Thu 29 Nov 2007
When wandering around Dawn Treader Books a while back, I found a copy of “Lyonesse”, which I vividly recall reading when I was about 12 or so. Actually I don’t think I finished it because it was so complex, but I distinctly remember the flavor of Vance’s prose and the vividness of his description. Lyonesse is the first of a a three-book series which tells the story of the history of the Elder Isles, a fictional set of islands off the coast of France and Britian, whose alternate history informs and is the subject of this trilogy. I went hunting, and was pleasantly surprised to find the other two books elsewhere in the store, and happily brought them home.
In reading this first book, I find the same sense of satisfaction I found the first time, and have found with a few pieces of fiction I’ve enjoyed over the past several years. There’s a sense of “rightness” about Vance’s writing that is very compelling. The book take the standard tropes of fairy tales and fantasy and fleshes them out into a very mature and adult way (this is really a “Fairy tale for adults” in the best traditions of the Inkings and their followers).
The story follows the history of the fractured kingdoms of the Elder Isles, as one king plots to reunite the Isles under a single rule. He bears a daughter, Suldrun, who refuses to be a marriage pawn to his political machinations. She is exiled to her garden as punishment, and a young man, Aillas, washes up on her beach who turns out to be a prince whose cousin has just attempted to murder him. Suldrun falls in love with Aillas, bears a son, Dhrun, and the consequences of this will have important consequences for all of the kingdoms. The action of the story follows Aillas and Dhrun as they are separated from their families, imprisoned, captured, and otherwise set upon by various trials.
Because my reading tends to be intermittent, it was easy to lose the thread of the plot a bit, but in retrospect the overall arc of the story is quite strong, and the conclusion is quite compelling as all of the pieces come together at the end. And Vance is setting the stage for a much large story which ultimately must explain what happened to the Elder Isles, who do not appear on any of our maps today.
There’s a bit of humour here as well, and Vance’s ironic wit makes this a particularly fun read. I’m looking forward to Green Pearl and Madouc.
One nit - although the edition I have is not the “Fantasy Masterworks” edition published out of the UK as shown above, both apparently share some rather terrible editorial lapses.