Book Review: Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
An accomplished Machiavellian treatise in a fantasy setting.
Head of Zeus, 2024
My father shrugged in that way that only a Navolese can. The shrug of a man who does not care, who is listening, who might walk away, who might (as Merio liked to say) steal your wife, who might give you the finest wine in his cellar, who might be your greatest friend, or your most dangerous enemy, all depending upon what you said next.
There was a sparring occurring between my father and this man, a subtle vying for advantage. Each of them outwardly calm and yet engaged in the thrust and parry of faccioscuro. I felt goosebumps upon my skin as they both leaned their elbows upon the balcony rail and studied the view.
It turns out Bacigalupi took a long break from writing after The Water Knife (Orbit, 2015), citing burn-out from the climate-extrapolation which populate his books like the aforementioned The Windup Girl; a story which partly inspired the setting of my own novel. When I learned Bacigalupi was returning with a fantasy novel, my curiosity was piqued, for how does an established novelist make a mark in an arguably over-saturated genre market?
The answer, perhaps, lies in the fundamental shape of the story. Navola, ostensibly a secondary-world fantasy based on Renaissance Italy, is anything but a run-of-the-mill quest storyline. The story’s naive protagonist, heir-apparent Davico, must navigate the threats and political intrigues of his clan, the di Regulais (the eponymous nation’s premiere banking family); regaled with an oddly-paced narrative which feels, at times, more creation myth than modern fantasy.
By the novel’s end — after an explosive third act — a reader might think they were reading a novelised version of Machiavelli’s 16th century political treatise The Prince. Whilst I do prefer books which don’t dangle too many threads for a possible sequel, in Navola’s case, I’m looking forward to reading what comes next.
This review originally appeared in Dispatch Edition #2.
The Dispatch is a monthly roundup by British speculative fiction writer, Jordan Acosta. News, short reviews and more, published every first Thursday. You can subscribe at jordanacosta.co, and read previous editions, here.
