Warring States: A Jurisdiction Novel [Hardcover]

The Jurisdiction universe is one of the most fascinating ever created. This particular volume of it is as much murder mystery as science fiction - although I should warn you that the actual murder was in the previous volume in the series. You will definitely want to have read, at the very least, "The Devil and Deep Space" before reading this one, so order them both if you haven't read that one. Once you've read these two, you will be absolutely hooked and have to go back to the beginning, I promise. Because you'll want to know more - what was it that happened at Dommitt Prison? Who was Joslire, and what's the deal with the knives?

A review can't begin to convey the depth of complexity of this series, the details of the universe that Matthews has imagined. One senses that there are more stories on every single world, or for every single character. The Bench agents, for example - Jils Ivers and Karol Aphon Vogel - I'd like to know what else they've done. (Incidentally, if you play fast and loose with translations, Karol Aphon Vogel would come out as approximately "Silent Songbird." Isn't that interesting?)

Apart from bombs blowing things up, there's not as much violence in this volume as in previous volumes of the series; Andrej has indeed given up torture, and at the end of the book, we seem to be headed in a direction that will take him even further away from that. So, if you were reading this series because you were looking for the S-M overtones of the earlier volumes, this one might be a disappointment to you. But if you were reading it for plotting and for delving into character motivations, then this one is the best yet. We get a LOT more detail on Emandisan, Joslire's home world, and its culture, which is interesting enough to keep you reading until it's almost time to wake up the next day. (At least, that's what *I* did. Maybe you have more willpower.)

For those who are new to the series, some of the above may sound cryptic. As I said, it's a series where it's best to read all of it, and at the very least, read the previous volume before this one. This volume is not totally incomprehensible without that, but you would have a lot of unanswered questions in between the more satisfactory bits of plot and dialogue.

I've always figured that the Dolgorukij Combine was vaguely Polish. When we meet Padrake, another Bench agent, we get hints of a world or system that must have been founded by the Irish. In general, there's not much clue here at all as to how far from Earth we are, either in distance or in time - no Earth years are referred to, and certainly Earth is not anything important in the Jurisdiction area. But the hints of Irishness, added to other worlds with vaguely national characteristics, makes me want to know more about what other individual cultures are out there in the Jurisdiction, and in the area Beyond. I can't wait for the next volume!

I've been button-holing prospective readers for years, trying to explain to them what a mind-bogglingly fantastic writer Susan R. Matthews is, and what wonderful books her Jurisdiction novels are. Unfortunately, I am not nearly as talented, so I am not going to be up to the task. But I'm going to try anyway, starting with an overall explanation of what I enjoy about the whole series, followed by some specific Warring States praise.

First, Matthews never talks down to her readers. Her prose is rich, incorporating enough unusual grammar, syntax and unusual words to immerse us in a different place and time, and with just a deft sentence here and there, she introduces us to a myriad of different cultures and their complex problems. She dances lightly through the story, sprinkling it with references to traditional beliefs, religious systems, government and military systems in all their good, bad, mundane, honorable, corrupt, bureacratic, overburdened, human glory.

Secondly, her characters are never shallow, never completely good or evil, though their actions are frequently one or the other. Andrej Koscuisko, the main protagonist of most of the books, is a deeply flawed individual, shaped and bound by his culture and status, not to mention an unfortunate psychological quirk, but on a painful course of self-discovery and liberation.

Thirdly,(and this isn't all but I don't want to go on forever) the issues that Matthews tackles head on are both current and timeless. Where does power come from? What does it do to people? What happens when it's abused? Why is it abused? How are people to manage the difference between the Rule of Law and Justice?

Now for Warring States. It was good to see more about the workings of the Jurisdiction and the Bench Specialists. All our favorite characters were back and all busy either trying to keep anarchy from breaking out or to using the anarchy breaking out to try to correct injustices done under a brutally heavy-handed Bench. Jil Ivers, a Bench Specialist who has dedicated her life to the Rule of Law and who has sometimes been callous about collateral damage, is facing a chance of becoming a victim of the system herself if she can't find who killed Sindha Verlaine, her former boss. Andrej Koscuisko takes a bold step, breaking the law to do what he knows to be right, and in the end moving further down a hard road to redemption. There are new characters to enjoy as well. A female Malcontent Bench Specialist, Jils ex-lover, and the family of the late Joslire, who are determined to adopt Andrej into their family.

Susan Matthews, with her books about Inquisitor Andrej Koscuisko, has done that rarest of things: she has created a character completely unlike any other in contemporary science fiction. Nor do her secondary characters necessarily suffer in comparison, as everyone you meet in these novels has real depth and makes sense as a human being. Matthews also does something else I like, i.e. she never patronizes her readers. This series is compelling, intelligent, and utterly original.

The Jurisdiction universe is a vicious, unforgiving place to live, a place where torture is routine and the interplanetary government continues with its slow-motion campaign of genocide against the Nurail. Andrej, in spite of his authoritarian upbringing, has finally come to the realization that he doesn't have to play along with the system any longer. I expect to see him do real damage to Jurisdiction in future books, though we don't quite get to that here. I hope the next book comes out before too much time elapses....

The only criticism I have of the book is the method used to decide what happens with the Jurisdiction hierarchy now that the First Secretary is dead. There is just no way that the Judges (not to mention the various bureaucracies attached to the Judges) would allow the small group of Bench Specialists to decide their fate, no matter how smart and supposedly disinterested said Specialists may be. Powerful people don't become or remain powerful by handing over their destinies to people they can't control. And this universe is all about control, control, control. Fierce politicking and numerous assassinations, I could have believed.

That said, this book and this series are still much better than 95% of the science fiction out there right now. You won't regret adding this novel to your collection.