Geomancer (Well of Echoes)

infobox Book |
name = Geomancer
title_orig =
translator = Fantasy World, Greece Azbooka, Russia


image_caption = Australian edition cover
author = Ian Irvine
cover_artist = Nick Stathopoulos
country = Australia
language = English
series = Well of Echoes
genre = Fantasy, Novel
publisher = Orbit Books, Penguin Books
release_date = 29 September 2003
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-670-04119-X (paperback edition)
preceded_by = View from the Mirror quartet
followed_by = Tetrarch

"Geomancer" is the first book of the "The Well of Echoes" quartet, written by Ian Irvine. It is set on the world of Santhenar, 200 years after the events of "The View from the Mirror" series. The old humans of Santhenar are engaged in a war against the Lyrinx, a monstrous humanoid race that emerged from The Void after the Forbidding was broken. The Council of Scrutators rule in this time of crisis with an iron fist, testing everyone to see where their talents lie, then forcing them into jobs where they are needed. People often feel unsatisfied with this, but any who refuse become 'non-citizens', people without any rights who can be imprisoned or sold into slavery. The council is constantly developing new ways to use the Secret Art to fight the Lyrinx threat while using the war to retain their power. One of the ways of using the art is the use of clankers, large tanks powered by crystals and produced in huge manufactories. In order to keep army numbers up, most men who can fight and have no other talents (such as mechanical skills needed to create clankers or a talent for the Art) or have committed a crime not serious enough for execution are inducted into the military and sent to the front lines while breeding factories are set up for women to produce more raw recruits. Much propaganda is spread about the breeding factories and breeding in general by the Council, saying that it is the duty of all women to breed. However, most know the breeding factories are a punishment for women who disobey the law. Despite all these measures, the Council is slowly losing the war. Battles with the Lyrinx have been lost more than won and for every new tactic and advancement the council invents, the Lyrinx find a way to counter it.

Official Synopsis

Tiaan, a lonely crystal worker, is using a new crystal when she begins to have extraordinary visions. The crystal has woken her talent for geomancy, the most powerful of the Secret Arts, and the most perilous. Geomancy is a magic that humanity's allies and enemies alike are desperate to control, but it is deadly to the user.

Falsely accused of sabotage by her rivals, Irisis, Tiaan flees for her life. She is captured by the alien lyrinx, Ryll, who plans to use her in his dreadful flesh-forming experiments. Only geomancy can save her. Struggling to control her talent, Tiaan follows her visions all the way to Tirthrax, greatest peak in the Three Worlds, where a nightmare awaits her . . .

Plot Summary

Tiaan is told that her clanker crystals have been failing in battle. While discovering the reason for this, she begins having dreams of a dying planet and a young man shouting for help, but she blames overusing crystals. She solves two problems with clanker crystals but is drugged by a Lyrinx saboteur with a drug that makes her unable to block out the dreams. She has a violent fit in her sleep and when she fails to wake up, she is sold to a breeding factory but recovers and manages to escape to the manufactory mines where she receives a strange crystal, the Amplimet, from a miner friend. Tiaan dreams of the dying world and the young man again and discovers it is not a dream when she manages to answer his cries for help. She meets Ryll and saves his life. Then she discovers the dreams are coming from the world of Aachan from a young Aachim named Minis and she needs to travel to the mountain of Tirthrax to help them. Ryll agrees to help her and they travel across Mirrilladell, being pursued by Jal-Nish Hlar, Nish, Irisis, Fyn-Mah and a small army. They escape them and reach the Lyrinx fortress of Kalissin where Ryll betrays her and imprisons her to help with his flesh forming experiments. After the Nylatl is created, she escapes and meets Haani and her family. When the Nylatl kills Haani’s family, Tiaan takes Haani with her to Tirthax. Once there, she creates a portal to Aachan and succeeds in saving most of the Aachim. During their arrival, Haani is accidentally killed. However, the gate does not work right and first clan, Inthis, is thrown off course in the gate and lost. Despite this, there are thousands more Aachim and constructs than Minis told her and she realises this was not a desperate cry for help but a calculated plot to manipulate her.

Nish is new to the manufactory, moved from his previous job as scriber to discover a Lyrinx spy hiding there. However, he is soon caught up in the rivalry between Irisis and Tiaan after becoming angry at being rebuked by Tiaan. Irisis uses him to try and get rid of Tiaan. When Tiaan is sent to the breeding factory, Irisis tries to pass off Tiaans work as her own. Nish's father, Jal-Nish discovers his incompetence in allowing Tiaan to be lost when her talents could win the war and Irisis’s scheming and has them punished in front of the entire manufactory. However, Nish is spared the front line provided he can retrieve Tiaan. The manufactory is attacked and Nish is almost killed but Irisis saves his life. She is introduced to Ullii and told by Jal-Nish to create a tool to work with her. Irisis tells Nish about Ullii and the task she has been set and he elects to help her. After a few failed attempts, he manages to connect with Ullii and he and Irisis solve the problem of her hypersensitivity. However, they fail to create a tool to work with her and have to use her directly. The three of them journey with Jal-Nish’s battalion in pursuit of Tiaan but even with Ullii’s talents, they fail to capture her twice. The battalion is destroyed and Jal-Nish is badly injured by Ryll. In order to save Jal-Nish's life, Irisis is forced to cut off his arm. They journey back to the manufactory to be met by Scrutator Xervish Flydd who is angry at their failure but spares Nish and Irisis. Nish is to care for and work with Ullii while Irisis, being so good at controlling people, is kept on as acting Crafter. However, as the manufactory starts it’s work again, the Lyrinx attacks and sabotages continue. This time, the blame is laid on Irisis. A trial finds her guilty but Ullii uses her talent to indicate that the manufactory foreman was the saboteur. The foreman is executed. Six weeks later, Ullii senses Tiaan again. Nish develops Santhenar’s first hot air balloon to take Ullii to track Tiaan but during the first flight, they are swept away. After a long flight, they arrive at Tirthax in time to see the Aachim construct fleet emerge.

Main characters

The novel starts in a manufactory near the town of Tiksi on the east coast of Mirrilladell at the beginning of winter. It follows three main characters:

*Tiaan Liise-Mar
*Cryl-Nish Hlar
*Irisis Stirm

Other meanings

On Santhenar, a Geomancer is also a user of the Secret Art. They utilise the magical properties of crystals and minerals and can tap into the power of the earth itself, channeling the pressure behind a geyser or the weight of a fault line into their magic. This makes Geomancy one of the most powerful and destructive arts on Santhenar. Due to the size of the power being channeled however, Geomancy is also an extremely risky art. The user must be very skilled or very lucky to survive using it. Gilhaelith is the most powerful Geomancer on Santhenar. Tiaan also learns some of the basics behind the art, first from the Aachim and later from Gilhaelith.