A Song For Lya is a science fiction novella by American writer George R.R. Martin. It was published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine in and.
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Sometimes too passionate about stuff. A fat former pacifist and trader decides to help a group of simian aliens that looked like wookiees before wookiees existed who are being systematically exterminated by a group of militant human religious fanatics. I had no idea about the wookie thing, hahaha.
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Once again I have the feeling that Lucas is less creative than we give him credit for…. Sandkings was made into a crappy Outer Limits episode that I hear did not do the original story justice. I highly recommend the audiobook of this story, Mark Bramhall gives an excellent performance. In fact pretty much all of the Dreamsongs audiobook versions are fantastic. So here is little old me with my intellectual peon self looking at this sci-fi story about a blob monster and wondering, is the Union real? Or is it just a psy-lure as Valcarenghi offhandedly mentions?
I see no reason to doubt him, honestly? I have another little theory on the Union, maybe the greeshka acts as a gateway to another plane of existence that your conscious or soul or what-have-you is sent to when you are absorbed, and eradicating the greeshka would only just close the door, so to speak. They are all responsible for taking a narrative speeding along at full steam, halting it in its tracks, rewinding, and starting something else.
Smeagol and Gondor reorient both stories, creating near-immediate newness and momentum that propel their books forward. Evil sowing the seeds of its own destruction is a solid Tolkien theme. But its articulation here—as Shagrat and Gorbag tear each other apart, leaving a clear path for Sam—is more convenient and less potent than in an established, nuanced character like Saruman.
And the reminder that Mordor keeps people in rather than out is an ominous one, but again, nothing new. Sam starts off Book VI by walking into Mordor by himself. His panic-induced adrenaline has worn off, and he first catches a glimpse of Mount Doom while standing small, cold, and afraid. He just maybe-murdered a giant spider of numinous darkness. First, there is simply the question of power, as Sam faces his main temptation from the Ring around his neck.
As Sam stood there… he felt himself enlarged, as if he were robed in a huge distorted shadow of himself, a vast and ominous threat halted upon the walls of Mordor. He felt that he had from now on only two choices: Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dur. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit.
Gandalf, as Tolkien mentioned, would have been far worse as a master of the Ring than Sauron precisely because of his good intentions. Sam—thanks to that solid hobbit common sense—is able to realize that benevolent garden tyranny is still a tyranny of its own. The interesting thing about this chapter, though, is that Sam is also repeatedly saved by the power that he abdicates. There is a sense of tension present throughout The Lord of the Rings around this question. The peace and simplicity of the Shire, its utter disregard for power and conquest, form the core of hobbit courage.
But the question of how—and whether—such things can be maintained without force nearly always bubbles below the surface. When I read Tolkien as a teenager, I was always aware of a strong contingent of shippers who were deeply invested in the idea of Frodo and Sam being a couple. But I also am not surprised by it in the slightest, because the relationship between Frodo and Sam is intimate and tender in a way that feels unique in the depiction of male fantasy heroes.
There is hand-holding, spooning, and so many tears! Sam felt that he could sit like that in endless happiness; but it was not allowed. Touch and affection are embraced as healing and strengthening. Tears are a mark of empathy and not of weakness. But now the vision had passed. There was Sam kneeling before him, his face wrung with pain, as if he had been stabbed in the heart; tears welled from his eyes. I do wonder, to a certain extent, if Tolkien manages to be so old in his views here that he feels new.
In any case, it does feel like another indication of the wobbly foundation for claiming Tolkien as the grandfather of modern fantasy. The painting of Sam approaching Cirith Ungol is courtesy of aegeri. Only two of the books in this series list both David and Leigh Eddings as co-authors. This duology shows the way that POV shapes history and politics. The Polgara the Sorceress wraps up the entire series.
This book is a fitting conclusion to their longest collaboration, and to their own hidden metaphor. Eventually, Poledra summons Polgara to Riva, because Beldaran was dying. Belgarath puts Polgara and Daran in charge and leaves. Polgara and Daran accuse the priest of witchcraft and eventually exile the members of the cult. Eventually, she returns to the Vale of Aldur, and studies the prophecies for several centuries.
Poledra summons Polgara to Arendia, and tells her that Ctuchik was planning something. Polgara proceeds to stop three Murgo plots. She tells the Duke of Waconia that his advisor is a Grolim. The Duke of Asturia proves incompetent, and she initiates a rebellion against them.
She remains in Arendia for the next several decades. Polgara rescues the son of the Wacite Duke from the nephew of the first Asturian Duke. The three Dukes then give her the Duchy of Erat, which then becomes Sendaria. Polgara spends a great deal of time guiding Sendaria into competency.
Ontrose is the only man Polgara loves before Durnik. Belgarath drags her back to the Vale to keep her from fighting. However, she works through factors to protect Erat, the survivors of Waconia. For the next several centuries she protects Erat, as it becomes Sendaria, bartering with Tolnedran Emperors and Alorn Kings to keep it free. This persists until the death of Gorek, whereupon she takes charge of protecting Geran and the line of the Rivan King. She apprentices various heirs to artisans, and then eventually buys out the shop of their childless teacher.
They occasionally flee from Murgos and move around Sendaria and Aloria. Then comes the Battle of Vo Mimbre, which progresses as Belgarath described it. Poledra and Polgara spy upon Torak and Zedar in the form of an owl. Poledra helps Polgara defy him when Torak confronts Brand. From Vo Mimre, Polgara resumes her task of protecting the Rivan heirs. Gelane, the heir during Vo Mimbre, proves slightly troublesome. He knows who he is, and Chamdar, or Asharak the Murgo, finds him, and controls him.
A Song for Lya
Belgarath and Polgara break this control and move the family away from Sendaria. Things continue peaceably from there, with Polgara making a side trip to Nyissa at one point. She meets a former Salmissra, and prevents Chamdar and Ctuchik from manipulating her into causing problems.
Alara wanders off on Erastide, and Polgara goes to find her. Ildera gives birth, and Asharak kills Geran and Ildera. One of the persistent problems in Polgara the Sorceress is how women are pitted against each other. Their relationships prove adversarial, except for sisters, mothers, or mentors. Even then, Polgara spends a good portion of her childhood trying to be ugly.
She never combs her hair, bathes, or changes clothes unless forced. The master changed that, however. Polgara compares herself to Beldaran and finds herself wanting. Only when Beldaran and Riva fall in love does Polgara clean herself up. The precedent of comparing women to other women based on looks and pitting them against each other continues. At Riva, Polgara joins the other young courtiers and sets about breaking hearts.
She captures the attention of all the young men based on her looks. It might have been my imagination, but after they left I seemed to hear a gnawing sound — a sound that was remarkably like the sound of someone eating her own liver. She enjoys the pain she causes other women because of her conquests. The wedding planning devolves into one-upmanship between the two. Women can compete against each other, yes, and they frequently do.
The fact that only the sparse mentoring and familial relationships remain free of competition makes this problematic. Another thread in this book shows how men try to force women to submit. Polgara rebels against this, of course, and tries to help other women, but it proves slightly outdated in this respect. The families quarreled over some land.
Daran dissolves the marriage and then punishes the husband further by whipping him in court. When Polgara leads Erat, she establishes laws that harshly punish spousal abuse. I did urge the constables not to break too many bones in the process however. While abusers seldom listen to reason, removing the victim from the range of the abuser would be better. Polgara just notes these events in passing. She dwells more on the instances where men attempt to personally control her. He hoped to beat Ontrose and be her champion. His loss to Ontrose led him to betray Wacune and Erat.
Torak also desires to control Polgara.
She will obey me—nay, even worship me. Who of all the women of this world is fit to share my throne—and my bed?
A Song for Lya
Torak wants to possess both the Orb of Aldur and Polgara. Torak with the Orb would control the Purpose of the Universe. With Polgara, he would further disrupt that purpose. They recognize the evil in spousal abuse and the submission Torak wants. But time has outstripped their understanding in the past 21 years.
She attended the first meeting of the Alorn Council and established the Arendish one. Both of these events occur because of pressure by the Murgos and Grolims. The Alorn Council grows into a pseudo-United Nations, and it began with the intent of preventing Angarak influence in the West. The parallels between the Cold War barely need to be drawn.
It reads as the Red Scare all over again, except with less cause. The guerilla warfare fits Arendia better than the political machinations in the United Nations. Another aspect of politics in Polgara the Sorceress lies in duty. Most people only see the fine houses, the fancy clothes, and all the bowing and scraping by lesser nobles. Polgara teaches Gelane that lesson because it proves the most important one to the Cold War.
The politicians refocused on preventing nuclear war and considered that more important than everything else. Polgara the Sorceress also showcases the only example of unrestrained capitalism in the entire series. We saw it through metaphor. But now, in her stewardship of the Rivan line and her shepherding Sendaria, we see it firsthand.
She lectures Ontrose, and he repeats her lesson, economics , back to her. The merchant class prospers, and their share of the tax burden doth lighten the load borne by the landowners, thy vassals.
The prosperity of the former serf is the base upon which the economy of the entire kingdom doth stand. Polgara spends centuries hammering that principle into the heads of her vassals. Despite the archaic speech, it speaks truth in linking the economy on the spending of the masses, rather than the hoards of the wealthy. In addition, Polgara threatens to create a mall to some vulture-like merchants after the death of a Rivan heir.
A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin
Then, they insert it into their fantasy world, and in doing so, normalize the conditions and systems that create such things. At the very end of Polgara the Sorceress , we discover that Geran dreams about Zandramas and remains terrified of her. It shows the very slow steps out of institutionalized fear of the enemy. All of this plays into the final metaphor, because now the cycles are over. You can go straight from Polgara to Pawn of Prophecy. This proves especially ironic because their entire metaphor counted on the breaking of cycles.
The entirety of this book, and this series relates in so many ways to its cultural context. No one could not write this now, because the events that underlie the plot and philosophy of the book. Despite the undercutting via the literary cycle, the metaphorical one is complete. This week, I received some interesting news. I am talking about Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.
He is, in fact, half-goblin… which brings us to the first peculiarity of the setting. It takes place in Ethuveraz, also known as elflands, an elven empire. Maia is the son of the previous emperor, but his mother was a goblin. Unlike in most fantasy, though, goblins and elves differ physically about as much as different human ethnicities.
They can mix freely, with many people of mixed heritage appearing all over. Needless to say, political and ethnic tensions happen and in fact play a major part of the story. That is, until His Imperial Serenity Varenechibel IV and his three sons die in an airship crash leaving the half-goblin son he barely acknowledged as the sole heir to the throne. Maia is suddenly torn away from his dreary, unhappy home and thrust into the robes of the emperor, despite having no clue whatsoever what it involves. Indeed, Maia is as clueless as we are about the workings of the Ethuveraz when we begin the story.
We are introduced to many facts about the Ethuveraz at a break-neck pace.
The names of the people, their titles, the buildings, and the functions all blur together. And here at least we have a protagonist as ignorant as we are, so we learn at his pace. Maia is a clever kid, but this is just too much for him. But what do we find out as we explore the elven empire with Maia? Ethuveraz is full of somewhat steampunk technology, such as the airships.
Unfortunately, it also means that the condition in factories and workshops are inhuman… or is it inelven? Needless to say, the ascension of a half-goblin kid to the throne shakes things up considerably. Maia is ignorant, of course, but he is also not sheltered by the massive wealth and privilege that the noble houses live in. Moreover, he is simply a good, kind person. To the highborn, the servants, workers, and commoners are background at best.
They enable their lavish lifestyle and political ambitious but deserve no further consideration. Not so with Maia. He sees them as people, which shakes things up more than anyone expects. I should note here that the message and atmosphere of the book are ultimately optimistic. Maia is a good and caring person who ends up in the center of a system of privilege, oppression, and tradition. You might wonder, why even have elves and goblins if they might as well be just human ethnicities?
He notes his main resistance to joining has been his sense of self, something he recognises as being very strong in colder characters like the administrator. The poor guy thinks men have a dual nature of both craving love and keeping it back, unlike the aliens who desire it all the time.
This is a tragic, and poignantly sad and beautiful tale that truly deserves more credit and recognition than it has. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Ruined Forever Rantings on music, movies and games. Uncategorized — Leave a comment. As always, spoiler warnings. The tale has been about since , so suck it. A Song for Lya is one of these stories. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email required Address never made public.
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