Musings: The Anvil of the World

I remember vividly exactly how I first heard about Kage Baker.  Back in college, I was a member of a lot of Yahoo! Groups on reading, and made many great friends on those groups and on different forums around the net.  (That's how I met both Kailana and Marg, actually!)  One of the Yahoo! groups I joined was called Bookaholics Anonymous or something like that, and one of the moderators was named Nichole.  Nichole and I became pretty close and exchanged very long, detailed emails with each other because our reading styles were so similar.  I introduced her to George R. R. Martin, she introduced me to my beloved Marcus Didius Falco.

She also told me that I should read Kage Baker's time travel sci fi series about The Company.  I have the first Company book on my shelf, but I also had one of Baker's few fantasy novels, The Anvil of the World, here in Ann Arbor with me.  It's been waiting very patiently for me to pick it up since September 2006, and I finally did.  And now I cannot WAIT to read all the rest of Kage Baker's work.  If it's anything as good as this book, I have a wonderful backlist in store for me.  It's just sad to know that Baker will never write another novel.

I loved The Anvil of the World for many reasons, but not because it was perfect.  It's about Smith, a man without a home or much of a family.  He takes on a job as a caravan leader, charged with shipping people and property safely across a long distance.  But his caravan is attacked many times, his goods are damaged, and the passengers, all of whom have secrets, don't get along very well.  Smith makes it across, though, and then opens up a hotel with some of the friends he made on the trip over.  And then he goes on a quest with a smaller group of those friends, one that forces him to face his past and the role he is meant to play in the world.

What I loved about this book was that it was all about diversity- race and religion, particularly.  I didn't realize that when I started it.  I thought it was a light epic fantasy read- pretty short, one volume and with a lot of humor.  And it is that.  Baker has a wonderful sense of humor that comes out a lot in her writing.  And the book is really pretty light- it reads much more like three novellas threaded together through common characters than as one longer novel.  But Baker makes so many great social insights with her novel.  In a way, this reminded me of Terry Pratchett, but perhaps that's because Pratchett is the only other fantasy author I know of that deals with race so naturally in his work, and does it with such humor and kindness. 

In this novel, Smith is of the dominant race in that his people, the Children of the Sun- with deep red skin, have multiplied, spread, colonized and wreaked havoc all over the world.  There are also the Yendri, who have green skin, and live more harmoniously with nature, though their culture has fractured significantly along religious lines and the factions are very, very different than each other.  Demons are in this world, too, and while the Children of the Sun and the Yendri are wary of them, they respect them and interact with them often.

What's brilliant about Baker's depiction of events in this novel is the way she treats the different races and religions.  While the Children of the Sun are dominant in terms of population and surface area, they are clearly behind in many other ways.  They are brilliant architects and can build up cities within a generation.  But they don't know about crop rotation or birth control.  They pour poison into their water supply.  They overfish their oceans.  Conversely, the Yendri just recently discovered fire, but have been living their vegetarian lifestyles very happily for years and years.  The demons have control over other creatures and materials, but they also respect and ask permission before using those powers.  And then there are so many characters of mixed race, and the difficulties they face in life are compounded above and beyond those of other people.  And then there are people of the same religion but different interpretations of that religion, and that communication breakdown causes a great deal of strife, too.

I am not exaggerating when I tell you that Baker's approach to diversity in this book just warmed my heart.  She not only included people of different races in her book, but she really defied stereotypes and refused to be boxed into one description or another.  I love how she made clear that the races all could learn from one another and that the practices of one were considered barbaric by another.  For example, when Lord Ermenwyr the demon finds out that Smith uses whale oil for fuel, he is truly disturbed.  "But, Smith - they're intelligent.  Like people."  Smith disagrees, saying, "They're fish.  Mindless."  And Ermenwyr says, "Certain mindless fish have been known to stalk fishermen with something remarkably like intelligence.  And a sense of injury."  Another time, Willowspear the Yendri realizes that Smith and his entire race of people don't know about crop rotations, and that is why they devastate the land so quickly.  Willowspear, though, instead of becoming angry and calling Smith ignorant, blames himself for living so long among the Children of the Sun and never realizing that they have such primitive farming techniques.  Soon after, though, it's Smith who has to steer a ship and point out the difficult mechanics of a race in the water.  It's clear that each character has strengths and weaknesses, and points of ignorance are balanced by other areas of expertise.

What is so great about the way Baker writes is that you can see character perceptions and stereotypes break down.  Once they get to know each other, they understand the fallacies of their preconceptions and are willing to look at the world in completely new ways.  Smith has friends of other races and religions, and they have intellectually stimulating debates without insulting each other - there is enough trust and friendship there for it to be safe.  For example:

"All I know is, if you put a naked Yendri and a naked Child of the Sun down in a wilderness, with nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep, the Yendri would sit there and do nothing for fear of stepping on a blade of grass.  The Child of the Sun would figure out how to make himself clothes and tools and shelter and - in ten generations the Child of the Sun would have cities and trade goods and - and culture, dammit, while the Yendri would still be sitting there scared to move," said Smith.

"If I were going to argue with you, I would point out that in ten more generations the Child of the Sun would have wars, famine, and plague, and the Yendri would still be there.  And in ten more generations the Child of the Sun would be dead, leaving a wrecked place where no blade of grass grew; and the Yendri would still be there," said Willowspear.  "So who is wiser, Smith?"

 All of this fantastic theological and intellectual debate happens over the course of a really engaging, funny, sexy and light novel.  I really enjoyed this book, and am so looking forward to reading more by Baker.  I know that I'm in for a real treat.