Lyonesse Book 1: Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance - December 2018
Announcing Lyonesse by Jack Vance, 1983, 448pp, as the December 2018 Monthly Selection.
Lyonesse Book 1: Suldrun's Garden
The Elder Isles, located in what is now the Bay of Biscay off the the coast of Old Gaul, are made up of ten contending kingdoms, all vying with each other for control. At the centre of much of the intrigue is Casmir, the ruthless and ambitious king of Lyonesse. His beautiful but otherworldly daughter, Suldrun, is part of his plans. He intends to cement an alliance or two by marrying her well. But Suldrun is as determined as he and defies him. Casmir coldly confines her to the overgrown garden that she loves to frequent, and it is here that meets her love and her tragedy unfolds. Political intrigue, magic, war, adventure and romance are interwoven in a rich and sweeping tale set in a brilliantly realized fabled land.
I'm very pleased to announce that we'll be reading this well-regarded fantasy trilogy by Jack Vance in December. The novel promises Jack's trademark humour, wonderful fantasy invention, and sesquipedalian vocabulary. And Jack Vance is the favourite author of no less than club icon and RPG gadabout, @clash_bowley , who once famously said "Nobody cares, Chris," so you know it's bound to be good!
Collaboration with the Design Mechanism
Some of you may have heard that this trilogy is about to be given an RPG treatment by The Design Mechanism. In light of this, I've asked my friend and GM-who-likes-to-verbally-abuse-me-in-character, Lawrence Whitaker if he would like to join us in discussing the book, and he has graciously agreed. Lawrence is co-owner of the Design Mechanism and one of the authors working on the project. And if we're lucky, one or two other members of the team will poke their nose in, too.
For the moment, we're only reading book 1 in the trilogy, but if there's a demand for it nothing prevents us from reading the other two in the months to follow.
Read this book before the end of December 2018 and we'll convene to discuss it on Wednesday, January 2nd.
Fictoplasm Podcast
By the way, if you'd like to hear a great podcast episode on this trilogy, I'll point to the wonderful Christmas 2016 episode of Fictoplasm. Also available on I-tunes.
fictoplasm.net/podcast/xmas-episode-01-lyonesse-by-jack-vance/
Comments
Hope it works out better than the last Vance book we did.
Alastor? I thought that worked out amazing - I went and bought a whole bunch of Vance after that.
Looks like there is no ebook available? Or am I missing it somewhere?
Hmm, that's weird - there's a kindle edition of the second and third books in the series, but the first seems to only be available in Dutch. There's an audio for all three, and print, of course.
Maybe from your library via overdrive?
https://overdrive.com/media/19517/suldruns-garden
EDIT: Looks like you can get them all on Vance's own website:
https://jackvance.com/ebooks/shop/?q22_category_filter=lyonesse
I have the trade paperbacks.
Lyonesse is simply wonderful. I only discovered it last year or so, but it's probably my favourite Vance, The Fae are a particular high point, but far from the only one.
It's available in the UK Amazon Kindle store
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suldruns-Garden-Lyonesse-Gateway-Essentials-ebook/dp/B005HRT8UO
Also the complete trilogy but at a fearful price
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Lyonesse-Suldruns-Garden-Gollancz-ebook/dp/B004OBZNVW
I'm really looking forward to the group discussion on 'Suldrun's Garden'...
Welcome aboard, Loz!
I may skip this one- it's not in my libraries and I'm often lukewarm on fantasy. I did put in an ILL request, so we shall see!
Its Vance... I'm in !
If I can find the book in iBook or Kindle format.
Available in UK Kindle for sure
I haven't, but I did place the book on my night table. I'll probably read this in the last 2 weeks of the month - being mostly off work, I should have plenty of time.
Looking forward to the discussion kicking off.
As a taster, here's the cover of the RPG from The Design Mechanism:
What a splendid cover!
Oddly, I knew a Dave Morris years ago back in school, in connection with Petal Throne games.
I love that cover!
@RichardAbbott would this be the same Dave Morris, talking about Tekumel?
https://twitter.com/MirabilisDave/status/891984512963534849
What a small world! @Loz you'll have to bring Dave in on this.
I'll see what I can do.
Glad you like the cover: it was Dave Morris's concept...
Yes, it's the same guy. Creator of Dragon Warriors and a lot of other stuff and Tekumel fan. He has great ideas when it comes to roleplaying games so I try to learn as much as I can from his blog and our discussions there. So i'm very happy he's part of the team behind Lyonesse!
I love the Lyonesse trilogy! It's kind of like Game of Thrones -- but weirder and funnier.
One question: will the TTRBC be discussing the entire trilogy in January or only the 1st book?
FWIW, I've mentioned this at my blog: https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2018/12/jack-vances-lyonesse-read-it-discuss-it.html
[waves to Apocryphal + Loz]
Welcome, @Akrasia ! Just the first book for this month, but if there's enough demand we can definitely do the others in subsequent months. Also, thanks for the mention!
Good news, the Inter-Library Loan request I placed came through and I got this today! Mine has a cool map included, not sure if your copies do.
Also note that the author excuses you from reading the Into.
Perfect, I skipped it already.
For some reason, the style so far reminds me of The Princess Bride. I wish it were as engaging, though. On page 80 or so.