Review of Sasha . . . Posted April 25, 2007

Sasha by Joel Shepherd Hachette Australia, June/July 2007, 442 pages Reviewed by Tehani Wessely Book reviews index

I admit it. It was with trepidation that I approached this book. I read Joel Shepherd's first novel, Crossover, some time ago and found it to be quite a typical "first novel", with all the flaws and clunkiness that often go with being a "first novel". It was also definitely science fiction. Sasha is not science fiction. Sasha is, to my pleased surprise, highly readable. It is an original and fresh heroic fantasy, showcasing a well drawn, well realized world filled with fascinating, three dimensional characters who pulled me in for the ride and carried me away. I got totally sucked into this book, completely against all expectations, which, when you think about it, makes it all the better. Sasha reads somewhat like a novel in the middle of a series of novels set in the same world, somewhat like David Gemmell's work, in that there is an awful lot that you feel like you should know about the place but aren't told. Not straightaway at least. This is a little offputting in the first chapters, and I initially thought I might have come across the second book of a trilogy. But that is part of the beauty of the way Shepherd has written. He has designed his world so intricately, and clearly knows it so well, that he paints the backstory gently, teasing it out along the journey of the primary plot, without info-dumping, without verbosity, simply allowing the reader to gradually learn about the world we are exploring. And what a world!

In the tradition of Tolkien (don't you HATE reading that phrase - it's true though!) Shepherd has created a world complete with disparate cultures, language, and peoples. Into this world, Shepherd has dropped characters who have flaws, who are not perfect beings, who experience horrors and pain and react to these things in very human ways. Shepherd's characters are also, for the most part, multi dimensional; they have families, they have friends, they have responsibilities, and ways of avoiding these responsibilities. They die. They survive. They grow. They change.

Sasha is a princess of the Leyanin who casts off her birthright to train as a Nasi-Keth warrior under Kessligh, perhaps the greatest general her land has ever seen. Females are not warriors are in Leyanin culture, but they are in the serrin, a humanlike race that shares borders with the kingdom. Sasha manages to prove herself as Kessligh's student, overcoming the obstacles of birth and gender to become a novelty to the male warrior society that surrounds her. Soon however, the kingdom is threatened from within by civil unrest. A century before, the tribal culture that had existed in the land was unified into the kingdom against an external threat. The unification was done hastily, and imperfectly, and religion, as it so often does, causes the internal threat now. The Goeren-yai "pagan" people make up more than half the population, but are almost in entirety ruled by the Verethane nobility. This uneasy confederacy is destabilized by a series of events leading to the Verethane lords making an incursion into traditionally protected territory.

This invasion is met by outrage among not only the Goeren-yai, but also among many Verethane commoners who live and fight side by side with their Goeren-yai neighbours. Sasha, young, headstrong, often self centred, and conflicted, becomes the Goeren-yai standard bearer, despite (or perhaps partly because of) her own Verethane heritage. Yet Sasha is no figurehead. She rises to the challenge of leadership, and goes into battle against the Verethane nobility, fighting for what she believes in, no matter the cost.

Possibly the best part about this novel is that the war takes place in the latter part of the book. The story is not reliant on the battles. Instead, Shepherd carefully builds the characters and conflicts, and shapes the back story and current events into a seamless expedition through Sasha's world.

The book is not perfect. The first chapters made me a little uneasy. I was very nervous initially that I would be reading yet another fantasy where the unusually talented female protagonist overcomes the male oriented world to win through, with very little that is new or different. Okay, so the first bit of that sentence may be mostly true, but Shepherd has certainly made what could be formulaic fantasy into something quite special. The characters come alive for me, and the story they tell, and the detailed rendering of the world they live in, made the novel compelling reading. At times also, the dialogue is a little anachronistic, which can be jarring when one is immersed in a very medieval-style world, but these times are rare and not glaring enough to truly jolt the reader from the story.

Joel Shepherd's first foray into fantasy has paid dividends with this book - it is the first such fantasy I have read in a long time where I finished the last page, put it down and thought, "I wonder when the next one will come out." I hope Shepherd revisits Sasha's world soon - there's a lot of story to explore!

Reviewed by Tehani Wessely

Tehani Wessely is a judge in the 2007 Aurealis Awards Fantasy: Novel category. This review is the personal opinion of the writer, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the panel or the Aurealis Awards Committee.