Trouble in Port Saint Frey
Yvienne and Tesara Mederos are sisters and heirs to a once-powerful merchant house in Port Saint Frey. A disaster at sea destroyed their fleet of trading ships, and financial malfeasance led to the family’s current diminished state. The sisters, however, have secrets and suspicions. Yvienne believes her father and uncle were tricked into recklessness, and she clandestinely seeks evidence to support her claims while trying to maintain what is left of the household. Tesara has magical powers she tries to keep hidden, and believes she may have inadvertently used them to sink the family fleet. What both sisters want is revenge, and they direct their efforts at the governing Guild and high society that profited from the Mederos’ misfortune all while trying to restore the reputation and prosperity of their family.
Magic, Masks, and Manners
The Sisters Mederos is a fantasy novel but it has more in common with Jane Eyre, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and The Count of Monte Cristo then it does with the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, or Joe Abercrombie. The plot, despite featuring some roguery and light espionage, is not too twisty, and it relies more on characters keeping secrets and using masques and false identities. The focus remains squarely on the titular sisters, so wanting them to succeed is more important that whatever they’re doing in the plot. Patrice Sarath, the author, mostly pulls this off by developing and rounding out her protagonists. Her writing style is pretty clear and fast-paced. The chapters are short, so readers always feel like they’re making progress in the story. However, there isn’t a lot of symbolic richness or thematic depth. The bulk of any affection for this novel rests on rooting for the protagonists. The book is personal and smaller in scale than a lot of fantasy novels. It's not about saving the world but rather can these sisters succeed at restoring their family.
Magic in the story is quite light and mysterious in this novel, so don’t expect Brandon Sanderson-levels of hard magic exposition. The setting of a Mediterranean-style, Renaissance port city, like Venice without the canals, is a nice change from classical fantasy. The characters also read like they live in the setting. It may disappoint some readers that the sisters, while experiencing and aware of varying degrees of social prejudice, racism, and misogyny, don’t undertake a campaign to destroy their unequal, patriarchal society. In fact, their goal is, in many ways, to rejoin the systems and structures of its power. These goals actually make the protagonists come across as more authentic to their setting than say, most the characters of Game of Thrones who act like cynical 20th century nihilists than anyone who would live in and believe their surroundings. The sisters want revenge, to clear their family name, and to get back the lives they once hand. Anynotions of fighting corruption only come later and are convenient to their motives and desires. None of these comments are meant as inherently negative criticism of this novel.
Angry Robots and Sorceress Sisters
The publisher, Angry Robot, has a knack for finding authors who write and develop distinctive science-fiction and fantasy stories. The Sisters Mederos is another successful find for them. Sarath’s novel is an idiosyncratic fantasy novel that should appeal to anyone looking for a book in the genre that is still a few standard deviations from the mean. Even though it is the start of a series, The Sisters Mederos tells a complete, self-contained story that is character focused.
Source
Sarath, Patrice. The Sisters Mederos. Angry Robot: 2018.
© 2023 Seth Tomko