James Nicoll Reviews

Melissa Scott’s 2023 The Master of Samar is a thus far stand-alone secondary world fantasy.

Product of a marriage of which his grandfather disapproved, Gilmyssin Irichels di Samar turned his back on the family that rejected him. A skilled curse breaker, Irichels is perfectly able to make his own way in the world without any need for the resources of the grand Samar family.

Irichels did not expect to return to his native city, Bejanth. He most definitely did not expect to return as head of the Samar House. For that matter, Irichels did not expect to be the only known surviving member of the Samar House.

While Irichels is slow to connect the dots, his lover, feral mage Envar Cassi, and their bodyguard, swordswoman Arak min’Aroi, understand the obvious. Entire families do sometimes dwindle away, but for one to vanish over the course of a single generation suggests some agency is behind the series of misfortunes. Irichels being the last Samar, Irichels may be a target as well.

There is considerable work involved in running a House, especially one in Samar’s quiescent situation. Having to fend off assassins would in any other city be an unfamiliar complication. However, Venice-like Bejanth believes in full-contact politics, whether in the form of duels or as shadowy paid killers. Attempted assassinations are part of the benefits package of every House head.

Curse breaking did not provide Irichels with the political savvy needed to thrive in Bejanth. In short order, Irichels’ closest ally, Innes Manimere, Master of Manimere, is forced to flee the city on trumped up (but quite possibly correct) charges of piracy. Irichels is arrested and tried for equally dubious reasons. One result of this imbroglio is a forced marriage to sickly sixteen-year-old Alaissou Cambryse.

While most of the participants no doubt see the shenanigans as business as usual, the city has as much reason to be concerned over the fate of Irichels and Samar House as do Irichels, Envar, and Arak. This is a demon-rich world. Semi-aquatic Bejanth is protected by and owes its very existence to a contract made with sea demons centuries ago. Four Houses, Samar among them, signed the contract. Should one of the families be expunged, the contract would be invalid.

The consequences of breaking the contract are unclear but are almost certainly dire. Unless Irichels and company can work out who is responsible for the attacks in time to stop further damage, the consequences to Bejanth could be catastrophic.

~oOo~

I don’t care for current tastes in cover art. Often covers seem boring, busy and undecipherable. The Master of Samar’s cover is a welcome exception. It’s eye-catching and I can tell what’s being depicted without expanding the image ten-fold.

There are secondary universe fantasies whose settings seem like rotoscoped versions of our modern Western world. This is not true of Scott’s setting. Her world is different and her characters understand and live by the values of their own societies¹.

To describe Envar as feral may raise unwarranted expectations. Irichels did not find Envar lurking under his porch or anything like that. Feral in this context means non-credentialled.

The Master of Samar is, among other things, a mystery novel. Such novels have often culminated in dramatic drawing-room scenes in which who, how, and why are carefully explained. Other mysteries are solved (for the reader as well) by surprisingly detailed witness-stand confessions. Some novels put the reader inside the miscreant’s head. Not only do these plot tropes greatly facilitate prosecution in the novel, they tell the reader what exactly was going on.

Master of Samar adopts none of these strategies. Irichels is smart but he’s no Poirot. In the end, he achieves what is for him a sufficient explanation. The reader will be less sure that his explanation is correct, never mind complete. The book’s ending is… ambiguous.

I, at least, shut the book thinking that I didn’t really know what the schemers were trying to achieve or if they were actually guilty of all of the events attributed to them. If there are sequels, I may find that there were a number of schemes and schemers at work. The scheme that Irichels actually noticed might have been a last-minute, spur of the moment effort that managed to get in the way of all of the other plots.

So, no perfect closure². Setting that aside, I found this a perfectly enjoyable, skillfully written novel. Scott’s quasi-Venice is vivid. The author has clearly thought about the minutiae of the demonic-contract-based magic system. The politics and machinations are enthusiastic. The plot moves along briskly.

The Master of Samar is available here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books). I did not find The Master of Samar at Apple Books. 

1: Alaissou isn’t enthusiastic about suddenly acquiring a much older husband who already has a lover, but for her marriage is a business arrangement and she knows she could have done much worse. Irichels isn’t going to throw her down a flight of stairs or see how many pregnancies it takes to kill a teenager in poor health.

2: I also am not sure why Irichels didn’t walk away as soon as he realized the Samar fortune’s price tag is incessant assassination attempts. The city does not make a compelling case that he owes it to them to fend off doomsday.