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Suldrun's Garden (Lyonesse) Paperback – July 1, 2016

by Jack Vance (Author), Michael Dirda (Foreword)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 134 ratings
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Take a doomed princess, a dispossessed prince and a wicked king, a vengeful magician and a melancholy witch; now add fairies, ogres, changelings, scheming barons, wanderers who are not what they seem, robbers, orphans, and a race of hardbitten warriors at war with all humanity. Stir in politics, intrigue, plots and assassinations, battles and sieges, then set it all to simmer in a mythical archipelago across the western sea before the time of Arthur. Jack Vance draws together the threads of fairy tale and pagan myth to weave an epic tapestry of adventure and intrigue in the Elder Isles. The result is a masterpiece. – Matt Hughes

Suldrun's Garden is Book I of the Lyonesse series, and Volume 52 of the Spatterlight Press Signature Series.Released in the centenary of the author's birth, this handsome new collectionis based upon the prestigious Vance Integral Edition. Select volumes enjoyup-to-date maps, and many are graced with freshly-written forewords contributedby a distinguished group of authors. Each book bears a facsimile of theauthor's signature and a previously-unpublished photograph, chosen from family archives for the period the book was written. These uniquefeatures will be appreciated by all, from seasoned Vance collector to new reader sampling the spectrum of this author's influential work forthe first time.

– John Vance II

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  1. Print length
    472 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    July 1, 2016
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 1.18 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1619470918
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1619470910
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Spatterlight Press (July 1, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 472 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1619470918
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1619470910
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.51 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.18 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 134 ratings

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
134 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

scott w.
5.0 out of 5 stars Jack Vance fantasy
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2019
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Excellent title from the Vance Integral Edition
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SA
4.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten early 80s epic fantasy by a SF grandmaster; dated yet still surprisingly modern.
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2007
Jack Vance was a thirty-year veteran of science fiction, a Nebula and multiple Hugo Award winner, when _Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden_ was published in 1983. His assured authorial hand sets this novel apart from the huge majority of fantasy sagas, which are written by debut writers. Combined with vivid detail, including a seemingly endless variety of medieval foods, Vance's prose paints entrancing images of a fantasy world based on the lost continent of Lyonesse from the old Arthurian legends.

His shifting omniscient point-of-view may feel jarring to modern readers. Although this technique of "head-hopping" through multiple characters' thoughts in the same scene has largely been superceded in modern fiction, it was the default in Vance's era. It can leave the reader feeling distant from the characters, especially when the narrative gives large overviews of family or national history. Yet Vance's prose still places the reader as deeply inside the characters' emotions as any modern limited point-of-view, through the skill of his vivid and lyrical prose.

The organization of the book also shows the narrative fashion of a bygone era. Modern novels seize the reader by shoving many characters on-stage and immediately placing them in peril. In contrast, _Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden_ starts with the birth of the title character and spends chapters summarizing her youth. The main character doesn't show up for almost a hundred pages, and several chapters in the middle of the book follow tangential plots. Yet all the plot threads coalesce in the end, along with the seeds of conflict for the rest of the trilogy.

Despite these antiquated narrative quirks, _Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden_ still feels strikingly modern in several respects. The first is Vance's array of character conflicts based on the viciousness of realistic humans. There is no evil overlord, as became cliché soon afterwards from overuse by less talented writers. Yet Vance's human characters will do far more chilling things to each other than any overlord could. The second is the uncompromising strife that his characters face. The protagonists in _Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden_ are constantly beset by torments from both enemies and friends. No good deed goes unpunished, and quests wander hopelessly. This is the same no-holds-barred style that many modern epic fantasists have adopted, for the astute reason that a brave character in peril compels readers to keep reading. This gritty or brutal modern style of epic fantasy originated with Jack Vance.

_Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden_ stands like no other work of early 80s epic fantasy--brilliantly rendered, harshly realistic, and dated yet still anachronistically modern.
13 people found this helpful
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Marianne
5.0 out of 5 stars Great fit, lol.
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2019
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Awesome!
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Mikel Norwitz
3.0 out of 5 stars The first part of a fantasy trilogy
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2023
The first part of a fantasy trilogy. The plot proceeds apace although the myriad quests and side-quests and sometimes side-side quests became distracting after a while. The characterisation is somewhat cold (notably child characters act much older so that it's easy to forget their age), so while the story was diverting reading it was hard to care enough about any of them to enthusiastically search out the remainder of the series.

Plenty of fairies, though, and the prose is quite competent. Those who are more into the fantasy genre would probably enjoy it more than I have.
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E. A. Solinas
5.0 out of 5 stars A game of princes
Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2016
Long ago, in a forgotten age between the ancient and the medieval, there were the Elder Isles -- places of enchantment and mystery, of war and politics.

And it doesn't take long to be dragged into the magical, silvery spiderweb of "Suldrun's Garden," the first novel in Jack Vance's classic Lyonesse trilogy. Like an Arthurian story minus King Arthur and his knights, Vance spins up a fairy-tale-like fantasy story set in an age that never actually happened (it's supposedly in the fifth century, but has jousting, fairies and countries that didn't actually exist), with luscious prose and an intriguing heroine.

Princess Suldrun spent most of her childhood ignored by her cruel father and indolent mother, and sporadically educated by a string of rather indifferent servants. Beautiful but stubborn, she spent most of her time in a ruined garden near the sea... until she became old enough to peddle off in marriage. When she refused to marry the man her father had chosen, he imprisoned her in her garden all by herself... until a handsome young man washes up, half-drowned. He is Prince Aillas, and of course they fall in love as Suldrun nurses him back to health.

But their love is threatened by her brutal father Casmir, who yearns to be the kind of all the Elder Isles -- and before long, tragedy strikes the couple and tears them apart forever. Their baby son Dhrun is snatched away by the fairy folk and raised in a world of magic, and when he ventures back out into the mortal world, he must deal with a variety of strange new foes, troubles and dangers. Meanwhile, Aillas embarks on a tireless quest for his son, and finds the road just as difficult.

Jack Vance wrote the Lyonesse trilogy in the style of old Arthurian tales -- lots of medieval anachronisms and fantastical elements in an almost ancient setting, from the isle of Ys to the presence of jousting. As a result, the world of "Suldrun's Garden" feels like a mass of half-forgotten legends and fairy-tales, with capricious fairies, carved faces that speak, body-swapping witches, cruel kings, bittersweet love, magic mirrors, and reclusive sorcerers. In a word, enchanted.

And a great deal of that comes from Vance's writing, which is lush with moonlight, trees, winding palaces and the glimmer of fairy magic. He writes in a style that is distinctly old-timey in fashion, with some hauntingly beautiful dialogue ("I am Suldrun, yet I am not Suldrun. I ache with a chill all your warmth could never melt..."). But it's not all about fantastical stuff -- he weaves an incredibly complex web of politics between (and within) the different kingdoms of the Elder Isles, with plenty of power grabs, murders, exiles and schemes.

But he knows how to inject a sense of fun into his story despite all the tragedy and hardship (""You have mentioned sore knees, which I have in abundance, to the number of two"). One scene involves Aillas speaking to a wacky mad king obsessed with birds, which exists just to be funny.

Vance also conjures up a wide and varied cast of characters, with three important ones at its heart -- the tragic and otherworldly Suldrun, the clever and determined Aillas, and their puckish young son Dhrun. But there are a variety of others, including the cruel and shallow King Casmir, the beauty-obsessed bisexual duke Carfilhiot, the resourceful Glyneth who was rescued from an ogre, the mysterious fairy king who helped raise Dhrun, and the adventurous lovelorn sorcerer "avatar" Shimrod.

"Suldrun's Garden" is an entrancing beginning to a classic fantasy trilogy, which showed that Jack Vance was as skilled with the magical as he was with science fiction. But the story of Lyonesse is far from over.
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Lesley M
5.0 out of 5 stars Replacement for lost copy
Reviewed in Australia on April 12, 2023
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I love this series and lost my copy of this one. Very happy to find it's still available.
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Darth Maciek
5.0 out of 5 stars "Between the time when oceans drank Atlantis and the coming of Arthur and his knights, there was an age unheard of..."
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2013
Verified Purchase
No, "Suldrun's garden" is NOT related to Conan books or movies - but for reasons which will become obvious in a little moment, I simply couldn't resist and HAD TO recycle here those opening words from the first "Conan" movie...)))

"Suldrun's garden" is the first - and the best - of three volumes of "Lyonesse Trilogy", written between 1983 and 1989 by the already very renowned American SF, fantasy and criminal mystery writer Jack Vance (1916-2013). Very prolific writer, Vance began publishing in 1945 but due to deteriorating eyesight he had to slow down greatly his work after 1992 - he ultimately stopped writing fiction in 2004 due to his advanced age and total loss of sight. "Lyonesse Trilogy" is therefore, together with roughly contemporary SF trilogy "Cadwal Chronicles" (1987-1992) and the stand alone "Night Lamp" SF novel (1996), amongst his latest but also greatest books. The whole trilogy is a GREAT read - but "Suldrun's garden", darker and less optimistic than most of Vance's books, is my favourite.

The story happens in Early Dark Ages, one or two generations before the times of King Arthur, on Elder Isles, a fictitious archipelago situated on Atlantic Ocean, roughly in the Biscay Bay, not far from France to the east, Spain to the south and British Isles to the north. The archipelago is composed of the huge main island Hybras, slightly larger than Ireland, surrounded by numerous smallers islands, of which the three most important are Skaghane, Troicinet and Dascinet.

There are some suggestions that Elder Isles were once part of a mightier and larger giant island - or small continent - on which a powerful civilization of wizards and wonders existed, but which was mostly swallowed by the ocean in an undescriptible, powerful cataclysm, remembered in realms further east as the story of Atlantis... The powerful Arch-Magicians, of which eight still endure on Elder Isles at the beginning of the story, are probably the last custodians of some knowledge of this ancient civilization - even if they do not master anymore the secrets of creation of new magical apparatus and therefore are greatly dependent on the few magical relics which survived the cataclysm.

Even after the cataclysm Elder Isles used to be governed by one High King but after a long series of civil wars were divided in smaller independent kingdoms. When the story begins, following realms exist on Elder Isles:

- Lyonesse, the most powerful; its ruler, King Casmir, has the best claim for the title of High King, being without question descended in straight line from the old dynasty of rulers of all Elder Isles

- Dahaut, the second most powerful, ruled by king Audry, also descending from old kings, but a much less ambitious character than Casmir

- Troicinet, relatively small by its surface, but owning the best navy on the Elder Isles; its ruler, King Granice, has no sons - and his succession is likely to be a troubled one...

- Dascinet, another sea power; its ruler, king Yvar, is allied with Casmir of Lyonesse and a bitter enemy of Troicinet

- North Ulfland, nominally under the rule of old king Gax - but most of the country is occupied by the Ska invaders...

- South Ulfland, nominally under the rule of king Oriante - but in reality the king controls only his own castle, the rest of country being divided between a multitude of independent permanently fighting and quarelling barons

- Godelia, the only kingdom populated by Celtic immigrants from the continent; it is ruled by king Dartwed and slowly expands its borders, thanks to the constant new arrivals of new Celtic warriors to Elder Isles

- Pomperol, Blaloc and Caduz, are small kingdoms trapped between Lyonesse and Dahaut - they survive for the moment, as neither of their two big neighbors dares attack them, fearing open war with the second one...

- Skaghane, a ferocious kingdom of grim invaders from distant northern lands, the Ska; this agressive new power also controls North Ulfland and prepares for even more expansion

- city-state of Ys, governed by a council of wealthy merchants ("syndics")

Then there are also some areas which escape all control by those human kingdoms - most of them are wild forests, rugged hills or misty swamps populated by fairies and monsters. Those places are terribly dangerous even for large groups of humans...

I will not tell you much about the story itself neither will I reveal who is the MAIN hero of this book (it will take some reading to discover it), but let me just tell you, that this is storytelling at the highest possible level! Mixing classical Celtic and German fairytales with some swashbuckling, some Tolkien-like travel tales, some "Game of Thrones"-style intrigues and fights and last but not least the typical Vancian enchanting touch of ironic humor, sadistic twists and especially absolutely UNIQUELY worded dialogs, this is a JEWEL!

The one thing I didn't really like was the Christian bashing - but at least there is not much of it and once we pass this couple of pages, the incident is over and we can continue reading...

CONCLUSION: one of the greatest and best fantasy books ever written, which I discovered first in French in the 80s, before re-discovering it with equal pleasure in its original English! A TREASURE, to buy, read, keep and pass to your children! ENJOY!
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Evocative modern fairy story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2021
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This is a fascinating showcase of Vance’s skills as a writer, his ability to evoke a medieval chivalric romance, his dry humour, his dark whimsey.
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V. Wanner
2.0 out of 5 stars Enttäuschend klischeekonformes Werk von Vance
Reviewed in Germany on September 10, 2007
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Paradoxerweise merkt man "Lyonesse" die Jahrzehnte die das Buch auf dem Buckel hat esentlich deutlicher an als den Science Fiction Titeln vom selben Autor (Dying Earth etc.).

Die Story um eine Prinzessin, die der Zwangsverheiratung amit verschiedenen Mitteln zu entkommen versucht, dem strengen König, der sich um Land und Leute kümmert aber dabei als Privatmensch versagt und dem obligatorischen Krieg drumherum könnte aus dem "Handbuch für Standardplots für 08/15-Fantasy" abgeschrieben sein.
Charaktere und besonders Motivationen erscheinen vom heutigen Standpunkt aus viel zu simpel gestrickt, zu keinem Zeitpunkt schafft es die Geschichte den Leser wirklich hineinzuziehen.

Vielleicht hat LYonesse ja den Platz in den "Fantasy Masterworks" verdient, weil es seinerzeit recht erfolgreich war, mit etwas modernerer Fantasy in der selben Tradition, z.B. von Gemmel, Goodkind oder auch Hobb kann es sich aber nicht messen.
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malcolm sharp
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 13, 2014
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excellent reading my type of writing
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