New Book Alert: Merchants of Knowledge and Magic (The Pentagonal Dominion) by Erika McCorkle; Unique World Building Is The Highlight of This Odd Unforgettable Epic Fantasy

 

New Book Alert: Merchants of Knowledge and Magic (The Pentagonal Dominion) by Erika McCorkle; Unique World Building Is The Highlight of This Odd Unforgettable Epic Fantasy 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Of the various worlds in Epic Fantasy that I visited this year (and there were many), among the most evocative, unique, and intriguing is The Pentagonal Dominion in Erika McCorkle's Merchants of Knowledge and Magic.

It is the strangest, most bizarre, most fantastic world that I have come across in some time.

The plot, or rather plots, are mostly slight. They involve a pair of merchants hired by various people throughout the book to find someone or retrieve something for some greater purpose. The missions aren't fully connected and they don't really seem to add up to anything important, at least not in this volume anyway.

 The book's structure is in loose anthology form as each mission is introduced separately and equal time is given for the characters to resolve that mission. Then that assignment usually leads them head (or heads) first into the next assignment or adventure.

Instead, Merchants of Knowledge and Magic's strongest virtues are in character, setting, and world building. In fact the main purpose of the various missions is to introduce the Readers to this strange new world. Since it is a world that captures the imagination and is impossible to forget,  I would say "Mission Accomplished."

 Every character and setting seems to come from someone's weirdest fever dreams or nightmares. Boy, is it ever a crazy oddball fever dream that we stumbled into.

The two Merchants in question are Calinthe Erytrichos and Zakuro "Pom" Rathmusen, the eponymous Merchants of Knowledge and Magic respectively. They are a very fascinating pair. 

Calinthe is half-Ulese and half-Odonata, species that many believe can't reproduce until they meet her. She has green skin, wings, and is intersex (though prefers she/her pronouns). Calinthe is a Mind volkhv which means that she can obtain knowledge. She often interrogates suspects with a game of Eight Questions in which they have to tell the truth (though they aren't above using certain points of view or telling half-truths to cover up information). 

 Zakuro has four arms, dark skin, and is  a Godblood, which means that she is descended from gods. She is practiced in various magical abilities such as making herself invisible or shape shifting. She was isolated by her abusive mother and had barely encountered non-deities until she met and fell in love with Calinthe.

The two travel together to do various assignments as Calinthe obtains information while Zakuro serves as a bodyguard and protector using her magic to help or hide them if things go badly. They earn money by trading magic and knowledge as currency.

Already this book stands out from many other Epic Fantasies and Science Fiction because of the lack of humanoid characters. Many times authors insert characters who are human in appearance as though their imaginations couldn't conceive of a world where humans, or species resembling humans, don't exist. With neither of her two leads being human, McCorkle stretches the imagination by looking through the perspectives and lifestyles of different creatures and species that are different from those who are reading it.

Calinthe and Zakuro aren't the only unique characters that this book encounters. We first encounter the duo as they walk into a bar which has a Kraken bartender and a Werewolf suspect that they have to interview. (Sounds like a bad joke from another dimension). Things go awry when the Kraken gets stabbed by the nervous Wolf.

One of the characters that they meet in the bar is Paivi Valkoinen, who may be a spy or a deserter from the powerful Aloutian military. One of Paivi's unique traits is that her belly is hollow and can be used to store objects which are chilled or warmed by her body temperature. So yes she is in fact a walking cooler (which excites Zakuro since they can have an ongoing supply of ale). 

That's nothing however. Calinthe's father is so large that her mother and sometimes she can travel inside his abdomen. (Take from that what you will).

Many of the settings are also unique. People can travel from dimension to dimension and gravity is different on each one. A person who is considered thin in one place can be weighed down by the gravity in another one.

One of those places is Ophidia, a misandrist society in which women are considered superior and men, intersex, neuter, and non-binary species are looked down upon. Calinthe hates the place and has to hide her intersex qualities whenever they visit (including a newly growing appendage which is synonymous with a penis). 

Their arrival attracts two sisters, The Ryuugas: Requiem, a white skinned purple haired biped-bibranch and  Sayuri,a reptilian Orochijan, with thin vertical pupils and a forked tongue. Oh yeah and they travel with horses who can change their shapes into bipedal forms. The Ryuugas  want to leave Ophidia even though they are members of the ruling class because it's a "f$#@d up country that treats men like mud and sludge." So they tag along with and befriend Calinthe and Zakuro.

The strangeness in character and setting is only augmented by the Pentagonal Dominion's pantheon of demons and gods. While most Earth pantheons acknowledge their deities' offbeat qualities (like Zeus' womanizing, Loki's tricks, or The Morrigan's association with death), the gods in these worlds come right out and admit their infallibility with their titles. They are rich with names like Lord Selfishness and the Lord of Ignorance. 

Lord Williford, the Lord of Ignorance, is a particularly memorable deity in that he acts less like a god and more like the lovable storytelling drunk at the bar. He uses Welsh slang terms like "ditty" for little and "tidy" for nice. He also uses profanity and is more interested in carnal pleasures and being sarcastic than in being a positive vessel for his mortal followers. He is hilarious and fits right in with the rest of the Pentagonal Dominions' weirdness. 

Despite or maybe because of the strange world building embedded in Merchants of Knowledge and Magic, the book surprisingly has a lot of emotions and heart.

In one chapter while they are in Ophidia, Zakuro and Paivi try to end slavery by killing slavers and slaves much to Calinthe's chagrin. The decisions that the three are faced with are ethical ones in which the characters debate whether they should put their personal experiences and safety over the greater good and whether using violence to prevent injustice causes more problems than helps.

Zakuro and Calinthe also show strong love and devotion towards each other particularly when they encounter their families. After a heartbreaking conversation with her abusive mother, Zakuro is cut off, feeling like she doesn't have a family. Calinthe takes her on a detour from their current assignment to visit Calinthe's loving parents so Zakuro could feel loved and accepted and they could adopt her as a second daughter.

In one of the most traumatic sections, Calinthe is forced into slavery for several chapters. Her narration reveals the pain and anguish, particularly when she goes from referring to her masters by name to the title of "Master" in her narration. She goes from a free spirited, independent, intelligent, intersex Merchant of Knowledge with lovers and friends to a passive, dependent, traumatized victim who isn't sure if she ever had anyone love her. It is a striking heart wrenching transformation that suggests that it will take some time in the next volume for her to recover, if she ever does.

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is a masterful novel of world building which offers unique characters and settings that are strange but also believable. Because of that, this is one of the Best Books of 2022.

Classics Corner: Imajica by Clive Barker; A Parallel Universe Fantasy That Draws You In and Won't Let Go

Classics Corner: Imajica by Clive Barker; A Parallel Universe Fantasy That Draws You In and Won't Let Go


By Julie Sara Porter,


Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: First I want to thank my sister-in-law Tzyra Andreeva for giving me this wonderful book. It's definitely a great gift.

You don't read a book like Clive Barker’s Imajica. You inhabit it, you immerse yourself into it. The parallel world setting, the magical eccentric characters, the intricate plot and deep themes of religion, gender roles and realizing one’s own identity draw the Reader in and doesn't let them go.

This is the type of book that starts the Reader thinking that it's one thing but early hints show that it becomes a completely different work. Charlie Estabrook, an obsessive Englishman wants to hire an assassin to murder Judith, his soon-to-be-ex-wife and the Reader sits back ready for a psychological thriller. But certain things happen that prove otherwise about the narrative.


There’s the bizarre coincidence that both Judith and her former lover, John Furie Zacharias AKA Gentle can only remember the last ten years of their lives. There's the go-between with Estabrook and the assassin who is murdered by a strange man who not only appears out of thin air but murders the go-between by putting unearthly insects in his mouth that crawl through his skin. Then,there's the passage where the hired assassin,Pie’oh’pah transforms from male to female depending on who is observing it. Well that's horror master Clive Barker, the creator of the Hellraiser and Candyman franchises for you.

Instead of being a conventional thriller or a conventional well just about anything, Imajica reveals itself to be an evocative novel set within five parallel universes. The Universes called the Dominions (Earth is the Fifth Dominion) were connected as one called the Imajica but now have lost those connections. Many sorcerers and magic users have attempted to join the Five Dominions in a ritual called The Reconciliation to no success. Among them, the back story tells us, was a sorcerer who attempted the Reconciliation 2,018 years ago who not only failed but ended up on the wrong end of a cross. (Guess who?) The most recent attempt was made 200 years ago by a Maestro Sartori who failed miserably and made some very magical and destructive decisions that affected the rest of the characters and himself.

What happens next is a road trip through the unique worlds of the other four Dominions. In trying to defend Judith from the eccentric assassin, Gentle begins to bond with it. Soon he and Pie’oh'pah form a friendship and travel to the other Dominions. Pie’oh'pah has its own motives which get revealed later. For Gentle, an art forger and ladies’ man, the trip is to give him direction and possibly some answers for questions that have plagued him for the past ten years.


Meanwhile Judith goes on a magical journey of her own. Astral projection allows her to travel inside the body of a mysterious woman who has been imprisoned in a comatose state for over 100 years inside the home of a member of the Tabula Rasa. They are a secret organization who are driven to destroy any magic users and stop the Reconciliation and aren't particular about the methods to achieve these goals.

The Four Dominions are brilliantly captured in Barker's writing. They are individually characterized with unique details that describe the landscapes. One Dominion is surrounded by a frozen lake with killer tides...literally. Another has a green sky which turns purple at night. Another has a comet for a sun and another has two suns and an immense desert. Another looks like a living city and turns out to be one.

There are also unusual characters in these environments as well. There are human characters with gills, feathers, and fur (some with all three). Pie'oh'pah’s transformations from male to female are illusions to seduce its lovers into thinking that they are seeing their strongest desire. A little girl Huzzah is described as a very ugly girl but is one of the sweetest most adorable characters in the book. There are also frightening characters like the Nullianacs, creatures with hands for heads who devour their enemies. Once the First Dominion is revealed to be a living city, it becomes a thing of nightmares.

Besides describing unique settings, Barker provides brilliant rich characters in the novel, many of whom are more than they seem. The Second Dominion's capital city, Yzordderrex is ruled by the Autarch, a malevolent war mongering tyrant and Quaisoir, his mentally ill wife. In other books, they would be the direct villains of the piece. But Imajica isn't so clearly defined. As Gentle, Judith, The
Autarch and Quaisoir discover they are more connected than they thought, the lines between heroes and villains become blurry making the four very developed.

Judith and Gentle are very developed characters in their struggles throughout the novel to discover their identities. Gentle begins the novel as a dilettante artist who uses his talents to copy other works and hop from one bed to another. His journey through the Dominions becomes one of self-discovery. He and Pie'oh'pah fall in love when Gentle realizes what a loving and loyal creature his companion is. He also embraces some dormant magical abilities which he uses in the protection of his friends and loved ones.


Gentle becomes confused whether his role is to continue the Reconciliation or to stop it. He learns who he once was in a heartbreaking and frightening scene in which he is driven to insanity by the memories of not only his current life but the previous ones before it.
Once he remembers his former identity's cruelties and deceptions, he is determined to make things right in this life. When he confronts Hapexamendios, the God that was the true author of this destruction, Gentle is prepared to face Him to claim his identity for himself.


Judith also goes on her own journey.When she learns that she was created for the purpose of being a romantic object for someone, she seeks to break that pattern to become her own person. Like Gentle, she refuses to remain a plaything for others’ designs.
Judith also discovers some abilities that allow her to free the Goddesses who had been removed by Hapexamendios and The Autarch's theocracy. She recognizes the strength of many of the other female characters and in herself.
It is only when Judith and Gentle are able to accept their former identities and be willing to break their old patterns to become their own people are they able to truly bring completion to the Dominions in a very unique and clever way.

Like his magical characters and setting, Barker weaves a spell on the Reader that captivates them and holds onto them long after the book is closed. That is why this is the best book that I have read this year so far.