Blood And Ivory: A Tapestry [Hardcover]

P. C. Hodgell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2004

Who was Kindrie's father? What triggered the massacre of the Knorth women? What happened the night Jame was driven out by Ganth? Jamethiel Priest's-Bane first entered our lives when she walked out of the Haunted Lands on the opening page of God Stalk in 1982 with the haunts on her trail, searching for her ten-year older twin brother Tori to give him their father's sword and ring. But what was she doing in the Haunted Lands in the first place? What happened that caused her to leave her home? For the past 20 years, this has been one of the biggest mysteries of Jame's background. The answers to those questions-and others-are found in the pages of this collection. The original edition of Blood and Ivory first appeared in 1994, and included four short stories featuring Hodgell's signature character, Jame. This new edition, Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry is far more than just a reprint. Our edition includes not only the four original stories, but four new ones as well, written specifically for this collection: Three featuring Jame and the fourth one an original Sherlock Holmes tale. Pat has also written brand new introductions for each story, so the reader gets a fuller picture of Jame's life. These stories explore different facets of Jame's life and background and weave a lush and complex picture of this enigmatic figure. Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry also features a gallery section of artwork by P. C. Hodgell, much of it never published before.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The original edition of Blood and Ivory first appeared in 1994, and included four short stories featuring Hodgell's signature character, Jame.

This new edition, Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry, is far more than just a reprint. Our edition will include not only the four original stories, but four new ones as well, written specifically for this collection: Three featuring Jame and the fourth one an original Sherlock Holmes tale, thrown in just for fun. Pat has also written brand new introductions for each story, so the reader gets a fuller picture of Jame's life. These stories explore different facets of Jame’s life and background and weave a lush and complex picture of this enigmatic figure.

In addition, Pat has sent us a folder of original artwork, some of it published in the original version of Blood and Ivory, much of it never before published. All of it will be included in a special "art gallery" section in Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry.

About the Author

Pat Hodgell can’t remember a time when she wasn’t passionately interested in science fiction and fantasy. "David Star, Space Ranger by Paul French was the first novel with which I fell in love, so much so that I started making my own copy of the library book, long-hand in a spiral notebook, complete with a carefully drawn facsimile of the frontispiece. Long afterward, I came across a paperback reprint and learned that my beloved ‘Paul French’ was none other than the ubiquitous Issac Asimov."

Over the years, as her interest grew, Pat collected piles of paperback science fiction and fantasy novels and comic books. Soon, however, reading and collecting genre fiction wasn’t enough for her and, after college, she began to write it as well.

"It would be nice to say that, after the long suppression of the writing impulse, the dam burst—but it didn’t. Due to lack of practice, I simply didn’t know how to put a story down on paper." Pat began to learn, however, and by the next summer she had several stories finished and an invitation to the Clarion Writer’s Workshop. "There, for the first time, I found a whole community of people like me—storytellers, wordsmiths, an entire family I never knew I had," Pat says of the Clarion experience. "Even more wonderful, here suddenly were professionals like Harlan Ellison and Kate Wilhelm telling me that I could indeed write. I could hardly believe my luck." She made her first professional sale two years later. Since then, she’s sold stories to such anthologies as Berkley Showcase, Elsewhere III, Imaginary Lands, and the Last Dangerous Visions. Pat has also published three novels: God Stalk, Dark of the Moon, and Seeker’s Mask, all part of an on-going fantasy saga concerned not! only with high adventure, but also with questions of personal identity, religion, politics, honor, and arboreal drift.

Both of Pat’s parents are professional artists. Other reputed ancestors include a decapitated French Huguenot, a sheep thief tried by Chaucer, and a "parcel of New York Millerites who in 1843 sold their possessions, put on white nightgowns, and sat on the chicken coop waiting for the world to end. When it didn’t, they moved to Wisconsin out of sheer embarrassment."

Pat earned her Master’s in English Literature from the University of Minnesota, her doctorate at the University of Minnesota with a dissertation on Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, and is a graduate of both the Clarion and the Milford Writers Workshops. In addition to her work with WDS, she is a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in modern British literature and composition, and teaches an audio-cassette-based course on science fiction and fantasy for the University of Minnesota.

Pat lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in a nineteenth-century wood-framed house, which has been in her family for generations. In addition to writing and teaching, she attends science fiction conventions, collects yarn, knits, embroiders, and makes her own Christmas cards.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Meisha Merlin Publishing, Inc. (November 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189206572X
• ISBN-13: 978-1892065728
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,753,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pat Hodgell can't remember a time when she wasn't passionately interested in science fiction and fantasy. She's sold stories to such anthologies as Berkley Showcase, Elsewhere III, and Imaginary Lands and has also published four novels. God Stalk and Dark of the Moon, the novels included in The God Stalker Chronicles, begin her critically praised fantasy saga which is concerned not! only with high adventure, but also with questions of personal identity, religion, politics, honor, and arboreal drift. She earned her doctorate at the University of Minnesota with a dissertation on Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, and is a graduate of both Clarion and the Milford Writers Workshop. Recently retired, she was a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in modern literature and composition, and teaches an audio-cassette-based course on science fiction and fantasy for the University of Minnesota. Par lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in a nineteenth-century wood-framed house, which has been in her family for generations. In addition to writing and teaching, she attends science fiction conventions, collects yarn, knits, embroiders, raises cats, and makes her own Christmas cards.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Blood and Ivory: A Curiosity, December 16, 2002

By 

"reedekullervo" (Edina, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood And Ivory: A Tapestry (Paperback)

If your reading this review, you probably want to know, should I buy Blood and Ivory? I guess it depends on how you feel about Hodgell's writing and her amazing heroine Jame. If you're a fan and a completist you'll want to own this no matter what. Even if the quality of the stories is uneven, you'll want to support P.C. Hodgell's writing by buying her work. If you're a casual reader looking for a quick introduction to the Kencyrth and Jame, I suggest you immediately purchase Dark of the Gods and Seeker's Mask instead because these short stories don't do her justice.

"Hearts of Woven Shadow", "Lost Knots" and "Among the Dead" are the new, never been published stories and they fill in some gaps in the Story So Far. HoWS and AtD are the best of the new collection. In the first we meet Ganth and find out how he became the Highlord and the terrible price he paid. He's a much talked about figure in the books but is seldom seen, so it was very interesting to read about events in his early life. AtD fleshes out the sketchy childhood picture of Jame and Tori's youth in the shadowlands, as well as the progression of Ganth's madness. I liked this less since I felt much of what Jame's childhood was like had been sufficiently hinted at in the novels. Still, it makes concrete several things about Jame that were implied before. LK is more a bridge between the two stories than a story in itself. Not even three whole pages, it doesn't add much except again, to make explicit what has already been implied.

Next comes "Child of Darkness" which is a look at a prototype Jame before Hodgell got a handle on her character and how she wanted to set the tale. While it wasn't particularly compelling as a stand alone story, it was fascinating to see how important elements such as Jame's claws and The Book Bound In Pale Leather are embedded like lost gems in this embryonic piece of writing. "A Matter of Honor" provides similar interest. This is Jame's tale much closer to how it is realized in Godstalk. Hodgell's writing is vastly improved from CoD, and you can see how Godstalk grew, in slightly changed form, from this short story. Again, the interest here is to trace the evolution of what eventually becomes part of a full-blown novel rather than the story itself.

This collection also includes "Bones" which is about Penari's Maze, the labyrinth that plays a prominent role in Godstalk. A decent story, but it can also be found in Dark of the Gods. "Stranger Blood" is perhaps the most interesting of the lot, since it is the only one set after the events of all the published novels. Everything else is either back-story, or concurrent with timeline so far. For the people interested in what happens next, SB is a tantalizing tidbit set after Seeker's Mask and the presumed fourth novel, Jame Goes to the Citadel. Again, a good story but nothing earth-shattering is (unfortunately) revealed.

The last story, "Ballad of the White Plague" is a Sherlock Holmes story incorporating vampirism. It's been a few years since I read any Doyle, but her style seems fairly accurate. What's fascinating is that even in a non-Jame story she consciously, or unconsciously, incorporates similar themes from her Kencyr novels. Here Watson discovers Holmes has rather sinister blood-ties, echoing the less-than-savory family that is Jame's. Hodgell also makes good visual use of Holmes' ancestor's portraits, again, echoing the tapestries that permeate the Kencyrth novels. And what is vampirism other than eternal life at the cost of another's? Doesn't that aptly describe Gerridon and his lot, who live on indefinitely, drinking the souls of the Kencyr?

In addition the book contains 8 maps, most of which I believe have been included in the novels already published and some artwork that P.C. Hodgell has done over the years. The sketches don't really add any value to what's been already written - Hodgell has a very rigid and stylized approach - and are included here more I suspect for curiosity sake's and page filler than any intrinsic merit. All in all, Blood and Ivory is an uneven effort which is best read not so much for the actual stories, as for the insights they provide into the thought processes of a much-loved author, P.C. Hodgell.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars She's written better, December 8, 2002

By 

Kira R. Signer (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood And Ivory: A Tapestry (Hardcover)

I'm a huge fan of Hodgell's published novels - richly imagined world, intricately cantilevered plot; fresh, flowing dialogue; and unique and engaging characters. But these stories are only for dedicated fans.

Three of the stories reveal bits of the past that can be figured out from the existing novels, in solid detail, which is good for fans. However, in the first the writing is overly crafted and hard to follow - more a writer's exercise than a good reading experience. In the second, the writing's mushy and jumpy - her prose doesn't show the tight clarity that makes the novels jump off the page. The third is pretty good stuff, but the pacing is a little uneven - a whole page for a bunch of people sitting around a room and less than a paragraph for a trick of the enemy - and the dialogue isn't as believable and nuanced as it is in her books.

One story adds a bit more detail to Jame's past. The plot follows the kind of intricate arc she favors in her novels, which I love, but without the kind of extensive buildup and background you get in a novel, I don't think it's as enjoyable.

One story is the original form of one of the chapters in God Stalk. For anyone who wants to write, it's a totally illuminating exercise to read it, since the God Stalk form is leaps and bounds ahead of this story, and you can see how the changes she's made bolster and charge up the narrative.

Finally, there's a Sherlock Holmes exercise, which is very Doyle-ish in prose, but I didn't think it was fun to read, because the plot lacks the breathless intensity and adrenaline of the novels.

Overall, I'm totally gung ho about the novels, but these short stories are better checked out of the library.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some of the Secrets of the Kencyrath Revealed, November 5, 2002

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood And Ivory: A Tapestry (Hardcover)

P. C. Hodgell has a small but dedicated group of fans and those of us who sweated the years after her previous publisher went belly up have been rewarded by Meisha Merlin (her new publisher) with handsome new editions of her three novels written about Jame and the world of the Kencyrath. Now they have reprinted the four short stories previously published under this title and included four new stories.

Written by P. C. Hodgell over the course of a couple of decades, these short stories are of variable quality, however, they are a valuable tool to show the evolution of Jame and her world. (OK, there's also one Sherlock Holmes story which the publisher says they threw in just for fun.) The stories probably are of more interest to those who have read the novels and want to know more about the background, but if someone wants to know what Hodgell's writing is like without committing to a novel then these stories are a good place to start.

This is an extra nice tidbit to have on the bookshelf while waiting for her next Jame novel Meisha Merlin has promised us in the future.