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OtherRealms Issue 28 Part 11
Electronic OtherRealms #28
Fall, 1990
Part 11 of 18
Copyright 1990 by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights Reserved.
OtherRealms may be distributed electronically only in the original
form and with copyrights, credits and return addresses intact.
OtherRealms may be reproduced in printed form only for your personal use.
No part of OtherRealms may be reprinted or used in any other
publication without permission of the author.
All rights to material published in OtherRealms hereby revert to the author.
Scattered Gold
Charles de Lint
Copyright 1990 by Charles de Lint
Installment 12
Lens of the World
R.A. MacAvoy
Morrow, June 1990; 288pp; $17.95; 0-688-09484-8
Simply put, I feel that Roberta MacAvoy is one of the best and most
innovative writers to come out of the 80's. I don't say "of the 80's"
because, as wonderful as her work has been to date, I believe that she
is still growing as a writer and that we've yet to see the highlight of
her career. And by speaking of her continuing growth as a writer, I
don't mean to imply that there's anything lacking in the novels she's
completed to date. It's rather that her work is consistently improving;
she's always seems willing to take chances, rather than resting on her
previously well-earned laurels.
Stylistically, there's really no argument to the above. MacAvoy has the
ability to write a clean, lyrical prose that never gets too muddied with
overuse. Some people might quibble at considering her an innovative
writer, but if they do, then they're forgetting that she's usually on
the cutting edge of the field, whether it be with contemporary fantasies
(Tea with the Black Dragon), historical fantasies (the Damiano series),
Celtic fantasies (The Grey Horse) or even her recent excursion into
science fiction (The Third Eagle).
What's particularly refreshing about her work is that she's not afraid
to tackle the "small story". Rather than feeling a need to have her
characters save the universe in every book -- or even a country, city or
the like -- she can be brave enough to concentrate on the needs and
lives of just one or two characters, making her something of a rarity in
the sf/fantasy field where the former is usually the case.
Her latest novel, Lens of the World, is a perfect example. Though
billed as the first of a series, this book stands easily on its own. It
concentrates its action on the coming of age of Nazhuret, a young man
apprenticed to an astrologer whose ideas of a well-rounded education
include everything from martial skills and optics to the learning of
obscure languages. Needless to say, this mishmash of studies causes
Nazhuret some confusion as to exactly what career he's being prepped to
assume -- a confusion which is only compounded when his mentor sends him
off into the world on his own long before Nazhuret believes he's ready.
The pacing is slow, relaxed really, but the reader remains engrossed
from the first few pages. The story is small in terms of worldly
concerns, but takes on vast proportions of spirit and heart the more
time we spend in Nazhuret's company. There is indeed action, but it
isn't necessary for the novel to maintain its tension; the tension comes
from MacAvoy's ability to convey a sense of importance to even the
smallest scene.
Generally speaking, I'm not very enthusiastic about trilogies and the
like, but this is one series that I'll be following with great interest.
Walker of Worlds
Tom De Haven
Foundation, July 1990; 341pp; $19.95; 0-385-26039-3
I hate cover copy comparisons. De Haven's latest novel is blurbed as
comparable to Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale and John Crowley's Little,
Big, which is redundant to begin with, Helprin's novel being merely an
echo of Crowley's innovative work. De Haven's novel doesn't compare to
either favorably, because it's not at all that kind of a book. If a
comparison is necessary, one would be better off looking to Roger
Zelazny since Walker of Worlds has more than a little of the Zelazny
touch with its headlong action, pared-down prose and inventive
characters and plots.
Inventive and headlong are really the key words here. De Haven
postulates that there are three universes -- or "Moments", as he refers
to them in the book -- each with a world habitable by human beings.
Ours is called Kemolo, while the otherworldly characters in this first
volume of "Chronicles of the King's Tramp" come from Feerce. The
possibility of a fourth world's existence, one whose inhabitants wish
only destruction for the other three, and one evil wizard's attempts to
open a door from it into Feerce, form the basic thrust of this volume's
plot as it rambles back and forth between our world and Feerce.
There's lots more of course -- strange beings and customs; entertaining
ideas and explanations for magic and the like; an interesting cast of
characters which is unfortunately only sketched in; and of course the
locomotive plot. It's with the latter two points that De Haven again
reminds me of Zelazny -- the Zelazny who writes the Amber books, rather
than novels like Eye of Cat or Lord of Light -- for De Haven doesn't
give much depth to either. There's a large cast of characters, and a
great deal going on, but Walker of Worlds often reads more like an
outline or a script treatment, rather than a fully-fleshed novel.
Still, it's quite entertaining -- a cut above and something different
from the current rash of contemporary fantasies that seem to be
everywhere these days. And hopefully subsequent novels will flesh out
the characters into more fully-rounded individuals. In the meantime,
Walker of Worlds will certainly whet your appetite for more.
Two Queens of Lochrin
Lee Creighton
Ace, April 1990; 181pp; $4.50; 0-441-83459-0
East meets West in this new contemporary fantasy, but not at all as they
did in the above mentioned Tea With the Black Dragon by MacAvoy. Lee
Creighton's novel is both darker and more intense, a kind of Gothic
novel, except that the haunting doesn't take place in a mansion, but in
a mind.
The action travels back and forth between contemporary New York City,
where the protagonist Rian is busy maintaining her relationship with her
lover Kieran and trying to deal with the Eastern martial arts
disciplines of her mysterious mentor Huashan, to an ancient Celtic past
where she inhabits the body of a warrior queen named Vennelandua. The
world shifts are handled as dream segments initially, but elements of
the past begin to bleed into the present as the novel progresses.
What the book is really about is choice -- the choices we make for
ourselves and those that others make for us, but that we must ultimately
accept or reject for ourselves -- and so the important action is
internalized. Creighton does an admirable job of holding it all together
and maintaining her readers' interest, all except for Huashan's endless
philosophizing which, while it would have been very effective in smaller
doses, becomes increasing irritating as the story progresses.
Queen of the Summer Stars
Persia Woolley
Poseidon Press, 1990; 415pp; $19.9; 0-671-62201-3
Every time I get thoroughly sick of seeing yet one more tired retread of
the Arthurian Matter appear on the book shelves in the local bookshops,
an Arthurian novel comes along that is so good, and seems so fresh
despite its hoary subject material, that I'm enamoured with the whole
cycle of legends all over again. Parke Godwin did it with Firelord and
the subsequent two books that made up his Roman Britain trilogy. A
couple of years ago, Persia Woolley did it as well with Child of the
Northern Spring.
And now she's done it again.
Queen of the Summer Stars is told from Guinevere's point of view and
deals with that period of time when Arthur was struggling to unite the
various warring factions of Britain. The romance of Tristan and Isolde
figures prominently in it; as does that of Merlin and Nimue; Arthur's
incestuous affair with Morgause and the son that came of that union,
Mordred; and of course, that most famous romance of all, between of
Lancelot and Guinevere.
It's to Woolley's credit that these well known plotlines are both
familiar and oddly -- but pleasantly, I should add -- askew, all at
once. Her handling of the Lancelot/Guinevere and Merlin/Nimue
relationships are particularly refreshing. But most importantly of all,
she has given full life to her characters; they are never parts of a
distant, legendary story, but as immediate as our own family and
friends.
Her prose is a delight to read, warm and lyrical, yet never overwritten
and never cloying, and while there is no magic -- and no magical courts
in the sense of Mallory, but rather a rough and tumble kind of
post-Roman existence where the high courts of folklore are still being
built -- Queen of the Summer Stars should appeal to fantasy lovers
equally as much as it will to those who love a good historical.
Woolley's first novel could have been a fluke, but the quality of this
second one proves, at least insofar as this reader is concerned, that
before too long her work will be spoken of in the same breath as are
those classics by Stewart, White, Bradley and Godwin.
Yes, it's that good.
In Between Dragons
Michael Kandel
Spectra, August 1990; 192pp; $3.95; 0-553-28814-8
Michael Kandel's first novel, Strange Invasion, was an enjoyable romp,
but it didn't really cover anything that Frederick Brown hadn't already
done some thirty years earlier in Martians, Go Home. For his second
outing, however, Kandel is mining much more satisfying territory.
Sherman is a teenager just starting to hit puberty. He's got a bad
stutter, acne and all he wants to do is have a girlfriend, not take care
of his snotty little sister. As an escape from all of this, he's found
a way into a world presided over by a mysterious Mr. McGulvey. He can
come and go at will between McGulvey's library and his own world, and
spends more time in various "books" having adventures, than he does in
the real world.
This isn't a YA novel, for all the above thumbnail outline. Sherman's
various adventures as psychic detective, dragon slaying knight and
intrepid commander are fun in their own right, showing that Kandel has
nurtured his deft humourous touch to good effect. The author also has a
good sense of the troubles of adolescence and is able to convey it in an
engaging manner.
Unfortunately, Kandel has also opted to drive home a rather surprising
message in the context of a fantasy novel, to wit: fantasy is an escape
and it isn't good for you. I suppose this is the only way he felt he
could his message across to the people he wanted to reach, but I can't
help but feel that the readers attracted to this book by its overt
fantasy trappings will only be left with a sense of disappointment when
they get to the end.
The Abraxas Marvel Circus
Stephen Leigh
Roc, May 1990; 255pp; $3.95; 0-451-45009-4
And speaking of humourous fantasy, have you noticed how much fantasy
that takes place in a contemporary setting takes a humourous approach to
the material? I wonder why that is sometimes. It seems to me that
rather than using the fantasy as a metaphor -- which is often what
resonates between the lines in the best of this kind of fiction -- the
authors are shying away. Of course they could just be having a good
time -- and there's room for that on the bookshelves, as well as for
more serious works like those put forward by, say, John Crowley and his
ilk.
Anyway, the latest contender to the humourous contemporary fantasy
sweepstakes that I've read is this new novel from Stephen Leigh. The
Abraxas Marvel Circus has its ups and downs. Its downs, to get them out
of the way quickly, start with how it takes forever to find a plot.
We're still a hundred pages or so in and lots is going on, but nothing
connects. Its other down is that none of the characters rise much above
caricature which makes it hard to care about what happens to them.
On the plus side is that Leigh has a nice light prose style that ably
moves things along -- even while we're waiting for the plot to kick in.
He has a great sense of the absurd and there are some wonderful scenes
in here as well as some truly odd characters such as Joan the Flower
Man, a hermaphrodite homeless person, and Ecclesiastes Mitsumishi, a
Japanese undertaker with a penchant for naming his various businesses
things like "Remains to Be Seen".
The plot when it does kick in is a fairly standard
bunch-of-mismatched-folks-saving-the-world kind of storyline, and it's
not exactly a deep think novel, but it is entertaining and will give you
far more payback than an evening with your gaze glued to the television
screen.
The Sandman: The Doll's House
Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg & Malcolm Jones III
DC Comics, 1990; 256pp; $12.95; 0-930289-59-5
Oddly, enough, the best, and most mature, fantasy I've read in some
time, is this trade paperback comic book that collects issues eight to
sixteen of The Sandman.
A friend of mine is illustrating an upcoming issue and sent me xeroxes
of his pencils. I was so taken with the storyline -- I think it'll be
issue nineteen and it deals with Shakespeare, faerie and dreams in a
wonderfully moving and complex fashion -- that I went out and got this
trade paperback to see what I'd been missing from previous issues of the
comic.
I'd been missing a lot.
It's pointless to get into the plot to any great deal because its
multi-layered and textured and you really should appreciate it on its
own, without little guideposts stuck in your mind to tell you what's
coming next. What I will tell you is that it's got nothing to do with
superheroes running around in tights, but everything to do with some of
the most fascinating personifications of Dream, Death, Desire and their
like that I've run across in fiction. Although all the material
originates with the creators, it has the verisimilitude of old myths.
It resonates with a feeling of rightness.
It also reads like a novel with subplots, rather than an episodic
monthly comic. Those subplots include everything from African myths,
retold, to child abuse, a convention of mass murderers and far more than
I could ever hope to encapsulate in the space I have.
The art is gorgeous, but also effective. And -- but I'll stop raving,
except to repeat that if you're at all interested in contemporary
fantasy done seriously, than I can't recommend this too highly.
And that also goes for issue seventeen of the monthly comic by Gaiman,
Kelly Jones and Malcolm Jones which deals with Calliope, the youngest of
the muses, locked away in the attic of a bitter old man. Brilliant,
evocative, moving material, indeed.
------ End ------
