Like Linda, I picked up a book or two at SF Bokhandeln‘s sale. Among them was Jo Walton’s The Prize in the Game, a book (and, indeed, a setting) that I had long written-off, despite the subject matter being interesting; the only reason I picked it up now was that it was a hardcover and it was selling for 10 crowns (that’s a little over a dollar), and I supposed that if I didn’t like it I could chuck it or perhaps get a good price for it as a used bookstore. I can’t quite recall the reasons for why I wrote it off, now, but I can only say after reading it that I was being an idiot.
The novel’s setting is a pseudo-Ireland circa the 5th or 6th century, and is something of a prequel to her first two novels, the Sulien duology of The King’s Peace and The King’s Name; reading that series is, apparently, not necessary to understanding the prequel, although I suspect the somewhat abrupt ending of the book feeds into details related in the duology. In any case, Walton weaves together a very interesting retelling of Irish myth and legend (particularly the Cattle Raid of Cooley, featuring the great Irish hero Cú Chulain) in a vein similar to Morgan Llywelyn’s excellent (and underappreciated) Finn Mac Cool. Magic is as natural as breathing in this novel, although it takes awhile for the reader to realize just how true this is.
Featuring four different point-of-view characters—all of them youths of sixteen or seventeen spending a year together at the court of one of the many kings of Tir Isarnagiri (that’s the name of pseudo-Ireland)—Walton takes her time in laying out the relationships of the characters in fashion that feels remarkably realistic for people of that age. In fact, the thing I marvel most at is how this story—which takes as its basis one of the great epics of Irish legend—is really all about the complex relationships between the four perspective characters and the notable secondary characters, and it really does work. It takes a completely different angle at the Cú Chulain legend than, say, Llywelyn’s Red Branch, and does so to its benefit. In this, I think it reminds me most of Kay’s The Last Light of the Sun, in which a grand tale fit for singers is, in fact, rendered out of much less grand events that turn on relationships.
(Semi-spoilerish: It should be noted that one of the four POVs, Elenn, is—in the duology, which is very loosely inspired by the Arthurian legend—something like Guinevere. There’s a line in a ballad there, quoted at the beginning of Prize, in which it’s said she was loved by the two best men in the world. One, as you might suppose, is the Arthur-analogue of the duology. The other is featured in this book, and when you realize who it is, I think you’ll be just as impressed as I was by how Walton is able to realize the sheer youth of these characters. Suffice it to say, what Elenn believes—and, indeed, what the world believes—of that second marvel is quite different from the reality (and the unvocalized tragedy) that he understood. I think this realization was my single biggest payoff in the novel.)
All in all, I do feel like an idiot for avoiding these novels. I now mean to get a hold of the Sulien books forthwith, and then try Walton’s critically-acclaimed Tooth and Claw.