Elusive by Genevieve Cogman
I would like to thank Tor for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Tor
Published - Out Now
Price - £18.99 hardback £9.90 Kindle eBook
Revolutionary France is full of blood and bite . . .
1793. Eleanor, once a lowly English maid, is now a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel: renowned for their daring deeds, and for rescuing aristocrats and vampires from the guillotine. When the notorious French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand goes missing, Eleanor and the League leap into action. But they uncover two vampire factions feuding for control over humanity’s fate. Talleyrand’s disappearance is part of a larger, more dangerous scheme – one that threatens to throw France into bloody chaos . . .
As the mutiny continues, a once-dead queen stalks the streets of Paris and the Scarlet Pimpernel is nowhere to be found. Eleanor must take control of her own fate. If she doesn’t, she may find herself the victim of the very people she came to save.
NB – This book follows the great Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman
So, revolutions are to countries like hard reboots are to laptops, right? Right? Ok bear with me a bit. When things fail and nothing is working properly, all the usual buttons of governments refuse to budge, things get corrupt, and nothing is changing then users need to run and press that reset button and hope for the best. Sometimes things get better, sometimes it’s a problem deferred for a bit longer and sometimes we find out the software ain’t coming back from this. There is no rhyme or reason which outcome we get when this happens. In Genevieve Cogman’s excellent and intelligent fantasy novel Elusive we return to the world just after the French revolution, where the Scarlet Pimpernel has rescues to perform, vampires and magic do exist and a former English maid turned spy named Eleanor is finding revolutions and binary definitions of right and wrong don’t always align.
Eleanor is now working for Sir Percy Blakeney aka The Scarlet Pimpernel both in his household but having shown her skill for impersonation, adventure, deception and bravery is now firmly one of his team who focus on saving French nobles from Madam Guillotine. Eleanor also has the dead spirit of an ancient mage named Anima hiding in her head who can aid her (when the Mage agrees). On top of this Eleanor is debating Vampires who are seen as well honoured members of society but after her recent adventures have shown a meaner side, one that Anima says is their true nature. Not helping matters is the not so small matter of France and England being at war; a mysterious Prince of Paris making schemes on both sides of the channel fermenting distrust and rioting everywhere and rumours that Marie Antoinette is roaming the streets of France drinking blood. The Scarlet Pimpernel was investigating but is very very quiet. Eleanor finds herself soon embroiled again in the spy games, daring rescues and danger she definitely does not enjoy…at all. But Vampires are now starting to pay attention to Eleanor and that brings even more chance of death to everyone.
I loved this book for its combination of a thrilling well paved action-adventure story and without slowing the action at all an intelligent exploration of what revolution means. Cogman is having a ball wit the period and the type of adventures the Scarlet Pimpernel was known for. We have dramatic confrontation with French spymasters at the opera, Eleanor getting involved in riots while trailing subjects, a wonderful set-piece based around Mont-Saint-Michel where a simple decoy mission becomes a daring prison escape and then finally the drama returns to revolutionary Paris where final stands await. Eleanor finds herself here often acting on her own initiative, learning the art of lying, planning and subterfuge and being very good at it – knowing how the nobility and those in power thinks from the position of a former servant has many advantages and just as much as we have fighting, explosions we also have battles of wits, intelligence and sometimes hoping for the best. This is a story propelling itself with skill and ease that it never feels to sag.
Of course, Elusive is also a fantasy novel and here Cogman starts to explore two key concepts Magic and Vampires. In terms of magic now Anima resides in Eleanor’s head we get Eleanor using magic (or at least trying to) which adds a new element to the various adventures (often an incendiary one) but also opens up the lore of the world. That vampires and magic-equipped humans have been at war for some time and somehow the vampires won a few centuries ago. Anima is a cross between mentor and your hardest schoolteacher who takes few fools. She very much loves to put Eleanor in her place and is constantly surprised that Eleanor is often not going to take that on the chin. Their tense relationship if really fleshed out in this book and it’s a fascinating relationship. Cogman’s vampires I love for two reasons. They are genuinely scary and inhuman. Sinister dancing balls, a lack of compassion and underneath a veneer of posh civility lies a cruelness and ruthlessness that makes their scenes really have moments of creepiness that make you feel we have a genuine threat to face. They too have factions and games within games, but you feel Eleanor has a real opposition to face and now Eleanor is no longer on the staff of Vampires she finds her former loyalties no longer have that strong a sway on her.
This brings me to the other joy of the book. They way Cogman uses the whole story and Eleanor to explore the ideals of revolution against what humans tend to make of them. In many ways the Pimpernel tales are a typically strange British invention - adventure stories where The British rescue the good guys who are proponents of monarchy, landowners and extreme privilege and peasant s wanting freedom and equality are clearly in the wrong. Yep, it has an interesting question of sides. Cogman explores what revolutions can be in really interesting ways. The story notes The French revolution boosts those seeking a new beginning with topics such as democracy, slave emancipation and feminism all being cited against real-life historical events. Eleanor reflects this theme too, a working class made is placed within the nobility and treated as an equal - most of the time. Issues of gender and class are subtly explored here. The Pimpernel’s team need to get their heads around that a woman can be as active as a man but also the really interesting angle here is class.
A smart working-class woman, who is given knowledge, trust and skills starts to show she is as goof and often better than her fellows. This also starts to make Eleanor review her prior understanding of the world. Why are working class people just expected to serve? Do the revolutionaries actually have a point? it’s a very subversive angle which starts to pull at the thread that the Pimpernel’s cause is the right one. It also examines the bloodier side of revolutions (aptly as the book starts as The Terror beings) that those in power start to suspect everyone and violence and bloodshed erupts. Can you really keep your hands clean in a revolution? Do they just move different people into positions of power to repeat the old mistakes? The story is opening up new themes that I’m really interested in seeing where these plot threads lead to which neatly aligns to Vampires which while often are just depicted as Capitalism (for great reasons) but Cogman adds a new spin – Vampires are those in power who refuse to give it up – power for power’s sake alone. A refreshing modern spin I again want to see what the series does next with.
Safe to say Elusive is a fascinating story that while offers an excellent adventure story, a fascinating setting and lovely character work we also get a very interesting interrogation of revolutions and their real-world impacts. Its provocative and a book asking the reader some questions you don’t usually expect in fantasy adventure tales. I think it is one of Cogman’s best novels and I can’t wait to see where the series goes next.
