Reading: Till Human Voices Wake Us

[white_hart]

Till Human Voices Wake Us was Victoria Goddard's first published book. While it is set in the same universe as the later books which I'd already read, and mentions characters who appear in those, it has a quite different feel, and is also different in being set in a version of modern London (Ysthar, in Goddard's Nine Worlds, turns out to be Earth). The central character is Raphael, lord magus of Ysthar, who is coming to the end of a centuries-long magical competition for the role of lord magus when his long-lost brother reappears in his life. It's largely a story about processing and moving on from trauma, and about someone learning to let people in after years of shutting them out, and although it is hopeful and sometimes funny it does feel a bit sadder than the other books I've read. I enjoyed it a lot, though; it reminded me a bit of Fire and Hemlock (the title is taken from 'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock' and Eliot pervades the novel in a similar way), and also quite a lot of Sandman.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I have always thought there might be a novel lurking in Prufrock!