Cherryh, CJ - Gate of Ivrel

[oyceter]

An alien race once travelled everywhere via gates, but something in the technology made it so that a) the alien race didn't survive and b) the existence of gates still is a threat to the world.

Or, um, something like that.

Morgaine is a legend in Vanye's world, which explains Vanye's surprise when she appears in front of him after he's exiled from his clan. He becomes something like a bond-servant to her and her quest to destroy all the gates.

Unfortunately, I read this while my brain was going wonky, and as such, I don't remember much of it at all. The prose is rather old-fashioned in that old-fashioned fantasy way, and no one has a sense of humor. I really like Morgaine's type, but I had a difficult time getting in the story because of all the honor systems and assorted clans and the formality of the language, for some reason.

But I still want to read more books in the Morgaine cycle, just because of the ending of this book, which made up for much of the Clans and the language and etc.

Comments

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

It's been years since I read those but I do remember rather liking them. Lacking senses of humor is not uncharacteristic in Carolyn's books I think. Odd, as she has a pretty good, if dry, one herself. Still, I don't think characterization was ever her strong point and the Gate books are fairly early in her career.

MKK

[oyceter]

Yeah, the Gate books read fairly early, although since I've read about two of her books, I can't really say. It's something about the prose that just reminds me of older fantasy styles.

Vanye completely won me over in the last chapter.

[cofax7]

Gate of Ivrel was either her first or second novel, I think. It is young, and very reminiscent of Andre Norton to me, with some Leigh Brackett thrown into the mix.

But it's got that fabulous tortured relationship with Vanye's families, and the image of Morgaine coming through the gate, 100 years after everyone she knew died, and I'm a sucker for that kind of legendry, and faux-archaic poetry.

When Thiye ruled in Hjemur, came strangers riding there, and one was dark and one was gold and one like frost was fair.
Fair was she, and fatal as fair, and cursed who gave her ear
Now men are few and wolves are more and winter drawing near.

What I like about the Morgaine books, on a more serious note, is how they play with issues of identity (who is Roh? How can he be? What does he mean?), of loyalty (that final chapter, yeah), of ethics (the qual gates do great damage--but so does Morgaine in destroying them). Morgaine and Vanye are like a tornado, or the worst kind of entropy, destabilizing things wherever they go, but for the purest kind of altruism. They're terrifying and wonderful.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I liked the cycle for many of the same reasons, and this is despite coming in at Exile's Gate (it was on a Please Read, Kids! kinda bookshelf in one of my English teacher's classrooms) and having to backtrack for the first three when I made it to the States.

And, well, overt humor not a typical feature of Cherryh protagonists. They're too busy being run down/running things down. The woman rarely ever lets up on the poor people.

[oyceter]

Oh cool! I mean to pick up other books, just because the Vanye-Morgaine relationship fascinates me. I only wish that there had been more of it in this book, because I couldn't keep all the Clans straight in my head.

[oyceter]

I think part of my problem was that I found Morgaine infinitely more interesting than Vanye's families (this is possibly just because my brain wasn't too happy at the time and I couldn't keep all the Clans apart). But yeah, I love the image of her stepping out of the gate to a world completely different.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

The good news: That's the last you see of the clans, more or less, except that Vanye still remembers them.

The bad news: A whole new set of characters to keep straight in the next book!

[oyceter]

Hee!

Oh well, I'm going to go hunt for the next ones int he library today.

[ellarien]

The Morgaine books were my first exposure to Cherryh; I found them hard going, but in a good way.

I think the problem with the gates was that (being FTL transport) they created causality violation and paradox when they were used to go backwards in time, and eventually it got bad enough to destabilize the Universe.

There's a related story in the short story collection that came out the other year, set at the time when the Gate network was starting to unravel.

[oyceter]

Ahhhh yes, causality! No wonder I was confused! That type of thing always makes my head just shut down -_-;;.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, which short story collection was that?

[ellarien]

Oh, sorry! The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

It's also in Visible Light, an earlier collection which has pretty much been subsumed by the Collected Short Fiction.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

My first adult SFF book was the last of the Gate books, which I got at the grocery store. It confused me, but there was so much cool stuff in it that I glommed onto the genre. I've never gotten around to reading the others, though I still have that one.

[oyceter]

Oh cool! I'm planning on getting the others some time, just because I loved the last chapter of this one so much.

[leadensky.livejournal.com]

Just to chime in with everyone else that the Gate novels get better as you go along, and that it's pretty typical for Cherryh novels to end in a rush that makes the whole thing worth it.

(And yeah, Vanyee sticks around for a bit.)

I personnally rec "smaller" novels like Cuckoo's Egg rather than Cyteen for people just getting started on CJC.

If you like the Russian flavor of the novels at all, look for Rushalka (sp?) which is Russian fantasy.

- hg

[oyceter]

I keep getting started on CJC ;).

I think I've read Rusalka, but that was back when I was in middle school, and I don't remember much of it at all!