Post by Taika of Narfell on Jan 6, 2007 5:18:45 GMT 1
Katharine Kerr - Daggerspell (1st in Deverry series)
First in a series of four, Daggerspell faces the problem of introducing a new setting to the reader as well as a gallery of characters to last through more than just one book. This is always a challenge and sadly that's where many a first book of a series fail to become as engaging as they could be. The error is an easy one to make. If you have a world you'd like your reader to become familiar with you might end up with a tendency to drone on when imparting facts about your beloved creation, but these facts are not interesting to the reader without a good story to go with it - in proper measures. Tolkien made that mistake. There's also the risk of setting your plot up to be so expansive that the gallery of characters is so big that you never really manage to go in-depth in the description of any of them, thereby resulting in the story becoming insignificant because none of the characters will matter to the reader and then, why should their stories?
Very often writers make up for these lacks in their second book in their series. But I must say that Katharine Kerr is blessed with not having such obligations after Daggerspell. As a beginning of a series it is absolutely brilliantly set up. The character gallery is limited, though it does not seem so at first, and the world's true expanse is merely hinted at, while most of the story takes place in just one rather small region of a kingdom. This makes the story easily accessible and the reader can use their energy on enjoying the tale and think along with the plot rather than having to keep track of two million characters or facts about a setting.
The first thing we meet in the book is a note on pronunciation of Deverry words and names, a very nice thing to have when the author uses names that are unfamiliar to our Earth 2006 AD tongues. The next thing is a couple of maps, to give us some idea of how these lands are put together and where things are - especially where cities and therefore Lords and their warbands are placed in relation to each other. Also very useful.
The story itself starts with a brief glance at the spirit world of Kerr's universe, and a date, which becomes important later on. The one event described there will not make sense till some pages into the book. That, however, is the only glance at the existence out of touch with the humans' world we get. We are introduced to the concept of Wyrd, which in Deverry means destiny. Next person introduced is the old man, Nevyn, a character I have been very annoyed with and felt much compassion for throughout this book. He is the sage character of this book, the wise old man, who peddles his herbs throughout the land, while actually keeping an eye on everything and not letting on that he's the most powerful 'wizard' in the kingdom. Kerr dos not use the term wizard, though, magic is called dweomer in Deverry and is mostly thought to be the stuff of children's tales and mere superstition. It is very real, however, and Nevyn is a master of wielding the dweomer, all the while being a grandfatherly old herbman.
Next Cullyn of Cerrmor and his daughter Gilyan (Jill) are introduced; two characters who will mean everything in this tale. Cullyn, a once dishonoured warrior who must live as a mercenary - a silver dagger - because such is the lot of men with no honour and Jill, the bastard daughter Cullyn had with a woman who dies when Jill is but 7 years old. Towards the end of the first part of the book, Nevyn draws some parallels and conclusions regarding a person he meets and this sets off the second part that takes place 400 years earlier, starring completely different characters. At least that is the first impression the reader gets. As things become clearer the strings between the past and the future become tangible, and the extent of the reincarnation and karma in Deverry is laid bare to the reader. Whatever one does it can come back to haunt one in subsequent lives, and oaths sworn to the Lords of Wyrd are to be taken seriously. I will not reveal too much here, because while it sounds extremely complicated at first, it is actually rather simple, and once you know one thing you'll figure the rest out so I'll try not to spoil too much.
Character development wise Daggerspell is not very advanced. We follow some characters over the course of many years and they experience all sorts of horrors, they learn more about the world and themselves. They all grow, and many of them grow on you, but many of them are also somewhat stereo-typed. In that fashion, Daggerspell is very akin to an overgrown fairy tale, there are loyal knights, there are traitors, wise old men and women, damsels in distress and so on and so forth, but the reincarnation pattern both strengthens and diversifies these principles, and so it becomes more than a fairy tale.
Theme wise it deals with love and betrayal, not just the usual kinds, though, but also the forbidden kinds of love. Especially the subject of incest becomes a key point, and people who cannot handle mention of such a thing should stay away from this book.
Also those looking for action and awesome battles are advised to look elsewhere, there is only very little fighting throughout this book. When there is some it's bloody and dirty and not at all the glorified dance other writers would make it. Most of the book is centered around how the characters interact with each other and how they relate to one another. This makes for both some very amusing conversations, some charming ones, some interesting politics, horrifying intrigues and heartfelt declarations of love. My feeling of this book was that of an action-filled story, and yet when I think about it, there wasn't much action to speak of till late in the book. This is a cadeau to Kerr's writing since her dialogues are good enough for me to feel them as a kind of action, truly her writing is highly enjoyable and I plan to move straight onwards to Darkspell to see what comes next.
A highly recommendable read.
First in a series of four, Daggerspell faces the problem of introducing a new setting to the reader as well as a gallery of characters to last through more than just one book. This is always a challenge and sadly that's where many a first book of a series fail to become as engaging as they could be. The error is an easy one to make. If you have a world you'd like your reader to become familiar with you might end up with a tendency to drone on when imparting facts about your beloved creation, but these facts are not interesting to the reader without a good story to go with it - in proper measures. Tolkien made that mistake. There's also the risk of setting your plot up to be so expansive that the gallery of characters is so big that you never really manage to go in-depth in the description of any of them, thereby resulting in the story becoming insignificant because none of the characters will matter to the reader and then, why should their stories?
Very often writers make up for these lacks in their second book in their series. But I must say that Katharine Kerr is blessed with not having such obligations after Daggerspell. As a beginning of a series it is absolutely brilliantly set up. The character gallery is limited, though it does not seem so at first, and the world's true expanse is merely hinted at, while most of the story takes place in just one rather small region of a kingdom. This makes the story easily accessible and the reader can use their energy on enjoying the tale and think along with the plot rather than having to keep track of two million characters or facts about a setting.
The first thing we meet in the book is a note on pronunciation of Deverry words and names, a very nice thing to have when the author uses names that are unfamiliar to our Earth 2006 AD tongues. The next thing is a couple of maps, to give us some idea of how these lands are put together and where things are - especially where cities and therefore Lords and their warbands are placed in relation to each other. Also very useful.
The story itself starts with a brief glance at the spirit world of Kerr's universe, and a date, which becomes important later on. The one event described there will not make sense till some pages into the book. That, however, is the only glance at the existence out of touch with the humans' world we get. We are introduced to the concept of Wyrd, which in Deverry means destiny. Next person introduced is the old man, Nevyn, a character I have been very annoyed with and felt much compassion for throughout this book. He is the sage character of this book, the wise old man, who peddles his herbs throughout the land, while actually keeping an eye on everything and not letting on that he's the most powerful 'wizard' in the kingdom. Kerr dos not use the term wizard, though, magic is called dweomer in Deverry and is mostly thought to be the stuff of children's tales and mere superstition. It is very real, however, and Nevyn is a master of wielding the dweomer, all the while being a grandfatherly old herbman.
Next Cullyn of Cerrmor and his daughter Gilyan (Jill) are introduced; two characters who will mean everything in this tale. Cullyn, a once dishonoured warrior who must live as a mercenary - a silver dagger - because such is the lot of men with no honour and Jill, the bastard daughter Cullyn had with a woman who dies when Jill is but 7 years old. Towards the end of the first part of the book, Nevyn draws some parallels and conclusions regarding a person he meets and this sets off the second part that takes place 400 years earlier, starring completely different characters. At least that is the first impression the reader gets. As things become clearer the strings between the past and the future become tangible, and the extent of the reincarnation and karma in Deverry is laid bare to the reader. Whatever one does it can come back to haunt one in subsequent lives, and oaths sworn to the Lords of Wyrd are to be taken seriously. I will not reveal too much here, because while it sounds extremely complicated at first, it is actually rather simple, and once you know one thing you'll figure the rest out so I'll try not to spoil too much.
Character development wise Daggerspell is not very advanced. We follow some characters over the course of many years and they experience all sorts of horrors, they learn more about the world and themselves. They all grow, and many of them grow on you, but many of them are also somewhat stereo-typed. In that fashion, Daggerspell is very akin to an overgrown fairy tale, there are loyal knights, there are traitors, wise old men and women, damsels in distress and so on and so forth, but the reincarnation pattern both strengthens and diversifies these principles, and so it becomes more than a fairy tale.
Theme wise it deals with love and betrayal, not just the usual kinds, though, but also the forbidden kinds of love. Especially the subject of incest becomes a key point, and people who cannot handle mention of such a thing should stay away from this book.
Also those looking for action and awesome battles are advised to look elsewhere, there is only very little fighting throughout this book. When there is some it's bloody and dirty and not at all the glorified dance other writers would make it. Most of the book is centered around how the characters interact with each other and how they relate to one another. This makes for both some very amusing conversations, some charming ones, some interesting politics, horrifying intrigues and heartfelt declarations of love. My feeling of this book was that of an action-filled story, and yet when I think about it, there wasn't much action to speak of till late in the book. This is a cadeau to Kerr's writing since her dialogues are good enough for me to feel them as a kind of action, truly her writing is highly enjoyable and I plan to move straight onwards to Darkspell to see what comes next.
A highly recommendable read.