The Alchemists’ Council by Cynthea MassonThe Alchemists’ Council by Cynthea Masson fantasy book reviewsThe Alchemists’ Council by Cynthea Masson

As the first installment in a planned trilogy by Cynthea Masson, The Alchemists’ Council faces difficult challenges in setting up a world which is both familiar and foreign, introducing characters and their motivations, and resolving enough plot to satisfy readers while teasing them with more to come. Masson’s prose is dense with details and striking imagery, and her characters are compelling, though the plot occasionally falters under the weight of the world-building.

The Alchemists’ Council exists in a neighboring dimension to our own and is populated by no more than one hundred members who are ruled by an Azoth Magen, typically an elderly member who offers wisdom and guidance to both the Council as a whole and as needed by individual members. They preserve a massive library and use alchemical methods to extend their lives far beyond what a normal human could achieve; alchemists also watch over Earth, making adjustments here and there in order to maintain an elemental balance which serves their various needs. From time to time, their numbers must be bolstered, so unique people are given the opportunity to shed their normal lives and cross between dimensions.

Jaden is one such person: newly initiated into the Council, she remembers nearly nothing of her previous life, including her former name. She is placed in a learning group with other low-ranking members — Cercis, Laurel, and Arjun — and given the difficult task of determining why bees are disappearing from illuminated alchemical manuscripts as well as from the Earth. Meanwhile, Council elders Sadira and Cedar are struggling with their own altered memories in an attempt to learn more about the Rebel Branch which thwarts the Council’s goal of perfection. I enjoyed seeing the same conflicts from multiple points of view, particularly because Masson plays with the reader’s expectations, and makes it plain that even a tyrant can have altruistic motivations. There are no Good Guys or Bad Guys in The Alchemists’ Council; there are a lot of questions about who can be trusted and why, and not many easy answers.

By necessity, Masson includes a lot of background information with regards to the hierarchy of the Council, its methods over the centuries, and political intrigue among the members, some of whom cultivate friendships or grudges for centuries. There are a lot of details to establish in the reader’s mind in order to prepare for the drama and conflicts in coming novels, which often resulted in characters stopping to reminisce for several paragraphs, interrupting the flow of dialogue or plot in favor of history lessons or nursing old wounds. The chapters themselves jump back and forth through time, as well, so it can sometimes be difficult to keep in mind when and where the current narrative lies.

The Alchemists’ Council would have benefited from more clarity concerning the goals of the Rebel Branch and why the Council hates and fears them, in order to better convey Jaden’s turmoil over potentially allying herself with the rebels, and to help explain why long-standing members of the Council take certain actions. Now that much of the groundwork has been laid down, my hope is that subsequent books will be more plot-driven, so that Masson’s characters have more room to shine.

Published May 10, 2016. As a new Initiate with the Alchemists’ Council, Jaden is trained to maintain the elemental balance of the world, while fending off interference by the malevolent Rebel Branch. Bees are disappearing from the pages of the ancient manuscripts in Council dimension and from the outside world, threatening its very existence. Jaden navigates alchemy’s complexities, but the more she learns, the more she begins to question Council practices. Erasure — a procedure designed not only to remove individuals from Council dimension but also from the memories of other alchemists — troubles Jaden, and she uses her ingenuity to remember one of the erased people. In doing so, she realizes the Rebel Branch might not be the enemy she was taught to fight against. Jaden is caught between her responsibility to the Council and her growing allegiance to the rebels, as the Council finds itself at the brink of war. She is faced with an ethical dilemma involving the free will of all humanity, and must decide whether or not she can save the worlds.

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  • Jana Nyman

    JANA NYMAN, with us since January 2015, is a freelance copy-editor who has lived all over the United States, but now makes her home in Colorado with her dog and a Wookiee. Jana was exposed to science fiction and fantasy at an early age, watching Star Wars and Star Trek movie marathons with her family and reading works by Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury WAY before she was old enough to understand them; thus began a lifelong fascination with what it means to be human. Jana enjoys reading all kinds of books, but her particular favorites are fairy- and folktales (old and new), fantasy involving dragons or other mythological beasties, contemporary science fiction, and superhero fiction. Some of her favorite authors are James Tiptree, Jr., Madeleine L'Engle, Ann Leckie, N.K. Jemisin, and Seanan McGuire.

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