Volkhavaar

Volkhavaar is a splendid little fantasy: a dense, rhythmic tale that barely manages to keep itself in the field of prose, rather than poetry. Pace the jacket copy, I didn't feel like I was reading a story of "a world far removed from those we know." It keeps to a highly traditional, almost folkloric style throughout, though its plot often runs counter to the sort of expectations programmed by Disney fairy tales. The supernatural elements are drawn in a powerful and believable way. The book is so tightly composed that I wouldn't be surprised if its twenty-two short chapters were deliberately keyed to the Tarot trumps.

This earlier novel of the author's is compact and centres around two main characters: the boy who sells himself to evil from an early age and becomes a feared and fearsome magician, and the young slave girl abducted as a child from her native land and now labouring in a village house where she, among other things, takes the goats out to their mountain pasture when the son of the household is hungover as he is frequently. On one of these trips she encounters a local witch who warns her that she is shortly to undergo an event which will change her life. Soon afterwards, a troop of strange actors arrives, led by a man who, it transpires, is Volkhavaar, and the slave girl falls completely for a young actor in the troop. But he, like two show more others, have had their souls enslaved by the magician.

The book then shows the early life of Volkhavaar and what has brought him to this point, before narrating the entwined lives of both characters. The power of love is a strong theme, and the story has a folktale flavour slightly reminiscent of Russian folktales especially with the character of the witch who trains the slave in how to send out her astral body to follow the young actor. It is told with Lee's usual colourful and powerful prose and I found it more satisfying than her later Flat Earth series which I have just finished reading, perhaps because the story is more compact and coherent and it does have an ending which, although not fairy tale, is satisfying. So a good 4 star read. show less

I found this to be one of Tannith Lee's better books. the title diety is a minor God, but by the efforts of some gifted worshippers, becomes better known, and thus more powerful. But there is a cost, as the areas of his power is actually changed by the new worshippers, who go to him for different things. He ends, as different from his initial competence. Quite good. I wish she had kept with this kind of thing rather than mining the obviously lucrative vampire franchise.

Volkhavaar is an interesting book. I don't agree with the raving reviews, but it's still worth a read. The style is like an oral tale, a story of good versus evil, told by an elder for the young ones. And written down word for word. While reading it I already said that especially the first chapter with Shaina reminded me of these old Russian movies where they took an old folk tale and turned it into a movie. That style is later lost, but overall the book keeps this feeling of written oral history.

A boy finds a dark idol and offers it blood in return for power, becoming a master of illusion. A slave girl falls in love with one of the evil sorcerer's thralls, a man who casts no shadow. A sorceress who lives in the mountains above her village trains her in return for blood, and Shaina leaves her body to follow her love. She comes into conflict with the sorcerer and love and hate battle it out. Volkhavaar gains a lot of power and kills a lot of people, this is a typically dark Lee novel. I liked how she resolved things in the end, Shaina is a strong heroine. The milk sop princess that the sorcerer controls is a good foil for her.