‘The Two Pearls of Wisdom’ – Alison Goodman (Transworld Books)

Sometimes I come across a book that looks like it’s going to be one that I’ll really enjoy. More than that, it looks like a book that I really want to enjoy. Whether it’s doing something that I’ve never come across before or it’s putting a new spin on something long established, I want to get stuck in and have a great time with it.
Alison Goodman’s ‘The Two Pearls of Wisdom’ had been on the ‘to read pile’ for a while but looked like it was going to be one of these books. I’m a ‘medieval cityscape fantasy fan’ at heart (and always will be, I love it) but the thought of fantasy with an oriental twist tickled something in me and I just felt like ‘Two Pearls’ could be a little bit special.
Well, I’ve finished reading it and I wanted to enjoy it. I really did. ‘The Two Pearls of Wisdom’ didn’t work for me though…

Eon is training to become a Dragoneye, one chosen by a dragon to magically control wind and water and protect the land. The thing is that Eon is actually a young woman (Eona) who must protect her true identity or risk death in a land where women can only ever be hidden wives or servants.
Eona’s powers are so great that she finds herself summoned to the Emperor’s court where she becomes a pawn in the ongoing struggles surrounding the Emperor’s failing health. As the Emperor’s life slowly fades, Eona must negotiate the treacherous waters of the Imperial Court; a place where she has no real friends, just allies yet to find out her greatest secret. Only the Mirror Dragon can help but Eona cannot summon him…

‘The Two Pearls of Wisdom’ starts from a great concept and delivers a tale full of intrigue where no one can be trusted and help can always be relied upon to come from the most unexpected source. Eona constantly has to reassess whom she can trust and there is an almost palpable sense of tension as she slips from one potential crisis to the next. The ground is deliberately very shaky in ‘Two Pearls’ and the landscape right at the end is completely different to how it begins. I’m a big fan of the finale as well with explosions and lots of men fighting with swords, that’s my kind of ending! :o)

It’s a shame then that the rest of the book felt like a slog leading up to this point…

‘The Two Pearls of Wisdom’ relies on the rituals of the land to build up background for the reader. In this book, society relies heavily on social hierarchy and the rituals that surround it.
There’s giving the reader a grounding in the story and there’s swamping the reader with every single nuance surrounding every single occasion. I felt swamped...
The opening ceremony, where the Dragon chooses an apprentice, is a ceremony with many parts that goes on for a long time. And it does go on for a long time. I should know, I read my way through it! By the end I felt more tired than Eona and she had been swordfighting on a crippled hip! Finding my way through the labyrinthine politics of the Imperial Court was no less tiring with lengthy monologues on who was allied with who etc and the resulting schemes that came out of these alliances.

When things drag out like this I find myself skimming sentences and the problem there is that I end up missing something really important right at the end. I also found that I started to care less and less about what happened to Eona, I was more interested in what was happening to Chart (the crippled kitchen boy) which wasn’t the point at all.

To be fair to Goodman there were points where the story would suddenly spring into life and things would start happening. The only thing was that this made the pace of the book feel really choppy and I was left waiting for the book to get bogged down again…

Like I said, the finale was spectacular and there was enough there to make me want to read at least the first few pages of the next book, ‘The Necklace of the Gods’, to find out what happens. Considering what it took to get through the rest of the book though, this left me feeling a little cheated and consequently wary…

If you’re a fan of oriental based fantasy, and you like your politics particularly heavy and convoluted, then ‘The Two Pearls of Wisdom’ is probably a book that you would enjoy. If you see overly descriptive prose as a way to fully immerse yourself in the reading experience then you’ll probably enjoy it even more. I’m neither of these though and it was frustrating to see a good story trying to keep its head above water and breathe. But like I said though, I’ll probably end up giving the next book a go (at least for the first chapter or so)…


Six out of Ten