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    An Autumn War: The Long Price Quartet
    An Autumn War: The Long Price Quartet
    An Autumn War: The Long Price Quartet
    Ebook537 pages8 hours

    An Autumn War: The Long Price Quartet

    By Daniel Abraham

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Daniel Abraham delighted fantasy readers with his brilliantly original and engaging first novel, and in his second penned a tragedy as darkly personal and violent as Shakespeare's King Lear. Now he has written an epic fantasy of much wider scope and appeal that will thrill his fans and enthrall legions of new readers.

    Otah Machi, ruler of the city of Machi, has tried for years to prepare his people for a future in which the magical andat, entities that support their commerce and intimidate all foes, can no longer be safely harnessed. But his efforts are too little, too late. The Galts, an expansionist empire from across the sea, have tired of games of political espionage and low-stakes sabotage. Their general, a ruthless veteran, has found a way to do what was thought impossible: neutralize the andat.

    As the Galtic army advances, the Poets who control the andat wage their own battle to save their loved-ones and their nation. Failure seems inevitable, but success would end the Galtic threat.

    With wonderful storytelling skill, Abraham has wedded the unique magic, high-stakes betrayal and political intrigue of his previous works with a broad tapestry of action in a spectacular fantasy epic.



    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJul 22, 2008
    ISBN9781429951876
    An Autumn War: The Long Price Quartet
    Author

    Daniel Abraham

    Daniel Abraham is best known as the co-author and executive producer of the Hugo Award–winning series The Expanse under the pseudonym James S. A. Corey. He has also written novels under his own name and as M. L. N. Hanover.  

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    Reviews for An Autumn War

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    • 3/5
      Not a happy book. The characters are good, the plot moves straightforwardly if a bit of a plod, but the wonder of a strange world is mostly lacking and the viewpoint is split between the Galt general who is determined to destroy a culture he sees as dangerously corrupt and the Khai Machi, Otah of the earlier books, who shares his belief but whose role is to preserve all he can of his people and culture. As an intellectual construct this is excellent. As a story, it isn't for me.
    • 5/5
      I really liked the first two in this series. This one, I loved. I feel like the themes of the story come to full fruition in this one.

      Otah Machi has, somewhat reluctantly, become Khai, and is working on the difficult business of ruling. His job is about to get much harder, because General Gice, of the Galtic Empire, is terrified of the Khaiates. He believes that it is inevitable that the Khaiates, if left unchecked, will use the power of the 'andat' to destroy his civilisation, and he has made it his personal mission to get the jump on that destruction, and destroy the Khaiates utterly.

      The book does a beautiful job of presenting two believably different cultures, and showing the motivations and perspectives of each side convincingly. While I believe the action would satisfy a fan of military strategy/tactics, the real focus is on the human cost of war, the sacrifices made for power, and the difficulty of making the correct decisions in an ambiguous world; balancing personal desire against political responsibility.
    • 4/5
      If Abraham left the protagonists relatively unscathed in his previous book, A Betrayal in Winter, he does the exact opposite in An Autumn War. The entire book is a tearing down of the very fabric of society that we grew to love in the previous two books, and those looking for a reprieve in the ending will instead be faced with a lose-lose situation for both the protagonists and their warlike (but high-minded) enemy General Gice. You can't help but wonder if the book is a referendum on the horrors or traditional warfare versus the destruction of WMD-like weapons (and come away disgusted with both). In any case, I found the ending of this book to be very moving, and I'm looking forward to how the characters cope with "the new normal" in the closing book of the series.
    • 4/5
      An Autumn War is the third in Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. The story kicks things up a notch as the long awaited war between Galt and the Khaiem finally arrives. The result is nothing short of brilliant though I almost gave up on the story due to it's glacial pacing in the first half of the book. Reader be warned: this is not a happy tale. Abraham paints war in all it's horrifying and tragic glory.Fourteen years have passed and Otah Matchi has settled into his role as Khai for the people of Machi, albeit in a non-traditional manner. He has only one wife, a single son and a single daughter, and has undertaken the training of a standing militia, something not seen in the Khaiem in ages. Most believe it unnecessary with the power of the andat at their side. After all, the Khaiem have used the threat of the andat to ensure peace and prosperity for their people for centuries. Why would this ever change? One Balasar Gice, general of Galt, is about to change everything.Similar to the previous book, I'm fairly conflicted in my feelings. The first half of the book was a complete slog, taking me 10 days to complete. We spend even more time in the heads of the same characters, almost 30 years later, older but not necessarily wiser. If there was one character I felt truly drawn to this would have been OK. I still haven't connected with anyone in the cast so it makes reading these long sections more of a chore than it might be otherwise. The second half of the book is completely different. Around chapter 16 plot takes off and I could not put the book down, finishing the remaining chapters in a few hours. The scale of the war is enormous, with an outcome I never saw coming, one that has changed the face of the world. Abraham's writing is elegant. He paints a tragedy that is almost Shakespearean in it's beauty and brilliant in its execution. I am in awe of what he pulled off.I would be remiss if I didn't talk about Balasar Gice at least a little. He is a wonderfully drawn villain. Rather unimposing physically, Gice is incredibly charismatic, a scary-smart tactician, leads his men by example and is willing to start a war to acheive his goal of ending the threat of the andat, though really the andat are basically a sheathed sword as the Khaiem have no aspirations towards conquering. In the book's own words: “At heart, he was not a conqueror. Only a man who saw what needed doing and then did it.” There is nothing scarier than a true believer.At this point I have no idea what is in store for this world next. I am looking forward to finding out. Just please give me a character to root for!
    • 5/5
      A beautifully written and and wonderfully plotted novel.A war between two civilization narrated from both sides. The destruction seems inevitable but both are right.The Khaiems depends on the Andat, forces of nature to do their bidding. They are beings of nearly infinite power. The galts a civilization across the sea who have born the brunt of attacks once before come up with a scheme to finish the Andats and get rid of the destructive potential.The summary makes it sound like an action novel but it is almost melancholy and meditative in tone and Daniel Abraham prefers to focus on the events directly after the attacks and the wars which makes this an intense character study.
    • 4/5
      This third installment of Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet is definitely more than the sum of its predecessors, both of them outstanding books: where the first two parts of this series introduced the world in which the action unfolds, and fleshed out the characters peopling it, An Autumn War brings all these elements to fruition in a tale that is both enthralling and satisfying.

      One of the most fascinating aspects of this series has been the notion of the andats, the anthropomorphic manifestations of complex thoughts or ideas summoned to life by the "poets", specially trained people able to give them substance and control them. Andats like Seedless - the creature that can "remove the part that continues" and is employed by the cotton growers to remove the seed from raw cotton so that the weavers can easily process the material; or Stone-Made-Soft, dedicated to mining and effortless tunneling. These constructs require a constant vigilance though, because like all unwilling slaves they hunger for freedom and are not averse to dangerous or deadly trickery.

      The Khaiem, the eastern-like, feudal culture deployed over several city-states, has used the andats for generations, relying on them to the point that no other way of life is deemed possible, to the point that the loss of a city's andat means ruin and decadence. While their historical adversaries, the Galt, see the creatures as a danger and an obstacle to progress, and are determined to rid the world of them.

      This is the nature of the conflict built over the previous two books and that finds here its culmination: what is fascinating is that the main opponents - Otah, Khai of the city-state of Machi and General Gice, the Galt commander bent on destroying the andats - are both honorable men, and likeable, complex characters, who want the best for their own peoples. The unexpected, tragic way in which the conflict is resolved opens the road to future promising developments, since the aftermath will require huge adjustments from both cultures. The last book in the saga will no doubt be quite interesting...

      The more I read of Abraham's work, the more I appreciate his storytelling style, simple and elegant, with rich descriptions that paint a complex, fascinating picture. The best feature of this saga comes from his choice to forgo the usual (and in my opinion over-used) medieval-like setting, to create a culture resembling that of ancient Japan - complete with structured hand gestures ("poses") that convey subtle layers of meaning. This new approach, combined with a minimal but expressive prose, makes for a compelling reading that never fails to leave me wanting for more.

      rating: 4 and a half stars
    • 4/5
      The third book of the Long Price quartet. This book has the distinction of making me stop a bit less than halfway through because I was too afraid of the horrible suffering ahead. As it turned out, the suffering was more told than shown, which was all to the good for my equilibrium. A clever plot by the enemy Galts succeeds in stripping the cities of the Khaiem of their andat, the physicalized spirits that had made them wealthy and untouchable. As the Galts roll through the land, characters from the previous books struggle to save themselves and their people, facing horrible choices and learning how to fight as they go. This is a book about the consequences of mistakes being inflicted on the innocent; for all it’s a well-constructed world, it’s a rough ride.
    • 4/5
      As with the previous two books in the series, this was a very enjoyable and fresh take on fantasy. As the series develops the depth of it becomes even greater and the twist at the end of the tale in this third of four parts made the entirety elevated beyond much of what else exists in the world of fantasy.Daniel Abraham is a skilled craftsman. His use of the action of 'Posing' to add to verbal communication gives us another worldly feel, as well as sometimes the language that cuts out an essential verb, forcing the reader to use our minds to fill in the missing word.We find additional details that make us think that some human emotions are lacking in the people that populate the tale, but they are all living within their motivations. There is evil but you see it more as a world that has generations of mistrust and animosity such as plagues the Middle East where it is something so ingrained that rising above will take extraordinary people. People that may never exist.It is my understanding that it is hard now to find the fourth book alone, or expensive, but after such good storytelling for the first three books, I must pursue this fourth book.
    • 5/5
      There is something about these books that causes me to get stuck about halfway through, leave it be for a few days, and then pick it up and drive straight on to the end. I’m not sure if it’s a lull in the action or what, but this is the third time it’s happened. I am so glad I did pick it back up, though, because this book is easily the best in the series so far.And a warning: we have reached the point where it is inevitable, there will be SPOILERS for the earlier books in the rest of this review.Some fifteen years have passed since the events of A Betrayal in Winter. Otah is now Khai Machi, responsible for an entire city. He has, scandalously, only one wife, and his only son Danat is sickly. His daughter Eiah, being a teenager, is starting to act out, despite the careful guidance of her beloved Uncle Maati. Into this relatively blissful domestic scene comes Liat, the former lover of both Maati and Otah, with her grown son, who had been raised by Maati when he was small but who is now so visibly Otah’s son that his presence is likely to cause even more scandal. Not as much, though, as the news Liat brings with her: the Galts are going to attempt an invasion.For centuries the andat, the incredibly powerful beings held by the poets of the great cities, have protected them from the technologically advanced, militaristic Galts, but Galtic General Balatar Gice has dedicated his whole life to destroying the andat. No one, he thinks, should be allowed to have that much power – control over a being who could pull down whole cities with a thought, or destroy the crops of an entire country, or cause ravaging floods and devastation. He has gone into the desert that used to be the old Empire, he has found a poet of his own, and he is going to first destroy the andat and then any possibility that they will ever return, even if that means destroying every one of the great cities on his way.All of the cover blurbs on this book talk about the amazing ending, which usually puts me off because most of the time, knowing the twist is going to come, I can predict it well in advance. Not so much in this case. The climax of this story hits that perfect combination of exquisite foreshadowing and total surprise – Once you get there you realize there is no way it could have gone any differently, but it was so completely not what you were expecting that it feels like a punch in the gut. In a good way, of course.Abraham’s characters are exquisite, and as the world becomes more familiar the deeper you get into the series, the characters take their places as the highlight of the book. Otah, Maati, and Liat have all changed so much since A Shadow in Summer, grown both in wisdom and in their flaws, but they’re still deeply recognizable as themselves. It’s the characters who make that ending what it is, because it’s the characters, their drives and disappointments, the whole history of their lives, that make it so inevitable. It’s a wonderful study in how good people can do horrible things in pursuit of good causes, and there is no one, from the Galtic general to the treacherous mercenary, who you can really blame. Everyone is doing the best they can with the options they have, they’re just terrible options. It is, in fact, very like a Greek tragedy; if they were different people it would have gone differently, but they aren’t, so how could it?In any other series, this would be the end. This book ends with an earthshattering change, but there are possibilities for growth and rebirth still visible. Most writers would have left it there, but there is another book in this series, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
    • 4/5
      The relentless marching of the Galts and the intrigues of poets and andat continue in the third volume of the Long Price Quartet. Otah Machi, now ruler of a northern city, is one of the few to recognize the threat of the Galts and to prepare for their brutal invasion. However, neither he nor the opposing Galtic army expect the final twist in this epic, which felt me hoping to read the next installment in this series soon.
    • 4/5
      The premise: copied from the back of the book: The cities of the Khaiem have lived in peace for generations, protected by the magical powers of the andat. They have no need of armies or fortifications or the burdens of war. But after centuries of complacency, all that is about end. Galt, the ancient enemy of the Khaiem, has a new leader: the charismatic, principled, obsessed general Balasar Gice. Armed with a secret weapon that can strip the Khaiem of their unique defenses, he has amassed the greatest army the world has ever seen. His goal: the permanent destruction of teh andat and the cities they protect.Only Otah Machi, ruler of the great city of Machi, sees the precipice on which his world stands. He has no choice but to gather the cities of the Khaiem together in a struggle for which they are not prepared. As total war descends upon the cities of the Khaiem, Otah must face the slaughter of his nation, and the one desperate chance to save it. But the price of winning the approaching war may be worse than losing it. . . . My RatingWorth the Cash: I think this book would've made it to "Must Have" had I not been spoiled for the big climax, so while it's not fair to judge a book based on my being spoiled, my emotional reaction does often tie into the rating, and here, the emotional reaction wasn't as strong as it would've otherwise been. Still, it's an excellent series so far that I'm quite pleased with. While I'm still mulling over the role of women in society and the parts they play in the plot, there's no denying that Abraham has created a solid, developed world with solid, well-developed characters who grow and change with each book. What's more is just how much impact the prolog of the very first book of the series is still playing in the overall story, and I have to say just how much this impresses me. Fantasy fans should definitely give Abraham's series a shot, but don't read the books out of order. Start with A Shadow in Summer, and you'll be just fine. Abraham is quickly becoming one of those "must read" authors for me, and I can't wait to read the conclusion to the series.Review style: whereas the second book of this cycle had a Shakespearean vibe going on, I find this book carries a certain King Arthur-esque weight to it, and I want to talk about that comparison. A little more examination of the role of women in The Long Price Quartet, discuss the format of each book in the series so far, and then talk about random stuff. :) How's that for detail? Yes, there be spoilers, and please, for the love of everything pure and good, DO NOT READ THE FULL REVIEW if you have not already read this book. If you're interested in the series, just pick up the first book and catch up, and then come back to read the full review. :) However, if you're already caught up, you're welcome to join the discussion at my LJ. :)REVIEW: Daniel Abraham's AN AUTUMN WARHappy Reading!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book, the third volume in Abraham's The Long Price Quartet. On one hand, I'm happy that the series is defined as a quartology; the current trend of dragging fantasy series on interminably is not enjoyable. On the other hand, I really like his writing and each volume is better than the last.This one is does not suffer from the common "middle book" problem of being merely connective tissue between an interesting beginning and an exciting ending. The plot gets twisty and readers are forced to think about who are really the bad guys and who the good. The characterizations continue to be well done and there's plenty of action and excitement with an ending that leaves you anxious for the fourth volume (have no fear...it's already published). Definitely recommended.
    • 4/5
      The third in Abraham's Long Price Quartet features a major Galt invasion of the Khaiate, with the goal of permanently removing the threat of the andat. One can sympathize greatly with both sides of the war. Once again, Otah Machi's world is turned upside down.
    • 5/5
      As I was reading this book, I thought about all the military SF I have read in the past. So much of it is mere body count or more cool ways to destroy people and their property. Although this book is about a deadly war, it is much more about the effects of any war on the people who fight it and the people who suffer from the fighting. In the previous two novels, Otah, a disowned son of a Khai (an hereditary leader of a large city/state) trains to be a poet (a master of a elemental spirit), becomes a common laborer, courier, and eventually Khai of his father's city/state in the far north mining areas. His empire is protected by andats, elemental spirits that can change the nature of reality itself. The rival empire of Galt is desperate to end the threat of andats forever. One lone Galtic general travels to the far east to recover manuscripts from the First Empire that ended in almost complete destruction when andats fought andats. He finds a way to release all andats from their binding allowing him to quickly destroy all the andat protected cities and their poets in a short period of time. Only Machi in the far north is left. Their two remaining poets try desperately to recreate an andat, any andat. And so they do, but it is just as treacherous and dangerous as all previous andats. Both Galt and the Khaiate cities are changed forever.Daniel Abraham makes you care about all of his characters, both weak and strong. There is no one right way, but a true conflict of different powers and how they lift up or crush the people around them.

    Book preview

    An Autumn War - Daniel Abraham

    It had rained for a week, the cold gray clouds seeming to drape themselves between the mountain ranges to the east and west of the city like a wet canopy. The mornings were foggy, the afternoons chill. With the snowdrifts of winter almost all melted, the land around Machi became a soupy mud whose only virtue was the spring crop of wheat and snow peas it would bring forth. Travel was harder now even than in the deadly cold of deep winter.

    And still, the travelers came.

    With all respect, this exercise, as you call it, is ill-advised, the envoy said. His hands still held a pose of deference though the conversation had long since parted from civility. I am sure your intentions are entirely honorable, however it is the place of the Dai-kvo—

    If the Dai-kvo wants to rule Machi, tell him to come north, the Khai Machi snapped. He can pull my puppet strings from the next room. I’ll make a bed for him.

    The envoy’s eyes went wide. He was a young man, and hadn’t mastered the art of keeping his mind from showing on his face. Otah, the Khai Machi, waved away his own words and sighed. He had gone too far, and he knew it. Another few steps and they’d be pointing at each other and yelling about which of them wanted to create the Third Empire. The truth was that he had ruled Machi these last fourteen years only by necessity. The prospect of uniting the cities of the Khaiem under his rule was about as enticing as scraping his skin off with a rock.

    The audience was a private one, in a small room lined with richly carved blackwood, lit by candles that smelled like rich earth and vanilla, and set well away from the corridors and open gardens where servants and members of the utkhaiem might unintentionally overhear them. This wasn’t business he cared to have shared over the dances and dinners of the court. Otah rose from his chair and walked to the window, forcing his temper back down. He opened the shutters, and the city stretched out before him, grand towers of stone stretching up toward the sky, and beyond them the wide plain to the south, green with the first crops of the spring. He pressed his frustration back into yoke.

    I didn’t mean that, he said. I know that the Dai-kvo doesn’t intend to dictate to me. Or any of the Khaiem. I appreciate your concern, but the creation of the guard isn’t a threat. It’s hardly an army, you know. A few hundred men trained up to maybe half the level of a Westlands garrison could hardly topple the world.

    We are concerned for the stability of all the cities, the envoy said. When one of the Khaiem begins to study war, it puts all the others on edge.

    It’s hardly studying war to hand a few men knives and remind them which end’s the handle.

    It’s more than any of the Khaiem have done in the past hundred years. And you must see that you haven’t made it your policy to ally yourself with…well, with anyone.

    Well, this is going just as poorly as I expected, Otah thought.

    I have a wife, thank you, Otah said, his manner cool. But the envoy had clearly reached the end of his patience. Hearing him stand, Otah turned. The young man’s face was flushed, his hands folded into the sleeves of his brown poet’s robes.

    And if you were a shopkeeper, having a single woman would be admirable, the envoy said. But as the Khai Machi, turning away every woman who’s offered to you is a pattern of insult. I can’t be the first one to point this out. From the time you took the chair, you’ve isolated yourself from the rest of the Khaiem, the great houses of the utkhaiem, the merchant houses. Everyone.

    Otah ran through the thousand arguments and responses—the treaties and trade agreements, the acceptance of servants and slaves, all of the ways in which he’d tried to bind himself and Machi to the other cities. They wouldn’t convince the envoy or his master, the Dai-kvo. They wanted blood—his blood flowing in the veins of some boy child whose mother had come from south or east or west. They wanted to know that the Khai Yalakeht or Pathai or Tan-Sadar might be able to hope for a grandson on the black chair in Machi once Otah had died. His wife Kiyan was past the age to bear another child, but men could get children on younger women. For one of the Khaiem to have only two children, and both by the same woman—and her a wayhouse keeper from Udun…They wanted sons from him, fathered on women who embodied wise political alliances. They wanted to preserve tradition, and they had two empires and nine generations of the Khaiate court life to back them. Despair settled on him like a thick winter cloak.

    There was nothing to be gained. He knew all the reasons for all the choices he had made, and he could as easily explain them to a mine dog as to this proud young man who’d traveled weeks for the privilege of taking him to task. Otah sighed, turned, and took a deeply formal pose of apology.

    I have distracted you from your task, Athai-cha. That was not my intention. What was it again the Dai-kvo wished of me?

    The envoy pressed his lips bloodless. They both knew the answer to the question, but Otah’s feigned ignorance would force him to restate it. And the simple fact that Otah’s bed habits were not mentioned would make his point for him. Etiquette was a terrible game.

    The militia you have formed, the envoy said. The Dai-kvo would know your intention in creating it.

    "I intend to send it to the Westlands. I intend it to take contracts with whatever forces there are acting in the best interests of all the cities of the Khaiem. I will be pleased to draft a letter saying so."

    Otah smiled. The young poet’s eyes flickered. As insults went, this was mild enough. Eventually, the poet’s hands rose in a pose of gratitude.

    There is one other thing, Most High, the envoy said. If you take any aggressive act against the interests of another of the Khaiem, the Dai-kvo will recall Cehmai and Stone-Made-Soft. If you take arms against them, he will allow the Khaiem to use their poets against you and your city.

    Yes, Otah said. I understood that when I heard you’d come. I am not acting against the Khaiem, but thank you for your time, Athai-cha. I will have a letter sewn and sealed for you by morning.

    After the envoy had left, Otah sank into a chair and pressed the heels of his hands to his temples. Around him, the palace was quiet. He counted fifty breaths, then rose again, closed and latched the door, and turned back to the apparently empty room.

    Well? he asked, and one of the panels in the corner swung open, exposing a tiny hidden chamber brilliantly designed for eavesdropping.

    The man who sat in the listener’s chair seemed both at ease and out of place. At ease because it was Sinja’s nature to take the world lightly, and out of place because his suntanned skin and rough, stained leathers made him seem like a gardener on a chair of deep red velvet and silver pins fit for the head of a merchant house or a member of the utkhaiem. He rose and closed the panel behind him.

    He seems a decent man, Sinja said. I wouldn’t want him on my side of a fight, though. Overconfident.

    I’m hoping it won’t come to that, Otah said.

    For a man who’s convinced the world he’s bent on war, you’re a bit squeamish about violence.

    Otah chuckled.

    I think sending the Dai-kvo his messenger’s head might not be the most convincing argument for my commitment to peace, he said.

    Excellent point, Sinja agreed as he poured himself a bowl of wine. But then you are training men to fight. It’s a hard thing to preach peace and stability and also pay men to think what’s the best way to disembowel someone with a spear.

    I know it, Otah said, his voice dark as wet slate. Gods. You’d think having total power over a city would give you more options, wouldn’t you?

    Otah sipped the wine. It was rich and astringent and fragrant of late summer, and it swirled in the bowl like a dark river. He felt old. Fourteen years he’d spent trying to be what Machi needed him to be—steward, manager, ruler, half-god, fuel for the gossip and backbiting of the court. Most of the time, he did well enough, but then something like this would happen, and he would be sure again that the work was beyond him.

    You could disband it, Sinja said. It’s not as though you need the extra trade.

    It’s not about getting more silver, Otah said.

    Then what’s it about? You aren’t actually planning to invade Cetani, are you? Because I don’t think that’s a good idea.

    Otah coughed out a laugh.

    It’s about being ready, he said.

    Ready?

    Every generation finds it harder to bind fresh andat. Every one that slips away becomes more difficult to capture. It can’t go on forever. There will come a time that the poets fail, and we have to rely on something else.

    So, Sinja said. "You’re starting a militia so that someday, generations from now, when some Dai-kvo that hasn’t been born yet doesn’t manage to keep up to the standards of his

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