Blaze of Glory

[bibliogramma]

The Aware
Gilfeather
The Tainted

I’m really not certain how to begin praising Australian writer Glenda Larke’s Isles of Glory trilogy. Do I begin with her detailed and intricate world-building? Her skill in characterisation? Her original take on the whole business of magic? Her seamless incorporation of highly intellectual explorations of the psychology of perception, the social and personal functions of religion and the dynamics and consequences of colonialism into a damned jolly action thriller with a truly kick-ass, take-no-prisoners swordswoman? The structure of the trilogy that permits not only multiple perspectives on the action, each from characters with their own culture and personal philosophy, but also a metanarrative from another culture altogether?

Larke’s novels are deceptively easy to read and enjoy, but so difficult to talk about. And they’re brilliant. The Isles of Glory, where the novels are set, form an isolated archipelago of many small kingdoms and divergent cultures, dominated by a ruling class of magic-users. In the Isles of Glory, a person may have one of three orientations with respect to magic: most people do not use magic, but are wholly susceptible to it; some both use it and are susceptible to it; and some, the Aware, can see magic but are not affected by it. The three main protagonists of the series (who are, each in turn, the focal point one of the three novels) are Blaze, a swordswoman, a half-breed outcast, an agent of the magic-users and an Aware; Kelwyn Gilfeather, a physician from an obscure part of the Isles of Glory who seems to be something new – he neither casts magic, nor is affected by it, nor is Aware of it; and Flame, an illusionist with a past full of intrigue and tragic love, and a future that it seems almost everyone in the Isles of glory wants to control. Two other key characters who plays significant roles in all three novels are Tor Ryder, a priest of a religious order that is challenging the control of the magicians over the Isles of glory, and Morthred, a powerful practitioner of dunmagic or evil magic.

The three novels are framed within a completely different perspective, that of colonial scholars from some decades after the events of the narrative proper who are editing accounts of interviews with surviving witnesses into what they feel are charming legends of a magical past among these inhabitants of a slightly backward and recently discovered part of the world. From the framing narrative, we learn that the Isles of Glory have undergone rapid and massive cultural changes in the years since the beginning events of the trilogy, changes which are finally explained from the perspective of the Glory Islanders by the end of the third novel, when one colonial scholar finally chooses to encounter the Glory Islanders who remember how things were as equals, not as examples of a quaint and somewhat primitive people.

And I haven’t even mentioned the considerations of changes in gender roles, the horrors of religious intolerance, the nature of corruption, the necessary values of living an sustainable life in a fragile ecology, the challenges faced by stateless persons, or any of the other issues that Larke weaves into her narrative.

Oh, and did I mention a great action adventure story, and a damned fine love story to boot, with realistic characters who aren’t always right, and aren’t always heroic, and don’t always save the day, or if they do, it’s not what they hoped it would turn out to be?

Oh, just read the books. You won’t be sorry.

Comments

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. It has put me in mind of the fact that I really must order _The Aware_
and _The Tainted_; _Gilfeather_ I have got, and much enjoyed.

[keris45.livejournal.com]

Wow. I am humbled. You are the reader every author loves - someone who "gets" it and loves it.

Thank you.

Glenda

[bibliogramma.livejournal.com]

Thank you, for writing these books. You've given me a great deal of pleasure with them.

I recently discovered that your Mirage Makers novels are due to be published in North America over the next year, and I look forward to reading them.

[(Anonymous)]

Er, they are? Not so far as I am aware...lol. Although I hope it's true!! I was dropped by ACE and have not yet found a new US publisher. However, you may get the UK Orbit version distributed in the US. The first book, Heart of the Mirage, will be published in the UK in July or August.

Glenda