Stepping into The Changing Land

Roger Zelazny is credited as a master of fantasy and science fiction. Though he wrote when the genres were still very new things. The Changing Land makes this quite evident (in its first chapter).

His characters read like they're building on templates made by Tolkien (elves, scheming magic-users, etc.). His setting gets little description.

Since the plot is being trickled out, there's no heavy exposition as of yet. Another weirdly modern note is the apparent lack of dialogue tags. I've not yet come across a single "[character x] [word for spoke+past tense modifier]."

Though those latter two qualities are the mark of good writing in any genre. And from any point in time.

Yet, Zelazny's tone in The Changing Land reminds me of Eric Rücker Eddison's in The Worm Ourobouros. Eddison's book was published in 1922, and Zelazny's came out in 1981, but there are still tonal similarities. Both share in a writing style that comes off as pulpy and have similarly fantastical content.

I still need to find Nine Princes in Amber to complete the first part of Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber, but The Changing Lands has opened up as a fine introduction to this icon of an author.

When White-Luck Runs Out

Well, surprise of surprises. The map is found, and intact, too. Vellum truly is an incredibly durable thing to write on.

So, The White-Luck Warrior ends on a strangely upbeat note. Sure, the Father of Dragons is loosed on the world, Mimara and Achamian are the only sane members of their party left, and Sranc war horns sound in the distance, but everything feels like it's going to work out. Mimara's statement that she's tired of Sauglish sounds as casual and seminal as someone sitting down to a big meal with a reconciled family saying "let's eat."

Yet, she's still been raped - something perhaps shielded from us and from her because of her having been a whore and her whispering forgiveness to her rapist from her judging eye. And Cleric has been killed, struck down in a fit of Erratic madness.

Perhaps, as with so many fantasy stories, the discovery of new equipment in the Coffers has been enough to buoy their spirits. The creation of more Qirri's sure to help, and the introduction of Sarl as a kind of Gollum makes this a curious trio to traipse through this book's Mordor, since they'll no doubt have to pass through Golgotterath on their way to Ishual.

Bakker and Sympathy?

The White Luck Warrior, no, R. Scott Bakker's fantasy writing in general, is just like the The Silmarillion. Except Bakker's characters are more compelling, and more fleshed out than those that appear in Tolkien's world lore text.

Still, the comparison stands because both books are primarily concerned with world-building to the point where its neck-and-neck with plot development. So much so that at times, the world building overtakes the plot. Both books also give very little foothold to those unfamiliar with fantasy and its propensity for strangeness, especially with characters who are supposedly deities (or demi-gods).

Still, well, my older brother's been over for the last few days, and he's getting over a virus - coughing to the point where "hacking up a lung" almost literally applies. While reading The White-Luck Warrior, I was listening to this hacking, and could hardly help but feel the need to cough in sympathy. How does this relate to The White-Luck Warrior?

Well, the part where Kelmomas and Inrilatis (two sons of Kellhus, the Aspect Emperor) are talking about madness and Inrilatis continues to read Kelmomas to the point where he loses control of his facade they mention the idea that people are simply what they appear.

On the face of it, you might take issue with this assertion. Surely, the depth of human feeling and thought are not etched onto people's faces, expressions, and actions - you could say. But, the idea in Bakker's book, I think, is that even these things betray people because they aren't minutely controlled.

So, if someone were to master the meaning of every bit of minutiae the human face and body produce, they could, possibly, have what appears to be some form of telepathy. So much of what we do while thinking and feeling is, after all, subconscious. Including, I argue, sympathetic reactions such as my urge to cough.

A Short One, While He's Away

I'm not sure why it took so long to dawn on me, but the Sranc in R. Scott Bakker's fantasy are very much like Tolkien's orcs. Both have their origins in the creation of the world, both are bastardizations of another species, and both are under the power of the big bad.

Though I'm not sure Tolkien ever said anything about orcs being necrophiles. That detail's pure Bakker.

More Fortunate Comparisons

It hasn't happened yet, so I'm going to propose it now. Christopher Lee should do an audio version of R. Scott Bakker's The Aspect Emperor series. That's the kind of voice that could weave an aural tapestry to match the textual one Bakker creates. These words, sorcerous murmurings, or a thing like the laughter of crows among thunder, deserve such a voice.

That said, The White-Luck Warrior has been a much easier read for me. The Judging Eye was very slow going, I thought, though maybe that's just a matter of not having read for fun for quite some time before picking that one up nearly a year ago.

Having re-acclimatized myself to casual reading - though not suspending my own judging eye - The White-Luck Warrior pulls me in each time I pick it up and only scarcely can I shake myself from it. Though I can see why this series and Bakker himself haven't caught fire.

Between jumping between tenses, describing characters and emotions with snippets of history or philosophical musing, it isn't as quick a read as George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books can be. Instead, Bakker compares better to The Silmarillion, though it has a much more interesting narrative voice to it. As a result of this better voice, the description of the First Apocalypse and the damnation of sorcerors, the war between the Nonmen and the Inchoroi, and of an ancient primeval forest wherein it's as dark as the cavernous womb of a mountain is fascinating no matter how much deeper it is than just directly showing some detail or other about it.

Plus, Bakker's magic system is incredible. A simple spoken mechanism to work spells, but the underlying source of power and the abilities and deficits of the different sorcerous schools (being plagued with dreams wherein they re-live the great hero Seswatha's battle against the No-God Mog-Pharau, as an example) are all brilliant.

No matter how slowly the story moves amongst the thicket of words, I'm on the edge of my seat to see if Achamian, Mimara and the Sranc-hunting Skin-Eaters will make it through to the Coffers.