While its by no means a perfect book, there is much to admire about
Ricardo Pinto's first novel, THE CHOSEN. It's set in an ornate,
cruel society ruled by a race of tall men who fancy themselves angels
with the blood of gods running in their veins. The Chosen, also
referred to variously as Seraphim and Masters, are an intensely
hierarchical society, whose lives are controlled by ritual and the
purity of their bloodlines. The Masters are obsessed with purity—
they must hide their faces from the lesser races; anyone caught
gazing upon their faces is destroyed; Masters must also walk on
stilts (called ranga shoes) to avoid contact with the polluted
earth. Other races are considered animals. In short, it is a
barbaric dictatorship, full of pure, unbridled racism. Pinto
portrays his Masters as being as human as anyone else; but they are
so shrouded in mystery, and have almost absolute power that they
believe the elaborate myths they've built around themselves. Pinto
has create a fascinating world that borders on satirical allegory.
Readers must endure a horrifically casual attitude to life, as the
Masters rule by terror. Young Carnelian, who's grown up in exile, is
thrust right into the center of political intrigue. Since Carnelian
has not grown-up around the Masters, he lacks their cruelty. The
bulk of the novel is about his painful and unwilling initiation into
their beautiful and evil world. Pinto somehow manages to create a
completely alien world with a minimum of magic and otherworldly
accoutrements. At times, it reads like an alternative world
historical novel. On the downside, Pinto is given much to epic
exposition, and the plot takes a while to develop, and when it does,
it's a familiar one. Secondary characters are not as finely
delineated as they should be. On the plus side, Pinto's writing is
glamorous, and he knows how to build atmosphere. Carnelian is
finely drawn, and there's a nice homoerotic love story that is
actually important to the plot. Pinto is a Scottish writer of
Portuguese descent; I look forward to his next novel.

--Craig