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Servant of the Underworld
Group Reads Discussions 2020
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"Servant of the Underworld" First Impressions *No Spoilers*
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I know this is just a lack of familiarity on my part, but I find it difficult to distinguish any of the names from each other, they all just go into my memory as some word I can't pronounce so I'm finding it difficult to keep track of who's who. I have Kindle Unlimited so I realized I also have the audio and I've found that listening to that while reading along has been helping (albeit the pace is a bit slower than if I were sight reading alone).
I like the term sight reading, it sounds mysterious and magical! Much cooler than eye-reading.
I agree that it's difficult to keep track of the names. I actually made myself a sticky note cheat, where I write down the names of people, gods and places with short explanations.I don't mind, though. Old American civilizations with their cultures and religions really fascinate me. So I expect that I will love this element of the book, whether I end up liking characters/plot/writing or not.
Arrgh! My husband and I are still reading another de Bodard, so I won’t be starting this for at least another week.
It's definitely a different sort of world, and requires your attention to get into, but I'm liking it so far. The maybe-murder-mystery of it all gives the plot a familiar vibe so you can pay more attention to the world-building. I am getting a bit tired of all the "May The Duality curse me" stuff, though, lol. It's a bit much.
There's a list of characters and glossary of terms at the end of the book (before the author's note and acknowledgements)! No need to write your own notes. :-)I do wish it had been put at the beginning so that it's not so easily overlooked, though.
I've also just found this wonderful video explaining very succinctly how to pronounce ancient Nahuatl (Aztec language): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-dQd...
I've noticed some weird contradictions (in the first few pages) I can't explain:- The narrator is the highest head priest of one of the most important gods in their pantheon. Every online resource tells me that in Aztec society, priests enjoyed respect and privilege on par with the nobility - and as head priest it would have been on par with the highest levels of aristocracy. His parents are simple farmers, and yet they somehow see him as "a failure too great to be encompassed in words". That makes no sense in their society!
- He complains that the imperial family always comes first when Ceyaxochitl tells him that she can't spare any time on an investigation due to having to oversee the healers tending to the emperor. And yet when he was busy conducting the magical ritual which would send another member of the imperial family into the afterlife (why was he alone and not surrounded by thousands of people witnessing this funeral??), he interrupted it right away when Ceyaxochitl summoned him, without any worry that perhaps someone might get upset about him not conducting it himself.
- If he can feel the anger and rage left in the room, why doesn't he simply summon all possible suspects and feel their level of anger and rage, as well as leftover nahual magic on them? With such abilities, it would be a matter of seconds to identify the killer.
Despite of these contradictions, I'm enjoying it so far - I love the atmosphere.
Eva, I haven't started the book yet, so I don't know how spoilery that is, but if it's past the first 10% of the book, then please hide it in tags, or wait for the spoiler thread! If not, then carry on! :D
No, this is all from the first few pages, I'm only at 4%. But I'll hide it anyway if you like. :-)
No need, it just sounded so detailed, and like I said I haven't started the book so I had no idea! We prefer no tags in the non-spoiler thread, because not everyone can open them. I just thought if it was spoilery, I didn't want to ask you to just delete all of that!
I'm getting close to 30% and my first impression is... I kinda wish anything else on the poll had won.The world is cool but the storytelling is problematic, as Eva mentioned.
Yes 20% in and so far it feels like a mediocre mystery novel aside from the unique culture/historical setting. Feel like I'd rather be reading an excellent conventional mystery or a history book on the Aztec culture.
:( y'all are not getting my hopes up :(. Since "memory police" is too expensive for my budget I bought this one. Sounds like it wasn't money well spent.
Your mileage may vary.. the setting is different, and the magic system has a lot of potential to be very cool indeed. I'm not giving up on it.
I'm roughly 15% in. The story hasn't sucked me in yet and the characters are rather flat, but I still have high hopes for the book. I'm a sucker for anything Native American themed, though, so I might be biased.
Eva wrote: "I've noticed some weird contradictions (in the first few pages) I can't explain:- The narrator is the highest head priest of one of the most important gods in their pantheon. Every online resourc..."
I may join in this one. I just received this in the mail, and just finished my current book. So I think jump into this one.
This is my second-go through of the book. It's on Kindle Unlimited with free audiobook to go along with it, so I'm reading by listening this time. I enjoyed it quite a bit the first time, but was confused by a few of the threads. I am hoping the second time through will help. I am also gauging it this second time to see if I want to get the rest of the series. Excited this was the pick, as I'm a huge fan of Mesoamerican history (I've got a couple shelves dedicated to nonfiction related to Mesoamerican history, and try to keep on top of new discoveries as much as I can). Does anyone know of additional fantasy or sci-fi type novels with Mesoamerica as a setting?
J.W. wrote: "Does anyone know of additional fantasy or sci-fi type novels with Mesoamerica as a setting?"Graham Hancock's War God: Nights of the Witch trilogy takes place in a similar setting.
Thank you!Gotta admit I’m surprised they picked a narrator with an English accent for this. Gives it a sense of Sherlock Holmes that feels slightly off to me.
J.W. wrote: "Thank you!Gotta admit I’m surprised they picked a narrator with an English accent for this. Gives it a sense of Sherlock Holmes that feels slightly off to me."
My initial impression tends to agree. yes there are references to Aztec like culture, but the language conventions make it feel european.
Overall I like the pantheon and the sacrifice blood magic concepts.And even the overall plot concept. However, the use of language devices feels off to me, it feels european juxtaposed on aztec curtains. I'm only hand ful of chapters in. I will carry on as the concept is pretty cool
Well, this discussion makes me glad that I picked Memory Police to read first and designated this one as my "if I get to it" one.
Aliette de Bodard just did an AMA over on /r/fantasy, 2 days ago now? Anyhow, when checking out the mail for this month, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the months pick was her Aztec-based series. She doesn't talk about this much over there, but I thought the connection was cool. I haven't joined in a book club read here for what feels like almost a decade. But I just grabbed this book to give Bodard a try!
Yay, welcome back to the fold, Xeni!
I know it's been said before above, but thank goodness for the audio. I would have zero idea on how to pronounce the names. Major props to the narrator on this. Thankfully, with Kindle Unlimited you get the book along with the audio so I can see how the names are spelled too.I'm liking the story so far. I really didn't know what to expect when I started, but the setting and the narrator really make this an enjoyable read.
I’m also struggling with the names, but the story is pulling me in. It’s well written, so I think I’ll continue with it and just come up with nicknames for all of the characters.
I just read chapter 1 last night. The names were really overwhelming me, but once I started jokingly trying to tell my SO what was happening in the book, and had to try to pronounce them all, it got a lot easier to place everything.I'm intrigued as to how much of these gods and magic is based on the actual Aztec empire and how much is fanciful. Clearly blood-based religion is their thing, so it's not too hard to extrapolate that to blood-based magic. It seems like everyone is all about spilling blood; even the young girls Acatl sees late at night / early morning in the compound.
I really love returning to the Aztec culture. The last books I read featuring it were the Mercedes Lackey Diana Tregarde detective novels. And they are not quite as in the past with setting. It's such a weird, alien place, yet still on our planet.
So far it seems like quite a basic plot, set in a bizarre world: estranged head priest, who'd rather do anything else but is quite competent is pulled into solving a crime he doesn't want to solve. I'm interested to see where the story goes, but not holding my breath waiting for something spectacular.
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Allison wrote: "Yeah, I'm having fun so far. It's a pretty standard UF set up, but the world is very interesting and I admire that the author so far has managed to make it hard to see whodunnit. I'm not sure this ..."I agree with this! Have gotten sidetracked with work so I've stalled out a bit (hoping to pick it back up in the next couple of days), but I was surprised at how light of a read it is. I was expecting something much heavier and darker. I don't mind either way, and I'm enjoying it as well--just definitely not what I expected!
Kari wrote: "... but I was surprised at how light of a read it is. I was expecting something much heavier and darker.'..."I'm currently reading the author's collection Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight. Perhaps she put her heavy and dark there. Anyway when I started this one the combination of that collection darkness, the blood magic here, and the difficulty I was having keeping the characters straight sent me off onto other things. It sounds like I need to pick this up again soon. Thanks.
I started and so far (10%) it is a nice and easy read. With the exception of the question Eva came up with why a priest is not held in high esteem by his family I have no qualms.
Wanted to add: The names pose no problem to me. My father was an archeology freak so we had all kinds of books on middle and south American history. I always was especially fond of Huitzilpochtli, the name sounded like a small, very old man to me ("hutzel" is a German name for a dried pear).
Gabi wrote: "...I always was especially fond of Huitzilpochtli, the name sounded like a small, very old man to me ("hutzel" is a German name for a dried pear)."*hehe* cute!
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It makes sense to me. He is the sun god, after all, and too much sun makes one look like a dried pear haha
Allison wrote: "It makes sense to me. He is the sun god, after all, and too much sun makes one look like a dried pear haha"Hah, this is great. I'll think of him as a shriveled little pear with hummingbird wings!
Now that I've made it thru the Trial, the story has much improved and seems to evolving into some next level. Looking forward to it.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight (other topics)War God: Nights of the Witch (other topics)
What are your initial, spoiler free thoughts? Please hang on to comments about characters, plot specifics, and the ending until the full discussion thread goes up in a couple days!