The Book of Gold by Ruth Frances Long starts off as seemingly a simple heist novel that evolves into something more complex, especially theologically.
Lyta Cornellis is a thief, and a good one. She loves a good score as much as she loves her younger brother Kit. Kit is a printer and publisher, a new and expanding business in the city of Ambres, hub of commerce in an alternate 16th century Europe.Various powers are always lurking, from the King of Castile, Aragon and Leon to the dread Duchess of Montenbleau. So when Kit is arrested for printing a pamphlet that is declared treasonous, Lyta has to save him. To do so, she makes a deal with the king to steal a magical book from an impregnable fortress. But even with a small god on her side, she is going to need help with her biggest heist yet.
This is the beginning of the story of The Book of Gold, by Ruth Frances Long.
The novel features an interesting set of characters whose alignments, relationships, agreements and more feel three-dimensional. Lyta is our primary point of view. She runs by her skills, her devotion to the small god Eninn, and her love for her brother. Also, the knowledge that her husband has been long lost to the very fortress she agreed to break into. We slowly peel back and learn more about her backstory as the novel progresses, further deepening our understanding of how she, and Kit, got to where they are. Kit, who is also a major point of view, is idealistic and somewhat oblivious to what the power of his printing profession really is. Add in Sylvian, now the King’s loyal guard, but was Lyta’s first love. Finally, there is Ben, a very noted scholar, who is needed for the book heist, and has secrets and power of his own.
The worldbuilding for the most part is fascinating, although a couple of things irked me that I will leave for a footnote because I don’t want to totally detail the review with them.¹. Ambres is a cognate of 16th century Antwerp, an entrepot if there ever was an entrepot. This is the high age of the low countries mercantile influence, while still being under the control of Spain (here Castile and Leon and Aragon). Power, money and influence pour through the city. Oh, and did I mention the Church Imperial is also potent and has interests and influence here? Add in the paradigm-shattering effects of the early days of the printing press and you can see why Long chose this location to build her not-quite-our Europe and her city of Ambres for the action to take place. This is a book for those who like this sort of historical fantasy, with a lot of period detail particularly on printing and publishing along with the thievery and other hijinks.
The novel is very well paced, with good mixtures of action beats as well as character moments. As a result, Long’s book is extremely readable and goes down easy. The set-piece of the break into the Fortress, with its successes and reversals, is the highlight of the book, but the novel begins with a bang with a heist at a party. The novel as a result is lean and well paced.
So, instead, I want to talk at length now about what I really want to get into in this piece. Not just about The Book of Gold, but its place in terms of its theological fantastical context. The theological setup in Long’s world is of a cognate of the Catholic Church, the Church Imperial. Their stamping out of heresy is not of Calvinists and Lutherans, but rather the older Gods who have been stamped out and suppressed with the rise of the God-Emperor. Long here has merged the idea of the divine Emperor of Rome with the Holy Roman Emperor and made him an off-screen living God. His goal is to be the *one* God and to wipe out the rest, and the efforts of his minions and servants plays a large part of the book.
Thus, as I was reading this, a sheaf of connections came to mind. There seems to be a small cluster of books interested in a spectrum of Gods, some or all of which are under siege or threat. Hannah Kaner’s Godkiller comes to mind, where small Gods are being hunted by characters such as our titular main character Kissen. Ari Marmell’s Widdershins novels, where she is the sole devotee of a small God. The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson has a set of eight Gods, the Raven being the most seen and active among them, but again, their power and controlling them comes into play. And of course, the Tyrant Philosophers series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.²
All of these works, from Long’s to Tchaikovsky's are interested in the use of theological power of the Gods and how it might be captured, transformed, diffused by man. Gods are not dead in these works, but they certainly are being harnessed, diminished, destroyed or transmogrified at the hands of power-hungry humans. The tyranny of this is consistent, throughout. It is often portrayed as being for the good of everyone, or the good of society, but in the end, it is a road to power, by either removing a rival source, or absorbing that power directly.
Whatever the portrayal, in the end it is definitely a loss of theological diversity, something that Long’s book and the Tyrant Philosophers novels by Tchaikovsky make absolutely clear. One belief system, one mode of thought, one correct way to mold society. Like any monocultures, though, they are almost always inherently bad and the drive for one distorts and hurts people and society.
But why is this suddenly a popular topic? Why in this secular age is there a series of novels and stories like this. This crop of limited theologically oriented beings, whose power is sought to be extinguished, or bound or even just drained by larger entities? Is this all a subconscious metaphor for small companies being eaten up by billionaires and entities like Meta and Amazon? Is it a metaphor or allusion to the rise of fascist-curious or fascist regimes, who reach for power and extinguish dissent, different thinking and rival power centers? Is this some Nietscheian reaction to lots of fantasy novels with Gods and Goddesses running around doing things with and to mortals and against each other? Or is this an echo of superhero novels and stories and movies, which have made up so much of our zeitgeist, which are of course all about ordinary people gaining powers formerly attributable to Gods?
In The Book of Gold, we get to see a number of these entities, revealed slowly as the perspective and tone of the book goes from simple heist to theological conflict. Eninn, a god of tricksters and thieves, is the first and primary one we meet. He’s small, doesn’t apparently do much, but can escape the grasp of those who might bind him, and he has Lyta as a loyal follower. He corresponds very well with the Fox in The Raven Scholar. More of these are revealed as the novel progresses. Kyron,a god of soldiers. Ystara, a goddess of love. The aforementioned living God-Emperor himself, too, with his dread plans. And it makes sense that Ambres, trading and mercantile hub, would have these powers arranged and interested in it. The author’s love of the space and place of 16th century Antwerp really comes through, and it makes sense that this is where Godly powers might come...and might be caught and captured thereby. Or, when the Gods have power, anoint or expouse champions of their interests, either unofficially or officially. There are some nice reveals and power plays that occur in the denouement of the book.
There are also hints of darker, older deities as well afoot. For all of its power, the Church Imperial has made great strides over a millennium but has not extinguished, cowed or bound all of the deities out there. It gives the theocratic landscape of Amberes much more of an late antiquity/early medieval Catholic Church feel.³
There are a lot of potential rabbit holes one might go down in this book besides the theological one I just did. The role of the early printing press and the focus on books as treasured items, for example. Or you might focus on the romance dynamics in the interplay of characters (there are past and present romances, heterosexual and queer, and Long makes good use of all of them for character and plot development). And other angles to explore as well. It’s a rich quasi-historical fantasy with a lot to offer a reader interested in these sorts of worlds just next door.
Highlights:
Engaging and dynamic inspiration (16th c. Antwerp) used for her fantasy setting
Strong use of romance and characterization among the protagonists
Intriguing theological models and Gods.
Reference: Long, Ruth Frances, The Book of Gold [Hodderscape, 2024].
¹ Okay, so here we go. So the inconsistency of names of polities and locations irks me. There is a Castile, a Leon, an Aragon, That’s the parts and titles for the rulers of Spain, that’s easy. That’s right from our world. But then why rename England as Albion? And someplace in Scandinavia gets renamed as the Kingdom of Geatland? The use of Brabatine to identify the Spanish Netherlands, where the story takes place, is also a piece of this. It’s not quite wrong, but its not quite our history’s name, either. And there are references to Caput Mundi, which given that is the city of the Church, must be Rome. But then why keep the pieces of Spain with the same names as our history? I get that it would be hard to convey “Spain” without using the real life parts of it, but it still feels a little discordant.
² Of course this is nothing new. Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, of course. But it seems like there is a boomlet lately in such works, exploring limited divinities and often putting them under strife and danger.
³ The worldbuilder in me has lots of questions--like, what is happening in North Africa, the Middle East? Is there a cognate of Islam? There is one reference to a “Byzantine coffee shop” --does the Eastern Roman Empire still survive in this version of the universe? What’s going on there, politically and theologically if it is? And given the date in history...what about the Americas?
POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.