Suldruns Garden: Lyonesse Book 1

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Part of what makes it different is Vance's willingness to embrace a sort of Edwardian storytelling style. He does not drop us into a non-stop actionfest. Neither is this a coming of age story.

At first the omniscient narrator, pace, and style is distancing. We are more observers than participants in Suldrun's early life. But gradually, gradually the reader is drawn into a world rich in detail, closely observed, and gloriously realized. I mentioned Eddison's famous epic.

The similarity to that novel is, I think, particularly deliberate: Both novels follow multiple character arcs. And both are kind to, or at least understanding of their villains of which there are many. While I think Eddison's work's flaws he was too unwilling to give up some of his juvenalia make is much less open to modern readers, Lyonesse shows that its author has closely and carefully observed these antique hallmarks of fantasythe ones that he would have cut his teeth on and the ones that I love as well.

If you've never experienced this trilogy, get it now. The great thing about Kindle is that deserving books can find a life away from the ignominy of being out-of-print. Here is one example of a reason why this is a wonderful thing: If you love fantasy, then spend a little time, like Suldren, in a secret garden lost to memory. I have been a fan of his for over fifty years, but had never gotten around to reading this series.

Being based in mythology, it has a somewhat different flow and rhetoric style than the rest of his works. Nevertheless, he carries you inexorably along, not allowing you to put down the book. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase. The story is built on a wonderfully fractious narrative that spins out between a half-dozen characters caught up in the political turmoil roiling the isles' kingdoms. In Lyonesse, the princess Suldrun rejects her father's plans to marry her off for political gain, finding peace and solace in a lost garden.

In Troicinet, the young prince Allais is comfortably out of the line of succession until his uncle dies, whereupon a jealous cousin tries to murder him and sets in motion a bittersweet tale of revenge and redemption. The people and the culture of the Elder Isles are beautifully brought to life by Vance's almost-poetic prose, which moves seamlessly between the hard edges of epic fantasy and the winsome quality of the Elder Isles' dark fairy-tale world. Mischievous fey, witches, trolls, and powerful sorcerers define the web of magic that weaves through the high-fantasy politics of Vance's realm, creating a fascinating hybrid that should appeal to readers across the fantasy spectrum.

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Or maybe it's that more women are reading fantasy these days and publishers think we want to read about bad-ass heroines who kill vampires. But, the publishers and authors are just giving us what we demand, I suppose. We all got sick of the sweeping medieval-style multi-volume epics that take forever to write, publish, and read. So now we get vampires and sassy chicks with tattoos and bare midriffs. When we've become glutted with those it can't be long now , what's next? I've got a suggestion: Publishers, why don't you reprint some of the best classic fantasy? Let's start with Jack Vance's Lyonesse.

Here we have a beautiful and complex story full of fascinating characters even those we only see for a couple of pages are engaging , unpredictable and shocking plot twists, and rambling and entertainingly disjointed adventure. As a psychologist, I especially appreciated the many insights into human cognition and perceptual processing that I found in Suldrun's Garden. But what's best is Jack Vance's unique style. He's quirky, funny, and droll. He uses language not just to tell us an interesting story, but he actually entertains us with the way he uses language to tell the story.

I love authors who respect the English language and compose their prose with care and precision. Many of Jack Vance's sentences are purposely funny in their construction and I find myself laughing and delighted not at what was said, but at how it was said. Here's his description of Shimrod's excursion to another world: He apprehended a landscape of vast extent dotted with isolated mountains of gray-yellow custard, each terminating in a ludicrous semi-human face.

All faces turned toward himself, displaying outrage and censure. Some showed cataclysmic scowls and grimaces, others produced thunderous belches of disdain. The most intemperate extruded a pair of liver-colored tongues, dripping magma which tinkled in falling, like small bells; one or two spat jets of hissing green sound, which Shimrod avoided, so that they struck other mountains, to cause new disturbance. And here is part of King Casmir's lecture to his daughter Suldrun when she announced that she's not ready to get married: That is sentiment properly to be expected in a maiden chaste and innocent.

I am not displeased. Still, such qualms must bend before affairs of state Your conduct toward Duke Carfilhiot must be amiable and gracious, yet neither fulsome not exaggerated. Do not press your company upon him; a man like Carfilhiot is stimulated by reserve and reluctance.

Still, be neither coy not cold Modesty is all very well in moderation, even appealing. Still, when exercised to excess it becomes tiresome. If you can find a used copy of Suldrun's Garden, the first of the Lyonesse trilogy, snatch it up. There are some available on Amazon and there's a kindle version, too. Beware the Fantasy Masterworks version, which is known to have printing errors. Jack Vance is original; You won't get his books confused with anyone else's. This is beautiful work for those who love excellent fantasy literature!

Read this review in context at Fantasy Literature. View all 7 comments. Dec 02, Lyn rated it liked it. I loved the idea behind the book. I mean, he just ADD Mixed feelings. Like a Steve Martin thumbprint on the snow globe of history. I loved the Celtic, Gaelic, Druidic — Atlantean — themes riding bareback across the pages.

Vance dredged up our collective mythic pre-history and made it fit somewhere in the early dark ages. There — right here — right over here in the Elder Isles. Along with faerie stories straight out of Celtic Twilight, there are creepy and dark tales from Brothers Grimm and the Black Forest, and also some gratuitous and graphic medieval violence. There are characters to whom we are introduced and in whom we are invested that … kind of just go away. There are great disjointed inconsistencies that … intrigue and make me want to read the next book.

View all 25 comments. May 14, Bradley rated it it was amazing Shelves: What a wonderful surprise! For an early eighties fantasy, it reads rather fantastically easy, with a near perfect blend of adventure, spry heroes and heroines, and an almost mythical command of myth, history, and magic in a hugely creative blend.

We're not even bogged down in any such weird concepts like "historical accuracy", either. And actually, I loved the whole idea of slap-dashing a whole continent next to Gaul and throwing in Merlin Murgen , Mithra, evil christians, the fae, chivalr Wow. And actually, I loved the whole idea of slap-dashing a whole continent next to Gaul and throwing in Merlin Murgen , Mithra, evil christians, the fae, chivalry, high Celts, and so much more.

Suldrun’s Garden

None of it overwhelmed the taste of adventure, where three kingdoms vied, played, made alliances, and started wars during a span of 30 years, and the characterizations were pure fantasy boilerplate, but lest you get turned off by that idea, just know that they all go through tons of changes Is that a problem? I was actually rather amazed at the sheer scope of where we started, from a princess's childhood Suldrun , her setup as a fairytale, then the betrayal of her wonderful prince Aillas , their love, and their tragedy merely sets the stage, even if it takes up a sizable portion of the book.

The rest of the tale happens to be one of the best written and most imaginative, quickly paced, and thoroughly satisfying traditional fantasy novels I've ever read, staying firmly on the road of adventure, adventure, adventure. Aillas's tragedy is only the starting point, after all, and making a ladder out of bones is just the beginning, especially after he learns that his lost Suldrun had a child.

Tons of trigger points for me, and I've never gotten tired of such tales. I just can't believe how awesome the adventure was, or just how much was accomplished all the way to a mostly happy ending. And now that I've finished the first book in the trilogy and loved it, I have absolutely no reason not to enthusiastically dive into The Green Pearl. View all 12 comments. Feb 04, Algernon rated it it was amazing Shelves: Centuries in the past, at that middle-distant time when legend and history start to blur, Blausreddin the pirate built a fortress at the back of a stony semi-circular harbor Blausreddin plays no further role in the present story, but his fortress eventually evolved into a city of fame and wonder: Lyonesse, the capital of the Elder Isles, an imaginary archipelago in the Atlantic, somewhere off the coasts of Britain and Bretagne.

As for the period in which the adventure takes place, the meeti Centuries in the past, at that middle-distant time when legend and history start to blur, Blausreddin the pirate built a fortress at the back of a stony semi-circular harbor As for the period in which the adventure takes place, the meeting of legend and history is set a couple of generations before the advent of King Arthur and his Knights. Here in the Elder Isles there is to be found the original Round Table, a symbol of both leadership and power sharing that the kings of Lyonesse misplaced into the custody of a rival kingdom.

It is worth noting here that the once united Isles are at the start of the epic divided into ten unruly and warring kingdoms: The reader will get a chance to get familiar with all of them over the next three ample volumes. The Arthurian Round Table and the quest of King Casmir of Lyonesse to recover it will form the main theme of the trilogy, but on this basic frame Jack Vance builds a meandering and many branched tale, often taking detours and sidetrips to explore the many natural wonders, the magical features and the curious habits of the people of the Elder Isles.

This apparent lack of focus and leisure pacing has given reason to some reviewers more concerned about linear storytelling to give a lower rating, but in my case it has provided an immersive experience and a continuous sense of wonder at the imaginative powers of the author, already evident in his other major series about The Dying Earth. Other similarities to that collection of stories include the numerous amoral protagonists, the wicked sense of humour, the elaborate and formal use of language, the gateways to parallel worlds and a pervasive melancholy, a sense of a doomed world that shines more brightly in its last flowering before a cataclysm or simple forgetfulness will erase it from our history books.

To the north the Sfer Arct passed between the crags Maegher and Yax: The short quote above illustrates how each turn in the road, each meadow in the forest and each mountain crag in the Elder Isles has a history, a hidden danger, a trace of magic infusing and defining its nature. The actual plot is so convoluted that I am having a bit of trouble knowing where to start, or how much to tell without spoiling the fun of discovery. Nominally, the first volume is about Suldrun, the beautiful, whimsical and sad daughter of the ambitious King Casmir of Lyonesse. A free spirit, she feels imprisoned in the sombre castle Haidion, roaming the cold stone halls in search of adventure.

Her mother wants her to show proper deportment and her father desires to give her in marriage in exchange of political advantages, but Suldrun is reluctant to leave one gilded cage for another.

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From the unequal conflict of wills with her father, she is banished to a secluded spot of the palace grounds, the only place where she can find peace and solitude: In here she will eventually learn both about true love and despair. Her tragic fate is hinted at early in the novel, as she comes across Persillian, a talking mirror with powers of prophecy, who shows her the face of a future lover, then mocks her following inquiries: From time to time I demonstrate the inconceivable, or mock the innocent, or give truth to liars, or shred the poses of virtue — all as perversity strikes me.

Now I am silent; this is my mood. While Suldrun languishes in her hidden garden, Aillas, Shimrod and the others roam the countryside far and wide, facing dangers from mortal and supernatural enemies. The one aspect of the world that remains in my mind at the end of the book, is the lack of a clear moral dividing line, the fickleness of destiny and the way bad things happen to innocent and guilty parties indiscriminately. As one of the wizards, Tamurello, remarks: What a strange and unfamiliar world if everyone were treated according to his desserts! Lyonesse will enchant you with its wonders, but will also break your heart when one of your favorite characters draws the short stick of chance.

Until I return with the second installment, I will dwell for a time at the Inn of the Laughing Sun and the Crying Moon , deep in the Forest of Tantrevalles, waiting for the Midsummer Night and the festival that usually takes place at a nearby crossroads. I hope to meet with some of my friends there: View all 10 comments.

Mar 27, mark monday rated it it was amazing Shelves: If Lyonesse were a food, it would be: Bits of different kinds of things all thrown into one receptacle but where you can still taste each individual food item, all smothered with custardy gooey goodness. So, how about a Lyonesse recipe you ask?

View all 3 comments. Jul 02, Ian Farragher rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Anyine with a willingness to be surprised. Jack Vance is the best writer you've never heard of. You can get lost in his tales whilst still believing that you are looking into the lives of real people. They may be people 10, or , years in the future; or further back, in some Ur-Common myth.

Suldrun's Garden

His characters are what make his stories. Lyonesse is a distant memory. I sought these books many times in yesteryear. The world has caught up a bit. What I remember from the first time is: I was m Jack Vance is the best writer you've never heard of. I was moved in a way I have never been with Tolkien or C. Lewis, Martin, or whomever. He made it seem lie history.

Suldrun's Garden (Lyonesse, book 1) by Jack Vance

So, this is no ordinary fairy tale, it's adult. This is a good read. If I count a series as one book this somewhere around 7 or 8 on my top Hey, if anyone wants to send me the original first run hardcovers for Christmas, or just because it's Tuesday , I would gladly accept them and mail you kisses back. They are mine, now.

It is also book one in the Lyonesse trilogy. Lyonesse was one of ten minor kingdoms on a large fictional island and some nearby smaller ones called the Elder Isles, situated to the west of Old Gaul The actual United Kingdom in the Atlantic. The Elder Isl 'Suldrun's Garden' is written with an amazingly huge number of disguised and re-imagined classic fairy-tale tropes using many of the non-fiction historical soap operas of England's actual royal families as a platform for the fictional plots.

The Elder Isles are today sunk under the sea, like the famous city of Atlantis, the small realms which each of the ten kings' held on their apportioned acreage on the divided island and their individual strivings for power living on in legends only. Many of the ancient tales seem to begin with Lyonesse at the center of the stories, either because its ambitious kings started much havoc in their attempts to control all of the Elder Isles or because of ruthless people who begin putting nefarious activities into play around Lyonesse by chance.

The book describes a series of events which are begun by the birth of neglected and unappreciated Suldrun, princess and daughter of the crowned heads of Lyonesse - King Casmir and Queen Sollace. Princess Suldrun becomes increasingly disobedient as she grows up, but she can never overcome her parents' authority in a large way.

Only a son can be heir to the throne of Lyonesse. Suldrun remains of value only as a pawn her father uses to dangle possible political alliances in discussions for trade, military support and power. When she finally defies her expected role, it sets in motion a set of unexpected outcomes and journeys for many other characters, some of whom do not appear linked to Lyonesse or Suldrun at all. Jack Vance has created a fictional world so complete I forgot it was entirely imaginary until the intrusion of magical creatures and magicians.

Maps, glossaries, and a history of infamous kings similar to those of the real European Middle Ages who constantly plotted against their neighbors for generations of skirmishes and warfare added to the effect of verisimilitude. Daughters and sons of kings find themselves used as chess pieces in ultimately meaningless but painfully life-altering political games involving marriage to seal alliances between frenemy kingdoms, which do not ever seem to go well in fact or fiction.

Commoners who serve their royal leaders live or die from whimsical commands and perceived slights, but common folk still suffer even if they live far away from the Royal castle on farms and in towns, attacked by brigands, murderers and thieves. Everybody, including Kings, are afraid of the magical beings and creatures living in woods and other places. Magicians and witches of various strengths are almost as feared as the ten hereditary kings.

I hesitate to say much more than this, gentle reader. The book reminded me of novels that were serialized in newspapers where the narrated journey of the different characters is more interesting than the ending. Different characters take over the point of view and we readers find the entertainment of the reading in the exquisite writing and world building, rather than on a focused endgame for the characters.

This book is primarily an entertainment of literary prowess and poetic writing. The author writes in a lovely, but dense, lyrical style. His characters live in an interesting, and eventually interlocking, world, but it is a novel of seemingly separate Grimm's-like fairy tales at first. I do not recommended it for those looking for happy endings or a taut organized progression of forward movement or a novel to read with your children.

Females are raped and men are punished with the typical violence utilized by our early primitive Middle Ages. Magical beings are completely into pursuits undifferentiated from ordinary men. The author has included a trope for every European fairy tale element and character I know about and many of whom I have never read anything, until now.

I was enchanted by the author's poetic lyricism and inventive imagination, and charmed by the intricate world-building, but I felt sad by the tragedies most characters endure. Feb 17, Jon is currently reading it. Crisp and complex, with a surprisingly bold earthiness, and an elegant opulent finish; the heady aromatics are reminiscent of oaks in bloom.

Pairs well with edam. Ok, now that that is out of the way what is Lyonesse? The story ostensibly takes place in the early middle ages of our wor First things first: The story ostensibly takes place in the early middle ages of our world, though in a medieval period that definitely never existed on our earth except perhaps in dreams. It is, in short, a delightful anachronism in which Vance is free to take whatever most suits his purposes from a large range of human history as he creates a variety of strange and wonderful cultures, both human and supernatural with the human cultures, as is natural for Vance, being as strange and bizarre as any of the faery races that inhabit these pages.

These isles are the home to many warring kingdoms from Lyonesse and Dahaut, to Troicinet and the Ulflands to name only a few the major ones. It is the dream of one of these Kings, Casmir of Lyonesse, to unite the varied kingdoms as of old under his iron rule. This first volume of the Lyonesse series sets up the main antagonist, the aforementioned King Casmir of Lyonesse, as a man of power and intelligence, willing to play the long game in his quest to overcome all obstacles that stand bewteen himself and absolute rule upon the ancient throne Evandig at the mythical round table of Cairbra an Meadhan.

Casmir has no compunction with using all of the tools which nature, and his position, have granted him, not least of which is his neglected yet beautiful daughter Suldrun. This loneliness is only mitigated by the existence of a secret garden that Suldrun discovers in one of her forays away from the castle and it is here that she is able to find a kind of peace and contentment in her life.

It is also here that she comes across a shipwrecked young man, Aillas of Troicinet, one of the first people to treat her kindly and with whom she soon falls in love. Alas, what is it that the bard said about the path of true love? Well, that of course applies here as well, and since Casmir has other plans for how best to apportion his daughter for political gain he is driven into a fury when he discovers the young lovers.

Suffice it to say that Aillas, the shipwrecked lover, is summarily thrown into a pit to rot, while Sulrdun is confined to her garden once it is discovered that she is pregnant. The remainder of the book pursues several paths as we follow each of the main players in the drama that is unfolding: Aillas, in a series of misadventures and tragedies, attempts to find his way both home and to his unknown son. The dialogue is, of course, very droll and urbane, as is to be expected in a work by Vance.

This has always been my favourite work by Vance though admittedly I still have many volumes of his to read and I thoroughly enjoy my trips to the Elder Isles. As always I also love the way in which Vance uses his broad canvas to play with history and create fascinating cultures that point out the absurdities of human nature and the sometimes convoluted modes of human conduct. The Ska are a standout here, his own version of antediluvian humans that can trace their culture back to the stone age and view all other races as sub-humans with whom they are at war.

This is great fun and I look forward to re-visiting volume 2. You could do far worse than beginning your Vancean journey amongst the tangled roads of the Elder Isles. View all 4 comments.

I can only say, the narrative brings the Lord of the Rings to mind, that with genealogies, the lore, the mild tone. And yet, and yet, I was glued to it. Suldrun's tale is riveting and no matter the omniscient narrator, or maybe thanks to its voice, immersing in the Elder Isles imagery, I turned and turned and turned the pages, forgetting everything else.

Ordinary experience is a dream. The eyes, the ears, the nose: Why trouble to make the distinction? When tasting a delicious wine, only a pedant analyzes every component of the flavor. When we admire a beautiful maiden, do we evaluate the particular bones of her skull? I am sure we do not. Accept beauty on its own terms: Jan 29, Bryan rated it it was amazing Shelves: Does any other author write amazing and strange fantasy so eloquently as Jack Vance? The question is nuncupatory. Mar 01, Eddie Costello rated it did not like it Shelves: I'm kinda on the fence about picking book 2 up Aug 21, Mohammed rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: I dont even like to read High fantasy usually but a dense for a Vance novel, story that is so imaginative, bold, ambitious and Vance at his literary best when it comes to prose style, use of language.

I would like to write a lengthy review to analyse this like a literary class essay the many sides of this mysterious, beautiful novel but it still wouldn't do justice to this magnificent novel. Which is odd, as I do adore those, the complexity and richness of the language, the sly wit and dark humour, the anti-heroes so well rendered. Lyonesse is a quite different beast. In some ways it feels far more of a traditional fantasy than the much earlier tales of Cugel the clever and Turjan and Chun the Unavoidable. It is definitely more of a true novel; most of the Dying Earth books are portmanteau made up of episodic short stories, while this is a distinct single tale.

The novel is set in several of the divided kingdoms of the Elder Isles, placed south of Ireland and north of Iberia, roughly where the Bay of Biscay becomes the Atlantic Ocean proper, as shown with a truly terrible map. We gather from the setting and occasional footnotes that this is where so many of the myths of Europe originate; this is Atlantis and Hy-Brasil and the Fairy Isles.

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