Thursday, March 24, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Isle of Glass by Judith Tarr

 




The Isle of Glass is the first book in Judith Tarr's "The Hound and the Falcon" historical fantasy trilogy.  Tarr is a name I've known for a while - in part from her Tor.com column on horses in fiction and reality, and in part based upon her name popping up on lists of classic authors to check out, but I hadn't ever gotten a chance to try any of her fiction out before.  So when I saw this trilogy praised on twitter, I looked it up and found this first book available via inter-library loan, and here we are.  

And well, The Isle of Glass is a perfectly enjoyable historical fantasy novel set during the 12th century and the Crusades (or well in between them), featuring a Fae/Elf/Changeling devout monk, who is forced to confront what he is when he's sent to King Richard (yes that Richard) from his monastery in an attempt to stop a war.  It's well done for what it is - its hero's self-hate and martyr complex are very understandable in light of the religious/personal conflicts the hero has over his very being, and the side characters are very enjoyable as they support/antagonize him - although what it is, to be honest, has limited appeal to me.  But if you're more interested in fantasy set amongst middle ages/crusades-era Christianity, I suspect The Isle of Glass and its sequels will very much appeal to you.  


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------------
Alfred has lived his whole life in the monastery of St. Ruan's, where he was found seemingly abandoned as a baby.  He grew up alongside the monk who would in the present day become the monastery's abbot and who would continue aging these 60 years.....unlike Alfred, who never seemed to age a day past 30.  And so pious Alfred, devout believer in Christ, knows that he himself must be a sin, a being who might be without a soul, and constantly hates himself for it, and for the magical powers that sometimes come to him along with it.  

But when a wounded knight with a similar Elfish nature winds up at the monastery after a failed mission of peace, Alf finds himself no longer allowed the luxury of solitary misery.  Soon his friend the Abbot sends Alf and his young student Jehan on the knight's own mission of peace - to find King Richard out in the field and convince him not to fall for the tricks of one of his own greedy vassals, who wants nothing more than to force Richard into war.  

But what Alf finds on his journey is more than he ever expected - an elf girl who can transform between woman and beast; a King who finds his company and advice well respected; and priests of a more inquisitorial sort who will gladly see Alfred burned at the stake for just who he is.  But to accomplish his mission and stop a war, Alf may have to lean into the magical nature that he hates so much, even if it gets him killed for reasons he inwardly agrees with.....
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The Isle of Glass is the story of Alf, although the story does not solely get told from his own perspective - his young student Jehan, a boy who no one understands would rather be scholarly than the warrior he looks like, gets a number of parts told from his perspective, and the story would bounce on occasion to other perspectives as well.  It's also a story that's very much historical fantasy - although there are fae/elves in this world, this is our world during the Crusades, featuring as a prominent character Richard the Lionheart as the King Alf rides out to persuade not to go to war due to the treachery of a vassal lord.  

And in this world again, our main story features Alf, as the tormented soul who finds himself devoutly believing in his monastic Christian ways - pacifism, chastity, and committing to Christian faith - despite being forced into situations that threaten to make him act otherwise.  His magic healing, as well as his other magic powers are those he fears as heathenish, to the point where he barely disagrees with the inquisitorial monks under the control of a rogue bishop who are clearly suspicious of him and want to see him burned at the stake.  Almost - Alf has a martyr complex, not a death wish, and is only willing to die if it'll do some good....although he's just very very willing to die for that good.  

It's an attitude that isn't healthy, especially in how much derives from Alf's self-hatred and thankfully Alf gains some friends who help him out of it - whether that be his student Jehan, the friendship of King Richard himself, and the elfish shapeshifter girl Althea - who tries desperately to get Alf to accept who he is as something good (and tempts him a bit, even if she's not trying to be a seductress).  And so our story is as much a journey about Alf's acceptance of who he is, and his deciding to find another path as it is an adventure to stop a war, and it works incredibly well in this respect.  

That said, well, as a Jewish American who uh doesn't really have a fond view of the Christian Crusaders, this really isn't the type of story that gets my interest.  Which is no fault of the story itself, which handles its context well enough, and never asserts Christian superiority over other religions or peoples (although those other peoples are basically never seen on-page).  But it's a moral and religious viewpoint I can't relate to, so this book doesn't quite do it for me - but naturally it will for others.  And if it is your type of book, I suspect this will work very well for you, and will make you naturally want to go on into the book's sequels.  

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