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Title:
Brothers of the Wind
Series: The Last King of
Osten Ard #¾
Author: Tad Williams
Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages:
252
Words: 105K
Publish: 2021
This
book is extremely melancholic. One of the brothers, Ineluki, is
introduced to the readers way back in Tad Williams epic tour-de-force
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy
as an undead spirit seeking revenge on humanity. This story is set
1000 years before that and chronicles Ineluki’s fall and how it
affected his brother (the main character of the book) and set in
motion the events we read about in MST.
If Tad Williams didn’t model Ineluki after Lucifer himself, I don’t know what else his inspiration could be. Ineluki is Pride itself and every decision he makes is based on that. It doesn’t turn out well.
We follow this whole story as it is narrated by Kes, one of the changeling races who serve the Sithi (elves) race that Ineluki and Hakatri belong to. Kes is actually the main character of the book, but he is Hakatri’s servant and so self-effacing that he makes it mostly about Hakatri. But we see Ineluki and Kes’s own story play out and it is sad and tragic. Not cry your eyes out like a woman sad and tragic, but heart rending where all you can do is shake your head because it is deeper than tears.
I didn’t rate this higher than I did because I was so frustrated at the entire sithi race here. Everybody knows how Ineluki is, his moods, his anger, his humors, his disobedience, his rash vows, and they see how things always play out. But nobody does anything. First off, Ineluki’s parents. They chide, they admonish, they even command, but they never punish, ever. They let him grow up a selfish spoiled wretch and then washed their hands of him. I despised them for their ethereal outlook while the rot of their race was sitting right in front of their eyes. Second, Ineluki’s brother Hakatri. He does try to do things, but it is to cover for Ineluki, to ameliorate the effects of Ineluki’s bad decisions, to soften his angers and cozen him. He never lets Ineluki suffer the consequences of his vows or actions. His is the opposite issue from his parents. Hakatri ends up suffering physical and mental agonies beyond measure for the choices that Ineluki makes and he still tries to shield Ineluki from all consequences of those actions. Hakatri might not have been as proud as Ineluki, but his own weaknesses were just as profound and were just as responsible as Ineluki for the downfall of the Sithi race as a whole. Finally, there is Kes. He enables Hakatri through the entire story, which allows Hakatri to continue his enabling of Ineluki. Even when Kes falls in love with another of his race, he chooses to serve Hakatri and go away on some mad scheme “across the ocean”. It isn’t until the very end of the book when he is washed overboard and abandoned by the Sithi that he realizes his is nothing to them. That allows him to go back to the woman and make a life for himself.
It is all just so sad. It is almost Russian-like, but without that childishness that I find tends to characterize the Russian melancholy.
I don’t know how this will tie into the Last King of Osten Ard storyline, but considering Williams wrote this story half-way through that four book series, I am sure it will have a large part to play in the later part of series. Definitely not a book I would recommend on its own. The thing is, it “could” be read on its own. Williams does an excellent job of explaining the wider world here but without the foreknowledge of having read MST the impact of Ineluki and Hakatri’s story will not have the same punch.
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
Pride often goes before a fall, but sometimes that prideful fall is so catastrophic that it changes history itself.
Among the immortal Sithi of Osten Ard, none are more beloved and admired than the two sons of the ruling family, steady Hakatri and his proud and fiery younger brother Ineluki -- Ineluki, who will one day become the undead Storm King. The younger brother makes a bold, terrible oath that he will destroy deadly Hidohebhi, a terrifying monster, but instead drags his brother with him into a disaster that threatens not just their family but all the Sithi -- and perhaps all of humankind as well.
Set a thousand years before the events of Williams's The Dragonbone Chair, the tale of Ineluki's tragic boast and what it brings is told by Pamon Kes, Hakatri's faithful servant. Kes is not one of the Sithi but a member of the enslaved Changeling race, and his loyalty has never before been tested. Now he must face the terrible black dragon at his master's side, then see his own life changed forever in a mere instant by Ineluki's rash, selfish promise.
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