Inda

I just finished A Song of Ice and Fire. It's a good read, but the Inda series stands head and shoulders above it. Why? 1. Better World Building--Smith's world is logical and consistent and detailed. Martin's is detailed, but seems overly borrowed from our own. 2. Better Martial writing--Smith makes battles, on land or at sea, come alive and make sense, even to this ignorant female. I'd bet half my income, Smith has studied military history, and she makes me want to study it too. Martin writes of trebuchets, rams, and siege towers, but never seems to live or be more than a general sketch. Putting in a bunch of rape, torture and cannibalism doesn't make combat seem any more real in the Game of Thrones books. 3. Tighter writing--Smith's books aren't short, but she did cut the fluff. Every character who is developed has a purpose and moves the story forward. Contrast that with Martin's approach--He seems to add characters on a whim, and then feel the need to develop them even though they don't move the story. In a good novel, all the plot lines and characters should be moving toward the fulfilling climax. Smith's do. Reading her books, one gets the feeling she knew the entire story before she put pen to paper. In Martin's case, I had the feeling I was reading one story in the beginning of A Game of Thrones, which grew into at least 3 entirely different stories by its end. By the end of A Storm of Crows, I had no idea how many different stories I was supposed to be reading, and some of them stopped being stories and became an exercise in making up heraldry. 4. Goodness--I know we're all supposed to intellectual and modern and to glory in stories where everyone is bad. But, I like books where the protagonists are decent and try to do the right thing even though they mess up. Epics are only epics when they give the reader something to aspire to. The Fox is my favorite character in the Inda series, and he's certainly not good and pure, but he transcends the animal nature. Generally, I'd rather hang with the people in Inda than in Game of Thrones. 5. No incest in Inda. I could have listed this under "goodness," but I find incest pretty disturbing. It's weird, and in the first 2 books in Song of Ice and Fire, there's a fair amount of it. No contest--Sherwood Smith is a better writer and her Inda's books are a joy to read. Perfect for binge reading, and the series is actually complete!

I read Crown Duel / Court Duel a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I immediately picked up a few others by Sherwood Smith. It wasn't until recently, however, that I actually began to read "Inda." Once I did, I couldn't put it down. The beginning is a little tough to get into. There is a lot of detail, whether it is names, places, or strange vocabulary, packed into the first few chapters. I absolutely recommend reading "Crown Duel/Court Duel" first because it is an easier read which puts you into the universe all of Smith's stories take place in... but it isn't absolutely necessary because it isn't part of this series (like I said, just in the same universe). But honestly almost gave up on this one with all the names. I blundered through and eventually I began to get into it. Overall I really liked it, and as soon as I put it down I ordered the next three. I'm hoping now that I know who everybody is that it won't be so difficult to get into the next one! 1 Inda 2 The Fox 3 The King's Shield 4 Treason's Shore

Sherwood Smith's Inda is such a wonderful book. To begin with, Smith has created a world full of all the details and history that many of us crave and so seldom find. Smith takes the time to do more than simply tell a story. She creates a really vibrant backdrop for the characters to act against and the result is something a cut above most of the fantasy being written today. Inda (his actual name is Indevan-Dal) is the second son of a noble family. Sounds terribly cliché, I know. Inda's lot in life is to be trained by his older brother as the head of defense for the family's castle. The social rules and traditions of his Marlovan heritage demand that his role be completely subordinate to his brother's rule. Inda's family history intensifies this because Inda's father's first wife was slaughtered by a pirate raid. The culture he is growing up in is very martial and based on tradition. The heart of the story is about societal and personal change and the plot is replete with interesting politics and strong statements about social injustice. The characters meet every sort of moral challenge that you can imagine. In fact, this emphasis on morality and ethics reminded me of Janny Wurts' novels, and that is high praise indeed. Inda is a leader. He's not a flashy, self-motivated leader, but the rarest form of leader who is loyal to those who are loyal to him and who doesn't place personal gain ahead of team accomplishment. Smith does a brilliant job of describing how this sort of magnetic personality can be a lighting rod for both good and bad depending on whether he is recognized as an ally or a threat. As a part of the storyline, Inda is separated from his family and home because of crimes he didn't commit. Smith successfully creates some really loathsome characters for us to hate in the forms of the heir to the throne and his uncle, the king's brother. Kudos to Smith who doesn't just tell us they are "bad guys," but who plans and draws them as well as she does the "good guys." I appreciated that Smith skillfully presented some volatile issues (e.g. homosexuality) in a non-advocative fashion whereas some authors prefer to hit us over the head with their views. Her way was to merely present a point of information rather than something we felt the need to take a side on -- a good use of different perspectives. The final highlight of Sherwood Smith's Inda is her ability to realistically depict military themes in a fantasy setting. The concepts of training, practice, education, and development in a martial context are some of the best that I have encountered. I love the way that she depicts soldiers as being made -- not born. My review of The Fox, the next book in the Inda series, will be done soon. Inda was that good.

Indevan-Dal Algara-Vayir is the second son of the Prince and Princess of Choraed Elgaer, destined to become Shield Arm (military leader) for his older brother Tanric. His future seems all laid out for him, down to the girl he'll marry -- until one day when a messenger arrives from the King, summoning Inda to the King's Military Academy. Inda thinks he's prepared for the harsh life at the Academy, as Tanric has always followed the tradition of thrashing his younger brother into obedience, but when he gets there, he finds himself caught up in a confusing tangle of loyalty and treachery. What I was most impressed with in _Inda_ is the worldbuilding. According to the jacket copy, Smith has been writing stories in this world since she was eight, and consequently, it's fantastically deep and rich. Particularly interesting to me was the relationship between men and women. Inda's society is war-oriented, constantly on guard, skirmishing, and occasionally conquering. Though the men are in charge of war and offense, that does not exclude the women, who receive their own kind of training, oriented toward defense rather than offense. Along with the worldbuilding, the characterization is also excellent. Inda himself is the character we spend the most time with and get to know the best, but there are a variety of other viewpoints which enrich our understanding of him and of his friends, family, and enemies. Sometimes I find multiple viewpoints offputting, but here I felt that they really contributed to the depth of the characters. _Inda_ is the first in a trilogy, and I'm already eager for the next books.

Well perhaps that's not quite fair. Ender's Game is a science-fiction classic that's been told and retold, translated all around the world and soon to be destroyed by Hollywood -- but the correlation is there. Inda's self-identification as a "surplus" child, his unlikely selection for advanced military training, his inevitable isolation from all those who he loves and cares about, the demonstration of his remarkable martial skills, the pressure of "saving the world", etc. Despite the similarities, Sherwood Smith weaves an interesting story with these familiar themes and even takes our hero on an interesting side-journey to become a pirate, every little boy's dream-come-true! The writing is well-paced, the characters are satisfactorily developed and believable (if a tad sexually-melodramatic... Is it necessary to make Sponge become THAT surly because he can't get laid?), and the plot is very engaging, though it does become difficult to follow as the conflict develops. I think better maps and more battle diagrams would have helped in that regard, but that's a problem in most fantasy novels I've read. Why describe momentous and detailed battle scenes without giving the reader a visual reference? It just becomes unintelligible, hack-n-slash chaos. Overall I enjoyed the novels and story. It's not ridiculously juicy or epic as has become trendy nowadays, but its a fun read!

In short, the Inda series is the story of a boy who is exiled from the prestigious Marolven military academy. He is sent to sea. Captured by pirates, he leads a mutiny at the age of 16 and goes on to build his own fleet and then goes on to battle the Brotherhood of Blood that threaten his home, Iasca Leror. After 9 years, he returns home, this time to defend his land from and old enemy, the Venn. The characters the surround Inda are unforgettable, especially Savarend "Fox" Montredavan-An, whose descendents we will see later on in Smith's other books concerning Marlovens. I have never been captivated by any story like this before and I have come to adore Inda as much Smith obviously does when she wrote the book. It's hard to write a review after finishing all four books of this epic series, but Inda is definitely a book/series worth reading, if anyone cares for a good story at all. The depth of Inda's world is intense, enchanting, and addicting. Sherwood's craft of world-building is at its best in Inda.

This is a romantic fantasy in the vein of, but not surpassing, Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels. If you like land and sea battles with relationship talks interspersed (together with guidelines about conception, child raising, or love triangles), this might be for you. You need to know that this is a series of four volumes (Inda, The Fox , King's Shield , Treason's Shore ), where each book starts where the previous one left off (mostly with cliffhangers). The overall storyarc doesn't get closed until the very end (but then very neatly). The book follows about a dozen characters from childhood to old age, with rather rapidly changing POVs (sometimes within a sentence). The romantic aspect almost takes over at times, relationships including m/m and f/f, but concentrating firmly on traditional ones. Other reviewers have mentioned a confusion of names and titles: that's true only for the first half of book one and evaporates later. The peculiarities of the described society (instead of contraceptives women have to take conception drugs to become pregnant, resulting - almost - in gender equality) are at first intriguing, but the angle is neglected in the psychologically very traditional love affairs. The then many POVs make the fourth volume bordering on boring, and I had to force myself to go on, browsing through parts full of meaningless dialogue. In the end I found the series memorable, but not overwhelming.

So well-written, a complex dynamic plot, rich world-building and realistically flawed characters (with an ensemble cast, so enough beautifully-drawn major characters for any reader to delight in one or more of them). I haven’t gotten through the earlier stories Sherwood Smith wrote to set up the new series post-Inda, as they’re a difficult mix of young reader/YA/adult writing and it isn’t easy to figure out the order in which they should be read. But now that Smith has begun writing more history for Inda’s world with Senrid in Sword of Truth, I need to find and read all of the prequels that set up Senrid’s story. Smith is such a good writer and even though some of her early Princess stories are way too young for me, they enrich the reader’s understanding of this world Smith has been developing for so many years. Anyway, read Inda and see what you think!