Reading Wednesday: Chronicles of the Kencyrath 8 & 9

[chomiji]

All right, I'm taking a break from the Dublin trip to report on a pair of books I read earlier, when we took a short trip to Cape Cod.

I've been following Chronicles of the Kencyrath for literally more than 40 years, ever since I read God Stalk when I was an undergrad at University of Virginia. Author P.C. Hodgell had a run of astonishingly bad luck early in the series, when she had two publishers shot out from under her within a couple of years. Baen Books acquired the series maybe 10 years ago. Although I am grateful to them for rescuing the series from oblivion and allowing Hodgell to continue to publish them, volumes 4 onward have what I consider Baen's signature flaws: lack of decent substantive editing (Hodgell infodumps rather terrifyingly from time to time) and hideous covers. The protagonist, Jamethiel, is constantly described as a skinny girl who is frequently mistaken for a boy, and she is also supposed to be in her late teens in appearance, yet cover after cover showed her as a buxom, hardened woman in her late twenties or early thirties.

I would pay good money for a portrait of Jame as described, because she is one of my favorite characters.

Anyway, Baen seems to be starting to listen to the complaints about the covers, because these two volumes' covers aren't so bad.

I thought I had read The Gates of Tagmeth earlier, but when I started By Demons Possessed, I realized that I had NO IDEA what was going on. Luckily I had both on my Kindle. Looking at my tags here, I find that I reviewed Gates two years ago. And I was unenthusiastic about it then, but I'm still kind of shocked that I had so little memory of it.

One of the things that does drive me nuts about this series is that Jame and her twin brother Torisen (now 10 years older that she is because of time-slip issues) never sit down and have a good solid talk. Given, Tori spends so much time sick and out of his mind lately that it would be tough to pick a day for this, but it would clear the air so beautifully, although Tori might be even more horrified about what Jame's destiny (and his, and their cousin Kindrie's) means for both their people and their current world, Rathillien.

Anyway, in Gates of Tagmeth, Tori gives Jame another chance to prove herself by putting her in charge of re-occupying and rebuilding the abandoned, semi-ruined fortress of Tagmeth, the ownership of which is contested by the (mostly) odious Caineron family. This is kind of an interesting test for Jame, whose nature is Destruction. We find out more about the mysterious Builders (I think I liked them better when they were still just Mysterious). Also, Hodgell decides to match up Kindrie and Kirien Jaran, and though I really like both characters, I really don't go for this match. See Pair the Spares on TV Tropes ... Kindrie apparently had something of a crush on Tori back in Dark of the Moon, and though it was always doomed (Tori is straight and has an issue about Shanir, especially white-haired Shanir like Kindrie), I still felt it had more sexual tension than any of the other relationships Hodgell has managed so far.

In By Demons Posessed, Jame gets inveigled back to Tai-Tastigon, the setting of the very first book. This seems like a really weak diversion except that, wow, yeah, one of the gods of that city (Dalis-sar - remember him?) is an ascended Kencyr, and also one of the most powerful temples of the Kencyrath is located there. Much weirdness is happening, with gods and people having their souls ripped out and absorbed by other powers, and I like Hodgell better when she's being weird than when she's getting touchy-feely. There's a sort of mini-Ragnarok at the end, too. I enjoyed this volume a lot more than Gates.

The original series info said that the next volume (as yet to be named, I think) was going to be the last ... but I talked to Hodgell in person at Worldcon, and maybe the next book won't be the last! And also we will have more Grimly, which is always a good thing.