As regulars here probably know, but newcomers may not, on the first of every month I post on the Supernatural Underground blog.

So yesterday I posted on my recent rediscovery of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (using the US title because the SU is a US-based blog) via the medium of audio book.

As it turns out, the post is timely because July 31 is Harry Potter’s birthday, so what better time to share my thoughts re a first-time listen which is also effectively a “re-read.” 😉 Here’s how it starts:

“I first discovered audio books well over a decade ago, when travelling with friends who enjoyed listening to them on the car radio. I did, too, but for some reason never adopted the medium beyond that one experience.

Recently, however, I sustained an injury to my eye, one which has made any sort of reading and screen work very difficult. Even now, it’s only slowly coming right enough to write this post, and as you can imagine, with a life bereft of books, television, and the internet (“I know” — grave extremes indeed!) it did not take long for my mind to return to audio books.

As I was not feeling particularly well, my first choice was to opt for an old favorite, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone*…”

To read all about how I found both the reread and the audio experience, click on:

Rediscovering Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Via Audio Book

And have fun in your own reading or listening. 🙂

‘Tis the bleak midwinter still, here “inside Middle Earth” (aka Nu Zild, aka Aotearoa — the “land of the long, white cloud”, aka New Zealand) so I thought I’d share a few snapshots from “around the traps.”

WW1 centenary monument, Rimutaka Crossing

The view north, from Rimutaka Crossing:

Governor’s Bay, Banks Peninsular: the view is of Lyttelton Harbour:

Up close and personal: a Canterbury braided river, not far from the sea:

Looking upriver:

And for those who love gardens, something from the fabulous Hamilton Gardens:

“Concept” Garden: the plants are NZ natives

The whakatauki or proverb inscribed on the wall translates as: “The human family lives on while the branch of the titoki falls and decays.” To read more about the Concept Garden, click on this link: Hamilton Gardens — Concept Garden.

Here’s a closer look at that dirigible, seen in the distance in the previous photo:

And an old favourite of mine, the Russian belltower, ca. 16th-17th century style, that inspired the belvedere in Thornspell:

So there you are, from North Island to South Island and back to the North Island again, or Here and Back Again. 😉

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Last year, I resumed my “About the Characters” post series that focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, because :

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist's Interview, 2013 

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood simultaneously — in alphabetical order, of course!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate whether the character appears in both or only one of the books—this week we’re back to a single entry.)

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Elodin: a Star knight, escort captain to Tirael of the Derai House of Stars; her full name is Elodinel

…the dispassionate voice was fading, releasing Rook to the presence that he now perceived was more than just Tirael. Elodin was there, and the rest of the Stars escort, their combined power forming an anchor for Tirael and himself. A storm anchor, Rook thought, another memory shaken out of his long ago Sea keep visit—

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 53 — Shadow Play

What The Heck’s A MacGuffin, You May Well Ask…

Wikipedia (aka ‘the font of all wisdom’ ) describes a “MacGuffin” as a “plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or another motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The MacGuffin’s importance to the plot is not the object itself, but rather its effect on the characters and their motivations.”

The Hitchcock film closely associated with the idea of a “MacGuffin”

If you dig a little deeper, the last sentence does appear to be open to some question. For example, although Hitchcock was allegedly of the view that “The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after but the audience don’t care [about]” (Boyd, David; Perspectives on Alfred Hitchcock, G. K. Hall, 1995, pg 31), George Lucas takes a different stance. He believes that the MacGuffin should be powerful and that “the audience should care about it almost as much as the dueling heroes and villains on screen” (Vanity Fair, February 2008.)

I believe what everyone agrees on, though, is that the MacGuffin, or MacGuffins, motivate the protagonists and antagonists to undertake the actions that comprise the story, usually by finding the object, or achieving the goal that constitutes the MacGuffin. In most cases, particularly in Fantasy, this involves some sort of hunt or search—aka the quest-journey that featured in the very first instalment of this series: “A Farm Boy/Gal Goes On A Journey.”
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Is A “MacGuffin” A New Thing, Then?

The next question, if I follow the format of preceding posts in this series, is whether what we now term “MacGuffins” have antecedents in the myths and legends, fairytales and folklore that form the background to contemporary Fantasy fiction. The answer is a resounding yes, with perhaps the most obvious and well known being the Grail Quest in the Arthurian Cycle, which is sometimes known as the “Matter of Britain.”

The hunt for the grail, which encompasses both goal and  object, is of vital importance to the knights of the Round Table. Its primary place in the story, however, is to spark the Grail Quest, aka a MacGuffin Hunt, with all the tests and vicissitudes that go along with the traditional quest-journey.

I would also argue that Arthur’s story begins with a MacGuffin quest as well, with the MacGuffin being the sword in the stone, which exists in the story so Arthur can pull it out and be recognized as the true king. If we go back earlier,  to the Greek myths, the golden fleece was the “MacGuffin” that set Jason and the Argonauts on their quest journey to steal/retrieve it.

Norse myth, too, has its examples, such as when the giants steal Thor’s hammer (Mjolnir) in hopes of exchanging it for the goddess, Freya, as a wife for their leader.  The quest to recover Mjolnir is really an excuse for the customary Thor/Loki shennanigans that characterize a significant proportion of Norse myth.

Another legitimate question is whether all MacGuffins are objects, such as the Holy Grail or Excalibur, or alternately the statuette of The Maltese Falcon or the plans of the death star (several times over now) in Star Wars. In my view, the answer is “not necessarily”—although in Fantasy, they very often are.

Arguably, though, one of the most famous “MacGuffins” of Greek myth is Helen of Troy, who was abducted by/fled with Paris to Troy. According to the legend, the reason the Greek armies laid siege to Troy for ten years was to get Helen back. Otherwise, though, the Iliad and other related stories, are only peripherally concerned with Helen: what they’re really all about is the battles and individual heroic contests, the tragedy and drama of the heroes and the siege.
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“MacGuffins” in Fantasy Literature:

I believe it would be fair to assert that MacGuffins in all their forms are integral to epic fantasy literature, and also that objects (as opposed to “goals…or other motivators”) are probably the preferred, although not exclusive, form of epic MacGuffins. I believe this trend is particularly pronounced in epic fantasy written for Children and Young Adult readers, but again, not exclusive to it.

1. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien:

Both observations bring me directly to The Lord of the Rings, which comprises probably the single most famous MacGuffin quest in epic literature: Frodo Baggins and his eight companions quest to take the evil One Ring to Mt Doom, which is the only place it can be destroyed—destruction being the protagonists’ overarching goal. All other action in the story hangs of this quest, although the ring itself is more of a background threat. In this sense it is aligned to Hitchhock’s definition of a MacGuffin, although its importance to the overall story is probably closer toward Lucas.

The Lord of the Rings is deeply grounded in Norse myth, but it departs from myth and legend in that the MacGuffin quest  is to destroy the ring, rather than recover or restore it.
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2. The Great Hunt (Wheel Of Time, Book 2) by Robert Jordan

As indicated in earlier posts, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series comprises fourteen volumes so there’s plenty of scope for all the epic tropes including MacGuffins.  I am focusing on Book Two, The Great Hunt, though, because effectively it’s an entire book (of ca. 600-700 pages depending on which edition you read) that is devoted to a MacGuffin hunt. The MacGuffin is the legendary Horn of Valere (i.e. an object/artefact of power) and the book’s title frames its contents (as good titles are meant to do.)
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3. The “Fionavar” Tapestry (Trilogy) by Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar trilogy (The Summer Tree; The Wandering Fire; The Darkest Road) contains a number of MacGuffin hunts, including the quest of the seer, Kim, to enlist/conscript powers to combat or match those of the enemy. She has a magic ring, the Baelrath, to help her do this. Consistent with the Helen of Troy precedent, those she is seeking to enlist are not objects but magical beings.

The second hunt is the voyage of the Prydwen to the magical island of Cader Sedat in order to destroy a sorcerous cauldron that is being used to create revenants. In this way Kay manages to incorporate the more traditional MacGuffin hunt and one that reflects The Lord of the Rings, where the goal is to destroy the object of power.
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4. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

Patricia McKillip’s debut — and World Fantasy Award-winning — novel includes a classic MacGuffin hunt that appears secondary to the main action of the story until the final denouement, while also driving or triggering some of that action. The main character, Sybel, collects magical creatures and the hunt that informs the book is for the magical bird, the Liralen—a hunt that also draws unwelcome attention.  As with Kim’s hunt in Fionavar, the Liralen is a magical being rather than an object/artefact.
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5. A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K Le Guin

The reason I’m including Books One and Two in Le Guin’s classic Earthsea series is because the author employs two distinct MacGuffins in each book. In A Wizard of Earthsea Ged must hunt for the true name of the dark being he himself conjured, in order to master it and so save his own life. In this book, the MacGuffin is vital to Ged and the story, so reflects the Lucas view of the trope.

In The Tombs of Atuan the reason for Ged going into the tombs, and hence sparking the story, is to find the lost half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe. Arguably, though, the finding of the artefact is peripheral to the Atuan story, which is really about Ged and Tenar, love and hate, power and responsibility.
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6. “The Dark Is Rising” Sequence by Susan Cooper

In Susan Cooper’s renowned series (which draws on the Arthurian legends, English folklore, and Celtic and Norse mythology), every book is centered on a MacGuffin hunts to recover a series of artefacts of power necessary to defeat the Dark. These include the grail and the codex to decipher it, the six Signs, a harp of gold, and a crystal sword. Consistent with Lucas’s thesis, the MacGuffins and their recovery are integral to the series.

The five books are: Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark Is Rising (a Newbery Honor Book), Greenwitch, The Gray King (Newbery Medal; Tir-Nan-Og Award), and Silver On The Tree (Tir-Nan-Og Award.)
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7. The “Sun Wolf And Starhawk” Series by Barbara Hambly

The conclusion of the first book (The Ladies of Mandrigyn) introduces and sets up the MacGuffin quest for Books Two (The Witches of Wenshar) and Three (The Dark Hand of Magic), in which the wizard, Sun Wolf, searches for a teacher for his newly discovered magical ability. This quest is a classic MacGuffin in that it sets up the plot and character motivations but is never resolved.
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8. The Subtle Knife (“His Dark Materials” Series, Book #2) by Philip Pullman

In The Subtle Knife, in particular—of all Pullman’s “Golden Compass” series novels—the hunt by various parties for an artefact of power drives the action and the characters.  In this case, the artefact is the titular subtle knife that opens doors between worlds—also discussed last time in “Fortunately There Was A Portal.”
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9. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, Book #7) by JK Rowling

I have chosen this specific book in the Harry Potter series for two reasons. Firstly, because the series became increasingly epic in character as it progressed. And secondly because The Deathly Hallows contains a classic MacGuffin hunt: Harry and Hermione’s quest to find and destroy the remaining horcruxes that preserve the life of Voldemort, the series’ Big Bad…
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10. The Drawing Of The Dark by Tim Powers

MacGuffins come in many different forms and in this Tim Powers novel that form is “the dark.” The dark is an ancient and potent brew of (presumably very dark) beer that has the power to restore the Fisher King (aka Arthur and before that Sigurd) and tilt the international balance of power, stemming the ascendancy of the Ottoman Empire. Needless to say both the protagonists and antagonists (in this case, the Ottomans who wish to preserve their hegemony) are in a race to gain control of the dark first.  In the classic fashion of MacGuffins the tale is not so much about the beer as the ups and downs of the race…
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So Who Wins, Hitchcock or Lucas?

On balance, I’d say the honors are fairly even between the MacGuffin being important to the protagonists and antagonists, but not vital to the reader’s enjoyment of the story, and those quests that are significant in their own right and where we (as readers) care about the outcome, e.g. whether the MacGuffin is found, recovered, or destroyed.

So What About My Own Books, Then?

I am reasonably certain (although I stand to be corrected) that a MacGuffin hunt does not feature in Thornspell. The protagonist does find a magical sword, but he isn’t aware of its existence until he stumbles upon it, and he certainly doesn’t go looking for it. Since Thornspell is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the prince, arguably the quest to find and wake the princess could be the ‘MacGuffin’—but I feel that would only follow if the princess were the traditional non-player character. As I made the princess a far more active part of the story, I’m inclined to the view that she can’t be considered a ‘MacGuffin.’ However, I am happy for readers to make up their own minds on this point.

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On the other hand, the MacGuffin hunt is very much part of The Wall Of Night series. One of the many challenges facing the protagonist, Malian, is to find the lost weapons of power that belong to her predecessor, the hero-mage Yorindesarinen. (Yes, I know, long names—it’s probably another trope. 😉 )

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There are three weapons, a helmet, sword, and shield, with the finding of each one being a thread, but not the principal action, in each of the first three books in the series. That is: The Heir of Night: helmet; The Gathering of the Lost: sword; Daughter of Blood: shield. In this sense, my approach is closer to that of Le Guin in The Tombs of Atuan, than to Susan Cooper in “The Dark Is Rising” series.

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The fact that the MacGuffin hunt is a supporting cause, rather than the central purpose of each book may also seem to point more to Hitchcock than Lucas. Except that each MacGuffin quest ends up being integral to the plot, rather than an outlying element, which I believe brings the creative ellipse back toward Lucas again…

In fact, I suspect the MacGuffin trope is similar to a binary star system, with most epic stories orbiting somewhere between the two approaches put forward by the two famous directors.

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Next Time:  Having read this post you’ve probably figured out that MacGuffins and artefacts of power are closely aligned. So check back in on Monday 6 August for Instalment 9: “Artefacts of Power — and Doom — And Where To Find Them.” 😉

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Previously In This Series:

Introduction: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy—Meet the Tropes

Instalment 1: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes: A Farm Boy/Gal Goes On A Journey…

Instalment  2: A Prince/Princess Finds A Destiny

Instalment 3: Dreams and Portents, Prophecy and Destiny

Instalment 4: “Apocalypse Now”

Instalment 5: Meet The Big Bad

Instalment 6: The Sweep Of Time & Its Twin, War Without End

Instalment 7: Fortunately There was A Portal

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On SF Signal: The “Having Fun With Epic Fantasy” Series

1. “Making the Grand Tour” (aka the Road Journey);

2. “The “Band of Brothers”; and the

3. “Soul-Sucking Sword.”

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© Helen Lowe

The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series traverses the full range of locales and places from The Wall Of Night world of Haarth.

From January 25, 2013 to November 25, 2014, the series explored locations encountered in The Heir Of Night and The Gathering Of The Lost.

Now it’s returned to gazette the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three.)  The new series comprises updates of previous entries as well as new listings.

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Normarch:  the stronghold of the castellan of Emer’s Northern March

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“Looking the other way, Carick could see the boughs of an orchard above the buttery roof, and wooded hills rising, blue in the distance. He had to lean right out the window to catch a glimpse of the castle, which was built of the same gray stone as the inn. Its walls were considerably lower than those of either Ar or Terebanth, and the central stronghold was little more than a single donjon with a series of roofs stretching away on either side. Halls, Carick supposed, cudgeling his memory for details of Emerian castle architecture, and there would be armories and more stables as well. Kitchens, too, he thought, as fresh baking aromas drifted up to the window. He felt hungry again already.

Craning further out again, Carick saw figures wheeling and maneuvering on horseback beneath the castle walls. He spotted archery butts as well, and guessed that these must be the garrison’s training fields. A working stronghold, he thought, and remembered what had been written in a cramped hand on one of the few maps of Emer to be found in Ar. Normarch, the notation had said, and then, in even smaller letters: the Duke’s bridgehead in the north.”

~ from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 13 — Normarch
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Drifts of mist lay between black trunks, and a russet fox slipped out of the undergrowth, stopping with one paw raised to gaze at her from eyes she knew would be the color of barley ale. Above its head, a knot in an oak trunk twisted, first into a fox’s mask, before shifting again into the face of Lord Falk, Castellan of Normarch and leader of the Emerian Oakward. The russet fox slipped away.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 18 — The Wayhouse

The real title of this post should be: “What I’ve Been Reading but Haven’t Reported Back On Here” — or anywhere for that matter, because of the time it takes to pen a decent review.

But then I remembered my own advice, which may or may not be on public record (before–but will be now! 😉 ), which is that a review doesna have to be long or indepth, but simply (imho) a fair and balanced report on one’s reading experience, good, bad or indifferent. In my case, I prefer to only talk about the books I’ve liked, by and large (and got around to reading, as the ‘still waiting’ pile is rather large), but that still doesn’t narrow the field nearly enough…

However, taking my own advice, I’m trialling very short reviews (or reports, since if I only talk about reads I’ve enjoyed, I probably don’t count as a “reviewer.”) By the way, as you’ll soon see, they’re by no means all new to the market, only to my reading experience.

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman — Historical Non Fiction

First published in 1962 by McMillan, the latest edition by Presidio Press (Penguin Random Group) in 2004.

This book won the Pulitzer prize for General Non Fiction in 1963 and I can see why — it’s a fascinating and extremely readable account of the first month of World War 1. If you’re interested in history generally and military history in particular I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy this book as much as I did.

The Messenger by Marcus Zusak — YA

First published in 2002 by Pan McMillan Australia; reprinted in 2013, then again in 2014, 2015, and 2017 — by which I’m guessing folk liked it a lot.

I did, too, except for the ending, which I really didn’t care for at all. This statement is also linked to the reason why I couldn’t decide whether to describe it as YA Contemporary or YA Fantasy. To find out more you’ll have to read it for yourself and make up your own mind. However, I liked the majority of the book enough that it’s definitely on the ‘discuss’ list and clearly, from those dates, a lot of other readers did like the ending. Just saying.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch — (Urban) Fantasy

First published in 2011 by Gollancz.

I’ve been meaning to read this pretty much since 2011 and am glad I finally have. It’s a well-constructed urban Fantasy in which the city of London is as much a character as the human and paranormal players. I also really liked the use of folklore and the underlying savagery that goes with many such tales, as well as the reasonably diverse cast of characters.

Turtles All The Way Down by John Green — YA; Contemporary

First published in 2017 by Dutton Penguin.

This is my first John Green. (I know, clearly I’m a flawed human being and a failure as a reader.) And I really enjoyed it. It’s about a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder and a boy with serious family problems. It’s also about friendship, money, the environment — oh yes, and tuataras (which hail from NZ and are really cool imho, so how could I not like their appearance in the book…) I was very slightly less taken by the ending than the whole of the book, but that may have been because I devoured it pretty much in one go so I was probably a little jaded by that point.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa; Translated by Peter Gabriel — Contemporary

English language edition in 2017, by Doubleday.

I bought this book knowing nothing about it at all but sometimes you have to take risks, right? Right: because I loved it. It’s a gentle and insightful story about love and life, friendship and family. If you’ve enjoyed reads like Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book or films like The Station Agent, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy this, too.

The Gate of Ivory by Doris Egan — SF-Fantasy

First published in 1989, by DAW. Nominated for the Locus Award for best First Novel.

I’ve always wanted to read this novel and now I finally have. I liked it a lot, too. It’s one of those novels that’s technically SF (ie it’s set in a world with space travel) but otherwise it’s pretty much straight out Fantasy, even more so than Space Opera. It’s fun and a relatively light read but still with sufficient depth to be satisfying. Interesting use of the tarot, too, as part of the magic system.

The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby — Historical Fiction

First published in 2001 by Anchor (Random House Group)

This book is a fictional account of the life of Lady Murasaki, the author of the Japanese classic The Tale of Genji, which was written in the Heian period, 794 — 1185 (AD), when the government of Japan was based in Kyoto. The story is woven around what remains of Lady Murasaki’s personal papers, as well as records of the period. It provides an interesting window onto the court and literary life of the times, as well as a character study of Murasaki as a woman, author, and courtier of the era.

The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford — Children

First published in 1961; latest re-publication 2018.

I know, I know, I should have read this book when I was a kid—but I didn’t. Having finally read it, though, I can say that I agree with its classic status and that it’s one of those great children’s books that reads just as well for an adult as a child.  I have always understood it was based on a true story, but although the biographical material in the edition I read suggested that it was based on the author’s own animals, there was nothing to say that the journey itself was real.

And that’s it for now — seven very short reviews. 🙂

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Last year, I resumed my “About the Characters” post series that focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, because :

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist's Interview, 2013 

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood simultaneously — in alphabetical order, of course!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate whether the character appears in both or only one of the books—in this case, Elite Cairon is one of those “off-screen” or “non player” characters who are nonetheless important to the story.)

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Elite Cairon:  a leader of Ar’s Shadow Band

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Malian had been dreaming deeply, reliving the rain-spattered evening five years before when she and Linden, the Spring singer of the Winter people, had walked into the River’s northernmost trading post on the Wildenrush and found Cairon of Ar sitting by the autumn fire. Even now, she wondered by what diverse means a message had gone out from the Winter Country and brought an Elite of the Shadow Band so far into the wilderness.

~ from © The Gathering of the Lost: The Wall of Night Book Two, Chapter 30 — The Welcome Cup

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Life is a risk, Malian thought, despite the hollowness at her core. And Asantir had always said she needed to know as much about her allies as her enemies, a philosophy that had tallied with Elite Cairon’s Shadow Band tutelage. She stamped her feet, silent on the pine needles, and drew the blanket closer. “I’m listening,” she said.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 16 — The Dark Hours

The origins of the “Fortunately There Was…” heading stems from my early adventures in Sci Fi rather than Fantasy, so the original construction (coined by myself, as far as I know) was “Fortunately There Was A Wormhole.” 

The context was that of Faster Than Light travel, which is still (to the best of our knowledge) not possible. From a SF point of view this is problematic since it makes zipping around the galaxy, Star Wars and Star Trek style, impossible. And Slower Than Light travel is just so, well, slow, yanno…Fortunately for SF and space opera fun, however, there is usually a wormhole, or the leap to ‘hyperspace’, which neatly circumvents such anti-fun constraints as the laws of physics.

Getting places fast is not nearly so important in Fantasy, with its predilection for pre-industrial and/or medieval worlds. However,  magic is a, if not the, key ingredient of Fantasy. And if there’s going to be magic in the story,  it can be a lot of fun to have the magical characters able to to do stuff that normally wouldn’t be possible. Plus, covering large tracts of ground and getting from one place to another really quickly, if not quite in the twinkling of an eye, can still really help the plot along.

Enter “Gates”, aka “portal”s and/or “ways”, which are the Fantasy equivalents of wormholes and hyperspace.

I suspect the Gate may owe as much of a debt to SF as it does to the mythic and folklore origins of Fantasy—and in fact some of the more significant “Gate-use” Fantasy books also have SF-nal characteristics, e.g. Raymond E Feist’s Riftwar saga and CJ Cherryh’s Morgaine novels. (I shall return to these later.)

This is not to say that there are not gates and crossing points in myth and fairytale. There are, but they tend to be less a convenient means of getting around than pathways between life and death, and the mortal world and faerie. Such barriers can be rivers, such as the Styx and the Lethe in Greek myth; Norse myth has Bifrost, the rainbow bridge; while in the legend of Finn Mac Cool, Diarmuid O’Dyna dives into a well that brings him to the faerie realm.

In addition, fairytale abounds with fairy hills, in which the unwary, such as Tam Lin, Thomas the Rhymer, and Rip van Winkle, may end spending a far greater period of time than anticipated. So there are overlaps with the space-time bending properties of wormholes. There are also other bridges between realms, such as Jack’s beanstalk, not to mention useful ways of getting around, e.g. the Seven League Boots and flying carpets, which also tie into contemporary Fantasy.  The rather more recent lore of leylines has also influenced the genre.

The Return of the King: entrance to the Paths of the Dead

Whatever their origins, gates/portals are by no means universal in Fantasy. The Lord of the Rings, for example, does not have any significant examples, that I can recall. Time flows differently in the land of Lorien, consistent with fairytale realms, but there is no magical crossing place in order to get there. Similarly, although the Paths of the Dead are terrifying and the realm is supernatural, they are accessed by normal physical means.

Interestingly, use of gates/portals in earlier Fantasy works are closer to the fairytale/folklore conventions of crossing points, whereas the SF-nal style portals appear in later books. One of the greatest early  examples would have to be Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, in which Alice accesses Wonderland via a rabbit hole (a prototype for the wormhole, perhaps) and the Looking Glass world through a mirror.

Interestingly, Wonderland is (arguably) also accessed via a dream, which merits a nod to the Dreams and Portents post in this series, while also serving as a precursor to gates and portals accessed through the dream realm: e.g Robert Jordan’s Tel’aran’rhiod; the Edge in Julie Czerneda’s Night’s Edge novels; the interdimensional transit to The Place in Elizabeth Knox’s Dreamhunter Duet; and the use of dreams in my own novels, both Thornspell and The Wall Of Night series.

The wardrobe – art by Pauline Baynes

In CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, the wardrobe is the classic gateway between worlds.

In other books in the Narnia series, though, Lewis uses pools (reminiscent of the Diarmuid O Dyna tale), together with magic rings, in The Magician’s Nephew, and a painting in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
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Alan Garner, another children’s Fantasy writer of the same era, also uses a gate between worlds—in several cases literally a door—in the eerie Dark Fantasy, Elidor.

Other significant uses of ways, gates, and portals, to transition between places, including worlds and realms of existence, occur in the following Fantasy works. (These are listed in order of publication dates, btw, rather than the somewhat more random approach to date; in the case of a series, publication of the first book.)

The Morgaine novels by CJ Cherryh

These are perhaps the most SF-nal of all my examples, with Morgaine’s quest (as you’ll perhaps recall from earlier posts in this series) being to find and destroy a series of “gates” that have allowed travel between worlds, and by implication across space-time,  that was inherently destructive. The first novel was titled Gate of Ivrel.

The Riddlemaster Trilogy by Patricia McKillip

I um-ed and ah-ed over whether to include this trilogy, but although there are not portals that I can recall, Morgan (the eponymous Riddlemaster) and by reputation earthmasters and wizards, can translocate, which is a way of crossing distance at speed. I leave you to decide whether it ‘counts’ sufficiently to be included. 😉

The Many-Coloured Land by Julian May

No post on interdimensional and time-space-crossing portals would be complete without Julian May’s The Many-Coloured Land (and sequels in the four-book Saga of the Exiles) in which adventurers, misfits, and miscreants from humanity’s not-too-distant future can opt to take a one-way trip to the earth of the Pliocene Era. Some may argue that the series is SF, but I have always felt that it is essentially SF-nal Fantasy, in much the same way as the Morgaine novels. Whichever genre you opt for, though, travel to the Pliocene, which is found to have a pre-established (to-all-intents-and-purposes) Sidhe population, is via a Time Gate / portal.

Magician and the Riftwar Saga by Raymond E Feist

This is another classic series where the opening book is based on the invasion of the world Midkemia by armies from the world of Kelewan—an invasion facilitated by the discovery of ‘rifts’, effectively gates between worlds. In A Darkness At Sethanon, the third book in the initial trilogy, the rifts (not unlike Morgaine’s gates) come to represent a danger to both worlds when their opening provides the opportunity for a powerful and feared space-and-world-traveling race to return. (Note: They ride dragons, so this is definitely still Fantasy, not SF.)

… to #14

From #1

The Eye Of The World and the Wheel Of Time Series by Robert Jordan (Completed by Brandon Sanderson.)

Magic systems and worldbuilding are among the most outstanding aspects of Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time series (imho.) The magic systems include several magical means of getting around (challenged only by Harry Potter, I believe, when it comes to numbers.) Through the massive fourteen-volume series, the characters—and their accompanying readers—encounter ways (magical tunnels across considerable distances); portals between places that can be opened and closed; the ability to cross between places by means of Tel’aran’rhiod, the dream realm; and flying discs that can transport armies. A read/re-read of the entire fourteen books may uncover more but that’ll do to be going on with, I feel. 😉

The Golden Compass & The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (‘His Dark Materials’ Series)

In The Golden Compass, readers don’t encounter portals until the very last, when Lord Asriel opens a bridge between worlds. The sequel, The Subtle Knife, however, is all about portals, with the knife being a device to cut doorways between alternate universes, including the alternate Oxfords of Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as well as the world of Cittagaze, where the knife is discovered.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

This is a story that is all about gateways and openings. It even centres around a character whose name is “Door”, which is in fact a key to the story. Suffice it to say that the Big Bad is seeking to use her to open a door into heaven—and a number of other crossings between the overlapping ‘worlds’ of London Above and London Below must be made before the story comes to its end.

Harry Potter and The Philospher’s Stone and the ‘Harry Potter’ Series by JK Rowling

As indicated above, the only series I’ve read that can compare with the Wheel Of Time for portals and multiple “Fortunately There Was…” means of getting around, is JK Rowling’s marvelous Harry Potter books—starting with Platform 9³/₄ , which is a portal between the mundane and magical worlds at King’s Cross railway station.

As the series progresses, Harry and friends (including the series’ avid readers) encounter floo powder (to access a portal network); disapparation (similar to Morgon of Hed’s translocation); and portkeys, magical objects that are enchanted to bring the person touching them to a predetermined location. Let’s not forget the time-turner either, a magical device specifically created to facilitate wizardly time travel.

Gardens of the Moon and the ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ Series by Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson’s ten-book Malazan series is another triumph of epic-fantasy worldbuilding (imho), one aspect of which is the use of ‘warrens’ as a source of magic but also of translocating between places. As with all things Malazan there are multiple types of warren and their functions are complex, but travel is definitely one of them—or even their primary use in the case of the Abyss and the Imperial Warren.

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy by Laini Taylor

Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy is another story that is all about doors that are gateways between worlds, one of which is Earth as we currently know it. The series begins with handprints being scorched into doors all over our world by angel-like beings (seraphim) that are slipping in through a rift in the sky. The doors are tied to a magician called Brimstone and the chimaera who are fighting a desperate war against the seraphim. The rifts are portals between universes—and therein lies the complete tale…

Meanwhile, Returning To My Own Books…

In Thornspell, dreams are potent and include the means to shift between the magical and physical realms, as when Sigismund returns from the forest of Thorn. And because Thornspell, is a fairytale retelling, the story does include faerie hills with the traditional twists of reality and time associated with them.  Overall, however, while dream magic is an important element in the story, gates and portals are not.

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The Wall Of Night series, on the other hand, is high epic fantasy and includes a number of means of traversing space, but also space-time—the latter because it’s written in the tradition of fantasy with SF-nal elements. The terms ‘gate’ and ‘portal’ are used interchangeably, by the way, and this is deliberate: they mean and are the same thing.

Probably the most significant ‘gate’ is the “great gate” that brought the Derai and their (age-old, of course!) enemy, the Swarm, to the world of Haarth. I’m not sure if it’s a new element as regards the trope, but in the WALL series the magnitude of the working, which basically forces apart space-time (though it’s not expressed in those terms in the book), has cataclysmic effects for the destination world. (Whereas in Cherryh, Feist, and Taylor it’s more what comes through the opening that’s potentially catastrophic, rather than the opening itself—although I do recall instability being a concern in Cherryh.)

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Gates are also part of the magic of the book in a smaller scale way, with some of those with magical ability able to open portals between places in the physical world. In the WALL ‘verse this ability is significant and those who possess it are relatively rare. Because all magic use draws on the reserves/strength of the individual, in the same way physical activities do with muscle strength, gates are limited in size, scope, and the numbers they can accommodate.

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An individual’s strength can be bolstered by a team or cadre of supporting adepts, but the same limitations apply to the collective at some point, depending on the numbers and extent of power and strength of those involved.

On the Derai side of the “war without end” as it is resumed in the WALL series (to explore the “war without end” trope further, see Post #6), only the main character, Malian, has the ability to open gates in the physical world. Both she and Kalan (the series’ second lead and Malian’s ally and friend) can enter the Gate of Dreams in their physical bodies, but so far only Malian has opened a gate out of the Gate of Dreams—which is a distinct plane of existence in its own right—to somewhere other than where she (physically) entered.

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In Daughter of Blood, Malian created a ‘way’ through the Gate of Dreams that allowed a much larger body of people to cross from one part of the world to the other. A ‘way’ is not a portal, which functions as a door (aka gate) that opens directly out of one place and into another. In the WALL ‘verse, a ‘way’ resembles a corridor or tunnel through the dream realm—which must be persuaded to allow the way’s creation—that those using it must enter and physically traverse before exiting, but in a significantly shorter time than completing the same journey in the physical world.

If I return to our starting point with the Alice stories, the ‘way’ resembles the rabbit hole in conceptualisation, while gates are more like the looking glass—or the picture in CS Lewis’s The Voyage of The Dawn Treader.

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Interestingly, the only other known instance of traversing space-time through the Gate of Dreams, was undertaken by one of the three ascendants from the Swarm side of the conflict. So that suggests Malian is pretty special, but then again, readers already know that since she is the “chosen of prophecy.” (For more on that trope, see Post #1 and Post #2 in this series.)

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Limiting the ability to use gates/portals was a deliberate choice, as opposed to making their use as ubiquitous as elevators or bullet trains in our world. There is no right or wrong about either option: it depends on the story you’re telling. In the case of the WALL series though, I felt relative rarity suited the story better.

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Next Time:  On Monday 23 July we’ll all be going on a MacGuffin hunt. Yep, that’s trope and Instalment #8 of this series. 😉 

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Previously In This Series:

Introduction: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy—Meet the Tropes

Instalment 1: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes: A Farm Boy/Gal Goes On A Journey…

Instalment  2: A Prince/Princess Finds A Destiny

Instalment 3: Dreams and Portents, Prophecy and Destiny

Instalment 4: “Apocalypse Now”

Instalment 5: Meet The Big Bad

Instalment 6: The Sweep Of Time & Its Twin, War Without End

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On SF Signal: The “Having Fun With Epic Fantasy” Series

1. “Making the Grand Tour” (aka the Road Journey);

2. .”The “Band of Brothers”; and the

3. . “Soul-Sucking Sword.”

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© Helen Lowe

The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series traverses the full range of locales and places from The Wall Of Night world of Haarth.

From January 25, 2013 to November 25, 2014, the series explored locations encountered in The Heir Of Night and The Gathering Of The Lost.

Now it’s returned to gazette the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three.)  The new series comprises updates of previous entries as well as new listings.

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New Keep:  the ‘newer’, inhabited stronghold of the House of Night’s bastion, the Keep of Winds
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“Malian laughed aloud, but sobered as they turned into the golden blaze of the New Keep.  Darkness never fell in these corridors and halls where jewel-bright tapestries graced the walls and the floors were patterned with coloured tiles. Pages sped by on their innumerable errands while soldiers marched with measured tread and the vaulted ceilings echoed with all the commotion of a busy keep.”

~ from © The Heir Of Night, The Wall of Night Book One: Chapter 1 — The Keep Of Winds
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“Garan, looking past her, saw the two young priests toward the rear of the company. They still wore the silver-gray robes of initiates, although with the black trim and winged-horse emblem that denoted those who kept the now five-year-old watch on the portals between the New Keep of Winds and the Old. Vern was studying the Stone priests, his expression serious, but Var smiled slightly when he caught Garan’s eye.”

~ from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 28 — Border Crossing
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An opener of ways: the epithet became a weight as Garan remembered that Malian of Night’s power was believed to have come from her mother, Lady Nerion. And someone had known how to get into the Old Keep and bring down the New Keep’s defensive wards. Garan gritted his teeth, remembering Night’s tally of dead and injured from the Swarm attack and its aftermath. He wondered, too, if the reason Nhairin was keeping her face so resolutely averted was because one must never meet a demon’s gaze—or the eyes of one who had fallen beneath a demon’s sway.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 39 — Traitor

Desk, chair — & laptop!

Over the past six months, I’ve been sharing a few artefacts* of the writing life with you. You can find the previous entries under “About Writing” — just look below “Categories” in the far right-hand side bar. 🙂

As you’ve guessed from the title, in this edition the spotlight’s on the (probably already outmoded!) laptop.

I do have a desktop machine but the laptop is my primary writing tool, mainly because it can travel with me wherever I go so no writing opportunities are missed. High five to not missing writing opportunities. 😉

The great advantage the laptop (or any PC for that matter) has over pen and paper and the notebook (click on the links for earlier entries) is that you can retain innumerable versions and options for the story in a readily accessible and reusable format. And…um…I do—a great many versions in some cases!

Open for some serious worldbuilding business…

Now,  although it can be rather disheartening at times to have quite so many versions and options (because it would be quite awesomely wonderful if the writing process could be linear, direct, and certain the first time!) it is also incredibly useful when I get to a point where I think, “Oh, that scene I wrote two years ago and loved but didn’t seem right at the time—it really would be perfect right here, right now…”

Lo! With the trusty laptop at hand, the required text can indeed be deployed right here and right now, which is fabulous.

Is there any downside to the laptop (and PC technology generally)? Well, yes, there is. It’s just too darned easy to go back and re-edit, which is great when you’re editing, but when you’re creating it can become a safety blanket that soon becomes counterproductive, because in the creative phase it’s best to keep the story moving forward.

*Artefact: "a functional or decorative human-made object."