Customer Reviews

Lavondyss

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Lavondyss is not as accessible as Mythago Wood; however, for me, it was even more rewarding. It's best if you read it slow, savoring the detail, the imagery and the incredible scope. I've read it several times. Each time, after finishing, it tends to haunt me for days and days. I also find it to be profoundly sad, but not in a bad way. I STRONGLY recommend Lavondyss.

Generally, I consider myself to be more of a science fiction fan than a fastasy fan. Most fantasy novels seem too much the same to me - wizards, knights, fairies, etc. dressed up in flowery language with cutesy names. Too many modern fantasy writers seem to forget that many of the elements of the fantasy genre are based on much older stories, and those stories on others much older than them. Robert Holdstock quite masterfully taps into the essence of myth, legend, and fairy tale, stripping away all of the modern frippery and exposing them for what they really are - deep rooted stories of fear, desperation and tragedy. For those who felt that the story was too violent, I encourage them to do some research into what life was like in the "olden days." It was not a quaint tale of bucolic bliss but short, brutish, and frequently cruel. Although I loved "Mythago Wood," "Lavondyss" is far superior and complex in examining the genesis and evolution of myth. It is an eerie, uneasy, discomforting book and all the more powerful for that. If you're looking for a story that will give you the warm fuzzies, stick to more standard fantasy fare. If you're looking for a book that will challenge your ideas about myth and story and haunt you for many days after, "Lavondyss" is about as good as it gets.

With patience and dedication, this is a weird and wonderful book.

Lavondyss delves deeper into myth than Mythago Wood dared go, illuminates intriguing areas left dark, but on the flip side, Lavondyss isn't as exciting, as fast paced, as the first book.

I felt that as an embellishment and continuation of Mythago Wood, Lavondyss is definitely deserving of 5 stars, but as a stand-alone it's only worth 4. I would recommend Mythago Wood first, but if after that book you're intrigued at all, then this book is the answer. (An answer that leaves more questions than before, but isn't that like all the best answers?)

Judging by some of the other reviews, this book is to complex for some people. But if you think you're up to it intellectualy, this is a truly stunning read that will profoundly affect you.

I read this first, and having just finished it's predecessor, Mythago Wood, I have to say that Lavondyss is by far the more developed and powerful of the two. The imagery is simply stunning, particularly the first half of the book. It evokes wonderful images of nature, mythology and fantasy. The second half concerns a quest and it is very abrupt jump from the first half, but you get used to it. While not as visually stunning as the first half, it is none the less very powerful and addictive.

This book is an emotioanlly wrenching tragedy in the classical sense of the word, and the twists and turns are beautifully and wonderfully convoluted and realised, the sort of book that will take several readings to fully appreciate (if I can bring myself to read it again - it is very emotioanlly draining).

If you have a love of mythology, nature, the wildwoods and truly breathtaking fantasy, read this book.

If you're one of these readers who have just dropped in and have read the other reviews then stop...Lavondyss isn't like the previous book 'Mythago Wood'its better, much , much better. This is an author who went for years with little or no recognition and then he writes a book based on English mythology and he hits paydirt. What would you do? Write another clone. No, Robert Holdstock fired by his success with 'Mythago Wood' writes the novel of a lifetime. A book he always wanted. Lavondyss is steeped in mythology. A different story occurs almost every page and all from the mind of the author but based on the form of the myth. All of them are brilliant and engrossing, terrifying even because this is not the myth of Tolkien(another scholar of mythology) but a myth based on the great stories of Irish and English Mythology where terrible and amazing things happen. You know its a story but it touches you all the same. He has the capacity to tell a story and leave you thinking Bl**dy Hell! Its long..yes, I'll grant you that but you don't want to leave his world and it has a structure so tightly bound that everything you read leads towards the ending. Maybe you Americans have an adversion to stories that have a unsettled ending but the truth is.. its life . That's the way things are and this book had a great effect on me. If you're tired of Sub-Tolkien stories about elves and fairies then get into the real thing. Robert Holdstock is a genius writer who has been ignored for far too long.

I have a bad habit of overusing the word "haunting." Ergo, I worry that when I use it here, it won't pack the punch it really should. Let me just say, then, that when I say Lavondyss is haunting, I mean it. This book settled into my bones like a hard winter. It will stay in my mind forever. I feel like I've lived a whole second life by reading it, and I'll probably read it again at my earliest convenience just to see if I catch anything I missed the first time.

I had trouble getting into the previous book, Mythago Wood, but I was glad I read it and am now even gladder, as it provides lots of background that helps make sense of Lavondyss. Lavondyss feels more like a "straight" fantasy novel, though; while there is still the idea that people create mythagos with their minds and that many of the book's mythagos are personally tied to its central character, to me it feels that this time the story and the world stand more on their own and have more of a life outside of the character's psychology. I feel less like I'm reading a slightly veiled book on Jung and Freud, and more like I've been sucked into a seductive, visceral fairy tale. I'm yet again reminded of a work of nonfiction -- this time Robert Graves' The White Goddess -- but this time the analytical part of my mind was content to curl up by the fire and let Robert Holdstock spin his tale.

In Mythago Wood, Steven Huxley's traveling companion was Harry Keeton. Lavondyss centers on Harry's younger sister, Tallis. Born when Harry was already a grown man, Tallis only knew her brother briefly, but she and her family are haunted by his disappearance. Tallis is an uncanny, precocious girl with an instinctive gift for magic, and it's simply enchanting to follow along as she learns the ways of the wood and its spirits. Eventually, she journeys into the wood on a quest to find her missing brother. What happens after that, I won't spoil, since I want you to be able to discover it for yourself. It's an enthralling story, though, sometimes sad, sometimes beautiful, sometimes scary as hell. There are layers within layers, timelines looping around themselves in ways that don't become evident until later, and an ambiguous ending.

I love ambiguous endings, and I hate them. I love them and hate them because they stick with me, nagging at my brain, never letting me forget them. I lay awake for hours after finishing Lavondyss, prodding at the ending in my mind, wondering whether the "happier" interpretation of the ending might actually be a sadder one. I simultaneously wished Holdstock had clarified it and was very glad he hadn't. It's more memorable this way, and fitting for the MYTHAGO WOOD universe.

Lavondyss has everything I love in a book: compelling characters, vivid prose, mythic elements, art-as-magic, complex character relationships, and just the right amount of ambiguity. It's a fairy tale, the old kind with blood and revenge and jaw dropping wonder. It's the kind of book that, when you finish, you feel the urge to flip right back to the first page and start over. (The only reason I didn't was that it was the middle of the night. Blasted day job...)

From the world of the "Mythago Woods", "Lavondyss" enters as strongly and vibrantly as your first kiss on a summer's day. The intricacy and complexity of the story and characters compel you to delve farther into the woods with the protagonist. Holdstock's poetry binds you to the characters, so that you feel their joy of discovery and pain of rebirth as you journey with them. In the tradition of the first book in the series, World Fantasy Award winner, Mythago Woods, Lavondyss carries the spirit of fantasy to its highest levels. A beautiful book and an enjoyable read

Robert Holdstock Mythago Wood, Lavondyss, The Hollowing, Merlin's Wood, Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn, Bone Forest, AvilionMany times I don't like sequels because there's nothing new to learn. Authors tend to give us all of their world-building in the first novel, so I'm often bored by a sequel. But Lavondyss blew my mind. It is, I have no doubt, one of the best fantasy novels ever written.

In Mythago Wood, Harry Keeton entered the forest with Steven and he's been there for years. We got the sense back then that Harry had some secret personal purpose for going in -- it wasn't just to help Steven. His sister Tallis remembers him leaving when she was four years old. Her parents are distressed and assume he's dead. When Tallis hears what she believes is a communication from Harry and starts interacting with the wood, her parents think she's gone batty. But Tallis is determined to bring Harry home.

Lavondyss may be the perfect fantasy novel. First of all, it's written in Robert Holdstock's beautiful style. I tend to be picky and demanding about style. A good story will not do it for me if the writing is pedestrian. It doesn't have to be poetic, but it needs to be interesting and creative -- not just, as we say, "serviceable." Robert Holdstock's writing style, at least in these novels, is similar to Patricia McKillip's: straightforward, but kind of dreamy, too. To me, it's perfect.

Secondly, Lavondyss made me think. It was complex and convoluted, and I didn't even know how complex it was until I got to the end. At that point I had to go back and re-read several passages so I could try to understand what had happened. It's not that it wasn't related effectively, but rather that Mr. Holdstock does not spoon-feed the reader. He does not divulge everything we want to know when we want to know it. We're given hints and impressions (and maybe even some false information from unreliable characters?) that must be accumulated and assembled. My brain had trouble bringing it all together in the end. What, exactly, is Lavondyss? Why do the mythagos travel there? What drove Harry into the forest? Who is he there? How is he related to the mythagos? How do Mr. Williams and Wynne-Jones fit in? Most importantly: what is the nature of myth, story, and legend, and where do they come from? (There are lots of other questions I could ask, but I'd be giving too much away.) Instead of leaving me frustrated, I am fascinated, and motivated to find the answers.

Lastly, the story made me feel. The characters are endearing and I experienced their joy, pain, hope, and hopelessness. The ending was sad, happy, chilling, shocking, wonderful, and inconclusive. It stayed with me for days.

I am still confused about a lot of stuff that I was hoping would be cleared up, but I'm happily confused. This is a story that requires a re-read in order to appreciate its richness. I've jotted down some notes -- stuff I learned in the parts of Lavondyss that I re-read. I will have to go back to Mythago Wood and then read further in the series. I look forward to it and I can't wait to spend more time in, and learn more about, Rhyhope Wood.

Lavondyss tells the story of Tallis, Harry Keeton's much younger sister. Tallis is a strange little girl who likes to listen to Gaunt the old gardner's folk tales, and to bards' songs. Finding the true name of a place and making strange masks out of dead wood and sun bleached animal bones are her favourite games.

One day, while playing in an old oak tree, she catches a glimpse of another world, where she witnesses the death in battle of a handsome young man named Scathach, whom she falls in love with.

Soon she'll understand that she's actually connected to the magic of Mythago Wood, and that she might be able to save her brother, who's been lost in the Wood for years, causing their father much grief. Several years later, deeming herself finally ready, she decides to enter the forest and look for Scathach, as well as for a way into Lavondyss, where she believes Harry is trapped.

To say the truth, even though I found Robert Holdstock's world building and myth creation rather impressive and enchanting, I really missed the presence of a strong story line to keep me in suspense, and as a result I found the book a tad boring at times, as well as confusing.

Lavondyss is a journey into an unkown region that you will not likely ever forget. Robert Holdstock's generous and enticing prose will mesmerize you as you are drawn into a world of startling realizations. As science fiction, Lavondyss is an excellent mind-bending and eerie story. As fantasy, it is a tale of twisted history , love and tragedy. Whatever your reading preference, prepare yourself for the journey of a lifetime!