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bibliogrammaThe Fall of the Kings, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
Kushner and Sherman have, in The Fall of the Kings, given us not only a great historical adventure fantasy and a wonderful love story, they have also given us a profound examination of the nature of a number of passions, from true scholarship to patriotic and religious fervour, and at the same time an exploration of the ages-old questions of how much wildness can a civilisation permit and still remain a workable social, economic and political system, how best to balance the rational and the irrational aspects of the human psyche within the functioning of a society, and what prices must be paid, regardless of which side the balance is weighted on.
Set in the same universe as Swordspoint, but a generation later, the pivotal characters are Theron Campion, the son of Alec, Duke Tramontaine, and Basil St. Cloud, an unorthodox professor of history who believes that primary sources are far more important to the scholar than any number of secondary texts. St. Cloud is researching the ancient kings from the North and their so-called wizards, now dismissed as charlatans. Campion is the descendant of the last of those Northern kings. The fruits of St. Cloud’s work provide vital clues to ancient mysteries, and Campion is the key. Together, they are caught up in mystery, magic, passion, politics and the destiny of their society and its leaders.
The ending of the novel favours one side of the balance, while, perhaps, leaving the back door open for those who will feel themselves compelled to imagine a future different than that suggested. In this sense, the book is, I think, somewhat of a Rorschach test for the reader, in that it may uncover, for those who have not fully considered the question, what kind of answers they automatically incline to when they consider how human society should be governed. For myself, I must acknowledge that my heart had one response to the book’s conclusion, and my head, another.