Under the Pendulum Sun

"The birds in the minstrel gallery above were no longer birds. They were naked humans with scarred throats and their feet shackled to the gallery ."

-Jeanette Ng, Under the Pendulum Sun

Review by Alexandra Stefanis, images from Angry Robot Books

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Synopsis

British imperialism has expanded beyond the continents of Africa and Asia into the mysterious realm of the fae: Arcadia, where nothing is as it seems. When her brother Laon, a missionary trying to bring the Gospels to Arcadia, disappears, Catherine Helstone has no choice but to follow him. Armed with her limited knowledge of the fae and her love for her brother, she makes the perilous journey and discovers that Arcadia is more sinister than the world believes. In her brother’s home, Gethsemane, Catherine befriends a well-meaning changeling and a gnome convert who often warn her not to travel outside of the house’s walls into Arcadia itself. Desperate for information about her brother and frustrated by her imprisonment in Gethsemane, Catherine explores the house, only to discover the frenzied writings of the last reverend, who died under mysterious circumstances.

When she finally does receive news that Laon is returning to Gesthemane, it is not the happy reunion she has expected throughout the years of his absence. As he rides, the Pale Queen and her court follow him, with more than a few tricks up their sleeves for the siblings. However, Catherine and Laon have much more troubling matters to understand as they grow evermore consumed by their fascination with Arcadia and their feelings in each others’ absence.

Reading Experience

Language & Pacing

Under the Pendulum Sun reads a lot like a young adult novel. And while there is nothing wrong with that, some of my favorite books are YA; the subject matter feels a bit too heavy for the simplistic language in the actual narrative. By contrast, the chapter openers can feel difficult to parse out and work with, making the transition from the opener to the narrative a bit jarring.

Overall, the book was not a challenging read by any stretch of the imagination. However, that doesn’t mean it was a quick read! At some points, the book seemed to drag on and on. Despite the fact it is only four hundred pages, it reads like an eight-hundred-page novel. After reading 100 pages of the book without much substantial progression in the plot, I started to wonder if I would be able to finish reading it at all.

Immersion

This novel walks an interesting line between portal quest and immersive fantasy. It can be jarring to pick up if you are entirely unfamiliar with the concept of the fae wild in literature, as the first-person narration does not leave much space for world-building that would be beneficial for an entirely unfamiliar reader. While that doesn’t mean this book is impossible to enjoy without any previous background, I do think that it can be frustrating to feel like there is no clear sense of the world or meaning of all the rules the characters bind themselves to. Ng leans heavily into the confusion of Arcadia, but she often goes a bit too far, especially when looking at the treatment of time in Arcadia, which is unclear throughout the book, making some key moments feel both too fast and too slow for the reader experiencing the novel.

Visual Appeal

The book is divided into four sections, though the divisions don’t seem to serve any purpose. Normally, I love to see a book with different sections, but in this book, I found them confusing and unnecessary. While reading, they felt like abrupt interruptions to the flow of the novel rather than placeholders to establish a change within the story. Each section is titled with a location mentioned in the Bible, which could have been loaded with so much meaning, but unfortunately, these references fell flat for me. It appears that the goal of these inclusions is to signify different parts of the siblings’ physical and spiritual journies in Arcadia, but there is not a sense that without these divisions, the story would read differently. Initially, I expected that the location of these breaks signified some length of time passing, but all they did was make me stop to wonder why the author decided to physically separate two chapters that went together closely, both chronologically and thematically.

Major Themes

Christianity & Missionaries

I was initially drawn to this book because I wanted to see how Ng would incorporate Christian tradition and history into a world that also includes the fae. And on this front, the book did not disappoint.

Missionaries

The characterization of both Laon and Rev. Roche worked well to investigate the work of missionaries and their role in society. Christian tradition would like to herold these men who, oftentimes violently, forced their religion upon countless people of color, but that’s hardly deserved in most cases. Rev. Roche and Laon are fascinating multidimensional characters through whom Ng is not so subtly shining a light onto the troublesome history of Christianity, which is especially fascinating to see in a genre that has traditionally utilized a Christian hero quest to propel it’s story forward.

The Role of Converts

The only Christian convert in Arcadia, a gnome named Mr Benjamim, is absolutely delightful. Not only is he incredibly fun, but he is the key to much of the novel’s Christian commentary. His increasingly troubling questions and (assumed) misinterpretations of the Bible create a compelling dynamic between those raised in the church and those converted via colonialism. These questions resemble issues modern Christians grapple with, specifically concerning whether the writers of the Bible could make mistakes and what that would mean for the religion as a whole.

Biblical Allusions

Ng does an excellent job of including Biblical references that further the plot without becoming so overwhelming that the book feels like a form of religious propaganda. Notably, Ng locates her characters in a home named Gesthemane, referencing the garden in which Jesus agonized before the crucifixion. The book includes similar references to debates about the Apocrypha, Lilith, the issues of transubstantiation during the observance of Holy Communion, and also fleeting glances at where women fit into the Christian missionary machine.

Imperialism & Race

Treaties

Many of the chapter openers detail the discovery and subsequent invasion of Arcadia by the British. In a familiar narrative, the British feel that their “discovery” of the land makes them entitled to the riches of Arcadia, and treaties are drawn up in order to facilitate their financial gain. It is unclear how Arcadia benefits from these treaties, if at all. It is especially interesting to see how Laon, a British missionary, views the treaties as unfair for his cause, without any consideration for how the native people of Arcadia might be impacted. The addition of discussion of these treaties and laws is an interesting reference to how the British have manufactured influence in other countries throughout world history.

Propaganda

The chapter openers also serve to demonstrate the degree to which the fae are vilified and ‘othered’ by the British to justify their behavior. One chapter opens with a poem that is especially similar to The White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling. This is one of the most direct parallels in the entire book, but I am somewhat disappointed at its location in the novel, as it is placed interestingly far from any mention of the missionaries or the British invasion in general. The book also uses a combination of supposed historical and scientific documents highlighting the fae as being “lesser” either because they are incapable of feeling love or empathy or because they are all together soulless.

Rhetoric of Imperialism

The novel is successful at drawing attention to the rhetoric of imperialism as it is viewed by both the colonizers and the colonized. Through the variety texts at the start of each chapter, readers gain a good understanding of the British view of the fae, whom they look down upon as uncivilized savages–a narrative we have seen before in world history. In contrast, Catherine’s experiences in Arcadia only serve to complicate and oftentimes disprove these established stereotypes as she becomes fully immersed in complex interplays of culture and government, which the British want to believe are nonexistent in this non-white, non European society.

Immigration & Identity

The inclusion of Ariel Davenport, whose first introduction identifies her as a changeling returned to Arcadia from the human world, creates an interesting space for considering the experience of people who immigrate from one place to another. In this case, Ariel is constantly being reminded that she is neither of Arcadia and for example, cannot salt her own food, but she is also not of London, as her memories of life in London are not thought to be real. Even characters who consider themselves her friend are quick to identify the things that are ‘wrong’ with her, to mark her very existence as some kind of mistake. It’s difficult to discuss Ariel without getting lost in the weeds of intense plot twists and world-building throughout the novel, but the space she fills is an interesting one that is definitely worth considering when reading this story.

Overall

Overall, Under the Pendulum Sun is a fun read that challenges traditional senses of fantasy and its treatment of the fae wild, while also drawing attention to relevant issues concerning race, religion, and the imperialist sentiments at which these issues come together. Despite some of its shortcomings, I think this novel is definitely worth checking out!

Page updated

Report abuse