Jo Walton, _The King's Peace_
Jan. 16th, 2002 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eubJo Walton is a rec.arts.sf.(written|composition) regular, and this is her first book, so I bought it when it came out a year or so ago, but just now got around to reading it. It's an Arthurian fantasy, but don't let that put you off; it's quite good. It's told by a soldier of the king, looking back. Sulien's got some conspicuous blind spots --scarred by raiders' raping her and killing her brother, rather stand-offish with her mother, clueless about social maneuvering, and bigoted against Christians -- but she's honorable and likeable for all that. Oh yes, the setting has been adjusted to be less disfavorable towards women, which is occasionally jarring only because the rest of the social customs are convincingly alien. (It does not suffer from the infestation of modern Californians that plagues too much historical fiction.)
The conflict between Christianity and older religion is important here, thematically and plotwise. I have my doubts whether the theological discussions are strictly period, but I don't think that's the point. You can see some kinship with The Mists of Avalon; they also both pack some emotional heat. The King's Peace I liked better as SF because it felt solidly like a place and time not our own. Also, it doesn't risk feeling like a religious tract because it's doing things with governance too, even more so.
(Some really oddball punctuation glitches. Watch for the bit where a sentence of stage business ("Veniva raised her chin", or something) is typeset as dialogue.)
Be aware that it's the first book of (IIRC) two, though it doesn't say this on it anywhere I can see.
The conflict between Christianity and older religion is important here, thematically and plotwise. I have my doubts whether the theological discussions are strictly period, but I don't think that's the point. You can see some kinship with The Mists of Avalon; they also both pack some emotional heat. The King's Peace I liked better as SF because it felt solidly like a place and time not our own. Also, it doesn't risk feeling like a religious tract because it's doing things with governance too, even more so.
(Some really oddball punctuation glitches. Watch for the bit where a sentence of stage business ("Veniva raised her chin", or something) is typeset as dialogue.)
Be aware that it's the first book of (IIRC) two, though it doesn't say this on it anywhere I can see.
