ecl@ahutb.UUCP (e.c.leeper) (04/15/85)
THE DRAGON WAITING by John M. Ford
Avon, 1983, $3.50.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
The hard-cover edition of this novel was published two years ago and
won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel at last year's World Fantasycon.
So I eagerly awaited the paperback publication of THE DRAGON WAITING (okay,
so I'm cheap!). Well, it's finally available. Was it worth the wait? I'm
not sure, but I think it was.
The problem, I think, is that I'm not a historian. I know some
history, but there is so much history in this book--and it's not all real.
Though the book is chock-a-block with real historical characters (Richard
III, the Medicis, Louis XI, etc.), no one seems to be quite the way the
history book describe them--in fact, none of them seem to be Christian.
Everyone seems to belong to some strange cult or other, each with its own
special symbols and rites. Since my knowledge of *real* Fifteenth Century
history is perhaps not all that it should be (especially in Italy and
France, where most of the beginning of the book takes place), I spent most
of the novel telling myself that I was merely confused. Well, yes, when
they introduced the German vampire and the Welsh wizard, I knew that this
was not historically accurate, but I figured that this was just one small
bit pasted onto reality. It was not until I read the historical notes at
the end that I realized that Ford had constructed an alternate universe, one
in which the Emperor Julian re-established paganism and in which Justinian I
had time to consolidate his gains--in short, one in which Byzantium did not
fall to the Crusaders and in which Christianity remained merely another
strange sect (here called the Jeshites). I relate all this so that if *you*
read the book, you'll have a better idea of what is going on.
If I factor out my confusion in what the heck was going on with
history, I would have to say that I enjoyed the book. The characters were
interesting (though so many of them did tend to be confusing at times) and
the story, centering around Arthurian legends and what really did happen to
those two nephews of Richard III, was involving. The descriptive passages
are well-written (as one has come to expect of fantasy) and I suspect if you
can follow what's going on without the confusion that I had, it would be
completely involving. Do I recommend this novel? Let's put it this way--
now that I know where Ford is coming from, so to speak, I want to go back
and re-read the book. If that's not a recommendation, I'm not sure what is.
By the way, this is a prime example of why alternate history novels are
so hard to do well. They're either too heavy-handed about the dividing
points, making them very important and obvious events like the Crucifixion
or World War II, or they are too subtle, as in this novel. The heavy-handed
ones seem to feel that one can make large-scale changes without having them
filter down to small ones. (If World War II never happened, Kennedy would
never have been elected President, though one alternate history has that
pair of events happening.) The subtle ones leave the world so similar as to
confuse the reader. Perhaps only historians can really enjoy well-written
alternate history stories like this one.
Evelyn C. Leeper
For now, I am ...ihnp4!ahutb!ecl
But, on May 1, I become ...ihnp4!mtgzz!eclchenr@tilt.FUN (Ray Chen) (04/16/85)
In article <667@ahutb.UUCP> ecl@ahutb.UUCP (e.c.leeper) writes: > THE DRAGON WAITING by John M. Ford [... edited for the sake of brevity ...] > The problem, I think, is that I'm not a historian. I know some >history, but there is so much history in this book--and it's not all real. >Though the book is chock-a-block with real historical characters (Richard >III, the Medicis, Louis XI, etc.), no one seems to be quite the way the >history book describe them--in fact, none of them seem to be Christian. >Everyone seems to belong to some strange cult or other, each with its own >special symbols and rites. Since my knowledge of *real* Fifteenth Century >history is perhaps not all that it should be (especially in Italy and >France, where most of the beginning of the book takes place), I spent most >of the novel telling myself that I was merely confused. I, too, recently read THE DRAGON WAITING and had much the same problem. Then, I read in the notes that Ford was attempting to present a "solution" or scenario to the "Missing Princes" problem. The problem being that before Richard III, a reasonably nice guy for a noble, took the throne of England his nephews (who had better claims to the throne) died. The problem is that no one has been able to prove who or what killed them. It's quite possible that they could have died of some random fever, on the other hand, somebody who favored Richard (or Richard himself) could have had them murdered. Either way, there's no conclusive evidence as to the cause of their deaths. Once I knew that, I found myself re-reading various portions of novel and everything fell into place just beautifully. (Re-reading more carefully also cleared up some other points I was confused about). So, to summarize, I think THE DRAGON WAITING is a *fantastic* book. Ford's proposed solution is just mind-boggling. As a reader, you have to really *read* this book. It's not a book to be simply skimmed. Ford is a *very* precise, able, and efficient writer, one of the best wordsmiths I've ever read. He tends to write just enough to create the effect he's after -- and no more. He also tends to give the readers just enough information to figure out what's going on and why -- and no more. This kind of precision in writing is very difficult to pull off because if the writer miscalculates, he can leave the reader very confused. On the other hand, if he does things just right, he can leave the reader with an amazing sense of completion when the focal idea of the entire novel makes itself clearer and clearer as the last few chapter slowly unfold. In THE DRAGON WAITING, Ford does it just right. Ray Chen princeton!tilt!chenr
brust@hyper.UUCP (Steven Brust) (04/26/85)
> > ............................................................... Ford > is a *very* precise, able, and efficient writer, one of the best > wordsmiths I've ever read. He tends to write just enough to create the > effect he's after -- and no more. He also tends to give the readers > just enough information to figure out what's going on and why -- and no > more. This kind of precision in writing is very difficult to pull off > because if the writer miscalculates, he can leave the reader very > confused. On the other hand, if he does things just right, he can > leave the reader with an amazing sense of completion when the focal idea > of the entire novel makes itself clearer and clearer as the last few > chapter slowly unfold. In THE DRAGON WAITING, Ford does it just right. > > Ray Chen > princeton!tilt!chenr I completely agree with you on all points. The thing about Ford is that, in most cases, one must read him twice to fully understand what is going on. Usually, I'm tempted to call this a weakness. In the case of writers like Ford and Gene Wolfe, its okay, because there is so much in the book to enjoy even when the plot isn't fully clear, and because rereading them is such a pleasure. -- SKZB