The Shattered Chain is the first book in the trilogy introduces the two central characters, Jaelle and Magda/Margali, along with some background for the former. It also marks the first lengthy description of the Dry-Towns (at least in terms of Darkovan chronology).
The trilogy as a whole is MZB's most concerted effort to explore the issues of feminism and female oppression in Darkover up until that point, though she had previously engaged in single volumes such as Hawkmistress! and Two to Conquer.
The book also marks the first extended narrative inclusion of Terrans within their own milieu - Two to Conquer had previously featured a displaced Terran, but now we can see Terrans operating from their own spaceport.
A less pleasant aspect of the plot is that it appears to engender a rather derogatory parallel to Islam, as the women of the Dry-Towns are clearly situated within an Arabic civilisation, but kept literally in chains. While MZB may not have intended the comparison, it is an inevitable one - the Dry-Towners are shown are irredeemably chauvinistic, brutally enslaving the women of Dry-Town society to forever wear chains in symbolic acceptance of their submission.
Nevertheless, the way in which the book manages to weave together three disparate sections into a cohesive whole is enjoyable, and it performs its job of setting up the next two books admirably.
The second book in the Saga of the Renunciates, Thendara House contains both good and bad elements of MZB's concern with gender issues.
On the plus side, we see an in depth look at the combined Sisterhood of the Sword and Priestesses of Avarra, whose coming together was implied in Two to Conquer. They have now become the Free Amazons, or Renunciates, less a military than a female collective of various professionals. Midwives and mercenaries provide the most powerful characters, as the women from The Shattered Chain are found once more, older and increasingly detailed.
However, on the down side the characters seem to often become mere mouthpieces for MZB's didactic intrusions, which while interesting as polemic sit uneasily within a fantasy novel. These work much better when MZB wove them into the plot and the characters, which she also does here, but there are a number of long dialogues which have the feeling of an essay plonked uncomfortably into the middle of a fantasy novel.
Still, Jaelle and Magda draw upon your affections, and you can't help but feel some small emotion for the increasing difficulties of their trials.
City of Sorcery is the final volume in the Saga of the Renunciates takes a different route, which starts off promisingly. The plot is 'suggested by', MZB tells us, Talbot Mundy's The Devil's Guard, written in 1926. Not having read that novel, I can't say how much she takes from Mundy, but it appears to have been a useful style manual - the structure of City of Sorcery is noticeably improved from some of MZB's earlier books.
However, I found the 'mystical order of priestesses' readers will recognise from The Mists of Avalon a bit annoying in their nebulous 'spirituality', not to mention the levels of power MZB seems to attribute to them.
In her defence, it may be that such devices seem triter with the unfortunate rise of 'New Age' charlatans - in The Mists of Avalon, it is entirely in keeping with the plot and feel of that novel. Nevertheless, having read The Shattered Chain and Thendara House, this is a continuation of Jaelle and Magda's journey, and anyone who felt themselves becoming attached to the struggles of those characters will not be disappointed by this final instalment.
No comments:
Post a Comment