donn (05/08/83)
This large (436pp), expensive ($6.95 in trade paperback) book is the
first volume of a series with the overall title of LYONESSE. (The
actual title of this volume is SULDRUN'S GARDEN; I don't know why
Berkley couldn't have put this on the cover.) The blurbs and cover
painting might lead you to believe that the book is full of Gothic
mush, but my experience with Vance is that he has a reasonably low
tolerance for mush and while there is some silliness in the book it is
by and large outweighed by the usual dark and dry humor.
The basic story is that the Elder Isles of Hy Brasil once lay off the
coast of France in the Bay of Biscay. They existed for some time up
until the Middle Ages, after which they disappeared, for reasons
unexplained. The isles are divided into several petty kingdoms which
struggle among each other to gain sway over the entire land, as once
was the case under King Olam of Lyonesse, long ago. Lyonesse itself is
both a town and a country, and it is ruled by King Casmir, a humorless
and efficient man who seeks to gain control of the governments of
neighboring Dascinet, Troicinet and South Ulfland through trickery or
force. The first part of the book follows the childhood of Suldrun,
daughter of Casmir. This part is somewhat depressing (and a bit slow,
too) because Suldrun gets abuse from her mother for being a girl
instead of a son, from her father for not being ready to marry any
politically useful male who visits the castle, and from her attendants
because she is too independently minded. Eventually she embarrasses
Casmir by refusing to be betrothed to Faude Carfilhiot, lord of Tintzin
Fyral Castle, and she is imprisoned in an abandoned garden by the sea.
One day a barely breathing body washes up and it turns out to be
Aillas, the nephew of the King of Troicinet. The rest of the book is
the story of Dhrun, the son of Suldrun and Aillas who is brought up by
the fairies, Aillas and his search for Dhrun, and Shimrod the magician,
who takes on Dhrun as an apprentice and then loses him to Faude
Carfilhiot, who uses the boy as a hostage... This complicated plot is
nowhere near resolved by the end of the book, so be prepared for the
sequel.
This is an enjoyable book although it drags a bit in a few places; not
perhaps as good as THE DYING EARTH but worth buying if you like Vance.
Donn Seeley UCSD Chemistry Dept. RRCF ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn
(619) 452-4016 sdamos!donn@nprdc