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cyphomandraI am about ten books behind and also in that horrendous early head cold stage, where I lie around on the floor equidistant from the heater, my laptop and a large box of tissues, and do almost nothing productive. I am also in the middle of Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys (excellent) and Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (also excellent despite me having mentally confused it with The Man in the Iron Mask for the first 200 pages or so, am currently in one of those "guide to 19th century Italy for the discerning young sprig of nobility" bits that make you wonder how much he was getting per serialised episode).
Anyway. This was closest to me on the floor. Post title from Greg Johnson's "Save Yourself", which seemed applicable.
The Ropemaker, Peter Dickinson. I liked this but didn’t love it. It’s solid, detailed fantasy, with the valley convincingly grounded and the Empire enticingly strange, and the magic system unfolds neatly from its own premises. Where it goes wrong for me is in two interconnected respects; the overall story, and the way in which the characters achieve it (which does sound appallingly thorough. I should say again that I like the world, the writing and the characters). I am possibly guilty of reading the book I wanted to read rather than the one I had in front of me, however.
Twenty generations ago the people of the Valley sent representatives to seek out a powerful magician, powerful enough to conceal their Valley from the Empire and its evils. The story starts as this protection is beginning to break down; it ends with the protection restored, and there is an epilogue set an unspecified but probably similar number of years later, where it starts to break down again. The main character, Tilja, returns to the Valley at the end of the main novel, but it is apparent that she cannot stay there, as she is unsuited by reason of her magic to do so; however, in the epilogue, it is the powerful magician who saved Tilja who the new characters seek out, rather than Tilja or her descendants. And Tilja (and the characters who go with her) achieve salvation for their people by following the instructions given to them by these outside figures (Astarta, Faheel, Ramdatta), who despite initial ambiguity all turn out to be trustworthy and caring.
What bugs me about this is firstly the overall message that, if there’s a threat to you, hiding – and hiding under the shadow of some powerful external force – is the best coping method. This may be true, but it also feels like an urge towards preservation of an idyllic past (rural, one of those “tough but happy” existences) that is not all that uncommon in fantasy and that I would have liked to have seen examined. Despite their time in the Empire, Tilja and the others do not make lasting friends there; nor do they attempt to change the structure of the Empire other than when they need to do so for their own ends. Can the Empire only be evil? Why? Is Tilja the only person who will ever leave the Valley and stay away?
The second thing is the following of instructions. This is a little bit more problematised – whether or not the Ropemaker can be trusted, and who he is, is an issue for the book – but Astarta and Faheel, although there’s a past tension between them, are happy to protect the Valley by providing explicit if slightly oblique instructions of things for the characters to do. Which they then perform, and I realise this is a lose-lose situation for narrative (if characters follow instructions it’s unexciting and if they don’t they’re amazingly clueless), and having Tilja be forced to keep the information secret does provide some tension, but it never damages things. I do like Tilja, but she doesn't have a lot of initiative.
So. It does occur to me that maybe the epilogue is meant to cover this – you do all the things you’re told to do and stuff still goes wrong – but the final line, “Her hands knew what to do,” suggests that there will always be someone out there to save the Valley. Again and again and again.
Anyway. This was closest to me on the floor. Post title from Greg Johnson's "Save Yourself", which seemed applicable.
The Ropemaker, Peter Dickinson. I liked this but didn’t love it. It’s solid, detailed fantasy, with the valley convincingly grounded and the Empire enticingly strange, and the magic system unfolds neatly from its own premises. Where it goes wrong for me is in two interconnected respects; the overall story, and the way in which the characters achieve it (which does sound appallingly thorough. I should say again that I like the world, the writing and the characters). I am possibly guilty of reading the book I wanted to read rather than the one I had in front of me, however.
Twenty generations ago the people of the Valley sent representatives to seek out a powerful magician, powerful enough to conceal their Valley from the Empire and its evils. The story starts as this protection is beginning to break down; it ends with the protection restored, and there is an epilogue set an unspecified but probably similar number of years later, where it starts to break down again. The main character, Tilja, returns to the Valley at the end of the main novel, but it is apparent that she cannot stay there, as she is unsuited by reason of her magic to do so; however, in the epilogue, it is the powerful magician who saved Tilja who the new characters seek out, rather than Tilja or her descendants. And Tilja (and the characters who go with her) achieve salvation for their people by following the instructions given to them by these outside figures (Astarta, Faheel, Ramdatta), who despite initial ambiguity all turn out to be trustworthy and caring.
What bugs me about this is firstly the overall message that, if there’s a threat to you, hiding – and hiding under the shadow of some powerful external force – is the best coping method. This may be true, but it also feels like an urge towards preservation of an idyllic past (rural, one of those “tough but happy” existences) that is not all that uncommon in fantasy and that I would have liked to have seen examined. Despite their time in the Empire, Tilja and the others do not make lasting friends there; nor do they attempt to change the structure of the Empire other than when they need to do so for their own ends. Can the Empire only be evil? Why? Is Tilja the only person who will ever leave the Valley and stay away?
The second thing is the following of instructions. This is a little bit more problematised – whether or not the Ropemaker can be trusted, and who he is, is an issue for the book – but Astarta and Faheel, although there’s a past tension between them, are happy to protect the Valley by providing explicit if slightly oblique instructions of things for the characters to do. Which they then perform, and I realise this is a lose-lose situation for narrative (if characters follow instructions it’s unexciting and if they don’t they’re amazingly clueless), and having Tilja be forced to keep the information secret does provide some tension, but it never damages things. I do like Tilja, but she doesn't have a lot of initiative.
So. It does occur to me that maybe the epilogue is meant to cover this – you do all the things you’re told to do and stuff still goes wrong – but the final line, “Her hands knew what to do,” suggests that there will always be someone out there to save the Valley. Again and again and again.
