Saturday, December 10, 2016

BOOK TALK - The Builders

The Builders by Daniel Polansky


From the summary on Amazon:
A missing eye.
A broken wing.
A stolen country.

The last job didn't end well.

Years go by, and scars fade, but memories only fester. For the animals of the Captain's company, survival has meant keeping a low profile, building a new life, and trying to forget the war they lost. But now the Captain's whiskers are twitching at the idea of evening the score

            ‘Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting’
            This was a phrase that I continuously said to myself while reading through the strange and violent tale of The Builders. When I had picked it up I assumed, both from the cover as well as from the various accolades comparing the book to Brian Jacques and Watership Down, that I was going to be in for a good old fantasy animal adventure. What I found instead was a sea of violence, death, betrayal, and a style that felt closer to Beowulf than it did to any of Brian Jacques works.
            It’s difficult to talk too much about this book without spoiling a number of things, so I will at least give my spoiler-free impressions first here: The Builders is an excellent story that is written in the style of a legend, with plot twists and many violent ends, this is a book for mature readers through and through. It’s fantastic anthropomorphic fiction, playing with many of the stereotypes that the animals involved are known for, and yet treating them as parts of the characters rather than one-note traits or jokes. Although it’s a little short and moves at a breakneck pace, I never felt deprived of characterization. It has a single, brutal story to tell and it does so with great efficiency. I must say, however, that a great many of the characters are very unlikable creatures and there’s not an innocent soul in the book, so it can make it very hard to personally have empathy for any of the cast. I’d definitely recommend it to fans of classic anthropomorphic literature and fans of western legends like Beowulf or North American tall tales.

... What? When I think of tall tales, I think of s'mores around the campfire. Don't you?


            Now, for a bit of a deeper look, I might be diving into spoiler territory as I talk about what I did and did not like about this story here, so consider yourselves warned!
            First and foremost, as I said, I had a bit of a problem connecting with the characters. The first character that we’re introduced to is a battered old soldier of a mouse known simply as ‘the Captain’. He’s immediately abrasive and constantly angry and you know from just looking at him that he’s a surprisingly deadly individual. Those are all cool traits for the gruff old captain stereotype but I never realized how prickly they could make a protagonist. He’s not simply tough with a no-nonsense personality, but he’s also cruel to both ally and enemy. One of the more telling elements of this cruelty is when he visits an old friend who gave up fighting and hires men to kill him, forcing his old friend to fight for his very life and awaken a bloodlust that he’d worked so hard to overcome.
            So, yes, rather than working through reason to get his old compatriot to join him in an eventual battle, or even respecting that ally’s wish to be forgotten, our protagonist throws away the lives of several others in a gambit that, if he’d miscalculated, would have resulted in the death of the very person he wanted to have help him. For the entire book, this incident made me feel just baffled as to why anyone would work with this mouse and why they would approach working with him with such joy and nostalgia. Yes, the Captain is strong and he’ll get the job done, but nobody in their right mind is going to think that they can trust their lives to him.
            This suspension of disbelief is somewhat alleviated as we meet and learn more about the entire cast. As I said above, nobody in this book is innocent, and that’s especially true for our heroes. They’re assassins, thieves, poisoners, liars, and more than a few are betrayers, both of good and bad. In fact, calling them ‘heroes’ feels rather wrong, and even our group of protagonists would most definitely disagree with the title. It took me until near the last half of the book to realize that the titular Builders were working towards positive political ends, as so much of the story feels more like a tale of revenge. It can be very confusing to know how to feel as one reads through this story.
            One thing that is not in question, however, is just how awesome these characters are. I compared this book to Beowulf, and I think the reason for that is because it feels like a classic epic poem in structure more than a novel. In novels, there’s usually an arc of sorts as you see character succeed and fail and grow into an eventual climax. In novels, it’s some accepted for your protagonists to start small and grow into something grand to overcome what were previously thought to be impossible odds. In this book, though, the characters start out being awesome and the entire book feels like we’re watching a legend being built. Strangely, the key villains in the story are actually afraid of the protagonists, and that fear never goes away as each member of the Builders shows exactly why they should be feared. It really put me in a different mood than most stories, and I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed anything quite like it other than possibly Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series. For an anthropomorphic tale, this came like a wicked curve ball out of left field.
            Speaking of, as far as anthropomorphic fiction goes, The Builders is very solid. There’s an extremely diverse cast, including a salamander and an owl, and their individual animal traits are highlighted as a means to bring out their character, but not in a stereotypical fashion. Yes, the weasel is a cheat and a liar, but he’s also firmly a good guy and has one of the more heroic moments in the story. The badger is big and deadly, but he’s also soft-spoken and even a little romantic. The mouse is small and tenacious, but he’s also the most dangerous creature to ever walk the countryside, and everybody knows it.
            See, one of the most common pitfalls that can befall anthropomorphic literature, especially ones written in recent years, is when the characters lose their species identity. It can be easy, when reading certain books with diverse animal casts, to forget exactly what animal someone is, especially when you’re deep into the drama. Modern anthropomorphic stories can certainly have good and complex characters, but sometimes they can definitely feel interchangeable with humans or, at the very least, interchangeable with one another. The fox acts like the wolf who acts like the panther. This isn’t to say that all animal characters need to have dialogue tags that indicate their tails wagging or that they need to include barks and meows with their sentences (Goodness please no on that!), but a character’s species should be intricately tied to their identity, and not something added as an afterthought.
            It’s a little difficult to properly lay out how I mean this, but the best and most literal example that I can give is one of my favorite books: The Wind in the Willows. In a way, you could say that this book cheats by having all of the characters named after the animals that they are. Mole, Ratty, and Mr. Toad are all names that hide nothing… but somehow, upon saying those names, I just get a vivid mental picture of the character in the novel. I can’t say the name ‘Mr. Toad’ and not think of the wide-eyed, adventure-seeking expression of that crazed amphibian as he rides along in his newest vehicle. His species is a part of his character, and The Builders manages to convey that exact same feeling with its characters without resorting to calling them by their species names. It’s quite amazing.

It's funny... For as much as I love Disney, this is still the definitive version of Mr. Toad's appearance in my mind.
Maybe it's the pink human-y look of the Disney version that throws me off of it? Ah well!

            So, while The Builders might be a slightly mixed bag for my personal tastes because of the cruel characters and the intense violence and situations, I will not deny that it is an excellent book, and a perfect example of good anthropomorphic literature. I doubt this will reach the level of popularity as others in the field, and the book leaves absolutely no room for any kind of sequel, but I still feel like it should be getting more attention than it has. If you feel intrigued enough by my review here to give it a look, then please do so and let me know what you thought!

            Until next time, happy reading, all!


-Chammy

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Mister Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

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