Reading – The Alchemist

My experience with Paolo Bacigalupi’s (website, Twitter) work prior to reading The Alchemist*, a fantasy novella, was his sci-fi works: The Windup Girl, Pump Six and Other Stories, Ship Breaker, and The Drowned Cities. All of those are incredible works and recommended . . . and now I have no hesitation in instructing everyone who loves fantasy to give The Alchemist* a try.

Published in 2011 by Subterranean Press, The Alchemist* is one of two novellas set in a shared world. The second of the two novellas — The Executioness* by Tobias Buckell — I have not yet read, but I’ll be attacking that just as soon as I have set my thoughts on The Alchemist to “paper.” If The Executioness* is as much fun as Bacigalupi’s book then these two novellas are, between them, truly great modern fantasy works.

A City Under Siege

Khaim, the setting of our story, is under attack. In the world of The Alchemist*, an unusual and powerful plant — known as “bramble” — feeds on magic and is consuming everything in its path. A once-great empire was lost to the bramble, other cities of the land have already fallen, and the people of Khaim struggle to fight back the cursed plant. Any magic use — no matter how trivial — feeds the bramble and sprouts new growth, so the Executioner slays those who cast spells . . . save for the Mayor’s chosen wizard who works magic without fear of punishment.

Jeoz, an alchemist, lives in this land with his sickly daughter, Jiala, and his servant, Pila. Jeoz secretly works small magic to save his daughter from a coughing sickness which should have long-ago taken her life and, also in secret, the alchemist has constructed an alchemical device which completely destroys the bramble. It is after he tests his device, and proves that it works, that Jeoz discovers not everyone can be trusted.

Twisted to an Unexpected Purpose

The alchemist takes his device to the Mayor and the Mayor’s wizard and demonstrates how bramble is destroyed by alchemy. The Mayor celebrates, arranges a demonstration of the device so that funds can be secured to build more of the bramble-killing machines, and then the wizard changes things dramatically be introducing a small scrap of magical parchment to the alchemical formula burned within the machine.

The alchemist’s device can also detect magic use, bathing users in a blue glow. A blue glow that the Mayor directs his guards to seek out and kill any who have cast spells without government approval. The alchemist is enslaved, forced to build more machines, and the Mayor and his wizard start a campaign to murder all unapproved spellcasters in the land.

A Plan to Escape

The alchemist, locked within the dungeons for years, crafts a plan so that he, Pila, and Jiala may escape from the city to a place where the terrible plant cannot grow. It’s a great close to a fun read and I am impressed with how Bacigalupi handles the entire book. His fantasy work, as presented in The Alchemist*, is every bit as his sci-fi work and I continue to enjoy his writing style and ideas.

At $20 for the hardcover the novella was not inexpensive, but $20 is a low price for me to pay to support the work of an author who I hope continues to find success. The Alchemist* is short — the book is less than 100-pages — but it is well-crafted and a fun read.

This is definitely a story you should read. Now it is time I sit down and read Buckell’s The Executioness* . . . and if I am smart I will write a review of that story as soon as I have closed the book.

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• New Short Story Published At Subterranean Online: The Seafarer (tobiasbuckell.com)