Towers Analogous

It's obvious that not all is well in Iest.

As the Bug continues his upward assent, carrying Elrod, and with Cerebus desperately trying to stop him, others in the city have begun to notice that the big tower like mountain that hangs over the city is starting to lean.

The Roaches ascent is drawn very cinematically. I don't know if Dave ever wanted Cerebus to be made into a film or if he studied movie making, but he drew a lot of the novel as if it were a very elaborate storyboard. As Artemis climbs he incurs a number of serious injuries, and catalogues them as he goes ever upwards to his goal. It's rather like a parody of James Bond or John McClaine, it doesn't matter how badly these celluloid heroes get hurt they just keep on going. From the Cockroaches frenzied muttering it appears he believes he has a score to settle with Thrunk (or as Artemis refers to him Epop). As always Astoria is at the heart of it. The insane 'superhero' thinks Thrunk has taken his beloved hostage.

Around the city the fall of the tower is being noticed. It crashes through the window of Powers cathedral. It is not known if the Bishop survives the impact. Thrunk appears not to notice it, but as he's a mountain himself it may not appear to be unusual to him. Astoria sees it happening and runs to the edge.

She sees the Roach and joyously welcomes him. It's highly likely she arranged this, telling Artemis that she was being held hostage, knowing that he'd move heaven and earth to rescue her. Imagine her surprise when he pushes past her with a growled 'Out of the way, bitch. I have a score to settle.'

The Broken Sword

Third in the Must-Read challenge.

I knew the name Poul Anderson, but I tended to see him as more of a science fiction author than a fantasy one. It was an unfair view, because like many of the early SFF authors Anderson crossed genres. He was actually well regarded as a fantasy author, being one of only 8 members of S.A.G.A (the Swordsmen and Sorcerors' Guild of America, Ltd), membership was limited to authors of the sword and sorcery subgenre of fantasy (the other 7 members were: Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp, John Jakes, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, Andre Norton and Jack Vance) august company indeed. The Broken Sword, which Poul Anderson wrote in the early 50's (it was first published in 1954) is a fantasy classic and it tends to defy categorisation, there are elements of S&S in it, but it's more than a barbarian hack and slash fest.

The Broken Sword is a short book, especially by today's doorstopper standard, it weighs in at just over 200 pages, but not one of those pages is wasted. The story follows it's hero; Skafloc, a child born of Orm the Strong, a Viking who settles in England, Skafloc is stolen by the Elf King Imric and in his place is placed Valgard, the result of a union between Imric and a captive troll lady. Eventually the two men clash and while the story builds to the inevitable battle between Skafloc and Valgard there is so much more to this story.

There's a vengeful witch, the war between elves and trolls, a forbidden love affair between Skafloc and his sister Freda. There's a patricide by the tortured Valgard, and the adventure of Skafloc and his Sidhe compatnion Mananaan to reforge the broken sword of the title. In fact the adventures that Skafloc and Mananaan have whilst trying to return from Jotunheim back to Alfheim would have made a book of their own, they are covered briefly, but you got the impression there was more material for Anderson here and it's a shame he never got to explore it.

There seems to be a misconception among readers new to the fantasy genre that hard edged, gritty and gory fantasy began with authors like George R R Martin and his epic A Song of Ice and Fire, this is not the case. While Anderson drew on Norse legends and the sword and sorcery work of Robert E. Howard, Martin has drawn on Anderson and his contemporaries. It even has the bleak sort of ending that is so beloved of Martin.

The Broken Sword is the work of a master and there's not a lot wrong with it. Some of the wording was a little old fashioned in parts, I could have done with a few less 'erenows', but even that assists Anderson in setting the mood he's was trying to evoke.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of Norse themed fantasy around if anyone enjoys what Poul Anderson has done with The Broken Sword. The only thing I can think to recommend are the works of Elizabeth Boyer, she wrote 3 Norse themed series between 1980 and 1995 (World of the Alfar, Wizard's War and Skyla), however she has stopped writing, so the books may be hard to find.

Flying Off The Handle At Oblique Angles

Keef returns with the Elrodroach in tow. Cerebus is still clinging to Prince Mick's leg thinking happy beautiful thoughts. Keef believes that the roach is a figment of his imagination caused by prolonged drug abuse. Once Elrod starts talking it's obvious that he too ins part of the Secret Sacred Wars.

One of the best Prince Mick and Keef jokes occurred at this point. Keef produces a small bag of drugs from somewhere. Mick demands to know where he found it. Keef replies that it was 'be'oind the 'ead rest tucked up unner th' fine trim. Sime plice you always 'oide it.' Keef then proceeds to snort the entire bag up his nose. Keef passes out and Cerebus asks Mick to tell Cerebus a story.

The Elrodroach tells Mick that he's off to touch the face or Tarim. Elrod leaves, then Mick remembers that Cerebus had gold, he asks Cerebus how much, a question to which the aardvark replies: 'oodles and boodles.' The princes are off to the upper city. As Keef says he should want to boy drogs with his 'alf.

Meanwhile the Secret Sacred Wars Roach is climbing up the mountain to the upper city to confront Thrunk, the false Pope, who he has taken to calling Epop. He meets Elrod, who he remembers as his sidekick Bunky (see the Captain Cockroach chapters way back in Swords of Cerebus) Seeing the Cockroach snaps Cerebus out of hid drug induced funk and he takes off after Elrod and the Roach. Mick tries to follow, but he's just had his nails done and doesn't want to damage them climbing up a mountain of gargoyles. Cerebus is desperately climbing after the Roach trying to get him to stop, he seems to feel that the Bug is courting disaster and with the final panel showing a looming tower over Iest it's hard to shake that feeling.

The Malacia Tapestry

The second of the 100 Must-Read Fantasy Novels challenge.

I’d never read any Brian Aldiss before. He’s predominantly a science fiction writer and as I’m not much of a science fiction fan he’d never interested me as an author. Until finding out about The Malacia Tapestry I was not even aware he’d written any fantasy, let alone something that seems to be regarded as a minor classic.

Calling The Malacia Tapestry a novel is rather misleading, it’s a series of vignettes that are loosely held together largely by the fact that they are all set in and around the fictional city of Malacia and told from the point of view of the idle, hedonistic, morally bankrupt actor Perian de Chirolo.

Some of the fun of the book is in trying to work out where Malacia is in our world or where it’s based on. There are elements of Renaissance Florence or Venice in the city, and I’ve seen a theory elsewhere that it’s in Dalmatia. While Malacia itself is obviously not real with its references to lizard men, flying people and ancestral animals (from the brief descriptions given they appear to be related to dinosaurs), there are a number of references to places such as Bosnia and the Ottomans. Malacia may be in some sort of alternate reality or world, there are hints that people are descended from the lizards that are now generally used by the Malacians as menials.

The stories are told in the first person by Perian de Chirolo and assume knowledge of the city and its wonders, which is a device Aldiss uses quite effectively so as to not over explain or describe what he is writing about. At times this can be frustrating, but overall it works successfully and retains a sense of wonder and gives the reader the feeling of reading about a genuinely alien place.

I found the book hard to take to, mainly because of Perian. I can’t really call him a hero, as he embodies so many characteristics that are anything but heroic. Anti-hero fits him nicely. Perian spends most of his time using his charm to prevail upon women for a living and sexual favours. He is, like his equally vacuous friend Guy de Lambant, an actor, although I don’t think he is ever paid for acting, I suspect he only pretends at being an actor because the ladies like it and it means he doesn’t have to actually get a job. Perian is not at all likeable and I wanted him to come to a sticky end.

The book lacks focus and this makes you wonder why you’re reading as there doesn’t seem to be any real point to the whole thing. One possible focus could be the way Malacia fiercely resists progress of any sort, this is what leads one of the other main characters; Progressive and foreign inventor Otto Benghtsohn, the owner and creator of a primitive form of movie camera to a tragic end.

Ultimately the lack of focus and purpose combined with an unsympathetic protagonist made the book a less than enjoyable experience. It’s hard to know what else to recommend to anyone who was thinking of reading this or something similar because I’ve never read anything quite like it. Two works that have elements that put me in mind of The Malacia Tapestry are: Scott Lynch’s first volume of the Gentleman Bastards series; The Lies Of Locke Lamora, the setting of Camorr, a city obviously based on Renaissance Venice is not unlike Malacia and more oddly Terry Pratchett’s Moving Pictures, the 10th Discworld book satirises Hollywood, but contains a magically powered moving making device which put me in mind of the ill fated Bengtsohn’s zahnoscope.

Missing It For The World

Cerebus is tramping through the snow, trying to get back to the upper city and he comes across a tall, outlandishly dressed man sitting by a broken down cart with a half empty bottle cradled in his hands.

When this character hears Cerebus' name his reaction is priceless: 'A Powp! Fancy tha!'
This is of course Prince Mick, we know him as Mick Jagger, he's travelling with his brother Prince Keef, who is better known as the other half of the Glimmer Twins; Keith (or as Dave likes to call him Keef) Richards.

Mick offers Cerebus the rest of his bottle of 150 proof T'Capmin whiskey, which Cerebus downs quickly before finding out that it is the brother's special blend, half whiskey, half codeine. So Cerebus is not only drunk, he's also high as a kite.

Mick and Keef were due to marry some large buttocked girls, who they later named the Buttock Sisters, whether or not this was really their name was never made clear. The brothers are trying to escape and Mick is burdened by the fact that if his brother is not permanently drugged to the eyeballs he wanders off in search of more narcotics.

Cerebus has a rather extreme reaction to the drugged alcohol and believes that bits of his body, most amusingly his nose, are coming loose and floating away.

The drug has the effect of making Cerebus 'love' everyone and he offers to give Mick ALL of his gold if he can just depose Thrunk and get to it.

Keef has wandered off in search of drugs and meets Elrod, wearing an enormous cockroach suit.

Dave adored the Rolling Stones, or more specifically Keith Richards. He once told the story about how he went to a Clapton concert and at the end Richards came on unnannounced to jam with Clapton. Dave's friend said that he jumped at least 3 feet in the air and started screaming 'Keef! Keef!' hysterically.

He nailed the Glimmer Twins in this chapter. It was the two of them in their prime, he had the clothes and the accent down and they acted the way everybody imagined they would from their public persona.

Watership Down

The first of the 100 Must-Read Fantasy Novels Challenge

I’d never actually read Watership Down. I heard the audio and saw the film, but as I was 12 years old when this happened my memories of both were virtually non existent. The only thing I could unfortunately remember clearly was Art Garfunkel’s awful chart topper: Bright Eyes, from the film soundtrack.

Watership Down began its life as stories that Richard Adams; a British civil servant, used to tell his daughters to keep them entertained during long car journeys. The girls insisted that their father write the stories down and have them published. It took him 18 months to put them into novel form, and to assist with accurately describing wild rabbit behaviour, he used The Private Life of the Rabbit by British naturalist Ronald Lockley. The book was rejected by 13 publishers before being accepted by a small publishing house.

Watership Down was published in 1972 and I can see why it was rejected so many times, not because it wasn’t a good book or well written, it is, but because it was a difficult book to classify and market to an audience at the time. Watership Down is a book about anthropomorphic animals; animals given human characteristics. These were nothing new, not even in the early 1970’s, but where Watership Down differed from other anthropomorphic animal books such as those written by Beatrix Potter and even Kenneth Grahame’s classic Wind in the Willows, was that Adams’ rabbits didn’t wear human clothes, live in houses or follow other human conventions. These were wild rabbits, they lived in burrows, they fought against other animals and each other for territory, food and mates. It was aimed at an older audience than had previously been interested in these type of books, at times the character’s speech evoked images of disenfranchised adolescents, in 1972 the subgenre of children’s fiction known as Young Adult did not exist. Despite this the book was marketed as a children’s book and even won the Carnegie Medal for children’s fiction in 1972.

The story follows a group of young rabbits (bucks) who leave their warren of Sandleford and set out to establish one of their own. They are driven by feelings that they don’t fit in and they also pay attention to the visions one of their number; Fiver, has regarding some sort of disaster that will befall the warren. Along the journey the rabbits survive encounters with predators (including foxes, cats and even people), adverse weather and other rabbits. They make friendships with other animals; an unnamed fieldmouse and a black-headed gull called Kehaar, finally they set up their own warren in an area known as Watership Down and are ultimately forced to defend it from attack by a nearby militant warren, led by the fearsome General Woundwort.

Eleven bucks set out from the Sandleford warren and this number has swelled to twenty by the end of the book when the original eleven establish their own warren. Hazel, is the main protagonist, he is an intelligent rabbit and becomes regarded as the Chief Rabbit by virtue of his natural leadership qualities. Fiver, Hazel’s litter mate, and runt of the litter, is a visionary who at times displays what appear to be mystical abilities. The heroic Bigwig, a big rabbit, who was formerly a member of the Sandleford warren’s ‘police’ or owlsla, is Hazel’s lieutenant. Dandelion is their storyteller and a late comer from Sandelford; Bluebell seems to be used for comic effect, although I think his experiences at Sandleford left him slightly addled, and at times he is almost comic tragic. The book has been criticised for its lack of strong female characters, although I felt that the does Hyzenthlay and Thethuthinnang played pivotal roles in the latter part of the novel. Of the non-rabbit characters only the black-headed gull, the heavily accented Kehaar, plays a significant part.

Adams gave his rabbits a history and a mythology, mostly featuring stories about the mythical trickster rabbit; El-ahrairah and his friend Rabscuttle. This was not something that had been done previously and he wove the stories skilfully into the main narrative. He also added in Lapine (the language of rabbits) words and phrases, they seemed to be old English in origin and I personally felt that the story would not have suffered without them. The way he expressed the accent of Kehaar was also irritating and made much of the gull’s speech hard to understand and difficult to follow.

Those two small quibbles aside I found the book a fast moving, exciting narrative that holds the reader's interest and it is one of those rare books that transcends age barriers. Child and adult alike will find something to enjoy and think about in the pages of Watership Down.

If you liked Watership Down and wanted to read other similar novels I can personally recommend: The Plague Dogs (another Adams novel, this is about two dogs that escape from a laboratory in an effort to be free and find somewhere that they belong), Tailchaser’s Song by Tad Williams, a heroic fantasy about cats, A.R Lloyd’s Kine or Marshworld, about a weasel’s attempt to defend his home and friends from an invasion by escaped minks (this is actually the first of the Kine Saga trilogy, but reads well as a standalone and I didn’t think the other two lived up to the standard set by the opening novel) and Garry Kilworth’s House of Tribes, a tale about the societies of mice living in an English country house, where all cats are French and the dogs are Japanese. Kilworth has also written a series about anthropomorphic weasels; The Welkin Weasels.

Chariot Of The Queen, Chariot Of The Lovers

Sometimes I think Dave spent more time working on the titles than the actual story. This is one of those issues.

Michelle calls her 'boys' into dinner. I assumed it was workers on her property. The 'boys' are actually Michelle's 'Uncle' Artemis aka The Roach and the McGrew brothers. This is possibly why the sudden appearance of Cerebus in her basement didn't surprise Michelle.

The Roach and his two disciples behave rather like large, squabbling children and Michelle treats them that way.

Once they've eaten and left Michelle sits down with Cerebus and tells him that Weisshaupt gave her something for him. Apparently it was one of his dying wishes that if for some reason Cerebus lost the papacy he wanted him to regain it, it belonged to someone mundane. Even from the grave Weisshaupt is still managing to irritate the aardvark.

In the envelope that Michelle gives to Cerebus is a single sheet of paper, on the paper is a picture of a cannon with the word BOOM written next to it. Cerebus' eyes snap wide open, he now knows how to get his papacy back. The thought of Cerebus with something more lethal than a sword is a frightening one. Michelle looks out the window and to her surprise sees that it is snowing in the middle of Summer.