|
Above, Donna is a young, beautiful scribe, as docile as the theocracy requires, yet with a remarkable ancestry of which she knows little. Below, Rej is young, tough and self-possessed and is brought to the surface by a strange oath he swore. Each of them has a strange mental faculty, expressed in dreams of dragons.
During the stormy machinations of the story, the two get caught up in a dire plan. The theocrats seek to harness their eerie faculty, bring the basilisk monster into corporeal form, and use it to destroy the combers forever.
The plot of this remarkable book may be sometimes rather convoluted, its structure a little shaky, the sadism somewhat lurid. But the wonderfully realised characters, their vividly original world and the heart-stopping suspense and savagery that they must oppose all ranks with the best in modern fantasy.
Rambles
by Kate Danemark
published 17 April 2004
In Basilisk, N.M. Browne has created not just one complete world, but two, both so intricately detailed as to defy disbelief.
Between the Combers and Abovers, resentment has been building for two generations. Those who fled the city of Lunnzia as it was overrun by the Arkel and his followers (self-proclaimed messengers of the god Arche') were forced underground, literally. Haunting the catacombs beneath the city, these exiles built a new society, based on hardship, resilience and dependence on treaties granted from those above.
It is a difficult life, and many long for the world topside, even those who were born below. Yet not all is well Above, either. Persecution is standard treatment, and Lunnzia has quickly become a dictatorship of religious extremists. A free and prosperous city just one generation before, its now citizens commonly freeze or starve to death.
Into these disparate societies, fantastic characters are born.
Rej, a comber with a past which insures him a brief future, and Donna, who is loyal to the Arkel but still remembers the time before, a childhood filled with happiness and freedom.
When Rej finds himself forced above and Donna is selected to assist him in fitting in, they find they are not so different as appearances and long-held prejudices might suggest. Especially when they sleep. Somehow, they are connected by the dreams they share, dreams of such beauty and light that neither wishes to return to reality.
Unfortunately, a darkness stalks them, shadowing their perfect world. The fight in which they find themselves unwitting heroes is viciously political -- and deadly. Mere teenagers, it is up to them to save the world.
This is a harsher example of social commentary than I usually expect to find in young-adult literature. It is uncompromising, and frighteningly realistic. For this reason alone, I would certainly recommend it. Although there is great adversity, there is redemption, and that is a valuable lesson.
On the other hand, I shy away from the sexual openness of the characters, which I think is a bit blatant for younger readers. No adult should find it excessive, but themes are explored which I think are too mature for some teens.
The writing is tight and pulls you from situation to resolution with no down time. The story is compelling from start to finish.
N.M. Browne is one to watch, I'd be interested in reading her previous works, Hunted, Warriors of Alvana and Warriors of Camlann, as well.
The town of Lunnzia has suffered some kind of major civil war, in which the aristocrats were killed or banished underground and the peasants were sent to live in the cities. The revolution put the tyrant Arkel and his Council of Ten in charge. The Council and their bureaucrats enjoy fine wine and luxuries, while the workers toil ceaselessly and suffer the indignities of communal living. 16 year-old Donna lives Above in Lunnzia and dutifully does her work as a Scribe, while at night she dreams of dragons flying in a clear blue sky. Young Rej lives Below; he also dreams of blue skies and dragons flying free. Below is a dank, maze of tunnels where survival is chancy at best. Through contacts in the Resistance, Rej manages to get Above as a worker to be tutored by Donna. When the two meet, they begin to piece together the mystery of the Dream Dragons, which have brought them to the attention of the vicious Arkel, who believes the dream dragons can be harnessed to bring him great power. Rej and Donna have to grow up very quickly and find a way to stop Arkel's plans to unleash the Dream Dragons to reign death and destruction on the people of the catacombs.
British author N.M. Browne has created a tantalizing new fantasy set against an Orwellian city where workers live only to serve the state, while those in power plot, scheme and live in extravagant luxury. The Basilisk is full of vibrant characters: Donna's gorgeous courtesan mother who now runs the resistance movement; the struggling, stenk-addicted Scrubber and the mutilated Immina are all vividly portrayed. Rej and Donna also shine as individuals in this marvelous story full of adventure, hope and biting social commentary.
Reprinted with permission from The Internet Writing Journal®.
Copyright © 1997-2005 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Latrobe
Review by David Beagley
The legion of Otherworlds is steadily growing as the fantasy (ahem ... speculative fiction!) genre evolves. While a few years ago you could blithely predict a seemingly ubiquitous "swords'n'sorcery" medievalist setting, now the cosmologies and world histories and social structures are as varied and imaginative as costumes at a Mardi Gras.
Usually, though, they are a little darker and (unless it is part of Terry Pratchett's Discworld) decidedly more serious. The world in which Basilisk takes place is one of these - dangerous, threatened and oppressed.
Around a basic "boy from one side of the tracks meets a girl from the other side" situation is a desperate political struggle against a corrupt administration determined to use any means to keep its power. And as the means requires using the girl to summon deadly monsters, things get very nasty.
Rej is a Comber, living in the heavily polluted catacombs under the city of Lunnzia. Donna is an Abover, cloistered as a scribe working mindlessly for the Rulers fighting a losing war against some other city. But those, and the other finely developed and intriguing details of life in Lunnzia, are really just the background against which Donna and Rej's journey of self- and mutual discovery are drawn.
Browne has resisted the temptation to let the story rely on the exotic setting for much of its momentum. This is a personal journey by the two key characters and their thoughts, reactions, choices and decisions drive the plot towards its climax. They make discoveries, they make mistakes, they have to learn, and those elements keep the reader guessing from page to page.
This is a challenging fantasy story, and it is good.
© 2004 David Beagley
I was also delighted to be nominated for 2004 Carnegie medal.
Locus recommended reading for 2004
Waterstones magazine ( Claire Walker) described it as a 'superb and complex piece of
Fantasy writing.'
American Reviews of Basilisk
From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up–Rej, a "comber" who lives in the caves beneath the city of Lunnzia, runs away and is placed in the care of beautiful "Abover" Donna, and they soon discover that they share identical, eerie dragon dreams. When they hear of an evil plot by the Arkel, the Above's totalitarian ruler, to attack the combers' subterranean realm, Donna and Rej realize they must work together to save both worlds from destruction. Browne's meandering fantasy takes several chapters to reach its major story line, and the novel itself seems littered with too many subplots to interest anyone except serious fantasy fans. Once hooked, however, patient readers will enjoy the spooky atmosphere, intriguing and often-untrustworthy characters, and the bizarre final duel in which the malevolent Arkel attempts to use Donna and Rej's dreams to wreak havoc in the underground world.–Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
From Booklist starred review
Gr. 7-11. Formerly a center of aristocratic decadence, the city of Lunnzia has been split by an upheaval akin to China's Cultural Revolution. Above ground, laborers toil in thrall to a totalitarian ruler; underground, anti-revolutionaries and other so-called "degenerates," known as "combers," live confined to dank catacombs. When Rej, a lifelong comber, decides to break the law and venture Above, he forges a bond with Donna, a teenage Lunnzian. A taut mystery unfolds in the alternating voices of Rej and Donna, whose shared dreams of shimmering, soaring dragons involve both of them in an insidious plot to destroy the catacombs. The mystical elements (dream-dragons harnessed and used as weapons) are less convincing than the rest of Browne's imaginings, but the appealing teen characters, the cast of refreshingly complicated adults, and the palpable details of their divided world will keep fantasy devotees firmly anchored in the story. From the combers' colorful slang ("Deve off, you're mad as a stenk-head") to the "treaty lights" (perforations in the streets that allow sunlight to filter into the catacombs), the sounds and sights of Lunnzia are as vivid and memorable as anything in Philip Pullman's alternate-reality Oxford. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Kirkus Reviews
Rej, a comber from the squalid caves beneath the city of Lunnzia, and Donna, the courtesan's daughter, form an unlikely alliance to bring back dragons and save the world in this appealing dark fantasy. Since the revolution, which toppled the monarchy two decades before, the oppidans of Lunnzia have lived in poverty-stricken, legally enforced equality. Donna is sent to scribe for the Doctor Esteemed Melagiar, where she realizes the privileged don't share the cold and hunger of the citizenry. As if avoiding trouble and corruption weren't enough, Donna is given a new charge: Rej has violated ancient treaties by leaving the catacombs to avenge a murder, and a spy network places him in Donna's nervous care. Rej and Donna are drawn into dangerous plots when they witness horrors at the Doctor Esteemed's home. Linked by shared dreams of dragons, they need to overcome intrigue, sexual ploys, and extensive torture as they discover the debauched wickedness of their parents' generation. Suspenseful and rather original, marred only by pedestrian language. (Fiction. 14-17)
Children's Literature - Kathleen Karr
As J. R. R. Tolkien demonstrated forevermore, a good fantasy must begin with its own believable cosmos, complete with some unique vocabulary (not necessarily entire languages!), and—above all—encompass a fight between Good and Evil. N. M. Browne has learned her lessons well in this British import, and not only from Tolkien. Her story of the Combers and Abovers also benefits from Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. Rej, a Comber in the underground city of the banished, escapes to the air above and meets Donna—an "oppidan" scribe, and one of the masses who walk the "Humble Road" in the brave new world created by the Council of Ten. Both Rej and Donna are ripe for revolution but soon learn that the dreams that distinguish them could also be their destruction. Will they find "the Basilisk Contrivance" in time? It hardly matters, because the quest is well worth the journey. Browne has created larger, better-rounded characterizations than is usual in the genre. One begins to care for these two as human beings. Add to this the author's vivid descriptions of the catacombs which house the Combers, and her fascinating cast of secondary characters (Donna's courtesan mother; Grimper the bodyguard; Scrubber and Immina, both fighting their addictions) and the result is a story which is very alive. Yes, it's a page turner. Try it and you'll be hooked as badly as one of Browne's stenk fiends. 2004, Bloomsbury, Ages 10 to 14.
|
