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white_hartAs we approach the solstice and a time of year I generally find difficult*, I'm deliberately seeking out comfort reading and avoiding anything that might set off a negative thought spiral. I thought that Diana Wynne Jones might fit the bill, and went for The Dark Lord of Derkholm, which is one of the books of hers I missed when it was first published because I didn't think to check for new books by the authors I'd loved as a child.
The Dark Lord of Derkholm isn't exactly a sequel to The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, which was published two years earlier, but its deals with the consequences for a fantasy world of the kind of tours that the Tough Guide purports to be a guidebook for. After forty years, the inhabitants are desperate to break the contract for the tours, which are a huge drain on resources; between planning, guiding the parties of tourists and putting on battles, ambushes and other events typical of a clichéd fantasy journey, no-one has any time to do anything else, and much of the land is left devastated by the required battles and sieges. When the Oracles suggest that the mild-mannered wizard Derk, whose skills are mostly in agriculture and breeding magical creatures and who just wants to be left in peace with his family and his garden, should be appointed as Dark Lord for the year, things don't quite go according to plan.
On one level, this is a very funny parody of fantasy clichés and, like the Tough Guide to Fantasyland, points out the unrealistic nature of much epic fantasy (quite apart from the fantastic elements). But it's also a serious novel about Derk, his wife Mara and their two human and five griffin children working together to deal with adversity; it isn't just a romp and is really quite dark in a couple of places. On a third level, just because it's set in a fantasy world and not the real world doesn't stop in making an important point about the impact of tourism and the negative effects adapting to service a tourist industry focused on the "authentic" experience of a country can have on that country.
***
Shira Glassman's Knit One, Girl Two is a sweet, if rather slight, novella about a romance between an indie yarn dyer and an artist, both of whom are also fans of a fictional TV series called Captain Werewolf. I really liked the references to knitting and geek culture throughout the book; it was cute and fun and if the writing was sometimes a bit clunky I really didn't mind that much.
* I really dislike Christmas; it isn't my festival, but it's so all-pervasive I can't just ignore it the way I can ignore Easter, and while having a break from work is good, having a break from work just when the days are shortest and when it's hard to actually go out and do things because everywhere is either closed or mobbed is not entirely helpful, as it does mean I end up with a lot of time on my hands in which depression and/or anxiety can easily spiral out of control
The Dark Lord of Derkholm isn't exactly a sequel to The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, which was published two years earlier, but its deals with the consequences for a fantasy world of the kind of tours that the Tough Guide purports to be a guidebook for. After forty years, the inhabitants are desperate to break the contract for the tours, which are a huge drain on resources; between planning, guiding the parties of tourists and putting on battles, ambushes and other events typical of a clichéd fantasy journey, no-one has any time to do anything else, and much of the land is left devastated by the required battles and sieges. When the Oracles suggest that the mild-mannered wizard Derk, whose skills are mostly in agriculture and breeding magical creatures and who just wants to be left in peace with his family and his garden, should be appointed as Dark Lord for the year, things don't quite go according to plan.
On one level, this is a very funny parody of fantasy clichés and, like the Tough Guide to Fantasyland, points out the unrealistic nature of much epic fantasy (quite apart from the fantastic elements). But it's also a serious novel about Derk, his wife Mara and their two human and five griffin children working together to deal with adversity; it isn't just a romp and is really quite dark in a couple of places. On a third level, just because it's set in a fantasy world and not the real world doesn't stop in making an important point about the impact of tourism and the negative effects adapting to service a tourist industry focused on the "authentic" experience of a country can have on that country.
***
Shira Glassman's Knit One, Girl Two is a sweet, if rather slight, novella about a romance between an indie yarn dyer and an artist, both of whom are also fans of a fictional TV series called Captain Werewolf. I really liked the references to knitting and geek culture throughout the book; it was cute and fun and if the writing was sometimes a bit clunky I really didn't mind that much.
* I really dislike Christmas; it isn't my festival, but it's so all-pervasive I can't just ignore it the way I can ignore Easter, and while having a break from work is good, having a break from work just when the days are shortest and when it's hard to actually go out and do things because everywhere is either closed or mobbed is not entirely helpful, as it does mean I end up with a lot of time on my hands in which depression and/or anxiety can easily spiral out of control
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Date: 2017-12-18 09:08 am (UTC)I think of the Tough Guide/Dark Lord of Derkholm (which has a marvellous sequel, Year of the Griffin) as the perfect illustration of 'show' and 'tell': they make very similar points, but one is fictionalised and the other is not. One isn't 'better' than the other.
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Date: 2017-12-18 07:40 pm (UTC)