THE NEW EMPIRE

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

Alison McBain offers an alternate history of America's west coast in The New Empire, which tells the story of Jiangxi, a younger son of the Chinese Emperor who is sold into slavery by one of his older brothers and transported to world in which various Indian tribes hold sway along the North American Pacific Coast. Jiangxi is purchased by Onas, who saw the boy's arrival in a dream, and is raised to perform accounting tasks for his new owner as he grows up and his life in China becomes little more than a dream.

Jiangxi realizes that even as a slave he has a pretty secure life, but during his free days he comes to discover that Onas owns numerous slaves who Jiangxi never comes into contact with. Their living conditions are much more in line with the chattel slavery that was practices throughout the American South in our own timeline. His excursions allow him to see how horrible their conditions are and when he finds a slave who has managed to escape from the walled compound, he helps her escape slavery entirely. His subsequent punishment as a field slave makes him vow to help as many slaves as possible escape, even after Onas relents and brings him back into his own household.

With most of McBain's focus on Jiangxi, Onas retains an air of mystery. It is clear that he has a much broader understanding of the world in which he lives than Jiangxi and the hints of that wider world are provided by what little of Onas' plans are revealed. The Eastern and Southern portions of North America are under the control of various Indian tribes, the English, the French, and the Spanish, the latter of whom has begun making incursions into previously held Indian territory. Onas is helping prepare for the war that he foresees coming. At the same time, his leniency toward Jiangxi indicates that he has big plans for his slave, even if he is only slow to reveal those plans to either Jiangxi or the reader.

It is this reticence to reveal information to the reader that is The New Empires biggest weakness. Both Jiangxi and the reader are moving through this world with blinders on, aware that there is a world beyond what Jiangxi can see from his servitude, but never really seeing the details. Even when the action takes Jiangxi with him on a trip, information is only partly revealed, continuing to obscure both the world in which the action takes place and Onas' motivations. Similarly, when Jiangxi is eventually given additional responsibilities and the ability to effect change, he doesn't fully understand how his decisions and actions will impact the world or the forces which he is going up against. His lack of understanding makes it feel as if Onas has decided to give him the illusion of freedom while setting him up for failure.

Ultimately the action in The New Empire unfolds slowly and Jiangxi's position as a slave whose only real contact is with his master means his character is isolated from the world. These two narrative choices put a distance between the novel and the reader. Even when Jiangxi states his goal, his movement toward it is so slow and impacted by forces beyond his control or understanding. The result is a novel that hints at a rich and detailed world that is always just beyond the reader's grasp.

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