Nicky Drayden’s second novel, Temper, is a skillfully crafted twist of virtue, vice, and tense sibling relationships. I devoured it in a single day, scrolling through the pages on my Kindle as fast as I could read them. Drayden’s engrossing world pulled me in and left me reeling from a vivid world filled with fascinating characters and a complex and engaging universe. There are twists and turns in Drayden’s intricate plots, but there are no dead-ends in this maze.
Temper is set in a universe where almost everyone is born as twins, and they are separated by a discernment of their vices and virtues, branded on one arm. The twin with fewer vices (and thus more virtues) is considered the “better” twin, and the twin with more vices (and thus fewer virtues) is considered the “lesser” twin. The vices run the gamut of the classic seven sins from envy to greed, and when in proximity with each other twins are able to temper the vices of their twins.
Auben Mtuze was born with six vices: temper, vainglory, envy, duplicity, doubt, and lechery. His twin, Kasim, has only greed’s scar marring the surface of his arm. Auben has dealt with his six vices all his life, but that hasn’t stopped him from being a wily and intelligent young man as he and his brother make their way through their underprivileged high school. But when Auben starts hearing a strange voice in his head, urging him to give in to his vices, Auben has to deal with growing urges and a strained relationship with Kasim, who has always been destined for a better life apart from Auben because of his singular vice. Auben must overcome the evil inside and face his fears, or lose his twin, his true other half, to their vices and virtues.
Drayden’s universe is full of brilliant characters with convoluted motivations and hidden depths. Each character on the page is fully realized, though their deeper motivations may be hidden from readers. Drayden casually fills out her world, set out in an Africa that was never affected by colonialism or slavery, and fleshes out a world that has its own bright and dark spots. The city that Auben and Kasim live in is also described in intense detail. The pair of them live with their mother on the “comfy” side of town, which is the poor side of the city, separated by a wall from the other. This is not a book of morally white and black characters. With vices and virtues alike, the world and the characters are inherently morally grey.
The religion, myth, and creation story of Temper are fascinating and reminiscent of something from the mind of N. K. Jemisin, while wholly unique and engrossing. When crossed with the in-world struggles between religion and science, what results is a cultural divide that spells out a whole new world for Auben and Kasim, and reveals a cultural shift that might destroy the world as they know it. And the magic of this world is real, too, in ways that the main characters are hard-pressed to deal with.
It’s made explicit very early on that this universe is very different from our own, from the branded vices and virtues to the four sexes. The twin system within that is fascinating; there are your run of the mill identical twins, but the fraternal twins are often gender chimeras, or kigen for short, and each exhibit a mix of masculine and feminine traits that present in different ways according to how their genetics mixed in utero. Drayden is liberal with her use of gender neutral pronouns ey/eir throughout the novel for these characters, and it was a great way of subverting tradition and bringing in a great, inclusive mechanic. There is also a trans character who was assigned kigen at birth and identifies as a girl. Gender is a full spectrum in this novel, and it works extremely well with the complicated system that Drayden manipulates.
Just when you think you’ve got a hand on the plot, Drayden takes a left-turn into something deeper and mind-blowing. There are hidden motives, dubiously moral characters, partnerships, and broken hearts. Everything leads into the next conflict and resolution, though Drayden often combines the two to dramatic effect.
I highly recommend Temper to anyone who read Drayden’s first novel, The Prey of Gods, and for new readers looking for a ride down a long twisty road of brilliant narrative. Temper is a tangled narrative that draws deep into a corrupted land, and pulls out myth and brilliance, and a great read for science fiction and fantasy fans this October.
Nicky Drayden
Originally Published August 7th, 2018
