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Devices and Desires is a fascinating book in that it's labeled and shelved as fantasy, but it lacks most of the trappings of a fantasy novel - if not for being set in an alternate world, it could be literary fiction. There's not a single instance of magic, nor any non-human races, nor monsters lurking in the wilderness. There's also no plucky teenage hero, rising from a nobody to become the savior of the world, no loyal sidekick, no princess the hero loves from afar.
Instead, this novel - the first in the Engineer Trilogy - is a tale of intrigue, warfare, and revenge. It's a story about nobility, arranged marriages, siege machinery, and hunting. It's the saga of a man who will do anything to achieve his goal, and of the people around him who are drawn into his machinations through various means.
As with most fantasy novels, it does still require some suspension of disbelief. In this case, the reader has to be able to accept that one nation went through something of an Industrial Revolution a couple hundred years ago, while the rest of the world is still kind of in the Dark Ages. Once you accept that, everything else is believable.
Mezentia is the industrialized nation in question. Their superior manufacturing techniques allow them to supply goods to the other nations that are of a greater quality and lower price than anything those nations could make for themselves. They hold their technology in an iron grip. No one is allowed to defect to other nations. No one is allowed to improve upon the infallible Specifications to which all items are created.
So when Ziani Vaatzes violates Specification and then flees the country after receiving a death sentence, you can bet that the Powers That Be are none too happy. Along with other events, this sets off a war between Mezentia and Eremia, a well-fortified country in the mountains lead by a not-very-bright duke.
I don't want to get too much into the plot, as it's really best to watch it unfold within the pages instead of getting a summary from a reviewer. I found this book to be a real page-turner. I wanted to keep reading, to find the next twist, the next scheme, the next wrench in someone's gears.
What really struck me about this book is that it took me forever to read, even though I was reading it constantly. Now granted, it's a big volume, a 633 page trade paperback, but I devour books. In speaking with others who have read the book, they spoke similarly about not being able to pinpoint why the book was so time-consuming. It's not dense, it's not hard to digest, I never found myself re-reading a paragraph because I didn't get it, or taking time between sentences to evaluate what was said. I think I've finally identified it as a certain economy of words, where every word has to be read, there's nothing to skim over as there would be in a fluffier book.
I did have a couple of problems with the writing, however. The characters' dialog occasionally feels too modern and flip for medieval-esque dukes in a fantasy world. And there were a few jarring POV shifts. At first, these problems kept pulling me out of the narrative, but after the first couple chapters I was so engrossed in the story that I overlooked them.
The characters themselves are complicated and flawed, and for the most part, rather unlike the typical protagonists in a fantasy novel. In fact, for the most part there's not a lot of clearly-drawn protagonists and antagonists. This isn't a story about a group of heroes out to save the world from an evil army. On all sides of the conflict, people are simply doing what they feel is right, or what is necessary to achieve their goals.
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a more serious "fantasy" novel. It would probably also be a good book to use to convince literary fiction readers that not all fantasy is sword-and-sorcery adventure tales.
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