Extolling the virtues of Meredith Ann Pierce
I wish I could write like this woman.
After so many years, I'm finally finishing up her Darkangel trilogy - PaperBackSwap granted me the final two volumes, A Gathering of Gargoyles and The Pearl of the Soul of the World (with much prettier covers than the recent reprints, hooray!). It's a shame that Pierce's books have flown so far under the radar ever since their release. Her other series, the Firebringer trilogy (unicorns and gryphons and wyverns, oh my!), was formative for me as an adolescent - but I never got to own the books until just a few years back, when they were finally reprinted (and, go figure, now they're out of print again). Before then, I had to make a trip to the library every time I wanted to re-read them. Online, they often went for $50+.
The Darkangel is where I take my screenname from (equustel) - it's unlike any other vampire story I've come across. It's a fable more than it is a romance, told in archaic language and set in a world that looks like sci-fi, but doesn't feel like it: the moon, colonized and terraformed in some strange alternate future, with its own set of gods, realms, and mythologies.
Like Birth of the Firebringer, the language Pierce uses is what sells the work. It's lyrical and inventive, evoking something old and yet not too familiar. And it's incredibly graceful. She's got the creativity so many fantasy scribes lack, and a deft pen that keeps her volumes short and sweet, while still covering all the typical epic fare.
Every time I pick up one of her books, I'm struck anew by how different they are from everything else offered by genre authors, and I just wish more people knew of her existence. I don't think her style is for everyone, but I can't seem to get enough of it.
Oh, and I'm delighted that in the back of the third volume is a glossary, with the correct pronunciation of equustel! In case you ever wondered, it is... drumroll please... ECK-wuss-tell. (Not eck-WESS-tull, as I have lately taken to saying it in my head. Ha. I lose.)
After so many years, I'm finally finishing up her Darkangel trilogy - PaperBackSwap granted me the final two volumes, A Gathering of Gargoyles and The Pearl of the Soul of the World (with much prettier covers than the recent reprints, hooray!). It's a shame that Pierce's books have flown so far under the radar ever since their release. Her other series, the Firebringer trilogy (unicorns and gryphons and wyverns, oh my!), was formative for me as an adolescent - but I never got to own the books until just a few years back, when they were finally reprinted (and, go figure, now they're out of print again). Before then, I had to make a trip to the library every time I wanted to re-read them. Online, they often went for $50+.
The Darkangel is where I take my screenname from (equustel) - it's unlike any other vampire story I've come across. It's a fable more than it is a romance, told in archaic language and set in a world that looks like sci-fi, but doesn't feel like it: the moon, colonized and terraformed in some strange alternate future, with its own set of gods, realms, and mythologies.
Like Birth of the Firebringer, the language Pierce uses is what sells the work. It's lyrical and inventive, evoking something old and yet not too familiar. And it's incredibly graceful. She's got the creativity so many fantasy scribes lack, and a deft pen that keeps her volumes short and sweet, while still covering all the typical epic fare.
Every time I pick up one of her books, I'm struck anew by how different they are from everything else offered by genre authors, and I just wish more people knew of her existence. I don't think her style is for everyone, but I can't seem to get enough of it.
Oh, and I'm delighted that in the back of the third volume is a glossary, with the correct pronunciation of equustel! In case you ever wondered, it is... drumroll please... ECK-wuss-tell. (Not eck-WESS-tull, as I have lately taken to saying it in my head. Ha. I lose.)