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By Catherynne M. Valente.
Begun 17 May 2008; finished c. 29 May.
I do not remember much of The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden, save that it was a collection of myths told by a young, ostracized orphan girl to a boy prince (and to us readers), and it was wonderful. Unlike The Book of Lost Things, which repackaged existing fairy tales into an average story, Catherynne M. Valente succeeded overwhelmingly in spinning her own mythos and telling true fairy tales.
Tags: fairy tale, mythopoeia
By Ursula K. Le Guin.
Being, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, Tales From Earthsea and The Other Wind.
Begun c. Apr 2008; finished c. Aug.
All these are novels except for Tales From Earthsea, which a collection of short stories and world-building notes, including the novella Dragonfly. The novels loosely follow the lifespan of Ged, the last Archmage of Earthsea, from his youth in A Wizard of Earthsea (reviewed) to old age in The Other Wind. The first three books centre around Ged and his deeds, which significantly change the world and himself. The spotlight shifts away from him in the latter two novels, which are more concerned with the changes in Earthsea that were set in motion by his deeds.
As usual, I’m not terribly concerned with the characters and stories per se, but prefer to examine the themes and motives that underlie the novels. So I’ll primarily discuss the series as a whole, and touch on individual books now and again. The review may ’spoil’ Earthsea in a universal, thematic way, so you may not want to read this if you want to know absolutely nothing about the books. A spoiler concerning Tehanu (both story and character) is duly marked.
Tags: !spoilers, in-depth, mythopoeia, series:Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin
By E.R. Eddison.
Begun 27 Mar 2008; finished 08 Apr.
Read for the Author A-Z Challenge.
Some time ago I heard that Eric Rücker Eddison is one of the literary forefathers of modern fantasy/fantastical/speculative fiction, alongside Lord Dunsany and H.P. Lovecraft, and The Worm Ouroboros is his tour de force. So when I came across this book (and The Mezentian Gate) in a secondhand bookstore, I bought them on the spot. How often does one find these brilliant yet forgotten fantastical authors in print?
The Worm Ouroboros is a sword-and-sorcery adventure, a heroic fantasy, almost legendary in atmosphere and scope. The story on a personal level is about the prince of Demonland who sets out to rescue his brother who was captured by witchcraft, and the wider tale is of the struggle of Demonland and its nobility against the tyranny of the Witch king, who sought to conquer and enslave the Demon people. I’m quite at a loss to describe Eddison’s epic tale, but two words do come to mind: it is romantic, and it is beautiful. Romance and beauty are such overused words these days, but The Worm Ouroboros embodies the fullness of their meaning. How is it so? I’ll attempt to explain…
Tags: mythopoeia
By Naomi Mitchison.
Begun 10 Nov 2007; finished 15 Nov.
I understand that Naomi Mitchison is a fantasy writer in the league of J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord Dunsany and Ursula Le Guin, in that she crafts fairy tales or fantasy myths that have no time and place and period, but are timeless and universal. Her most well-known book is The Corn King and the Spring Queen, but I managed to get Travel Light instead.
I usually don’t post book blurbs at the Athenæum, but I think the one on the back cover sums it better than I can.
The princess Halla is turned out of her father’s castle by her new stepmother. Halla’s nurse goes with her and transforms into a bear to look after the baby princess. This is just the first of the wondrous and natural changes in Naomi Mitchison’s magical novel of a young woman transformed by her travels.
From the dark ages to the wonders of early Constantinople, from the medieval forests of Finmark to the Middle East, Travel Light is a nimble and joyful journey where a basilisk may be met in the desert, a girl can be raised by dragons, heroes are taken to Valhalla by Valkyries, and a fortune might be made with a word to the right horse.
Tags: mythopoeia
By Lord Dunsany (Edward Plunkett).
Begun 11 Jan 2007; finished 16 Jan.
Lord Dunsany is a much-loved author, The Gods of Pegana remains one of the most luminous books I’ve ever read. After recently devouring To Awaken Pegasus and Other Poems and Five Plays, which are two collections of his poetry and plays, I’ve made it to his most well-known novel, The King of Elfland’s Daughter, which is about a human prince who marries the magical princess of Elfland and the son they produce, and how magic comes from Elfland into the human world.
Tags: mythopoeia
By Milorad Pavic.
Begun 26 Oct 2006; finished 08 Nov.
The subtitle of this book is A Lexicon Novel in 100,000 Words - A Dictionary of the Dictionaries on the Khazar Question. Apart from being written in a encyclopedic format, it is actually split into three “mini-dictionaries” or -books; each have unique topic-entries, and some topics span all three mini-books, which each book has its own explanation of. And there are two versions of the Dictionary, a male and a female, purportedly identical except for one key passage.
I read the male version about 3 years ago, cover-to-cover as a novel; this time I read the female version as I would an encyclopaedia, skipping around the entries following the cross-references across all mini-books. I must say, it made a lot more sense to read it this way than as a novel — I was reading the common entries together before they faded from memory, and the connections between the three sub-books became very obvious. So if you end up reading this, I highly recommend reading it as an encyclopedia, not as a novel.
Briefly: the Dictionary is about the Khazar civilization that dwelt in Central Asia in the 8-9th century. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: historical, in-depth, mythopoeia, re-read, speculative
By J.R.R. Tolkien.
Being, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, On Fairy-Stories, Leaf By Niggle, Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major.
Begun 02 Sep 2006; finished 12 Sep.
Poems and Stories is what it says: a miscellaneous collection of poems and novellas by J.R.R. Tolkien, complete with illustrations by Pauline Baynes. Collections like this one that make me want to go out and buy every single JRRT-authored book in existence.
A run-down of the books within this collection… Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: JRR Tolkien, mythopoeia