Review: The Waking Land

The Waking Land by Callie Bates
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

At the outset, let me say that this book has a lot going for it, from its beautiful cover to an interesting magical world, to a heroine that is likable both at the start and at the finish. The first person narrative, however, limits the perspectives we have of this world to the paradigm of a teenage girl and that was a source of plot and character problems for me. Elanna is a teenage hostage, gently held by King Antoine of Eren since she was age five, as a means to force good behavior on Elanna's rebellious father. Raised outside her native duchy she forgets, as she loses touch with her land, her magical heritage. When the king is murdered, and Elanna falsely accused, she makes a run for it and finds out that the world she had been raised in by King Antoine was one based on lies. She runs to her now foreign-to-her homeland and struggles to adjust. I found this aspect of the book quite promising- her reconnection with her land, her heritage, and with parents who are very different from what she remembered or assumed. It was ripe territory for dramatic development. But the path to fulfill that promise wasn't clear. The inconsistent character development of secondary characters was a frustration (more on that below).

As I mentioned, Elanna, the protagonist, is quite likable. She kind, smart, and manages herself well through a series of reversals of fortune and a surprise betrayal (view spoiler)[by her own mother, who, surprisingly, Elanna still loves, tries to understand and doesn't plan to kill or get revenge from. (Kudos on not following a bad parent trope here!) (hide spoiler)]. But this is where the plot muddies for me. None of the secondary characters seem to have problems with these betrayals, perceived or real, and are just willing to take this teenage girl's word that everything is 'cool,' so to speak. There is no caution generated around two important characters when they appear to have done the Caerisian rebels great wrong. Everything is forgiven quickly, easily and multiple times. The plot, which goes from here to there to here to there in terms of action, wasn't smoothly developed. I think a better editorial hand might have been beneficial here. The same is true of the world building. I wanted a better sense of Eren and the Ereni people to understand the plight of the Caerisians. All I got is that they were awful and a pack of liars and murderers, except for Guerin, Hensey and Victoire. I'm not even one hundred percent sure why Paladis was so involved in Eren and Caeris affairs. (I do thank the publisher for the map at the start of the book, by the way. It's a helpful addition.)

Beyond the plot and world building, we have the issue of character development. A number of the relationships don't ring true due to lack of development. For instance, Sophy (the girl Elanna's parents basically adopted after Elanna is taken as a hostage by King Antoine) and Elanna have little time to explore their mutual situations. Sophy views Elanna's parents as her own and truly loves them, and Elanna feels what seems to be only fleeting resentment or jealousy over the life this young woman led in what should have been Elanna's place in this duchy. Sophy, who behaves as if she is a person of importance, has her own secrets to keep and we see none of her own resentments of a returned Elanna and what this may mean for her own situation because the book is told from Elanna's first person perspective and Elanna doesn't spend much time analysing Sophy's role as a seeming placeholder for the Duke and Duchess's hostage daughter.

(view spoiler)[
One of the great missed opportunities of the book was the character of Loyce and her motivations for having her own father murdered. Elanna has lived among the royalty of Eren but doesn't see them accurately and we don't understand much in depth about the relationship between Loyce, Elanna and Antoine. Did Antoine love Elanna more than his own daughter, Loyce? It's implied but we don't have a fully grounded understanding of why that's the case. Obviously, Elanna is a much nicer person and we get that, but why is Loyce so horrible? I would also add that the paper thin quality of character development of Finn also bothered me. He's a "hale fellow, well met" and his father sent him off to recover a throne with a clever sorcerer whose relationship with Finn we still, even at the end, don't fully understand. Here is a character that could have made us feel much more about his abrupt denouement in the story, even if Jahan had revealed to Elanna, upon Finn's passing, the origins of their bonds of attachment. Jahan's failure to protect Finn, after his multiple flips and diversions, is barely dealt with and that failure hangs like a red flag to me because of his ability to throw aside one commitment (Finn) for another (Elanna) so quickly. It's recognized, albeit briefly, but nothing comes of this recognition. Has Jahan learned his lesson? What would this failing mean for Elanna?

Likewise, Denis Falconier and even Elanna's father are rendered almost colorless, all bad or good and ineffectual. It was as if all the secondary character development went into the twice-turncoat character of Lord Gilbert, at the expense of some of the other secondary characters. Bates also spent time developing Victoire as the spirit of resistance and that character is left a loose end, after having been one of Elanna's best friends.

I also have a lot of thoughts about the way the relationship between Elanna and Jahan was developed. This relationship, for all its seeming fire, was stilted and often almost childish when Elanna would interact directly with Jahan. While I can say kudos to the author for not making this a battle about marriage between these two, it was awkward to have them discussing marriage long before there was any obvious affection and clear emotional attachment beyond the normal sexual attraction between a cute guy and a pretty girl. The relationship didn't feel as "real" as I wanted it to, for a long time. There were enough things to be uncertain about in various characters' motivations in this book, and after the initial revelation that Jahan was sort of playing both sides against the middle, their relationship should have been more clear cut so that we are not left wondering as the various other unclear relationships play out.
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All in all, this is a first novel and writers learn as they go. The book would have been stronger with a smoother, better-outlined plot and stronger character development. I feel as if the editor and publisher may not have wanted the page count to go above a certain threshold and that development of the plot and characters may have suffered because of it. In any case, this book reminded me of Patty Briggs' first novel, Masques, which she later rewrote and expanded, in its show of promise in the high fantasy genre. Bates similarly is an author who has a lot of promise. I'd definitely pick up her next book to give it a try.

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