Inda & The Fox
Jul. 18th, 2012 10:31![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladySmith, Sherwood. Inda. New York: DAW Books, 2006.
-------. The Fox. New York: DAW Books, 2007.
I've been thinking for a while that, if I'm going to extol epic fantasy written by women as so much more awesome and less problematic than the doorstops written by men, that I should actually read more epic fantasy written by women than just Michelle West's books, awesome as she is. So here is the first part of my ongoing effort to do just that.
I've read one of Sherwood Smith's books before, the Firebird Books edition of Crown Duel, which collected two earlier YA books she had written into one and also restored the setting to its original location, that of her epic world of Sartorias-Deles, which she has been working on since she was in her teens. There are other books in the world that she has written, over a vast sweep of its history; the Inda books take place many centuries before the time of Crown Duel, in a different part of the world, mostly the country of Iasca Leror and then the seas surrounding its continent.
The books mostly follow one Indevan-Dal (Inda for short), who is the second son of a prince in a very martial country and who is, quite early on in his academy training, disgraced and sent off to sea to avoid a potentially kingdom-destroying conflict between his word and that of the king's brother. Inda and his friends, both those he leaves behind and those he makes on the sea, grow up and grow into their own in a world that is becoming steadily less easy to live in - the Venn Empire on the northern continent are making their play to conquer the south, and that encroaching threat shapes all of their lives.
metaphortunate posted a review of these books in which she very helpfully characterized them as "Inda's Game," and now that I think about it even Inda's name seems rather suspiciously close to that of Ender Wiggin. Most of the rest of that review I find analogous to someone who's eaten at a five-star restaurant only wanting to talk about the decor, and though I read Ender's Game in high school I wasn't particularly impressed, although the effusive blurb from Orson Scott Card on the first book makes a lot more sense now. Let that hatemonger be; although Inda and Ender do share some traits, Inda is far less innocent - and far more damaged, in some ways - than Ender could ever be. Also, his story is far more interesting.
It seems that, if male writers can't get over Star Trek, female writers can't get over Narnia, and if you page through the information about Smith's worldbuilding on her website you are left with the unmistakable feeling that Sartorias-Deles is what might happen if Narnia didn't have Aslan and were left on its own for, oh, seven thousand years or so. It's only partly for that reason that I realized, at some point in The Fox, that the books reminded me strongly of the works of one of my favorite Narnia fanfic writers,bedlamsbard. She and Smith both share an eye for cultures and the details by which they are built, as well as a strong sense for history and language. And, also, good and bad characters trying to get what they want out of the world with mixed success.
The world-building in particular is fascinating, featuring very defined but different gender roles in Marlovan society (hint: both genders take military training very seriously), pirates, secret societies, and many other awesome things. I would recommend these books very highly. And as a bonus, I can guarantee, because this is a fact of the worldbuilding, that there is absolutely no rape!
-------. The Fox. New York: DAW Books, 2007.
I've been thinking for a while that, if I'm going to extol epic fantasy written by women as so much more awesome and less problematic than the doorstops written by men, that I should actually read more epic fantasy written by women than just Michelle West's books, awesome as she is. So here is the first part of my ongoing effort to do just that.
I've read one of Sherwood Smith's books before, the Firebird Books edition of Crown Duel, which collected two earlier YA books she had written into one and also restored the setting to its original location, that of her epic world of Sartorias-Deles, which she has been working on since she was in her teens. There are other books in the world that she has written, over a vast sweep of its history; the Inda books take place many centuries before the time of Crown Duel, in a different part of the world, mostly the country of Iasca Leror and then the seas surrounding its continent.
The books mostly follow one Indevan-Dal (Inda for short), who is the second son of a prince in a very martial country and who is, quite early on in his academy training, disgraced and sent off to sea to avoid a potentially kingdom-destroying conflict between his word and that of the king's brother. Inda and his friends, both those he leaves behind and those he makes on the sea, grow up and grow into their own in a world that is becoming steadily less easy to live in - the Venn Empire on the northern continent are making their play to conquer the south, and that encroaching threat shapes all of their lives.
metaphortunate posted a review of these books in which she very helpfully characterized them as "Inda's Game," and now that I think about it even Inda's name seems rather suspiciously close to that of Ender Wiggin. Most of the rest of that review I find analogous to someone who's eaten at a five-star restaurant only wanting to talk about the decor, and though I read Ender's Game in high school I wasn't particularly impressed, although the effusive blurb from Orson Scott Card on the first book makes a lot more sense now. Let that hatemonger be; although Inda and Ender do share some traits, Inda is far less innocent - and far more damaged, in some ways - than Ender could ever be. Also, his story is far more interesting. It seems that, if male writers can't get over Star Trek, female writers can't get over Narnia, and if you page through the information about Smith's worldbuilding on her website you are left with the unmistakable feeling that Sartorias-Deles is what might happen if Narnia didn't have Aslan and were left on its own for, oh, seven thousand years or so. It's only partly for that reason that I realized, at some point in The Fox, that the books reminded me strongly of the works of one of my favorite Narnia fanfic writers,
bedlamsbard. She and Smith both share an eye for cultures and the details by which they are built, as well as a strong sense for history and language. And, also, good and bad characters trying to get what they want out of the world with mixed success. The world-building in particular is fascinating, featuring very defined but different gender roles in Marlovan society (hint: both genders take military training very seriously), pirates, secret societies, and many other awesome things. I would recommend these books very highly. And as a bonus, I can guarantee, because this is a fact of the worldbuilding, that there is absolutely no rape!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-18 20:56 (UTC)My posts on the first three books are linked from a completely non-spoilery few sentences upon finishing #4, here. (You should be able to see past the lock.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-18 20:59 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 01:27 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 05:27 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 00:52 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 02:36 (UTC)Hnn. I had never noticed that (possibly because any possible formative influence of Narnia was swallowed whole by Arda in my case), and I'm kind of stuck trying to come up with examples. Care to elaborate? (Including what precisely it is about Inda that makes you say this; I'm not concerned with spoilers.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 18:08 (UTC)It's not so much Inda, in Smith's case, though the underlying worldbuilding is very much "what if the Telmarines weren't the only ones?" taken to some very interesting places.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 18:13 (UTC)(There being basically two ways a Campbellian hero can end his quest: he can come back and reintegrate into his society with new wisdom or, like Rip van Winkle, come back and discover either he or the society has been changed so much that there's no hope in hell.)
And I bounce extremely hard off both Dean and Valente, so that'd do it, too.
Thanks. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 18:27 (UTC)I should also admit that I am, perhaps, being slightly polemical when I divide all of this into neat gender lines. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 23:21 (UTC)Neverwhere stuck in my head - just the ending, I can't actually remember any other details of the plot - largely because it was set up to be so emphatically a "and now our hero goes back to his real life" thing; Richard's entire personal goal was getting home! Being normal! And then he did!
. . . .annnnd some handful of time later, was banging on the wall down in the Underground shouting for fairyland to let him back in. And I had such a strong sense of satisfaction at it that THAT part stuck with me, even if I can't actually remember what the story was about beyond that.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 13:38 (UTC)I love that there are so many, many fascinating characters in the series, and that the world she created is so very wide.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-19 18:13 (UTC)And yes, I agree about the breadth of the world. It really does feel like an actual place.