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edenfallingDecember 9: the Darkangel Trilogy (for minutia_r) [Tumblr crosspost]
This is a three-book series, written by Meredith Ann Pierce in the 1980s, about vampires on the moon.
No, wait, come back!
The problem with these books is that every time I try to describe them, they come out sounding bizarre at best and ridiculously stupid at worst. To be fair, they are fairly out in left field -- I wasn't kidding about the whole vampires on the moon bit -- but the important thing is that they are AMAZING.
Our main character, Aeriel, is a slave girl whose mistress and friend, Eoduin, is kidnapped by the icarus (aka vampyre, aka darkangel) who lives in the abandoned kingdom of Avaric. In a vain attempt to save or rescue Eoduin, Aeriel gets herself kidnapped and winds up acting as the darkangel's housekeeper, which basically means taking care of the soulless zombie husks of his former "wives." Through a series of adventures, she finds herself in the position of being the one person who may be able to kill the icarus, if she can find the courage...
And that's just book one, The Darkangel, which for several years was the only one I knew existed since it was the only one my library owned. I actually read books one and two of Pierce's Firebringer Trilogy (which is about unicorns fighting an ancient grudge-match war with gryphons... no, wait, come back!) before I ran across a copy of A Gathering of Gargoyles under circumstances I can't remember, and it was another year or two before I found The Pearl of the Soul of the World at my junior high school's library.
I think I will put the rest of this under a cut, in case people want to read the series without spoilers. I mean, it's been complete for over twenty years, but it's also obscure, so I doubt most of you are familiar with the story.
One thing I really like about this series is the way it slowly becomes clear that the various societies of the moon are living in the aftermath of one apocalypse and the middle of another. The first is the war that led the Ancients to return to Oceanus, abandoning their creations without the knowledge of how to maintain the terraforming that makes their world habitable. The second is Oriencor's attempt to suck the world dry -- both literally (water/ice) and metaphorically (souls) -- in order to power her own journey to Oceanus... which wouldn't even do her any good, because the Ancients probably blew themselves back to the stone age, she would struggle horribly in the stronger gravity, and they wouldn't accept her anyway since she's a half-breed child of an artificial species.
I like how smoothly Pierce blends a vaguely science-fiction backdrop -- terraforming, space travel, genetic engineering, Ravenna's machines -- into a story that runs on very archetypal fantasy tropes. I mean, this is a world where Irrylath's heart is dead because it was literally coated in lead, and where Aeriel can cut out her own heart, casually place it into his chest, and have it start working with no complications. There are evil witches and captive princesses and people who sell their names or have no shadow. The continents of Westernesse and Isternes are separated by a sea of dust. Immortal magical guardian beasts patrol each land. Etcetera. There's a certain element of lucid dreaming that knits the story logic together... and yet there's also a terrible emotional reality to events and how they affect people.
There are always consequences to people's actions and histories. There are no easy answers, and no simple absolutions. For example, Irrylath was kidnapped, Stockholm Syndromed into loving Oriencor as his replacement mother figure, raped by that same mother figure, and subjected to involuntary body-horror transformation. He then kidnapped thirteen young women and stole their souls, consigning them to a fate worse than death. Neither of those truths erases the other. Ravenna wants to save the world, but more than that she wants to redeem her daughter, and is willing to treat Aeriel and the other characters as tools in her plan -- what else is Ravenna's rime than a way to manipulate everyone into the most advantageous position?
The story looks like it's setting up for a redemption-by-love plot arc, only to swerve sideways in several key aspects. Irrylath is too damaged to properly accept anyone's love, let alone return it in a healthy way. Oriencor rejects her mother's attempt to forgive her and forge a path that isn't barren and self-defeating. Aeriel chooses (is forced to choose?) duty and friendship over the particular form of personal happiness she's been chasing for three books. Even the family connections discovered over the course of the story come to no resolution: yes, Aeriel is Roshka's sister and Irrylath's cousin, but they end up separated so it means nothing.
And yet, I'd still call the ending happy. The world is saved. Irrylath has a chance to heal. Aeriel has a purpose and a true companion in Erin. And while she and Irrylath clearly love each other, it's a painful, desperate sort of love that was anything but healthy on either side. Sometimes it's better if things don't work out the way we want.
(This doesn't stop me from wanting Irrylath to suffer physical side-effects of being an icarus for fourteen years that render him conditionally immortal, and hoping for an eventual Irrylath/Aeriel/Erin threesome and/or triangular relationship, but hey. That is what fanfiction is for.)
In short, I love this series and highly recommend it. ♥
-----
December Talking Meme: All Days
minutia_r) [Tumblr crosspost]This is a three-book series, written by Meredith Ann Pierce in the 1980s, about vampires on the moon.
No, wait, come back!
The problem with these books is that every time I try to describe them, they come out sounding bizarre at best and ridiculously stupid at worst. To be fair, they are fairly out in left field -- I wasn't kidding about the whole vampires on the moon bit -- but the important thing is that they are AMAZING.
Our main character, Aeriel, is a slave girl whose mistress and friend, Eoduin, is kidnapped by the icarus (aka vampyre, aka darkangel) who lives in the abandoned kingdom of Avaric. In a vain attempt to save or rescue Eoduin, Aeriel gets herself kidnapped and winds up acting as the darkangel's housekeeper, which basically means taking care of the soulless zombie husks of his former "wives." Through a series of adventures, she finds herself in the position of being the one person who may be able to kill the icarus, if she can find the courage...
And that's just book one, The Darkangel, which for several years was the only one I knew existed since it was the only one my library owned. I actually read books one and two of Pierce's Firebringer Trilogy (which is about unicorns fighting an ancient grudge-match war with gryphons... no, wait, come back!) before I ran across a copy of A Gathering of Gargoyles under circumstances I can't remember, and it was another year or two before I found The Pearl of the Soul of the World at my junior high school's library.
I think I will put the rest of this under a cut, in case people want to read the series without spoilers. I mean, it's been complete for over twenty years, but it's also obscure, so I doubt most of you are familiar with the story.
One thing I really like about this series is the way it slowly becomes clear that the various societies of the moon are living in the aftermath of one apocalypse and the middle of another. The first is the war that led the Ancients to return to Oceanus, abandoning their creations without the knowledge of how to maintain the terraforming that makes their world habitable. The second is Oriencor's attempt to suck the world dry -- both literally (water/ice) and metaphorically (souls) -- in order to power her own journey to Oceanus... which wouldn't even do her any good, because the Ancients probably blew themselves back to the stone age, she would struggle horribly in the stronger gravity, and they wouldn't accept her anyway since she's a half-breed child of an artificial species.
I like how smoothly Pierce blends a vaguely science-fiction backdrop -- terraforming, space travel, genetic engineering, Ravenna's machines -- into a story that runs on very archetypal fantasy tropes. I mean, this is a world where Irrylath's heart is dead because it was literally coated in lead, and where Aeriel can cut out her own heart, casually place it into his chest, and have it start working with no complications. There are evil witches and captive princesses and people who sell their names or have no shadow. The continents of Westernesse and Isternes are separated by a sea of dust. Immortal magical guardian beasts patrol each land. Etcetera. There's a certain element of lucid dreaming that knits the story logic together... and yet there's also a terrible emotional reality to events and how they affect people.
There are always consequences to people's actions and histories. There are no easy answers, and no simple absolutions. For example, Irrylath was kidnapped, Stockholm Syndromed into loving Oriencor as his replacement mother figure, raped by that same mother figure, and subjected to involuntary body-horror transformation. He then kidnapped thirteen young women and stole their souls, consigning them to a fate worse than death. Neither of those truths erases the other. Ravenna wants to save the world, but more than that she wants to redeem her daughter, and is willing to treat Aeriel and the other characters as tools in her plan -- what else is Ravenna's rime than a way to manipulate everyone into the most advantageous position?
The story looks like it's setting up for a redemption-by-love plot arc, only to swerve sideways in several key aspects. Irrylath is too damaged to properly accept anyone's love, let alone return it in a healthy way. Oriencor rejects her mother's attempt to forgive her and forge a path that isn't barren and self-defeating. Aeriel chooses (is forced to choose?) duty and friendship over the particular form of personal happiness she's been chasing for three books. Even the family connections discovered over the course of the story come to no resolution: yes, Aeriel is Roshka's sister and Irrylath's cousin, but they end up separated so it means nothing.
And yet, I'd still call the ending happy. The world is saved. Irrylath has a chance to heal. Aeriel has a purpose and a true companion in Erin. And while she and Irrylath clearly love each other, it's a painful, desperate sort of love that was anything but healthy on either side. Sometimes it's better if things don't work out the way we want.
(This doesn't stop me from wanting Irrylath to suffer physical side-effects of being an icarus for fourteen years that render him conditionally immortal, and hoping for an eventual Irrylath/Aeriel/Erin threesome and/or triangular relationship, but hey. That is what fanfiction is for.)
In short, I love this series and highly recommend it. ♥
-----
December Talking Meme: All Days
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Grumpy Old Snake
Date: 2014-12-14 05:52 pm (UTC)Re: Grumpy Old Snake
Date: 2014-12-14 09:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-12-10 04:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-12-11 04:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-12-10 06:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-12-11 04:12 am (UTC)I purchased my own copies of the trilogy last year since I was tired of having to track them down via interlibrary loan, and I have not regretted that in the slightest. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-12-11 08:26 am (UTC)Fun fact: my copy of the first Firebringer book was gotten in library school, when she brought in a load of them to give to all her classmates at FSU. She must have given out 50 copies that day. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-12-11 05:37 pm (UTC)(You went to library school with her??? OMG.)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-12-11 08:55 pm (UTC)