Gossamer Axe

It's one of the books that changed the way I look at life, and I wanted to pick it up and re-read it for the umpteenth time. This is the 3rd copy of this book that I have, since I kept giving it away to friends to read. Never heard back about their take on it, though.

So the premise is that a young woman with a harp lives in Denver in the 1980's teaching harp lessons, but she is really from 6th Century Ireland and her harp is from the immortal lands of the Sidh. She took it with her when she escaped their lands, but sadly, her lover, Suidb (Judith) did not get out with her. Chairste has been living a half-life of despair, wondering how to bring Judith back when the gates between our world and the Lands of the Sidh are growing ever more show more fragile.

Enter one of Chairiste's students, a bass player, who introduces her to the world of the hair bands of the 80's, and guitar teacher Kevin, and Chairiste finds out how she can open up the gates, rescue her lover, and overcome the Master Harper who would keep Judith enchanted forever. Gael Baudino does a masterful job telling this story, interweaving threads of the dark side of Catholicism, women's efforts to make their mark in rock music, and how men can come to revere women as Goddess. The interweaving of music and magick is extraordinary. show less

Gossamer Axe is a really beautiful story about love, change, and overcoming hardship. Written in the 90s, I imagine the book probably didn't do so well as it normalizes queer relationships, platonic sex, and Wicca. However, these are the things that felt most real to me. I have no qualms with Christianity as a religion, but the reality is that many Christian families will shun their queer children, and Baudino speaks to this reality.

Gossamer Axe is the story of Christa, a harper from the 6th century, who, in her hubris, opened a portal to the immortal realm. Orfide, a bard from the Realm kidnapped her lover, Judith, and ever since then, Christa has tried to us the power of music to bring Judith back. Christa eventually realizes that show more her harp isn't strong enough to win on its own, and she must adapt to modernity, become a metal guitarist with her band of awesome ladies, to win back her lover. Her life quickly becomes entwined with that of others like Kevin, her guitar teacher, who eventually discovers his family has abandoned his brother from being gay and has left him to die alone. Christa uses her magic to help Kevin be reborn as a Wiccan and to find his brother. Although he cannot be saved, he doesn't have to die alone. Christa also helps her fellow bandmates overcome drug additions, abusive relationships, and past trauma.

I really loved Baudino's storytelling. She tells it as it is. Being a woman in the 90s, especially in the music industry, often meant getting overly sexualized and dehumanized by a male dominated business. This is a story about women's power, about platonic and romantic love, and about becoming who you are rather than who the world expects you to be. It's a story about women protecting and supporting one another rather than becoming catty stereotypes. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is because there were quite a few typos, (some of them were kind of funny though) and a few things that didn't make a lot of sense to me. Some of those things were important for world building, and by the end of the story, I understood them theoretically but not literally (for example, she talks a lot about the "modes" of music as they were understood to the Gaeidil: the ancient Irish people in the book.) But I think the story itself, the strong characterization and narrative voice, and the incredible world building makes up for the little mistakes.

I also just really like the idea of someone who's 1,400 years old, suddenly forced into the 20th century, and is really excited about T-shirts and hamburgers. show less

I can't give this less than three and a half stars because it is fully realized and decently written - but I veered here and there between almost hooting at the delightful ridiculousness of it and a sense of enough already. It is a feminist/lesbian (or if it makes you more comfortable, bisexual) piece of fantasy fiction and while I have no doubt the sexism of the heavy metal scene is accurately described it's sometimes like having someone let all the air out of a souffle...... oh well.... Anyhow Chairiste and Suidb (just say Judith) were kidnapped 14 centuries ago by the Sidh, Chairiste gets away and lands in 18th century England, but Judith is stuck. Nothing changes in Sidh-land. Chairiste (Now Christa) stole the #1 harp when she left, show more Ceis, who can talk a little and is really a sort of universal spirit who lives in the harp, and Ceis keeps Christa young eternally with his healing mojo. OK so it's all about rescuing Judith and the story unrolls from that premise. It's fun, it's readable. I like the dynamics between the characters and I scurried to YouTube over and over to refresh myself about various songs they were playing
As a harper, I have to say, I am sometimes embarrassed by how dewy-eyed people get about the instrument - so I kind of loved the main character making the switch to electric guitar - point being, music is music! ***1/2 show less

I read this book absolute decades ago when I was...wow, I was very young to read this novel now that I think of it, but I loved it. I read it cover to cover. I loved the idea of a magical harpist who decides to remake her entire life and become something new without sacrificing the parts of her self that she truly loves. I also really enjoyed the found family approach to forming a rock band. I'll be honest, it was so long (and so many moves!) ago that I doubt I have a physical copy anymore to reread and see if the writing holds up to my memory, but I'm still so entirely fond of this book.

This one took me by surprise. I've been passing over it on my friend's speculative fiction shelves for years now, then for some reason picked it up the other day and got hooked a couple of chapters in.

Christa is a bisexual woman who escaped from the Celtic Otherworld 200 years ago, and is still trying to figure out how to free her inamorata from that unchanging, sterile place. She puts aside her harp and picks up an electric guitar to achieve her aims.

Certain elements are predictable: the antagonists, particularly, are uninspired. But the way Baudino handles the musical aspects, the world of rock and how it is for women, magic, cultural distress (for Christa), community and friendship--it's textured, fascinating, very well done.

As show more for authenticity (for the ancient Celtic part), she gets a lot right. My main complaint is that the Celts didn't celebrate the solstices and equinoxes as she has them do--Christa really is more modern Wiccan than ancient Celt in some ways--but regardless, the book holds together nicely. It is what it is.

A very pleasant surprise. show less

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1104000.html

The premise of the book sounds, frankly, awful. Christa, born in sixth-century Ireland but exiled to 1980s Denver, assembles an all-female heavy metal band (called "Gossamer Axe") to blast open the mystical portals and rescue her girlfriend from the twilight realm where she is imprisoned. To do this she reincarnates her magical harp as an electric guitar.

Yet it's actually rather good. Of course it is rather earnest about paganism, feminism and magic, but the only point where the writing is cringingly embarrassing is in the early sections where Christa is converted from Irish harp music to heavy metal. Apart from that, though, the various romantic and personality plot threads are compelling, and the show more Irish bits are not overdone. The whole thing is written with a genuine passion which in the end is easier to respect than mock.

It won the 1990 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Science Fiction & Fantasy, and was also chosen as one of the "top 5 gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender genre works of all time" by Gaylaxicon 2000's "The List" panel. (I wonder what the others were?) show less

this tale made me want to take up metal - the subculture sounded completely unappealing but the intensity and devotion of the participants...compelling.

red-haired superwoman discovers the power of heavy metal music just as she's about to give up hope, takes on faerie to win her lover back. a teenaged Emma probably would've loved this in her early days of identification with Vanyel et al.