The Hands of the Emperor

[raven]

I read this book because several people said I would find it interesting! Which I did, I finished it a week or so ago and am still having arguments with it in my head, so here are a lot of words. (In brief: I liked so much about this book, but ultimately it made me furious.)

The Hands of the Emperor is set in a brilliantly elaborate fantasy universe that is some years on from an enormous catastrophe that is never quite fully described. Whatever it was, it involved the collapse and occasional actual disappearance (?) of various countries and lots of famine, misery, pestilence, etc. Our hero and main character, Cliopher Mdang, lived through the disaster and has spent the years since trying to rebuild the infrastructure of the world he lives in. Which sounds a bit ambitious, but he’s actually well-placed for it – he’s the right- hand man and cabinet secretary-type for the emperor, who is an absolute-ruler who does most of the magic for this whole fantasy world to keep it going. Being the emperor in this universe involves being subject to a vast array of strict ritual and taboos, including limits on what he can touch, eat, who he can talk to, etc., which have the net effect of keeping him a virtual prisoner of ceremony. He’s the highest of the highest echelon of aristocracy but leads a more constrained life than anyone else.

Cliopher, on the other hand, grew up in a solidly middle-class family on an island archipelago a long way away from the emperor’s capital. The island he’s from is very much a small-town scenario where everyone knows everyone and their business, and if that weren’t enough Cliopher has 58 first cousins so is literally related to nearly everyone in town. (I love this! So real.) The family are part of a distinct islander culture which seems to be a fantasy-analogue to Polynesian culture, which is thought of as primitive and barbarian in the capital and in the emperor’s court; Cliopher is the first from the islands to be admitted to the imperial service and has had to tolerate all kinds of nonsense from people who think of him as some kind of brown rustic. (I love this too, unsurprisingly. In particular, there’s a bit where he finally snaps and insists that people pronounce his name correctly, having put up with the mispronunciation all the years of his career so far. I did this when I was about 25 also! So real, again.)

On this basis, therefore, there are a few principal threads in this book. Firstly, there’s Cliopher’s slow understanding that the emperor he serves is a human being and needs a life and existence of his own before he goes mad. This is definitely the best bit of the book – it’s slow and measured, it makes internal sense, and Cliopher’s real affection and friendship for this man he’s unable to touch or even come close to is just, yes, lovely. It’s the other thread that... argh, ok, Cliopher is a right-hand man for the emperor, right. This seems to involve being the head of the imperial civil service, which, also ok. I like bureaucrats! A 900-page book about fantasy bureaucracy sounds right up my alley!

The thing is... the author tells us Cliopher is a civil servant, and Cliopher also tells us this a lot, and so does everyone else in the book, but I am here from the original imperial civil service to tell you that this is not, in fact, correct. In the not-very-many years since the catastrophe, Cliopher has formulated and implemented a number of policies for the benefit of the population, including, marvellously, universal basic income; also a large-scale transport system and a reform of the justice system? But, crucially, Cliopher makes these policies, as well as implementing them. Which is great if that’s what you want to write your book about! I too often feel like democracy is overrated! But making big policy like that is what a legislature and executive do; civil servants just implement. If you do both, you’re moving towards…. not good things? We’re supposed to all be in favour and you know, I am in favour of universal basic income! But the book doesn’t seem to acknowledge that Cliopher can exercise this extraordinary degree of power unaccountable to any other body? Absolute power corrupts, and maybe it doesn’t in fiction, but... it does, though.

But ok, I grant you that fantasy worlds can’t be cranky democracies. Cool. In my years as a civil servant, I have made maybe four significant tweaks to the the UK health and safety regime and once I did a set of accessibility regulations. The idea that one person (who by the way doesn’t seem to have much of a staff? Not the nine hundred people who work for my department alone, anyway) could make and implement this kind of world-changing policy and do it more or less alone is more than my suspension of disbelief can stand. And apparently… he does this without making mistakes? I once almost cost the UK government £22,000. Cliopher has apparently never even broken a stapler in pursuit of the public good. This bothers me, and all of this is all the more frustrating because I agree with the author! Life in public service is deeply, profoundly fulfilling and valuable! I would choose to do nothing else with my life! But this, my friends, is not what it looks like.

Again, fine, let’s acknowledge that as skygiants says, Cliopher is to ordinary real-life public servants is what King Arthur is to any real king. But then that still leaves the bit about this book that I found the most difficult. The last thread is Cliopher’s inner conflict, between the home life he left behind, the life of family and home and history and tradition, and the work he does, which is incredibly valuable and personally fulfilling but takes him a long way from his home and puts him among people who call him a barbarian. It really hurts him, both that the people he allegedly works with think of his culture as primitive, and that his family don’t really understand the job he does and why it’s so important to him. And you know, this is great as a storyline, I love it, we’ve been all there. Who among us hasn’t gone home to their brown family and felt their interior life turn on an axis? Your dadi doesn’t understand your job, or in some cases why you even have one. You can’t quite talk to her; the language is going. Your white colleagues and friends do their best, but they don’t quite get your home life. You are not quite one thing, or another. You are more than one person.

And you know... that’s not bad. It doesn’t have to be. We contain multitudes! Being an immigrant is an integral part of the human experience! etc. But that is not how this book sees it, and this is definitely a lot more about me than the book (I think?) but omg, I hated it, I hated it so much, I’ve rarely hated a book about diaspora or immigrants more. Cliopher resolves this conflict by being as gosh-darned perfect at being a diaspora emigrant as he is at being a bureaucrat. As the backstory slowly reveals, he’s actually incredibly well-versed in his home culture, better than his friends and family who stayed at home. He knows all the traditional dances and the traditional ways. Not for him the slow loss over time and distance, no! Not for him any kind of vulnerability. No mistakes. In his case, it’s just that his friends at work and his friends and relatives don’t know about his immaculate understanding of islander culture, and everything comes out right once everyone is informed. In short, be perfect: be perfect in all your lives, be the perfect representative of your people, and be perfectly assimilated too, and you, too, can have a narratively satisfying happy ending. I feel like I'm caricaturing it but I don't think I am! Cliopher's colleagues and his friends and family are all very impressed with all his achievements, and presumably we the readers are meant to be too.

And all of that said, it's not a flaw in a book to not be about what I think it should be about! But it turns out I don’t like stories about people without failures or flaws, and nine hundred pages is a lot of pages about a main character without failures or flaws. So there you are.

Comments

[dolorosa_12]

Having now read both your and skygiants's reviews of this book (and I think of at least one other Dreamwidth friend as well), I definitely have enough information to know that this book would not appeal to me. I'm not a civil servant, but my sister used to be one and is now the Australian equivalent of a special advisor, so I've osmosed enough from her for my eyebrows to be raised at the depiction of senior civil servants in this book.

I’ve rarely hated a book about diaspora or immigrants more. Cliopher resolves this conflict by being as gosh-darned perfect at being a diaspora emigrant as he is at being a bureaucrat. As the backstory slowly reveals, he’s actually incredibly well-versed in his home culture, better than his friends and family who stayed at home. He knows all the traditional dances and the traditional ways. Not for him the slow loss over time and distance, no! Not for him any kind of vulnerability. No mistakes. In his case, it’s just that his friends at work and his friends and relatives don’t know about his immaculate understanding of islander culture, and everything comes out right once everyone is informed. In short, be perfect: be perfect in all your lives, be the perfect representative of your people, and be perfectly assimilated too, and you, too, can have a narratively satisfying happy ending.

Ugh. That really strikes me as reminiscent of all those supposedly well meaning, 'heartwarming' defences of immigration and/or welcoming refugees (look at this homeless refugee who selflessly volunteered in a food bank!, look at these hardworking EU migrants tirelessly working night shifts with the NHS!, etc). I'm always looking for stories immigration and life lived across borders, and so many of them are disappointing.

[raven]

Yes, I think you're right - it did strike me that as an immigrant and a civil servant I was uniquely placed to dislike this and maybe other people would enjoy it a lot? (And to be clear, there is plenty to like in it! It's charming, the cultural worldbuilding is brilliant, the central relationship between Cliopher and the emperor is really poignant and meaningful!) But if your suspension of disbelief is likely to be impacted I def don't recommend it. And the good immigrant trope is def a thing - I don't even know if it knows that's the trope it's drifting into, but it's there in spades.

[brainwane]

Thanks for the review! If there are other books you've loved about the intersection of immigration and civil service, I'd love to know what they are.

Now I'm excited to read the fiction you write that's subtextually arguing with the things you didn't like in this book.

[rmc28]

Hmm yes, as a former political activist, my eyebrows do raise somewhat at policymaking and implementation being in the same person (one very talented hyperactive person, by the sounds of it).

I like competence porn, I am not sure I like perfection porn.

[longwhitecoats]

As someone about to marry into a family of civil servants, I found this fascinating to read, thank you!

[regshoe]

I don't think I'll ever read this book, but it seems to be one I especially enjoy reading reviews of!—anyway, your thoughts here are very interesting. The political worldbuilding sounds both impressively ambitious and definitely frustrating in its unrealisticness.

[raven]

You're v welcome! It is a subject very close to my heart as you know.

[riverlight]

Oh, this is fascinating.

(Oops, posted before I meant to.)

I'd only peripherally been aware of this book, and I think the only thing I'd seen was some comment on the devotion between Cliopher and the Emperor. Which: interesting stuff, sure! But as a fellow civil servant I feel like… oof, I might get thrown out of this narrative in a real way. I mean, far be it from me to demand realism in my fantasy narrative, but sometime when you know the intimate details of a subject in real life the fictional version of it is so hard to deal with. (My mother, a physician, is a lot of fun to watch emergency room dramas with. *g*) So I suspect I, like you, would find this very challenging!

Sorry, this isn't a very coherent comment; tl;dr is "thanks."

[skygiants]

That's really the thing, isn't it ... you can't live life without losing and giving up something, especially if you're marginalized, especially especially if you achieve power, unless you're Cliopher Mdang and the gods themselves have decided you're the ultimate paragon of your culture, you have never made a bad decision in your life, and to you alone is power granted without any personal cost (which is of course why you don't need any checks on it!!!)

[starlady]

Even setting aside the civil service and the diaspora and immigrant aspects…what sort of deep-seated disagreement like the one between Cliopher and his family was ever resolved by people hearing an explanation and everything being perfect thereafter? That just isn't a view of human nature that makes any sense. But as you say, if Cliopher is perfect I guess that's the way it has to be? Eesh.

[nnozomi]

Like the commenter(s) above, I'm enjoying reading various irritated reviews of this book more than I would actually enjoy the book itself...

it's not a flaw in a book to not be about what I think it should be about!
I kind of feel like it is a flaw, in this case? I'm stating the obvious, but in terms of personal satisfaction, "being as gosh-darned perfect at being a diaspora emigrant as he is at being a bureaucrat" as you put it, and being recognized as such on both counts by everyone in sight, is probably great; in terms of, like, narrative interest, though, I think it loses out to the (emotional, moral, practical) complexity of actually struggling with the personal and professional aspects of bureaucracy, running up against personal and familial pain and mixed feelings in the diaspora experience, etc etc etc. (I feel like the latter would also be more interesting for the writer, not just the reader, but who knows.)

[raven]

<3 do you know, I don't think I've ever read anything fitting the description other than this one! It's on my wishlist for sure.

[toft]

This was fascinating, thank you!

[lovelythings]

Thank you for sharing your always-thoughtful thoughts!

[msilverstar]

I have read (most of) this book, and very much agree. There's a ton of repetition about how he's so misunderstood by his family and how they still don't see he's a local boy made good in the big city, as it were. I didn't notice the part about how he invented all the amazingly liberal policies, but now that you mention it, that is worrying. No checks and balances on absolute monarchy / servants thereof. Most of the nobles are just there to be jealous or nasty and get shown up. I got bored and stopped reading, which is really rare for me. Shame, because the worldbuilding is amazing!

[raven]

You're v welcome, I'm glad they were of interest!

[raven]

You're v welcome!

[raven]

Mmm, yes! I think you're absolutely right - if it had been the sort of thing that itself spawned conflict and character development I'd have been into it, but it does not. At all.

[raven]

That's the thing - if the book actually knew how rife for abuse that idea is, and went into it, I would be interested! God knows it wouldn't be the first fantasy universe to decide democracy can be done without! But the narrative itself isn't aware of the problem and that bothers me.

[raven]

Extremely so! I'm glad this interested you!

[chestnut_pod]

I see we very much share opinions on this book! I am very glad to have read your remarks on him being “the perfect diaspora migrant” — you’re so right, and reading your take really helped me deepen my analysis of that part of the book.

[raven]

that's a really good point! It's definitely part of the reason why the book palled for me round about, idk, page 600 - it's because there's not much story there, and what there is doesn't ring true.

[raven]

Exactly! Exactly exactly. It annoys me so much! I have so many feelings about it!

[marginaliana]

Thanks for linking me to your review. I think my feelings about the book as a whole are essentially similar to yours in that he felt too perfect and all that was needed was for everyone else to understand. There are a few small attempts at giving him flaws, but none of them really work.

The immigrant culture issues and the need for perfection in both places, though - definitely something I didn't notice in my own reading. I really appreciate seeing your perspective on that.

[sophia_sol]

skygiants just linked me to this review of yours and oh man this is just like....delicious. I've read a number of reviews of the book, both positive and negative, and through the sum of them have determined it's not a book I'll ever be interested in reading, but I think this is one of my fave reviews of it. so good at getting to the point of exactly what kinds of things the book is interested in doing!

[yiskah]

HELLOOOOOOO I am visiting from the future as I have just finished this book and remembered that you wrote this gently blistering review and I wanted to see how much I agreed with! A LOT is the answer, the comment where you mention flagging around page 600 really rang true for me, too, as I spent the early part of the book waiting for when the internal conflict was going to come in and then it...just...didn't, it was just Kip Mdang continuing to be perfect in ever possible way despite the provocation of his family and the court of the emperor, and so by the end I was rolling my eyes at every new revelation of something that Kip has done perfectly and kept modestly under his hat. He built a perfect boat! He introduced literally every law that has made people's lives better! He brought about world peace! ...which, lovely, but I kept thinking how boring I would have found that, as a writer. And also... yes okay possibly I am over-invested, as someone who has a job that I love very much but that most people at home don't understand, and which takes me very far away and has (arguably) cut me off from a lot of the traditional status markers (marriage, kids) - but also, one of the things that I love MOST about my work, and which gives me the most solace in relation to its various difficulties, is the other people that it brings me into contact with, other people who are brilliant and dedicated and engaged. If I were like some sort of Kip Mdang character, a constant paragon of modest brilliance, surrounded by bumbling fools (in comparison), I would be MISERABLE.

That said, the relationship between Kip and his Radiancy sustained me, and I will continue reading books in this universe for that alone. (Though also, god-on-earth or no, I refuse to believe that an absolute ruler over nine worlds with multitudinous cultures upon it would be as universally adored and worshipped as his Radiancy is in this book.) (Also, I guess I understand it within the book's internal logic, but it was SO MALE.) (Okay I will stop now and return to the future.)