This story takes its inspiration from the Grimm fairy tales “The Goose Girl” as well as the far lesser-known short “Godfather Death”. When Vanja Schmidt is left with Death and Fortune as her godmothers, she grows up hoping for love and affection. Instead the immortal deities demand servitude and she rejects this cold sentence to take her fate in the world.
Becoming cruel after years of subjugation, poor pay and harsh servitude, Vanja steals magical pearls and reinvents herself as her former mistress in order to win a fortune and gain revenge on the wealthy. But Fortune, Death and another goddess she inadvertently offends have other plans…
Vanja is a complex figure. You sympathize with her misery but wince at her callous indifference towards anyone but herself. She needs the forceful cursing from a deity she’s offended to learn true selflessness. The dosing of a powerful drug called Augur’s tears also forces to see her awfulness in all its awful griminess. Vanja may hate the rich but that doesn’t lead to an automatic care of or for the poverty-stricken populace. She is gradually brought to helping others and learns what true mercy is. She also learns forgiveness of a sort. But she’s not above taunting an enemy. (Hey, she’s a human being not a saint.)
This story brims with invention and the meddling of spiritual creatures, large and small. Vanja is one of the cleverest and most ruthless heroines you are likely to meet, gleeful at being the smartest person in the room, avaricious for wealth and tripping herself up by refusing the help of her two guardians. Vanja’s resolve not to be a servant of any kind means she will always be on the outside of normal society, since working for a living involves servitude of one kind or another. The word “employee” hasn’t been invented yet so she sees working for a wage, even a living one, as a kind of trap she is almost fanatically determined to avoid.
I am sorry this is a series for I think this story could have worked as a standalone tale, albeit one without the typical happily-ever-after resolution. Aren’t books enough on their own without having to be part of a trilogy? For some of us, Fortune is in short supply and Death looms ever closer. Life’s too short (and I’m not getting any younger). Let’s hope Vanja gets her ending before it comes to us.
Becoming cruel after years of subjugation, poor pay and harsh servitude, Vanja steals magical pearls and reinvents herself as her former mistress in order to win a fortune and gain revenge on the wealthy. But Fortune, Death and another goddess she inadvertently offends have other plans…
Vanja is a complex figure. You sympathize with her misery but wince at her callous indifference towards anyone but herself. She needs the forceful cursing from a deity she’s offended to learn true selflessness. The dosing of a powerful drug called Augur’s tears also forces to see her awfulness in all its awful griminess. Vanja may hate the rich but that doesn’t lead to an automatic care of or for the poverty-stricken populace. She is gradually brought to helping others and learns what true mercy is. She also learns forgiveness of a sort. But she’s not above taunting an enemy. (Hey, she’s a human being not a saint.)
This story brims with invention and the meddling of spiritual creatures, large and small. Vanja is one of the cleverest and most ruthless heroines you are likely to meet, gleeful at being the smartest person in the room, avaricious for wealth and tripping herself up by refusing the help of her two guardians. Vanja’s resolve not to be a servant of any kind means she will always be on the outside of normal society, since working for a living involves servitude of one kind or another. The word “employee” hasn’t been invented yet so she sees working for a wage, even a living one, as a kind of trap she is almost fanatically determined to avoid.
I am sorry this is a series for I think this story could have worked as a standalone tale, albeit one without the typical happily-ever-after resolution. Aren’t books enough on their own without having to be part of a trilogy? For some of us, Fortune is in short supply and Death looms ever closer. Life’s too short (and I’m not getting any younger). Let’s hope Vanja gets her ending before it comes to us.