5 November 2003

TOOLS OF THE TRADE: The Synopsis
Examples from Liz Williams and Lyda Morehouse

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The Poison Master
by Liz Williams

The setting

In the turbulent years of Elizabethan England, persecuted alchemist John Dee develops a far-reaching ambition to harness a heavenly power and send a colonial expedition to another world. But Dee's pact with the sinister aliens called the Lords of Night comes with a heavy price.

With Dee's help, the Lords bring a thousand humans to the world of Latent Emanation. Most of the captives are released into the fens that surround the landing place, but a few are initiated into the secrets of the Lords themselves. These people become a quasi-military sect known as the Unpriests, who govern the rest of the human community with all the capricious whimsicality of the Lords themselves.

A percentage of citizens—including the twin sister of Alivet Dee, the alchemist's descendent and the novel's protagonist—are taken in a lottery to serve the Lords. These people are known as the enbonded, and even if they survive their tenure, they may remain traumatised for the rest of their lives. More fortunate citizens—those who escape enbonding— are permitted to build settlements. By the time the story begins, a sizeable city has grown up, surrounded by a plethora of impoverished villages. A degree of co-operation is established with the planet's indigenous species: the peaceful and pious anubes. Latent Emanation is rich in psychotropic substances from the swamps, and a lucrative industry develops around these. The inhabitants take the drugs as a sacrament, to try to gain knowledge of humanity's lost origins. Thus everyone—from shrimp sellers to bank managers—is engaged in a spiritual quest, which must be kept secret from the Lords and their unpriests alike.

The story

The story begins with John Dee at Cambridge, just starting out on his alchemical and mathematical experiments. As the story progresses, we see the unfolding course of Dee's work and his growing connection with the Lords of Night, whom Dee initially believes to be angels. But the principal story is that of Dee's descendent Alivet, a young apothecary whose twin sister has been taken by the Lords. Alivet is approached by an offworld stranger, the alien Ari Ghairen, a poison master from the world of Hathes. Ghairen gives her a choice: if she applies her expert knowledge in helping him defeat the Lords her expert knowledge, he will help her to free her sister. What Alivet does not realise is that her journey will lead not only to an understanding of the nature of the Lords themselves, but also to the discovery of humanity's lost origins.