Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard (Barsk, #1)
by Lawrence M. Schoen
We are in a universe of anthropomorphic, uplifted animal species and four thousand inhabited planets. One of those uplifted species are the Fant. There are the Lox (African elephants) and the Eleph (Asian elephants).
Jorl is a Lox and a Speaker. With the help of a certain drug he can summon the memory particles of Fants he knew in life or knows through accounts of others. He sees and talks to dead people.
For unknown reasons the Fant are reviled by the other species in this universe and have been exiled to the planet Barsk, a water world with two island chains covered in rain forests and seven moons.
The other species, the Alliance, have a Compact with the Fant about non-interference and never setting foot on Barsk in return for trade goods exclusive to the planet. One of these goods is koph, the drug allowing the collecting of other‘s memories and the ability to talk to the dead. Some of the other species want to have better access to it, without having to rely on the Fant. They are not gentle about it.
The Fant, reviled by all others, are themselves not free of discriminating those that are different. Pizlo, the small son of Jorl‘s best friend, does not conform to the norm and is badly mistreated and ignored by his fellow Fant.
I rooted for Jorl and Pizlo, but other than that I found it hard to decide what other characters to feel for. Quite a few of them on either side of the conflict surrounding koph were not very nice people.
Where are the humans that uplifted all the races of the Alliance? That is one of the big questions.
There are a lot of characters in this book and many different species. Pretty confusing at first. I started taking notes early on, until I realized that there is an appendix at the back of the book of all the races. There is also an appendix detailing the islands of Barks and some of its moons. Read with caution, some of the descriptions in those appendices spoil parts of the book.
I‘m a little conflicted about this book. It was different, I liked the setting and the character development. It was a richly imagined world. But it also took me two weeks to finish it. It was just so slow and I couldn‘t work up much of an interest most of the time, despite the original idea and the good writing. I might have liked it more if the physical setting on Barks had been more detailed… maybe. I‘m unsure. I‘m also missing a satisfying ending for Pizlo. But maybe that happens in the next book, The Moons of Barsk, which I will very likely read as well at some point.
4.5/5 🌖🌖🌖🌖½
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