How would the world have been different if the Armada had made it to Britain and the Catholic Church never lost its grip on these green isles? Without that frantic change in the global balance that was British Independence from the Church, would there have been a stasis in world events, a delaying of research and technology, and a ridiculous prolongation of the feudal system far beyond any reasonable duration?
What I've written above is the core idea behind the fiction 'Pavane', a sequence of connected stories set in that Church-dominated Britain in the Twentieth Century, where rebellion is beginning to brew and a prophecy is stirring and evolving through the course of the disparate narratives.
There have been many alternate history narratives, and alarmingly I've read none of them, but this does seem to be one of the earliest examples. It's a strange book, somehow dense and not dense. There are faerie-folk in the background but also mature human issues touched upon especially for the female characters.
'Pavane' is well-written and well-constructed but lacks a certain charm. It's easy to put down and then leave there for a while unless effort is exerted to finish, but the concept is novel and if there's a flaw it's in the dense writing style of the times and its nature as a fix-up novel. Fix-up novels have been mentioned before, specifically in the 'Red Harvest' review, but here we have what are clearly a number of clearly separated short stories with some added connectivity. I'm on record as being troubled by short stories, and it's true again here. Maybe they're just too dense, or it's the annoyance of stop-starting.
Perhaps it is a good book. I suspect it is. There's a clear duality going on, an underlying epic narrative based around one family and their role in the unravelling of a millennium of outside rulers, and even a role for the Old Gods and the faerie people. What there isn't is a sense of even transient fun. There's no humour, and that makes things hard to read. For me it is an axiom that there is humour even in the worst of times, as it is the most common outlet for stress and frustration. There's always a gag. So, 'good but joyless' is the ultimate verdict.
I've talked around in circles on this one. It's clearly an influential work, and well done, but it needs some effort to get beyond it's status as s fix-up. If you do though, and if you don't mind bitter-sweet endings, then it would be well worth a read.
pavane: A moderately slow, courtly processional dance in duple time/meter.
O.
PS Retrospective 'Happy birthday to the Quirky Muffin'!
While "Pavane" is something of a fix-up novel, I suspect Roberts knew where the story was going when writing the novelettes.
ReplyDeleteOne aspect of the book that has struck me each time I've read it, is the love that Roberts had for that the land. It's quite stunning, in my opinion.
I will note that I am rather prejudiced about the book having recently reprinted it.
-- Michael Walsh