Gone to a cold home

[glenatron]

My favourite book in the world is Mythago Wood and although I loved it when I first read it after reading it's later counterpart Gate Of Ivory, Gate Of Horn that gave context and subtlety to the story, I found even more to it. I have never reached the end of that book with dry eyes, it is simply brilliant. Consequently I was very excited earlier in the year to hear that not only had The Bone Forest, a compendium of short stories set around the fringes of the wildwood, been re-published but there was also a third novel to wrap up the story of the Huxley brothers coming out. Sure enough Avilion came out earlier in the summer and I bought it straight away in hardback. I wouldn't say it equals it's precursors- by commencing within the wildwood it is less of a journey into that mystery than the other Mythago stories, but it is still a very fine read and full of the unique and primordial depth that I love about all those books.

So yes, you can consider me a fan of Robert Holdstock's books - going right back to The Dark Wheel which I read many times when I was young and obsessed with Elite - and I was very sad to hear there will be no more.

Comments

[oifonly.livejournal.com]

I think as a pair, Mythago Wood and Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn are a truly fantastic read. Really didn't like Lavondyss though, so never bothered to read the other one - The Hollowing, is it? I way preferred the stories about the Huxley brothers and loved the way the two books gave the two different perspectives on the same story. Does Avilion bring the two threads together then? If so, that's definitely one for the wish list!

[life-of-tom.livejournal.com]

It is a shame. He was wonderful, and he worked with material which would have been very cliched in other people's hands, and somehow made it fresh and alive. The world could have done with some more from him.

For what it's worth, I thought Lavondyss was the best of the Mythago series- the story-teller's masks are one of the coolest ideas I've ever read, and the girl's practice of naming everything to find her way towards the forest really reminded me of stuff I did, when I was a kid.

[spoon-doom.livejournal.com]

There's another one as well I think called the Hollowing, I think the plot is that an insane person wandered into the woods and the mythagos start to twist accordingly.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Avilion is the wrapping up of that story, yes. It's not as fine as it's two precursors, but then neither is any other book so I guess that's fair enough.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

That is correct, I'm not as keen on that as I am on the others from that sequence but it's still very strong by any standard.

Also he has a trilogy called The Merlin Codex set in a prehistory where the wildwood ( that Ryhope and Broceliande are tiny surviving corners of ) grows over most of Europe. It's a bringing together of a whole bunch of western mythological themes along with his own ideas about prehistory and combines Jason with the Celtic raid on Delphi and a whole lot of other stuff. Again, not as all-surpassing as the Huxley Brothers stories, but well worth reading.