White Elephant is a 2019 historical fantasy novel
by V. E. Ulett. It is the second novel in the Code Black series. While
it’s a part of a series, the story itself is a stand-alone novel. I was provided
with a free copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.
The novel follows Miriam, a crew member on the airship
Nonesuch. In order to keep her place on board, she must complete a mission for
Lord Q and persuade the first white rajah of Sarawak to become loyal to the
British Crown once more. When Nonesuch crash lands on the coast of Borneo, Miriam’s
mission changes to one of survival. In order to rescue the crew of the
Nonesuch, she must trek through the jungle guided by a team of elephants to the
would-be empire builder’s capital. The jungle has it’s own laws, however, and
Miriam may not emerge with her mission and loyalties unchanged.
Before I get into my review, I wanted to point out a few
topics/themes this book deals with. There are multiple mentions of rape and
allusions to it. There are scenes involving animal cruelty. There are a few
scenes where medical discussions happen, and the description of some of the
injuries and conditions might make the reader squeamish.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this novel, especially
since it is the second book in a series and I hadn’t read the first Code
Black book Golden Dragon. Thankfully, the novel works as a
stand-alone book and I was easily able to follow the story without getting
confused by the dynamics between characters. I suspect Golden Dragon provides
a little more detail about Miriam’s backstory and fleshes out the character of
Lord Q a bit, but doesn’t impact this novel beyond that.
I enjoyed the characters in this story a lot. Miriam, the main
character, was smart, while also having an edge to her that I liked. She’s a
Muslim woman from Tehran and her education and resourcefulness is why Lord Q
recruited her. Her behavior and attitude were very realistic for the setting of
the story and I enjoyed the journey she went on as a character. My second favorite
character was Maximus Thorpe, Miriam’s lover and the captain of the Nonesuch. While
most of the story is told through Miriam’s eyes, there are chapters told from
Maximus’s as the story begins to come together and the truth about the white
rajah starts to become clear. Maximus is very intelligent, and I appreciated
the fact that he was skeptical of information he was being told and went with
his instincts, on more than one occasion, rather than simply believe what
others told him. This novel has a very
diverse cast of characters, including some transgender characters, which was surprising
read as historical novels tend to focus on white characters with very few
non-white characters included in the background or they’re written as one-dimensional.
This is the first historical novel I’ve read to include a trans character.
While the novel is not intended to be an action or adventure
story, the actions scenes are well-written and the author maintains the tension
through all of the fast-paced action scenes throughout the book without making
things seem repetitive. Each scene is unique and each fight feels just as
intense, if not more intense, than earlier ones. The novel as a whole is very
well-written. The story kept me engaged and the author clearly did a great deal
of research in writing it. I was especially impressed when it came to how much
information about elephants and their behavior patterns was included. While the
elephants start as being just a mode of transportation, they soon become characters
in and of themselves. One of the book’s subplot involves the plight of the wild
elephants and their treatment at the hands of both the native population and
the British hoping to colonize Borneo.
While I enjoyed the novel overall, I do have a few
criticisms. The dialogue can be a bit hard to follow, given that it’s written
in vernacular English. For characters who either don’t speak English well or
have a strong accent, their dialogue is written to imitate how they’d actually
sound. For example, “Miriam” and “England” are spelled like “Maryam” and “Inglang”
respectively on several occasions. It’s hard to follow at the beginning, but
the more you read of the book, the easier it is to follow. This style also
applies to Maximus, who’s Scottish and his dialogue is written to emulate a
Scottish accent. I wasn’t a big fan of the climax of the story, due to the way
it unfolds. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the reader isn’t able to witness
as much of it as I’d hoped. Similarly, the antagonist is described as having
gone mad, but the reader isn’t shown enough evidence of this. The reader is
shown evidence of him being a terrible person, but the madness, the urgency of
Miriam’s mission, really isn’t delivered on. Lastly, there are a few
in-universe things that Miriam does that don’t completely make sense. Perhaps I
wasn’t pay close enough attention, but for some events, I felt like a little
more insight on Miriam’s thought process or feelings would’ve gone a long way.
Overall, I enjoyed White Elephant. It was an engaging
read, which I ended up liking a lot more than I expected to. While there are
some kinks that need to be worked out and things the author can improve upon, it’s
a good novel. I might go back and read the first novel in the series now that I’ve
read this one.
Rating: 3.4 Stars
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