Benjamin January # 3! This one was way less grim than Fever Season. I realize that's easy to say, so I will give it an independent grimness rating.Grimness of content: Medium. Racism and other isms, slavery, murder; child abuse is discussed but not shown.Grimness of tone: Low. The subtitle is "a novel of suspense" and that accurately describes the tone. It's a very atmospheric mystery with some excellent action and really great characters. I loved everyone in this book, except for the villains and racists, obviously. Also, it contains a number of fun tropes, including hurt-comfort, creepy pottery, courtroom drama, spirit possession, and dodging alligators in the bayou. Plus Marie Laveau. The plot is very well-constructed and entertaining. And there's some very funny banter, plus a number of dramatic, alarming, and/or hilarious courtroom scenes. Benjamin January is a devout Catholic and regularly prays for the soul of his sister Olympe, a voodoo practitioner. When Olympe is railroaded into jail for poisoning a man, mostly due to prejudice against voodoo, Ben gets on the case. I really enjoyed the portrayal of voodoo. Hambly has an afterword discussing her research (she's a historian) and interviews with current practitioners where she gives a sense of how varied the practice and history is-- as is the case in any religion. From Ben's outsider/insider perspective, it's simultaneously alien and disturbing, familiar and enticing. It was a great way to convey how any religion is sustaining and ordinary for its followers, and exotic and weird to outsiders who don't understand it. Marie Laveau is one of my favorite characters in the series, and she naturally has a big part in this. For the first time, supernatural forces appear as a (possibly) real force. The vivid scenes of spirit possession can be interpreted as simply the power of belief, but they make more sense if the Loa are objectively real. I liked the delicate balance of deniability at play through the whole book. Since my favorite thing about this series is the characters, I'll do a check-in. Augustus Mayerling, the sword master who was one of my favorites from the first book, re-appears. Poor Hannibal is so sick with consumption that it was a relief to know while reading that he's still alive ten books later-- he spends most of the book either in bed or helping Ben with various tasks while trying not to pass out. (Rose makes some satisfying appearances, though I wish she was in the story more. Ben's awful mother Livia is still hilariously, deliciously catty. Olympe and her family have nice big roles-- I really like her, her husband, and her son Gabriel. And Ben has a really satisfying character arc.
This third entry in the atmospheric series finds free-man-of-color Benjamin January scrambling to clear his voodooienne sister Olympe from a charge of murder. When nineteen-year-old Isaak goes missing, it isn't long before his opium-addict brother turns up with a fantastic tale of kidnapping and poison -- but no body. The setting is 1830's New Orleans in the summer, and the city is stewing in its own juices; lack of a sewage system and copious mosquitoes (thanks to the city's humid, swampy location)ensure that sicknesses like cholera and yellow fever are ever-present threats. Benjamin January has been back in New Orleans for less than two years, following the death of his wife in Paris. He's a surgeon by training, a musician by inclination -- and the reluctance of creole society to accept of physician who's skin so closely resembles that of the slaves that work the sugar-cane plantations. His efforts to clear his sister's name and free her from prison will bring him into close contact with Voodoo and the beliefs and fears of his childhood. The series seems to hit its stride with this entry, which proceeds seamlessly from start to finish, drawing us along without letting our attention wander. Favorite side-characters from the first two books are present as well, continuing to develop their own stories. Highly recommended.
What do You think about Graveyard Dust (2000)?
New Orleans in the 1830s is complicated and nuanced, and Benjamin January lives at the intersections of converging and competing cultures, none of which is as simple as white and black. This 3rd book in the series delves into the world of voodoo, described in the Author's Note as "a complex interlocking of ancestor worship, reverence for the spirits of nature, and an overarching belief in a single deity who works through the various spirits - the loa or lwa - to aid humankind. The thousands of men and women who were kidnapped and enslaved by their tribal enemies, and sold to the white, carried with them only what they had in their minds and in their hearts: skill at their trades, love of family, a rich heritage of music, and stories of animals and spirits." (The Author's Note is as fascinating, if much, much shorter, as the story.)Hambly's characters are multifaceted and convey the complexity of human nature throughout, and her portrait of Voodooienne Marie Laveau is particularly intriguing. "He understood then how she came to know everything, to fit all things together in a great mosaic of intelligence. She listened, and she remembered, and she cared."I also particularly appreciated the irony in a courtroom scene where lawyers argue over whether the case will be heard in English or French (the French New Orleans now a part of the United Stated): "'We true citizens of the City of New Orleans,' retorted Vilhardouin, in French, 'were sold to the United States against our will and without being consulted in the matter --' 'Welcome to our ranks,' muttered January dourly."
—Kim
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a story set in New Orleans must contain elements of Mardi Gras and Voodoo.Having covered Mardi Gras pretty well already in this series, Hambly now, after hinting at in the previous two books, tackles Voodoo full on. She throws a lot of supernatural elements at the reader with just enough drugs and power-of-persuasion thrown in to steer clear of full on fantasy, but still making one wonder, what if...?I also liked that she got into the “opiate of the masses” aspect of it, presenting it as being pretty much parallel to Catholicism. Oh yes, and there’s a mystery involving poison, but as ever, the setting is a main event.
—Kara
I picked up this historical mystery, set in 1830s New Orleans, when I was down there for a conference recently. I'd taken a historical walking tour, and wanted to immerse myself in that world. Hambly's novel, featuring Benjamin January, a free man of color, fit the bill perfectly. It's well-researched and recreates the world effectively; the major characters are appealing and Marie Laveau, the voodoo practitioner, has a fairly large role as a supporting character. The story itself might have been a fairly routine mystery, but the circumstances of the world that was created made it a memorable read.
—Catherine Siemann
