Acacia Book One: The War With The Mein: David Anthony Durham

Acacia Book One: The War With The Mein is the first book in David Anthony Durham’s new Acacia series. It is set in a vividly imagined world which draws on aspects of the Roman empire era much in the same way that fellow author Jacqueline Carey’s Terre d’Ange is a reworking of Renaissance Europe – and just as Ms. Carey does, Mr. Durham infuses his re-imagined world with a stunning plethora of interesting characters, hidden magic, long lost tales and prophecies of doom and rebirth.

Readability is quite good – the author’s world is well described and he evokes vivid imagery. The environs of The Known World (the lands within and around the Acacian Empire) are detailed and immersed. On occasion the descriptions can be overly wordy, but not often.

His descriptive prose is particularly engrossing when he is describing scenes of battle – it is easy to imagine oneself there on the battlefield amidst the carnage and violence.

Synopsis:

Acacia Book One: The War With The Mein centers around the lives of the four heirs to the Acacian empire as well as the leader of the opposing forces and their ongoing struggles as they are caught up in a great war of conquest and its aftermath, but nearly as much time is spent with the supporting characters of the story. Mr. Durham masterfully handles the weaving of these many disparate storylines into a finely crafted tapestry of war, revenge, loss, love and the fate of an empire.

My Take:

There are quite a few interesting characters to follow in this novel, and it’s difficult to pick a favorite. No one individual stands out clearly as the “main character” and nearly every character undergoes some type of personality growth (or even outright change) during the course of the story, so you can’t really get too personally attached to any given individual.

Without giving away the storyline, suffice it to say that each heir is presented with his or her own specific challenges to face, and each must learn to deal with them in his or her own way. At the same time, the great machinery of empire is relentlessly grinding away in the background, generating its own changes and challenges.

The story plumbs the depths of what can be considered good or evil and the reader often comes away with a deeper appreciation of how subtle those interpretations can be.

There are major life changes for everyone as the story progresses, and just as I began to think I had the plotline figured out, Mr. Durham takes several abrupt changes of course that sometimes left me reeling. Even when I didn’t like the new plotline, I certainly can’t fault the author’s excellent sense of style and storytelling skill.

The story told in the novel is complete, with a beginning, climax and denouement. While the author leaves sufficiently interesting leads into the next volume of the story, the book is satisfying in a way that those which end on a cliffhanger (or worse yet, just break off in the middle of the story) are not.

I found this to be an excellent novel, and look forward to the next book in the series!
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Hardcover: 592 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (June 12, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385506066
ISBN-13: 978-0385506069
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