2024/074: The Saint of Bright Doors — Vajra Chandrasekera

2024/074: The Saint of Bright Doors — Vajra Chandrasekera

None of the others understand that the law might do anything, at any time, to anyone, and justify itself any way it likes -- it is feral, like the invisible laws and powers of the world, of which it is a pale imitation. It's because none of them can see the devils, he thinks. That's why they're all so optimistic about worldly law. [p. 147]

Fetter is the son of a religious leader, known as the Perfect and Kind, and Mother-of-Glory, who is vengeful and witchy, and raises Fetter as an assassin who will eventually commit patricide (with matricide, sancticide and heresy en route). The novel opens with the amputation of Fetter's shadow, leaving him able to levitate: he can also see the 'invisible laws and powers of the world', which most people refer to as devils and which are utterly inhuman.

So far, so fantasy. In short order we find Fetter in the cosmopolitan city of Luriat, where he's part of a support group for the unchosen -- those who grew up in religious cults but didn't become prophets or heirs -- and spends much of his time helping new arrivals in the city to complete the plethora of paperwork.( Read more... )