Book Review: Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, The Fall of the Kings
Yeah. I'm aware that you're all just fucking fascinated by my reading list. Scroll button's to your right, but before you skip it you might turn your attention to this here quality book.
44) Fall of the Kings, by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, 505 pages
Y'all remember how much I loved Swordspoint. Set sixty years after the events of Swordspoint, Fall of the Kings is an even more ambitious book than its predecessor.
The last of the kings was murdered generations ago, and the wizards who served them have been repeatedly debunked as charlatans. Yet, in the city's university is a brilliant young professor, Basil St Cloud, who believes that the king's magicians were real, and their magic real. His lover, Theron Campion, is descended from the line of kings, from the murderer of the last king, in fact. Scholars and rebels are drawn to Campion and St Cloud, those who believe in the power of truth, and those who believe that the land must have a king. And opposing them are others who would conceal the truth and wish to prevent any king from rising.
Using this highly political backdrop, Kushner and Sherman spin a mythical and erotic tale as gripping as it is intellectually stimulating. And the challenges they set for themselves are no mean challenges.
Here the authors take a setting that I admired precisely because it had no magic in it, and make one of the main thrusts of the story a debate over whether magic is real.
Kushner and Sherman also manage a feat I would have thought impossible: they invent a fable of sacred kingship where the role of Goddess is not personified or characterized, and where the king's magician, always a man, acts as the king's connection to the land. I can't escape the feeling that this should offend me, but they make it work effortlessly, which is the remarkable part.
The writing is consistent, I can't really where Ellen stopped and Delia began, or who contributed what. Plotting, pacing, character, point of view, all meet or come close to the high standard set by Swordspoint.
This is not a lightweight book. It's complex, convoluted, and difficult in places, and one has to pay very careful attention while reading. Nevertheless, it's worth the time and effort, as the tale it tells and the things it has to say are well worthwhile.
Even after a month of thinking about it, I'm still not certain if I can reconcile myself to the ending.
It was, I think, necessary for the story itself, but so often what is necessary for the story is not necessarily satisfying to the heart. Also, the climax and the ending bring up many questions, and most of these are not resolved.
Overall, it's a very good book, but it's one I want more time to digest; and I won't pretend that I like it as well as Swordspoint. It may very well be a book of greater quality, but my reaction to it is not, and cannot be, as overwhelmingly positive.
Scholars of myth will find this one interesting, as the treatment of the subject matter is both unconventional and very finely-honed. Fans of Swordspoint will enjoy the familiar setting and will also enjoy appearances of the relatives, offspring, and ghosts of characters from Swordspoint. Recommended at 7/10
In other randomness, I really need a book icon. I loves me my blue wolfie, but I don't know what it has to do with reading.
44) Fall of the Kings, by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, 505 pages
Y'all remember how much I loved Swordspoint. Set sixty years after the events of Swordspoint, Fall of the Kings is an even more ambitious book than its predecessor.
The last of the kings was murdered generations ago, and the wizards who served them have been repeatedly debunked as charlatans. Yet, in the city's university is a brilliant young professor, Basil St Cloud, who believes that the king's magicians were real, and their magic real. His lover, Theron Campion, is descended from the line of kings, from the murderer of the last king, in fact. Scholars and rebels are drawn to Campion and St Cloud, those who believe in the power of truth, and those who believe that the land must have a king. And opposing them are others who would conceal the truth and wish to prevent any king from rising.
Using this highly political backdrop, Kushner and Sherman spin a mythical and erotic tale as gripping as it is intellectually stimulating. And the challenges they set for themselves are no mean challenges.
Here the authors take a setting that I admired precisely because it had no magic in it, and make one of the main thrusts of the story a debate over whether magic is real.
Kushner and Sherman also manage a feat I would have thought impossible: they invent a fable of sacred kingship where the role of Goddess is not personified or characterized, and where the king's magician, always a man, acts as the king's connection to the land. I can't escape the feeling that this should offend me, but they make it work effortlessly, which is the remarkable part.
The writing is consistent, I can't really where Ellen stopped and Delia began, or who contributed what. Plotting, pacing, character, point of view, all meet or come close to the high standard set by Swordspoint.
This is not a lightweight book. It's complex, convoluted, and difficult in places, and one has to pay very careful attention while reading. Nevertheless, it's worth the time and effort, as the tale it tells and the things it has to say are well worthwhile.
Even after a month of thinking about it, I'm still not certain if I can reconcile myself to the ending.
It was, I think, necessary for the story itself, but so often what is necessary for the story is not necessarily satisfying to the heart. Also, the climax and the ending bring up many questions, and most of these are not resolved.
Overall, it's a very good book, but it's one I want more time to digest; and I won't pretend that I like it as well as Swordspoint. It may very well be a book of greater quality, but my reaction to it is not, and cannot be, as overwhelmingly positive.
Scholars of myth will find this one interesting, as the treatment of the subject matter is both unconventional and very finely-honed. Fans of Swordspoint will enjoy the familiar setting and will also enjoy appearances of the relatives, offspring, and ghosts of characters from Swordspoint. Recommended at 7/10
In other randomness, I really need a book icon. I loves me my blue wolfie, but I don't know what it has to do with reading.