2015 Review Round-Up: YA Fantasy: Court of Fives, Kate Elliott

Court of Fives
Kate Elliott
ISBN: 9780316364195
Read September 2015

This is Elliott's first YA, and I found it really enjoyable, although the set-up to the inevitable series relies on the ever-exasperating trope of characters feeling betrayed because they didn't actually communicate with each other for whatever shoehorned reason the author imagines to keep them from communicating so that they can feel betrayed.  I hate to feel personally offended by this when it is a common trope and not even unique to YA, it just bugs the ever living crap out of me.

That said - despite ending on a note that personally pissed me right off, this was a very good story, and an enjoyable read, and I've been recommending it to people.

Our fantasy world is pretty small: a single city, with stories and legends of other places that come into play later on, but I like that we're tightly focused on the here and now, because that place is exceptionally well-crafted and interesting.  The city was somewhat recently conquered, and the indigenous people are now very much second-class citizens.  Their folkways and traditions are outlawed, they're barred from the nobility and from the army, and even having one as a concubine can be a social millstone.  Which is unfortunate for our story, as our main character Jessamy, along with her sisters, are the result of one such relationship - even worse is that her father, a respected military leader, actually loves his concubine, and would even marry her if it were legal.  Of course all this leads to grief, and that rich backstory provided a lot of interesting food for thought while reading.

Despite all that class-based melodrama, the real action comes in the American Ninja Warrior-style martial arts competitions that are staged throughout the city: the Fives games.  Gyms sponsor promising athletic youths (male and female both - which I loved) who compete against each other in an obstacle-course area.  Winners are feted and upwardly mobile, middle tiers can somewhat comfortably retire into training the next generation of athletes, losers generally end up unpleasantly dead in the arena somehow.  Jessamy is of course, obsessed with this game, and naturally quite good at it (I adore that Elliot has her taking after her father in many respects - a very nice touch).

The magic is low-key, and the world building is fantastic.  I'm very much looking forward to the next one in the series, and I hope that the "relationship troubles built on miscommunications" aren't a death knell for characters I actually like.