Quintessence
by David Walton
Imagine an Age of
Exploration full of alchemy, human dissection, sea monsters, betrayal, torture,
religious controversy, and magic. In Europe, the magic is thin, but at the
edge of the world, where the stars reach down close to the Earth, wonders abound. This
drives the bravest explorers to the alluring Western Ocean. Christopher
Sinclair is an alchemist who cares only about one thing: quintessence, a
substance he believes will grant magical powers and immortality. And he has a
ship.
Quintessence is David Walton latest
book. David Walton has won the Philip K. Dick award for his debut novel
Terminal Mind in 2008. Quintessence is a quite different setting, taking place
in the past rather than the future. All the way back to the Age of Exploration.
These kinds of blurbs like on Quintessence always draw me in, with the
mentioning of sea ship exploration, sea monsters, alchemy and magic this could
only turn to be a great story. And David Walton more than lives up to this.
Quintessence takes places in an alternate
version of Europe back in the Age of Exploration. The start of the book was
really solid for me and actually the book can be divided into three parts. The
first part takes place in England (an alternate version) where you meet up with
two of the main characters: Stephen Parris and Christopher Sinclair. Stephen
Parris works as a physic for the king but has an odd hobby in dissection
corpses to find out how the in working of the human body goes about. Now this
might sound a bit horrifying, it isn’t anything like that. Sinclair is an
alchemist with a mind set on only one thing, finding the quintessence. A
substance so powerful that it might even grant immortality. Due to the
odd hobby of Parris, he is finds out several peculiar things about several bodies
that came into port. Stones and salt in their stomachs amongst others.
The second part of the book mainly takes
place in the seafaring expedition led by Sinclair. Here the explorers venture
west to the lands known as the Horzion, the alternate version of America. The
time spend on sea isn’t without perils. The “usual” disease that can happen
onboard pose a large threat for the crew but also other more unusual things
make an appearance, Behemoths, Leviathan and other types of sea monsters.
And then last and definitely not the
least is the venture on Horizon themselves and this place proved for me to be
so fantastic. The build-up towards this part of the story was neatly done, each
time building up the pace and then finally introducing this sought after place.
However even on this island not everything is what is seems, they had set out
to find paradise but discovered much more.
The storyline began at a nice pacing
with clear introduction to the different characters. But once you delved deeper
into the magical aspects of the book the pace only increased as I wanted to
learn more and more about the whole alternate universe that David Walton had
created in Quintessence. Because the prologue and the first part introduced me
to the magical creatures that inhabit the Horizon. And the way how David Walton
showed them was quite amazing, starting of with a beetle that could move
through most objects but also finding limitations there. But it doesn’t only
stay with beetles as there are a lot more new creatures like monkeys, fishes,
worms and even the mythical like manticores. It was mainly what they could do
and how they did it that was nicely portrayed but this whole element was given
a great secondary structure by how the scientists, Sinclair and Parris went
about in search for explaining this unnatural behaviour and abilities. This
quest for exploration taken together with the oddities that they find along
their journey gave me a great rich feeling of the world as a whole. I cannot
find any fault of David Walton’s richly imagined world. If I could, I would
strap on some boots and start exploring Horizon myself!
The characters are just as great as the
imagined world. Like I said there are two main protagonists, Parris and
Sinclair. They are drawn out in quite the details constantly playing key in
taking the story further. However they aren’t always on one line. Parris’
character goes a bit deeper since the loss of his son, which plagues him daily
makes him quite protective of his daughter. Sinclair's goals only becomes more
clear as they make their journey and once they are on Horizon. There are a lot
of secondary characters like the wife of Parris and his daughter, Catherine.
Now Catherine is shown to be a girl who likes to do, for that time unheard of boy
stuff, but is isn’t stressed, it feels natural. She’s smart and resourceful and
shown in a solid manner. David Walton doesn’t tackle the cliche with here
character instead voices her perfectly.
Where I thought this would turn out to
be a story of new discoveries, David Walton neatly integrates a secondary
threat to the story. For me this twist came quite unexpected but looking back
this might could have been anticipated. But whether or not, I found the
introduction of a bad guy to the story actually quite intriguing. What I didn’t
mention about Parris and Sinclair’s journey is that they left in the spur of
the moment, or they had to leave since the kind died and they had to flee. Back
in England there was a political struggle going on, including the Spaniards.
Now you might now who the bad guys is but it was a great addition to the
storyline over all. Especially since they aren’t quite into the full details of
the quintessence.
And that brings me to the last part.
Quintessence. Just amazing. I don’t have words for it but the way David Walton
shows this piece of magic, how it is in relation to each being from Horizon,
how it is in the water they drink. Utterly amazing. Just coming back to an
early part, like I said the Age of Exploration and discovery. It was very cool
to read about how the scientists went about and tried to explain several
occurrences brought along by the quintessence and how they went on
experimenting nullifying it or amplifying it.
Quintessence is an amazing book. The
world building alone in this small book is of epic proportions, I wouldn’t have
thought that it would turn out to be such an rich story. The characters,
especially Parris and his daughter Catherin were shown in a brilliant manner.
The twists and turns only became more once the discoveries behind quintessence
were made and gave a fantastic portray of just what was possible. Then there is
only Horizon left, just amazing. From the water to the fruits to the creatures
and they surroundings. Quintessence is an richly imagined story.