Hodgell, P.C. - God Stalk

[oyceter]

This may be one of those books that I reread a few years later and discover I love, but right now, it just didn't work for me.

Jame somehow lands in the city of Tai-tastigon, in which there are many thieves and even more gods. She somehow ends up being apprenticed to a thief, despite being a Kencyr (apparently a race known for honor). Assorted stuff happens that I can't quite remember.

I'm not sure why, but somehow, all the elements of the book -- the underground thief society, life at the inn Jame stays at, the gods of Tai-tastigon -- just never quite coalesced for me. I can't really remember what happened or why, or which bits were the important ones. Individually, everything was really cool, and I loved the city of Tai-tastigon, the feel of myth in the background, Jame's Kencyr heritage, and the mystery of her existence. But I just couldn't put any of it together.

Comments

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Oops, I tried to comment, but hit something wrong..anyways, I was saying that I tried to read this book a few weeks ago and thought pretty much the same thing. But it came so highly recommended that I think I will try to reread it late.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I figure I may pick it up again some other time, who knows?

[estara.livejournal.com]

^^, I hope you do. Reread and discover you love it, I mean.

I never had the experience of not being sucked into that story, and when I read the UK version 'Chronicles of the Kencyrath' in the late 80s Jaime was one of the strongest female heroines at the time and therefore highly appreciated by me.

Personally I think it's one of the strongest epic fantasies I've ever read and while there is so much foreshadowing in the first book (as far as I know Meisha Merlin also has combined the first single volumes, much like the Chronicles of the Kencyrath UK version did) and not enough detail, the next two books have a lot more explanation but also more present day action and less looking back at the past. She keeps up with the sheer amount of ideas though.

I think Mrs. Hodgell got me definitely when she gave Jaime her big golden cat and let her experiment with destroying and resurrecting a god in Tai-Tastigon, heh.

The only thing I regret is that she had such long writer's block and needs such a long time to write the next book (the fourth one came out only last year). Oh and that not more people even know her name. Nice to see you at least read something by her.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I picked it up because people were talking about To Ride a Rathorn. I suspect it may work better for me some other time, but this time just didn't seem to click at all.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

The mystery of the Hodgell recommendations is that the cool elements don't really come together... but it is entirely likely that next month you will recommend them to someone anyway. I've done it myself. (Actually, To Ride a Rathorn does tie things together a bit, so works a whole lot better than previous books. Still, three-plus novels is a bit long to wait for that.)

[oyceter]

Huh! I think I got really confused -- I couldn't quite figure out if I was supposed to be concentrating on the more picaresque bits on the city or the giant grand mythology. Or maybe both!

[snarp]

I had pretty much the same reaction; I get the idea that it's a common one. If the stuff about the Kencyr did anything for you, you might want to go ahead and read Dark of the Moon, which is significantly less... polyphonic? I didn't actually feel sure I understood what had happened at the end of God Stalk when I moved on, and needed the explanations in the later books to explain it to me.

[oyceter]

Huh, so are the later books more on Jame's past and the big mythic grandness about the Kencyr and Perimal Darkling?

[snarp]

Yup. There are always other things going on, because heaven forbid there be only one plot per book (it doesn't work that way!), but the events are mostly linked to Perimal Darkling and Jame's people squabbling in amusing ways.

(Though I say all this not having yet read the fourth book. Maybe things get completely insane again there.)

[oyceter]

Gotcha, cool, thanks!

[chomiji]

Oh, please do give it another chance sometime! This is an old favorite of mine, but I think that I also said "meh" on the first reading. The burglary incident at the tower stuck with me, though, and a few years later I decided to track down the book - and loved it.

P.C. Hodgell manages to be dark without being at all pessimistic. I love her rather sardonic voice, and to me, the city of Tai-Tastigon is almost a character in its own right. I also find Bane to be a marvellously ambiguous character - evil and yet fascinating and sexy. (Actually, he strikes me as being very manga-esque, but perhaps everything looks like manga to me at the moment ... .)

- Cho

[oyceter]

I probably will at some point, since there were lots of things that I liked in the book -- it was just that nothing managed to congeal for me into a coherent whole. I figure I will let it sit for a few years (given my to-be-read list) and then possibly pick it up again when I want to read about girl thieves or cities or etc.

[(Anonymous)]

It's been several years when I discovered God Stalk in my school library. But once I found it, I just had to re-borrow it several times. It became a fixture in my room for several weeks.

Obviously it left an impression on me. There was never a cohesion, or a main plot, but it was still alright. To me it seemed like a narration of her random adventures in Tai-tastigon. All these seemingly unrelated events are still somehow fun and interesting. The guild, the power play, assorted theologies, and of course, the grand adventure of it all.

Or I could be wrong. Basically I like a book if it can keep me daydreaming for months. And in this case, even years. God Stalk did that for me.

[oyceter]

*nods* Yeah, I think there are a whole bunch of really Cool Bits in it, but I probably need to read it again at a time when my brain can handle doing more connections and etc. I just love some of the imagery in there though, especially the bread with internal organs.