Number 59 - Homelands of the Heart - SP Somtow

 

Nearly 3 decades after the last of the Chronicles of the High Inquest, Somtow has returned to the Overcosm and the Dispersal of Man and the universe where delphinoid ships traverse the gaps between galaxies and the Inquest play games with the lives of entire civilisations.

In this new volume, we return to the childhood of one of the series' more important characters, the musician Sajit, whose music enchanted the inquestors themselves.

Although this is one of the longer entries in the series by page count, it's also a much more intimate storyline than the last 3 volumes. the action is confined to the world of Urna, which, due to the games of the Inquestors, has been "sent beyond" and is due to be merged with another world, a pleasure planet that was destroyed and relocated.

We see the impact of the Inquestor games more clearly than ever before in the series through the eyes of the young Sajit. 

There are surprises and revelations throughout. As ever with this series, the sheer scale of imagination on display is mind-blowing. There are some of Somtow's repeated themes that pop up, goddesses, twins, sexual awakenings, strange religions, just as a starter.

It's probably the best written of the four books.  Somtow's style has matured and improved over the years and there are few stylists who can touch him when he's on form as he is in this book.

It's an absolute pleasure to read. Some plot details would seem silly and overblown if written by almost anyone else, but in Somtow's gorgeous prose they seem like natural progressions of the storyline.

There's a fine villain who appears later on in the story, giving us a far more cruel and depraved version of the Child Snatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. A disgusting and truly deplorable character indeed. I hope he's back for the next volume. I need to see  him get his just punishment.

There are a couple of continuity errors. The villain's record in collection is said to be flawless, yet there's a flashback to a collection that went very badly indeed.  There are also quite a few grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.  The book does need to be thoroughly proofread (although I'm not sure if this wasn't a review copy that i disgracefully didn't get around to- in which case, they might have been corrected). It's testament to how much I enjoyed the book that the errors didn't pull me out of the story like they normally would. 

A worthy return to a classic and overlooked series. It's available through Diplodicus Press or the usual online retailers. Buy it.