Book Review: The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul by Victoria Goddard

After learning of a delay to At the Feet of the Sun and at my friend's recommendation, I went ahead and picked up this book set in the same universe. We had already met Pali in prior novels so this was a chance to get to see her in more detail and see more about the various adventures of the Red Company. Here is the Goodreads blurb:

Before the Fall of the Empire of Astandalas, the Red Company was legendary. A dozen or so years after that cataclysm, they have almost faded into myth.

Pali Avramapul may not have gone under her own name since the dissolution of the Red Company, but she is no myth, and has certainly not faded. She fights folly and injustice as fiercely as ever—although, as a respected scholar of history at one of the Circle Schools of Alinor, she now tends to use her tongue and pen more than her sword.

She still keeps the sword sharp, of course. You never know when adventure will come calling.

She expects her sabbatical to be a decorous, respectable sort of adventure, the kind with which she can regale her colleagues in the Senior Common Room upon her return.

She’s not very upset when she finds one or two of her old friends and it turns out the adventure is much more likely to involve a plot to kidnap the Last Emperor of Astandalas.

There’s respectable, after all, and then there’s respectable.

Read on  for my spoiler-free review.

Overall Impression

This was a good book set in the Nine Worlds with familiar characters. We focus heavily on Pali, but get to see some of the other members of the Red Company and even some from the Palace, including a brief encounter with Kip Mdang which was very enjoyable to read. Overall it was a good book, though a few parts seemed to drag on a little bit. I enjoyed the other books more, but I'm still glad I read this one as I'm sure parts of this will connect to upcoming stories.

Plot

The plot overlaps somewhat with some of the prior books. There is a pair of scenes from The Hands of the Emperor, though obviously from Pali's perspective. There's also the very end of The Return of Fitzroy Angursell, which is a bit of a longer sequence. Once those are done, the rest of the book is in new territory with members of the Red Company going off on adventure and re-learning how to interact with one another. I'll be curious to see how much of events here get mentioned in Kip's storyline in the upcoming At the Feet of the Sun. While the premise of this book is fairly simple, some of it drags a little as Pali struggles with acceptance of herself and turns over the same ideas over and over.

Characters

Pali Avramapul is the central character in this book and everything we see is from her point of view. She is a fighter-turned-scholar and has a curious relation with Fitzroy. A lot of her interactions feel drawn from her desert fighting, mainly sparring and not backing down. Her upfront personality puts her at odds sometimes and a big part of this book is her grappling with that and how much trouble she has connecting with Fitzroy now that he's changed, as well as accepting that she herself has changed. Naturally, we also have several members of the Red Company, including Fitzroy, Jullanar, and Masseo, but Pali's is the main voice throughout the story. I did find her antagonism of Kip (after very brief interactions with him) very funny- we usually see Kip as a beloved figure by everyone except the nobility, but she is adamant she's going to pummel him when next she sees him.

Setting / World Building

This book is set in the Nine Worlds, primarily in Alinor where Pali lives as a professor. She does briefly journey into Zunidh, which brings her in contact with the Emperor at the time, but in general it is set in Alinor and the other worlds the Red Company visits. Pali is no wizard, but she comes from an interesting background and has several magical items that she uses, including a flying carpet. It's cool to see the more typical desert style culture being set in what is perhaps more temperate forest and mountain locations. Regardless, the various tales of her past she remembers really highlight how many incredible things the Company got into back in the day. 

Final Thoughts

This was a good book with many familiar characters and overlapping heavily with other books in the series. The story is a personal one about reconnecting with others, accepting change, and fighting perfectionism. While I didn't find it as powerful as The Hands of the Emperor or The Return of Fitzroy Angursell, it was still very enjoyable and makes me confident the upcoming book will be excellent.