I've been having a book problem...

[thanate]

But it's not the one you think.

Somewhere on the internet (I could tell you where, but it's not important) I ran across a recommendation for Meji, which is a fantasy duology set in a land based on ancient Africa. This sounded potentially cool, and not like something the local library was going to have, so I went ahead and ordered the books.

Well and good. But by some freak accident, what showed up in my mailbox two days later was an open envelope with Book 2 glued to the flap (with some extremely violent glue, I might add.) I called the post office first, who referred me to the Claims & Inquiries of division of the Baltimore PO, but nobody had seen it. So I e-mailed the author (who's also doing his own distribution, hence why I felt particularly bad about having to pester him about it) and he was very apologetic, offered to replace both books (which I declined, as the one that actually got to me was in perfectly decent shape except for the line of violent envelope glue) and sent out a replacement copy of book 1.

Incidentally, the story is about a pair of twins who are separated at birth because their father's people believe that twins are cursed.

So, by friday (because we had thanksgiving in the middle of all this, too) the replacement book was in the mail, and I assumed that the original got lost somewhere in Georgia and hoped it found its way to someone else who'd be entertained to read it. On Monday morning, I got a call from the woman at the Baltimore PO, saying that it had turned up in her office, and on Tuesday, I got both copies of book 1 in the mail.

I agonized over having to do more about it for a day, and then e-mailed the author back to say that the replacement had arrived fine, but so had the first copy, so I was going to pay him for the replacement copy & find another home for it, thanks. Only when I went to his order page to do so, the single book order paypal buttons both brought up an order form for the second book. At that point I threw up my hands and walked away from the problem for a while, but since I still hadn't heard back from the author, I eventually went through the paypal process and wrote a note on the order form that a) he shouldn't ship the book, and b) he might want to check his links. (ETA-- this is fixed now; good.) Oy. At this point I was ready to crawl under my desk and hide from the frustration of it all, but at least I actually have both books, instead of just the sequel sitting there taunting me because I can't read it yet.

So, having actually obtained both books, I've now read the first one. The copy editing is atrocious and there are one or two continuity and word choice moments I might flag as well (but I'm picky), but other than that it's a pretty cool story. The beginning was a bit disorienting, because of course none of the names either of people or societies or gods & sacred things are the least bit familiar to me and the author does rather toss one into the thick of it, but I sorted it out rather more quickly than a number of more mainstream alternate worlds I've run into.

It is that sort of epic fantasy that sweeps across the landscape, and there are constantly people plotting to be the dominant empire in a world where empire is very much tied to a single person who leads his people to greatness in a generation, and then runs the risk of getting overturned or annexed by his sons or sons in law if they're not in the direct line to inherit. There are also several strong female characters who have differing degrees of influence over those around them. Other attractions include lions, a village of evil spirits who eat people, evil medicine men, and the treacherous deaths of at least two great warriors. Not that I mean to imply that great warriors are in short supply, as this is very much not the case. It's that kind of world.

Also, I've got this spare copy of the first book, so if anyone's interested, let me know.

---On a related note, passing on from leimon_malakoi, I thought some of you who don't know her might also be interested in short story podcasts:

Fantasy: Podcastle
Horror: Pseudopod
Sci-Fi: Escape Pod

I've just put a bunch of the fantasy ones onto my i-pod for the trip out to see the in-laws (er, still a bit confused about this having in-laws thing...) so I'll be able to report on their worthiness soon enough.

Comments

[leimon-malakoi.livejournal.com]

You are doing better than me, I haven't figured out the whole download mp3 thing yet, my computer doesn't give me the correct options when I right click.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have right-click, and I think that Macs do these things differently, but are you right-clicking on the link that says "download now"? Because I have to control-click on that and then select "download linked file".