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olliefern's review against another edition
4.0
I've read Lyonesse 4 times - placing it in my own personal pantheon right at the top with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
I first read it as a teenager and immediately fell in love with it. Sure, there were some minor plot holes - especially as the story moved through the trilogy of the same name - but its overall charm won in the end. Then, a few years later in university, I tried reading it again and thought it was a terrible misogynistic creation - to the point where I took the whole trilogy to a nearby charity shop and gave it away.
Seventeen years later and I was tempted to revisit the series again and find out why I'd loved it in the first place, and if the misogyny was really so bad. What I discovered was a world firmly in the mold of Angela Carter's fairy tales - the bite and sting from fairies and trolls casually sitting beside the evil committed by kings and queens. Not only that but some of Chaucer's ribaldry too. Stories definitely not meant for children. It's been a reminder for me of how important it is to revisit loved books: the stories never remain the same - we see them through different eyes as we grow older.
Finally, in 2020, I read it for a fourth time. Devoured it, to be more correct. I now live in a remote farm in Brazil and Lyonesse - with its cruel fairies and valiant heroes - seemed like the perfect companion during rainy days. I wasn't wrong.
G.R.R. Martin took, no doubt, a lot of inspiration from Lyonesse for his A Song of Ice and Fire series - the geography of both worlds is similar as well as its intrigues, horrors, tragic love stories and magic. Lyonesse, however, is an expansion on the Arthurian legend which gives Vance more scope to play with motifs such as early Christianity (one of the biggest horrors in the book is the building of a chapel in a beautiful and remote garden.) G.R.R. Martin must have also taken note of the major plot twist in this novel that takes all readers by surprise which raises the novel above others in the fantasy genre.
I first read it as a teenager and immediately fell in love with it. Sure, there were some minor plot holes - especially as the story moved through the trilogy of the same name - but its overall charm won in the end. Then, a few years later in university, I tried reading it again and thought it was a terrible misogynistic creation - to the point where I took the whole trilogy to a nearby charity shop and gave it away.
Seventeen years later and I was tempted to revisit the series again and find out why I'd loved it in the first place, and if the misogyny was really so bad. What I discovered was a world firmly in the mold of Angela Carter's fairy tales - the bite and sting from fairies and trolls casually sitting beside the evil committed by kings and queens. Not only that but some of Chaucer's ribaldry too. Stories definitely not meant for children. It's been a reminder for me of how important it is to revisit loved books: the stories never remain the same - we see them through different eyes as we grow older.
Finally, in 2020, I read it for a fourth time. Devoured it, to be more correct. I now live in a remote farm in Brazil and Lyonesse - with its cruel fairies and valiant heroes - seemed like the perfect companion during rainy days. I wasn't wrong.
G.R.R. Martin took, no doubt, a lot of inspiration from Lyonesse for his A Song of Ice and Fire series - the geography of both worlds is similar as well as its intrigues, horrors, tragic love stories and magic. Lyonesse, however, is an expansion on the Arthurian legend which gives Vance more scope to play with motifs such as early Christianity (one of the biggest horrors in the book is the building of a chapel in a beautiful and remote garden.) G.R.R. Martin must have also taken note of the major plot twist in this novel that takes all readers by surprise which raises the novel above others in the fantasy genre.
shoba's review
3.0
An epic tale of kings and knights, wizards and fairies and ambitions and betrayals.
The Princess Suldrun of Lyonesse, is under house arrest and forced to consider an undesirable marriage.
“‘Suldrun refused to look toward her father. "I am made out to be something I do not choose to be."
"You do not enjoy the admiration of men?"
"I have done nothing admirable."
"Nor has a rose, nor a sapphire of many facets."
"They are ornaments; they have no life of their own.’”
Prince Aillas, Suldrun’s betrothed, and father of their son, Dhrun, fights to regain the throne of Troicinet and to find his son. Aillas, with the help of the magician Shimrod, seeks Duke Carfilhiot, the man who is holding his son hostage.
"….My own quest can wait an hour or two." The Never-fail still dangled from his wrist. He glanced at the index, then again, incredulously. "Look you at the tooth!"
"Now it points south!"
Aillas turned slowly to Shimrod. "Carfilhiot drove south with two children: what are their names?"
"Glyneth and Dhrun."
Duke Carfilhiot is defeated and the now King Aillas is reunited with his son. However war with King Casmir of Lyonesse, father of the now deceased Princess Suldrun, seems imminent.
“‘Did you find his face familiar?" An arch and meaningful smile trembled along Brother Umphred's lips.
Casmir glared at him. "As a matter of fact, I did. What of it?"
"Do you recall the young man who insisted that I marry him to the Princess Suldrun?"
Casmir's mouth sagged. He stared thunderstruck, first at Brother Umphred, then out across the sea. "I dropped him into the hole. He is dead."
"He escaped. He remembers."
Casmir snorted. "It is impossible.’”
The Princess Suldrun of Lyonesse, is under house arrest and forced to consider an undesirable marriage.
“‘Suldrun refused to look toward her father. "I am made out to be something I do not choose to be."
"You do not enjoy the admiration of men?"
"I have done nothing admirable."
"Nor has a rose, nor a sapphire of many facets."
"They are ornaments; they have no life of their own.’”
Prince Aillas, Suldrun’s betrothed, and father of their son, Dhrun, fights to regain the throne of Troicinet and to find his son. Aillas, with the help of the magician Shimrod, seeks Duke Carfilhiot, the man who is holding his son hostage.
"….My own quest can wait an hour or two." The Never-fail still dangled from his wrist. He glanced at the index, then again, incredulously. "Look you at the tooth!"
"Now it points south!"
Aillas turned slowly to Shimrod. "Carfilhiot drove south with two children: what are their names?"
"Glyneth and Dhrun."
Duke Carfilhiot is defeated and the now King Aillas is reunited with his son. However war with King Casmir of Lyonesse, father of the now deceased Princess Suldrun, seems imminent.
“‘Did you find his face familiar?" An arch and meaningful smile trembled along Brother Umphred's lips.
Casmir glared at him. "As a matter of fact, I did. What of it?"
"Do you recall the young man who insisted that I marry him to the Princess Suldrun?"
Casmir's mouth sagged. He stared thunderstruck, first at Brother Umphred, then out across the sea. "I dropped him into the hole. He is dead."
"He escaped. He remembers."
Casmir snorted. "It is impossible.’”
tpalmi's review
adventurous
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
mrfrenchtoasts's review against another edition
4.0
4.5/5. Took me a while to read this. I took a few breaks in between readings. Not sure why though, because this book is proper greatness. It's my first Vance book, and I think I'm hooked. Fleshed out character, great prose, great story, what more can you ask for? Also, I think I've never used a dictionary as much as I did while reading this. Not sure how he found all those perfect words, but it never felt forced. The low part of the book is in the middle, it's just walking and walking, and bad luck. It was fine, but after about 250 pages you want a change in scenery.
I'll definitely read the next one.
I'll definitely read the next one.
pureliquidevil's review against another edition
5.0
Jack Vance doesn't disappoint. He's truly one of the best and most underrated sci-fi fantasy writers.
aurelia2's review
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.5
ashleylm's review against another edition
5.0
Let's be clear: it's not perfect, and it's not for everybody. But (for me) it's imperfections seem deliberate and charming. It was apparently written in the 1980s, but has the air of something written in the 1940s crossed with something written in the 1600s.
If you're familiar with the "romance" genre--not the Harlequin or Mills & Boone kind of romance, but the antecedent of the novel, exemplified in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, you will have a sense of what to expect: a dazzling array of characters, whose character is little delved into, points-of-view that skip all over the place, an uneven sense of scale and description (there is no guarantee that the more that is written, the more important it is. At one point he lists, in list form, the characteristics of a dozen or-so individual fairies, none of whom enter into the story), and other such flaws.
And yet, it felt like a masterwork to me, and criticizing it would be like criticizing The Odyssey or Grimms' Fairy Tales. I loved it. It was odd, but lovely, and very much itself throughout.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
If you're familiar with the "romance" genre--not the Harlequin or Mills & Boone kind of romance, but the antecedent of the novel, exemplified in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, you will have a sense of what to expect: a dazzling array of characters, whose character is little delved into, points-of-view that skip all over the place, an uneven sense of scale and description (there is no guarantee that the more that is written, the more important it is. At one point he lists, in list form, the characteristics of a dozen or-so individual fairies, none of whom enter into the story), and other such flaws.
And yet, it felt like a masterwork to me, and criticizing it would be like criticizing The Odyssey or Grimms' Fairy Tales. I loved it. It was odd, but lovely, and very much itself throughout.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
ommsetu's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. This is written in a classic high fantasy style, so the characters are a bit less nuanced than we've come to expect from modern fantasy, but Vance has developed a really interesting fantasy world in Lyonesse, and I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
kimburglar's review against another edition
4.0
Vance uses a lot of fantasy tropes with self-awareness and a matter-of-fact narration style that regards ridiculous scenarios so casually that it only further emphasizes how silly traditional fantasy tends to be. In one of my favorite side anecdotes, a duke and his friends attend a solstice festival pageant: "...they agreed that the maidens who represented the Seven Graces were remarkably charming, but could form no consensus as to which was supreme. They discussed the matter well into the evening over wine, and at last, to resolve the matter in a practical way, kidnapped all seven of the maidens and took them across the water to Malvang." I'd read a few Vance short stories before this book, and all read in a similarly snarky voice. There are warring kingdoms, magicians, fairies, and a smattering of monsters, and most of them have enormous egos: as a result, the political and magical disputes that would normally read as epic fantasy feels more like a sitcom of petty grievances.
Characters tend to fall cleanly on the good and bad side, and the good protagonists are blandly angelic with moments of violent justice. There isn't a single protagonist, as Suldrun's Garden consists of five separate narrative threads that come together nicely in the end. Though the heroes suffer from blandness, their journeys take the reader through a large scope of the world; they're also abused almost everywhere they go, setting up several revenge quests that end up being the more engaging parts of the story.
I really could have done without the fantasy trope requiring all ladies enduring sexual harassment/abuse. Every female character is threatened with rape, especially a girl who is frequently described as not yet a woman. There's a somewhat worrisome amount of adults and trolls lusting after and forcing themselves upon prepubescent girls.
Characters tend to fall cleanly on the good and bad side, and the good protagonists are blandly angelic with moments of violent justice. There isn't a single protagonist, as Suldrun's Garden consists of five separate narrative threads that come together nicely in the end. Though the heroes suffer from blandness, their journeys take the reader through a large scope of the world; they're also abused almost everywhere they go, setting up several revenge quests that end up being the more engaging parts of the story.
I really could have done without the fantasy trope requiring all ladies enduring sexual harassment/abuse. Every female character is threatened with rape, especially a girl who is frequently described as not yet a woman. There's a somewhat worrisome amount of adults and trolls lusting after and forcing themselves upon prepubescent girls.