraham knows what he wants to do and he gets it done spectacularly. This is NOT an action-packed story, in terms of battles and fighting. There is a giant battle at one point and some violence peppered throughout, but this series is mostly quieter and about intense and urgent political, interpersonal and familial entanglements that threaten the existence of an entire culture. Things are not always what they seem in these books and change can come very quickly indeed. These books require close attention, as sometimes a small point of dialogue or gesture will have huge implications later on.
So to sum up, this is by far one of the best series I have ever read. I would say as far as Fantasy goes it's up there in the Top 5 or even Top 3 for me. I am not a serious Fantasy reader but I have read the entire Wheel Of Time series so when I dedicate to a series, I go all in. If you are looking for an epic Fantasy series that you can fall into and get lost in, that has a unique magic element and superior characters/dialogue, plus intricate, involving plotting - you will be wowed by The Long Price Quartet. I recommend this Omnibus edition, as you can get totally immersed and immediately pick up the next book after completing the previous one. The story is subtle and nuanced so reading them all back to back really helps to keep the intricate plot lines fresh in your head and makes the ultimate payoff that much better.
Five stars all the way around.
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