More of The Sun Sword

[bibliogramma]

Last year, I discovered the writing of Michelle Sagara, who also publishes under the name Michelle West (well, actually, I didn’t discover her, she’s been well-known, and deservedly so, for some time, but you know what I mean).

As Michelle West, Sagara has written a most wonderful fantasy series, six volumes in length, called The Sun Sword. Last year, I read the first two volumes of this series, The Broken Crown and The Uncrowned King, and earlier this year, I read the remaining four books – and am eagerly awaiting her next work, the House Wars trilogy, which will be set in the same universe.

The Shining Court
Sea of Sorrows
The Riven Shield
The Sun Sword

Sagara has written a great epic fantasy, the core of which is, as you might guess, that Sun Sword – or rather, what it represents, a centuries-old struggle between humankind and demonkind for the rulership of the world. But while only one person can wield the Sun Sword – and he must survive a great deal to prove his ability and right to take it up – this is the kind of epic fantasy where there are multiple quests and many heroes (and villains, and those who are not so easy to characterise as one or the other) whose labours and struggles are just as vital to the final outcome as that of the nominal hero (rather like The Lord of the Rings – it’s Frodo’s task to deal with the ring, but he wouldn’t have gotten very far without Sam, or Gandalf, or Aragorn, or Faramir, or even Gollum).

Part of what is so very wonderful for me about this series is that a great many of these other, vital characters are women, and they come from all kinds of backgrounds. Sagara gives us a very close look at three very different human cultures in this series, and one of the things that differentiates the three is the image, role and place of women – one culture is fiercely patriarchal, one is equally fiercely matriarchal, and one is egalitarian. And yet from each of these societies come women who, in their own way, are active and vital agents in the forward action of the story,

And it is a very complicated and complex story, with all sorts of prophecies and goals and possibilities and motivations for each of the players and wonderfully tangled political intricacies and plots going on in both the broader cultures – including that of the demons – and in the various smaller units – clans, houses, tribes, schools, armies, sects – that are a part of these cultures. In short, it’s a very realistic kind of epic fantasy, and that makes it very much the sort of thing I enjoy.

Comments

[calico-reaction.livejournal.com]

Oh jeez...

I'm definitely going to pick those up AFTER I'm done with my thesis, but I'll probably get caught up on my Martin first. I've only read the first book, but it was very good. :)

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

The only things I've read by GRRM are two of his early books, Armageddon Rag, which isn't SFF but which I absolutely loved, and Fevre Dream, which I liked a lot. I know the series is very different, but I've heard a lot of good things about it, and I am looking forward to reading it someday.