Red Moon and Black Mountain

On re-reading, the awe instilled by Chant's beautiful prose, her gift for simile and metaphor, for setting and emotion, for apt insights into people as individuals and as a species and our sometimes harmonious and sometimes contentious interactions with nature and with ourselves remains as powerful as I remember--and only deepened by the knowledge that this work was written by Ms. Chant, a librarian, when she was but twenty-five years of age. The tale is a portal fantasy with child heroes, Narnia-like, and yet their challenges, the choices they make, and their consequences are harshly adult, particularly its dramatic somewhat disturbing--yet right-- conlcusion. Similar to Lewis' Narnia, upon rereading, I find a patina of Christian show more allegory and archangel analogs within Chant's panthenon of atavistic pseudo-Druidic "High" gods. "Red Moon, Black Mountain" Fifty years since its publication, I consider the book a classic of modern epic fantasy written in the tradition of those like Lewis, Tolkien, Morris, and Eddison written decades to a half-century before. show less

On re-reading, the awe instilled by Chant's beautiful prose, her gift for simile and metaphor, for setting and emotion, for apt insights into people as individuals and as a species and our sometimes harmonious and sometimes contentious interactions with nature and with ourselves remains as powerful as I remember--and only deepened by the knowledge that this work was written by Ms. Chant, a librarian, when she was but twenty-five years of age. The tale is a portal fantasy with child heroes, Narnia-like, and yet their challenges, the choices they make, and their consequences are harshly adult, particularly its dramatic somewhat disturbing--yet right-- conlcusion. Similar to Lewis' Narnia, upon rereading, I find a patina of Christian show more allegory and archangel analogs within Chant's panthenon of atavistic pseudo-Druidic "High" gods. "Red Moon, Black Mountain" Fifty years since its publication, I consider the book a classic of modern epic fantasy written in the tradition of those like Lewis, Tolkien, Morris, and Eddison written decades to a half-century before. show less

I read this when it first came out in the old Ballantine paperback series (ca. 1971). I remember liking it then. Chant's books are not the easiest to track down now. I still like it, which is not always the case on rereading things long afterward.

The overarching genre is clearly fantasy. It is sometimes described as young adult, although I think the writing is a bit elevated and challenging for that classification. Chant seems to draw on multiple influences. The three children are plucked from the the everyday world to another world to take part in a conflict of good and evil (Lewis, Narnia). Fendarl is something like Sauron, Kunil-Bannoth something like Saruman. There is not really a quest, so not that tradition. The Khentors are show more something like the Golden Horde. In the final conflict with Fendarl there is much reminiscent of the Iliad: the individual combats; the catalog of troops on the march is similar to the catalog of ships in Iliad 2; Li'vanh's vision of the gods and immortals in the battle is like the appearance of the gods in the battles of the Iliad. So let's just call it eclectic.

It is a good story, with interesting characters. We watch the children grow, especially Oliver, although it is not a Bildungsroman. Chant is especially good at bringing out the sense of loss and tragedy that afflicts the victors, the ambiguity of war even in a good cause. A few quotes from many passages:

"He was much more than weary: in very truth he was exhausted; or utterly spent, worn-out, empty. He had conquered, but his victory had the taste of failure. He was filled with a corroding disappointment, and a bitter sense of loss. He felt bereft, although of what he did not know."

"All our lives we strive against evil with all our strength; yet what does our victory come to? That today we are the conquerors, because yesterday we did more harm to our enemies than they could do to us."

"But the thing which he had lost he never did regain, though what it was he could never have said."

What I like most is Chant's style, which ranges from straightforward storytelling to rhetorical flourishes. A few of many passages that struck me, stopped me, demanded rereading:

"A long walk it was, up along winding mountain paths, the air glittering with cold, the ground treacherous with ice, and the wind tugging at them all the way."

"It was darker, certainly; the sky was a thicker grey, and the mountains' shadow chilled them."

"The smoke, the smoke smelling of more than burning wood, the smoke whose smell Li'vanh could never forget, was everywhere." (a great classical ascending tricolon!)

Her images are striking; she often takes an a basic idea or image, expands it through multiple clauses with repetitions as in the tricolon above. It is sometimes like watching a painter add stroke on stroke to the canvas.

As I noted, she draws from many sources and traditions, but ends with her own thing: an adventure story with a keen sense of the tragic that underlies life, mundane or heroic. show less

Three children, two boys and their young sister, are transported to a fantasy land, each to play their part in the fight against an evil invader. The elder boy is 'chosen' and goes native, becoming a plains warrior and forgetting his old life for a time, but it all turns out to be a grand plan by spiritual powers. Reminiscent of Narnia, especially The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in some respects, but with a more mature and philosophical aspect with regard to the personal journey of the oldest boy, who comes to question whether killing is right and has to face the reality of sacrifice.

There is some violence and a token questioning of the subservient role of women, though this is 'answered' by the fact that the plains women drive show more the wagons and so are 'helpless' though I don't see why this would prevent them from at least fighting in self defence. Even among the town and city dwellers, where women of the hereditary star magic wielders appear to enjoy more equality, there is the idea that women must marry for fulfilment, even though the Princess In'serinna loses her powers by marrying an outsider, and condemns her linked star to blowing up!

The best aspects are the vivid description of a battle between eagles representing the good and bad powers, and the touching end section where the oldest boy, Oliver, has to face his true position, but quite a bit of the story is fairly humdrum. There are a lot of different cultures with difficult to pronounce or too similar names and it is easy to lose track. This is first in a trilogy, and was not interesting enough for me to want to track down the other volumes which are probably long out of print. show less

A dark sort of coming-of-age fantasy, wherein children of our world are transported to a fantasy realm, and there grow up, amidst much danger and warfare and sorcery. Very well done, very much like Alan Garner's work, only it is even more reminiscent of more famous fantasists. You might even say it is like a marriage of Tolkien and Lewis: the main thrust of the fantasy action and world is Tolkienian; the children's arch story is more Lewisian, almost out of Narnia.

I've actually read this twice, once as a youngster, once as an adult. It held my attention the second time, so I have to give it fairly high marks.

A little too derivative to garner more stars from me, Red Moon and Black Mountain combines elements of C S Lewis's Narnia books (the children swept away into a fantasy world where there is a coming of age) with Tolkien's Lord of The Rings (said fantasy world is under threat from a powerful baddie).

Excellent writing in parts and a better LOTR plagiarism than Terry Brooks' Shannara potboilers.

Read at the recommendation of James Stoddard (The False House), but not for me. I did not find the world adequately realized, I did not find the villain or heroes resonant, and it all felt rushed.