THE BOOK OF THE JAGUAR, alt-hist post-Conquest fantasy

THE BOOK OF THE JAGUAR
VICTOR LADIS SCHULTZ
Fairwood Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$6.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The legions of New Serraña have a sacred custom: when a legionnaire falls in battle, a member of their company must bear the body home to the dead soldier’s family. Álbaro Ceynos is the only surviving member of his company. He’d been garrisoned at Presidio Los Primos, known as the realm’s safest assignment, until a fabled monster emerged from legend, crept down from the mountains, and laid waste to the old fortress.

Now, with one horse, one wagon, one sword, and all his slain brethren, Álbaro the bonebearer roams a decaying empire, bringing home his comrades' remains. As he meets an array of mourners who move him to question past choices and future commitments, he’ll reveal how the tragedy unfolded, death by death, and how it is that he yet lives.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Survivor guilt meets Odyssey in a fantasy-tweaked New World, one that's in a timeline not much like our own. and yet it's still recognizably the culture of merged Indigenous and Spanish Mexico...a bit like a folded down the long axis sheet of paper is still folded in half, just not what you're used to. I was fascinated.

The Presidio of Lost Souls has been obliterated. As is incumbent on a survivor of a group of soldiers, Álbaro bears his comrades' earthly remains...their bones...back to families that mourn, families that barely notice, families that want Álbaro to bear witness to the fallen man's existence...all the normal responses that accompany a person into their afterlife. It's a tidy way to do both world-building and character development in enough depth to keep we-the-reader invested and interested in both things.

It was a success to me in more ways than the usual following a story. I lost interest in the why of Álbaro's presidio's destruction almost immediately...invisible creatures aren't going to hold my interest for long as objects of folklore. As Álbaro met his companions' families and learned the whys and wherefores of their presence in the Presidio of Lost Souls among the other "slow horses," to use the Apple show as touchstone, I was more and more invested in the cultural landscape he inhabits. The different histories Álbaro learns that conflict with or outright contradict what his companions presented, the ones that minimized troubled pasts and magnified happiness...well, that just plain ol' human nature.

And that's the thing I most enjoyed about this novel. Chapters are episodes, the framing device isn't always as integrated into the chapter's story as I'd expect it to be, but the humanness, the humanity, the humane response of Álbaro to each family, outweighed any niggling nitpicks I could come up with. In my memory, this is a way of experiencing a cultural landscape I did not recognize in a physical landscape I often did. I was always interested in the different families' grief responses. I was always aware that Álbaro was responding to the grief as a kind of atonement. I was always involved in the lives lived, and all too often that's not an investment I can make in other SFnal stories.

It's a fascinating debut in a well-thought-through not-quite-consensus reality. I hope you escape seeking readers will give it your time and treasure.