Lavondyss / DNF (Mythago Wood #2) 2Stars

 

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Title: Lavondyss / DNF
Series: Mythago Wood #2
Author: Robert Holdstock
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 200/325
Words: 84K/137K
Publish: 1988

I wasn’t particularly enjoying this read but wasn’t really hating it either, so I guess I was coasting along, being lazy.

Then one of the characters says to another something along the lines of “Now you’re just talking nonsense” and it suddenly hit me, this entire book is nonsense and the WHOLE idea by Holdstock is nonsense and so I just stopped reading without further ado.

I was wasting my time on utter nonsense and when I realized that, I stopped. Not as good as not starting the nonsense in the first place, but much better than continuing it to the end and allowing it to infest my mind, even if negatively. I’m also giving this book the “garbage” tag because it’s not fun nonsense :-(

The cover is awesome however. I would have picked this book up based on it alone. It’s a real shame such garbage is hiding inside.

★★☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

During her formative years, Tallis encounters the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (not a mythago, but real flesh and blood). Tallis sings him a song that she thinks she has made up herself, but the composer identifies its tune as that of a folk song he has collected personally in Norfolk. Slowly Tallis's links with the wood intensify. She makes ten chthonic wooden masks, each of which represents one of the ten first legends in Ryhope wood. Within the context of the story, these masks are talismans that help to engage certain parts of her subconscious and so link her with the characters and landscapes which are forming within the wood. When properly used (especially later in the book), these masks allow Tallis to see things that cannot be seen without them, and they can also be used to create 'Hollowings' — pathways in space and time which allow her to step into far-off places within the wood which would otherwise take days, weeks, or even months to travel to on foot. Tallis makes the masks in the following order:

1. The Hollower — made from elm, this female mask is painted red and white.

2. Gaberlungi — made from oak and painted white, this mask is known as "memory of the land".

3. Skogen — made from hazel and painted green, this mask is known as "shadow of the forest".

4. Lament — made from willow bark, this simple mask is painted gray.

5. Falkenna — the first of three journey masks is painted like a hawk; this mask is known as "the flight of a bird into an unknown region".

6. Silvering — the second of three journey masks is painted in colored circles; this mask is known as "the movement of a salmon into the rivers of an unknown region". The Silvering is also the name of a short story included in Merlin's Wood.

7. Cunhaval — the third of three journey masks is made from elder wood; this mask is known as "the running of a hunting dog through the forest tracks of an unknown region".

8. Moondream — made from beechwood, this mask is painted with moon symbols on its face. This mask plays a prominent role in The Hollowing.

9. Sinisalo — made from wych elm and painted white and azure, this mask is known as "seeing the child in the land".

10. Morndun — this mask appears dead from the front, but alive from behind and is known as "the first journey of a ghost into an unknown region".

Before setting foot in the wood, Tallis has one particular encounter that has major repercussions through the rest of the story: with the 'help' of one of the mythagos, she 'hollows' (creates a Hollowing) and observes Scathach, a young warrior, dying on a battlefield beneath a tree. Tallis' misdirected magic used to help this young warrior changes both her story and Harry Keeton's story in Ryhope wood.

Deep within Ryhope wood Tallis eventually meets up with Edward Wynne-Jones (human, not mythago) who was only mentioned in Mythago Wood. He is now living in the wood as a shaman to a small village of ancient people. Through his understanding of the wood (which he studied with the scientist George Huxley from the first book), Tallis herself gains an understanding of her connections with all that surrounds her; most importantly, she asks him how she might find her lost brother Harry Keeton

Mythago Wood (Mythago Wood #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Mythago Wood
Series: Mythago Wood #1
Author: Robert Holdstock
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 261
Words: 97K
Publish: 1984

This book typifies why I hate British “Lit”. In fact, it feels almost identical to American “Lit”! It’s whiny, spineless, cowardly and so full of bile and self-hatred that you need to cover your hands in pepto-bismol just to touch the pages.

Normally, something like that would get an automatic 2stars and I’d write a screed against the author and condemn him for a multitude of sins, mainly of being a commie pinko who I would then shoot.

Alas, Holdstock’s skill at writing managed to overcome even my patriotic hatred of commie pinkos hiding in the closet.

But not enough to break the 3star barrier. I believe the series centers around the Mythago Wood itself and not necessarily the characters from this book. That gives me hope.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia & Bookstooge (because whoever did the entry for wikipedia is a complete….)

The events of Mythago Wood occur between 1946 and 1948. Stephen Huxley returns from service (after recuperating from his war wounds) to see his elder brother Christian, who now lives alone in their childhood home, Oak Lodge, just on the edge of Ryhope Wood. Their father, George, has died recently (their mother, Jennifer, died some years earlier). Christian is disturbed but intrigued by his encounters with one of the mythagos, while Stephen is confused and disbelieving when Christian explains the enigma of the wood. Both had seen mythagos as children, but their father explained them away as travelling Gypsies. Christian returns to the wood for longer and longer periods, eventually assuming a mythical role himself. In the meantime Stephen reads about his father's and Edward Wynne-Jones's studies of the wood. Part of his research on the wood causes him to contact Wynne-Jones's daughter, Anne Hayden. Stephen also meets a local man named Harry Keeton, a burn-scarred ex-RAF pilot, who encountered a similar wood when he was shot down over France and has since been trying to find a city that he saw there. Stephen and Harry try to survey and photograph Ryhope Wood from the air, but their small plane is buffeted back by inexplicable winds each time they try to fly over the trees. Stephen soon has his own encounters with the woodland mythagos (and an older Christian) and eventually, to save both his brother and a mythago girl named Guiwenneth (also referred to as Gwyneth or Gwyn), he ventures deep into the wood, accompanied by Harry.

Christian, being chased by the mythago of his father, chases down Gwyn to possess her and kills her. Steve fights his bro and saves the Mythagos from Christian, but doesn’t kill him.