Isobelle Carmody has managed to create a masterpiece work of fantasy fiction with Obernewtyn and the coninuation books all of which make up the Obernewtyn Chronicles.
Quick Overview:
The Book Obernewtyn starts by following the council ward Elspeth Gordie in a
post-apocalyptic world. The world was subject to the "Great White" a
term that the survivors called the time when Atomic bombs were detonated all
over the world. What are left are a few areas of unscathed land and huge areas
of "tainted" or radioactive Blacklands.
Elspeth Gordie is a unique individual with special mental abilities. These
abilities are great but also come with a price, if people were to find out
about them she would be labelled a misfit, the term used to describe physical
and mental disabilities. The fanatical Herders, a religious movement, burn
anyone who they even suspect is a misfit.
Land owners who didn't lose their land in the Great White eventually became
the families who make up the council and rule what is left of the land. The
Council and Herders rule with fear and the world that has been created in the
aftermath is a frightening place to live for one such as Elspeth Gordie.
Quick Review:
This book and following series is well thought out and gives you a real
feeling of hopelessness in the situations that Elspeth finds herself. The world
created by Isobelle Carmody is a relatively small one at first but develops
throughout the books. The politics and mechanics of how the world including the
misfit powers work is very well thought out.
Although there are relationships built throughout the series, you never
really get to know any other character really well. This book is always solely
taken from Elspeth's perspective and the reason for this is mostly due to
Elspeth's lack of understanding of other people and their emotional
intricacies. There are a lot of characters that interact quite heavily with
Elspeth but then seem to disappear from the equation due to Elspeth's ability
to get herself into lonely situations far from any help. That is the one part
of this series that I seemed to miss was the fact that no other character really
seemed to come alive, except maybe the cat and the horse...
