My life in books

P. C. Hodgell's Kencyrath books:
God Stalk
The Dark of the Moon
Seeker's Mask
To Ride a Rathorn
Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry


A long time ago, people started recommending P.C. Hodgell's God Stalk to me as a complex, well-written and highly original fantasy novel that they were sure I'd like. The problem was, I could never find it in the stores.

Then I heard that there was a sequel, The Dark of the Moon, and that it was just as good, and that I really should read them both. But I could never find either of them. and over time, I sort of forgot, except when someone would mention one or the other of the Kencyrath books and I'd say "I've heard that they're really good" and the other person would say "You mean you haven't read them? You'd love them!" and I'd look again for a while, and then forget again.

Then a couple of years ago, I was hunting down a rumour that Diane Duane was writing a fourth novel in the Five Kingdoms series and that it would be released by Meisha Merlin Publishing - and on that website, I discovered that P.C. Hodgell had written two more books in the series - Seeker's Mask and To Ride a Rathorn - and that Meisha Merlin had published them, and an omnibus edition of the first two books in the series. At that time, the first three had been released as paperbacks but were not currently in stock, and the fourth book was still available only in hardcover. Happy that the books were finally all available, I decided to wait for a paperback release of the fourth novel and a new printing of the first three novels and then buy everything at once. I'd check in every once in a while, patiently waiting.

Next thing I heard, Meisha Merlin was going out of business. I ordered the hardcover of To Ride a Rathorn and the trade paperback collection of short stories, Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry, and now fully committed to reading the series, I set about acquiring the three earlier books. But of course, that meant buying used copies, and that meant that once I'd found copies at a reasonable price, I'd have to bake them for a long time to drive out the remains of perfume, airspray, hand lotion and other personal care products that would have permeated the pages during their previous use.

But just last week, when examining the stacks of used books that are currently being detoxed (something I do every maybe three or four times a year), I discovered that all three of the earlier books were now safe enough to read (with some precautions, of course), and so I have been lost ever since in the highly original and deeply satisfying world of Rathillien, the last in a long line of worlds where the Three Peoples of the Kencyrath have been forced to retreat to in their millenia-long, but failing, battle against the evil force of Perimal Darkling, which seeks to overrun the universes.

And all I can say is, everyone was right.

These are some of the most amazing fantasy novels I've ever read. Complex, original, fully realised with a backstory to rival Tolkien's (and he started at the moment of creation, which is a pretty serious backstory), this is the story of Jamethiel, Highborn of the House of Knorth. her twin brother Torison and their cousin Kindrie - who may or may not be the prophesied Tyr-Ridan, the three who will take on the aspects of the three gods of the Kencyrath and lead the final battle against Perimal Darkling.

It's also a story about a young woman trying to discover her true self as she slowly uncovers the story of her past and her family's past, a story of madness and deceit, betrayal and murder, dark secrets, forgotten bonds and ancient feuds.

It's an exploration of the ways that the unconscious, the subconscious, the landscape of the mind, the territory of belief, the consensus of perception, the power of emotions (both acknowledged and unacknowledged) and the language of dreams interact.

It is a presentation of an extraordinarily fluid world where shapes, bodies, times and places shift and change and mingle and overlap just as easily as emotions, thoughts, wills and nightmares, and all that there really is to stand on is one's honour and one's personal truth.

It's an epic of high fantasy and a personal, psychological family drama.

It's more things than I can list, and it's absolutely riveting.

And the latest news is that P.C. Hodgell's novels have found a new home with Baen Books, which has made the first four novels of the series available as e-books, has announced plans to republish them in paper format and has bought the fifth novel in the series, to be published next year. I hope that these extraordinary books, now all housed together with one publisher, will at last find the audience they deserve.