The House of the Stag

Quite an epic scope for a novel, and at the same time there's such a cozy domestic feel to it.

The bulk of the story is about Gard, half-demon and half-yendri, from his innocent boyhood in the peaceful forests to oppression by the Riders, enslavement in a mountain, life in the city, and finally his role as self-professed Dark Lord, the Master of the Mountain (different mountain); the rest is about the Saint, the mystical/religious savior of the yendri, a young woman with great powers. Of course, they get married.

What I like best is that it's an amazing story, of course, with each setting and group of characters finely-wrought by the author (who frequently manages a Pratchettian feel in the way high fantasy concepts rub shoulders with normalcy) - but also, a lot of aspects relating to sex and gender feel exceptionally well handled. Gard is a person, not an avatar for a fantasy of being degraded and then powerful or for toxically masculine fantasies of sex and revenge.

There are a few references to ambiguously consensual demon/yendri couplings, and Gard and the Saint's initial offscreen encounter is somewhat less ambiguously non-consensual - but he is ashamed of this, and he makes amends. Still, this is something you may want to know going in. (At the same time, I would normally run like hell from a plot point like that, but in context, perhaps because of the Saint's saintliness, it does work.)

I'm not entirely sure to what extent this is a good book, and to what extent I just really enjoyed it. It ought to have annoyed me, but it didn't.

Prequel to the [b:The Anvil of the World|297815|The Anvil of the World|Kage Baker|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173495909s/297815.jpg|288949], (which, btw, I think we can agree is a pretty awesome title, roughly as hardcore as Jesus riding a T-Rex) this book gives the origin story of the that story's villain. Well, not truly the villain, and even in the The Anvil of the World it is obvious that Baker has plenty of back-story for him, waiting off-stage.

Specific things that ought to have interfered with my enjoyment:

1. Why is everyone in this book straight? There is enough sex, and openness about sex, that all the heterosexuality looks pretty odd. At one point, I thought there were a pair of male ex-lovers, but it turned out I'd mistaken the gender of one of them. That means the only hint of non-heterosexual expression is a vague hint of paedophilia in an early chapter, and an implied offer of money for favours which the protagonist does not take up.

2. A religious leader, called "the Beloved," doesn't want to deprive any of the young ladies of the awesomeness that is him. The book seems to treat this sincerely. I'm sorry, religious leaders who have sex with multiple followers are always skeezy. That is the rule.

3. Rape is treated as, like, very annoying sex. Paraphrase of actual conversation:

"... and then the raping happened."

"But was anybody hurt?"

"No, everyone's fine."

Okay! Baker's a woman, which just goes to show my prejudices are not reliable. The saving grace, if you could call it that, is that both men and women are subjected to coerced sex about equally, and that Baker is not interested in eroticizing rape at all.

4. Fantasy race syndrome! The earth-landers are nature-loving! The fire-landers are hot-tempered! The sun-landers are mercantile! I actually thought it was fairly well done, but I am aware the trope is problematic.

5. The book is all about how Gard, the protagonist, rose to the position of Dark Lord. (Amusingly, in one chapter, Gard basically reads [b:The Dark Lord of Derkholme|47587|The Dark Lord of Derkholm (Gollancz SF)|Diana Wynne Jones|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170347861s/47587.jpg|869986] and uses it as a cheat-sheet.) Young-man's-rise-to-ridiculous-superpowers isn't really that intrinsically interesting.

So with all these, why did I actually enjoy it? Well, Baker is really good at a Clarke's law ("sufficiently advanced technology...") and although this is fantasy, so it really is magic, the difference between Gard's uninformed and informed views of magic are very interesting.

I think part of my enjoyment too came from reading The Anvil of the World first, since there were so many things unexplained there that were explained here. And part of it was just the sheer coolness factor: he blew up a mountain! Come on! He commands an army of demons! He uses skulls in all of his decorating!

But er. I am aware none of these is terribly objective.