A Conspiracy of Truths

My love for framing narratives will likely become a running theme on this blog. When executed well, I find they make stories come to life, and they inherently channel the oral storytelling traditions that the fantasy genre calls home. A Conspiracy of Truths is one of the best of them. This book was an impulse purchase from Half Priced Books, and it gave me not only one of my favorite books of all time, but an author whose catalog blows me away.

Elevator Pitch:
Chant is a traveling storyteller. That’s an oversimplification, but it’s the easiest way to explain what he does. He’s old and doesn’t have time to explain things, especially when he’s been accused of witchcraft and espionage and is put on death row. And he hasn’t lived this long just for some idiotic children making a power grab to leave him as collateral damage. So, with the help of his wildly naive apprentice, he leans into the accusations, using his skills as a storyteller to sell the fact that yes he is a witch, and yes he is a spy, and yes you should keep me alive and use me. And if the city burns down because of what he says … what’s that to him? He didn’t ask for them to throw him in a jail cell.

What Worked for Me
Rowland is a master of characterization and voice. Chant is a breath of fresh air as a protagonist. One some levels he’s the stereotype of a curmudgeonly old man, but he simultaneously cares very deeply for his craft, and for storytelling. He’s knowledgeable and has been around to block long enough for this situation not to phase him as much as it probably should. I was hooked from the very first page when he was heckling the judge and guards at his trial, and the book didn’t let me go until the final page had turned.

I also want to compliment Rowland for finding convincing ways to create tension and narrative flow when Chant was trapped for the entire book. While his prison cell changes a few times throughout the story, his situation remains fundamentally the same. All he can do is talk to the people with real power, and Rowland makes 450 pages of puppetmastering an entrancing thing to read. I hadn’t quite ever read anything like it, but since then, I keep an eye out for stories with similar constraints, because when done well they’re excellent ways to focus on the core of the story.

Finally, the story was littered with Chant telling stories he’s collected from his travels. These are universally entertaining, though in tone they range from serious myths to silly fables. I found their inclusion (the story within a story within a story) to be universally interesting, especially since many of these locations feature in Rowland’s other works within this world.

What Didn’t Work for Me
This book was a delight and I won’t hear any slander against it.

In Conclusion: An elderly storyteller lies and manipulates his way out of a death sentence by causing chaos from a prison cell.

• Characters – 5
• Worldbuilding – 4
• Craft – 5
• Themes – 5
• Enjoyment – 5