Lavondyss

Upřímně, první třetina knihy pro mě byla překvapivě nudná, nicneříkající a zdála se být jedním nekonečným, zbytečným popisem a vysvětlováním. Nejednou jsem ji chtěl dát do skříně a už se k ní nevrátit. Ke konci první části se toto prokletí zlomilo, najednou mi přišlo, jako by se vše otočilo o 180 stupňů a zpětně už i chápu, že ta velenudná část byla "nutné zlo" pro čtenáře, aby měl ponětí, co se bude dít dál. (A nejspíš taky sloužilo jako pomyslné síto pro lidi, kteří to vzdají a kteří naopak dočtou.

Po dokončení celé knihy mohu upřímně říct dvě věci. První, že mi narozdíl od prvního (naprosto úžasného) dílu vůbec nesedla, nezáleží na tom, jestli show more kvůli tempu nebo postavám, zkrátka vůbec. Druhá, že jde pravděpodobně o tak propracované a komplexní dílo, pracující v tolika myšlenkových vrstvách zároveň, že na něj moje mentální kapacita zkrátka nestačí.

Čistě pocitově bych tedy na první dobrou odklikl jednu hvězdu a šel dál.
Ale po kratším (no dobře, delším) zamyšlení dávám hvězd pět, uvědoměle si přiznám, že jsem to prostě jen nepochopil a rovněž jdu dál, jak bylo původně v plánu.
Jen ne na nic dalšího z této série, raději zůstanu u nepřekonaných vzpomínek na samotný Les mytág. show less

After having re-read Mythago Wood as part of a critical study, I decided to carry on and re-read Lavondyss. Many people have commented that this narrative drags, but in my humble opinion, as with how cinema, prior to rhythmic editing trends, perhaps may seem slow or wafting, Lavondyss is no more unhurried than any other book of the 19th or 20th century. Whereas, Mythago Wood was a deliberate intrusion into the mythical realms of Ryhope, Lavondyss is a more gentle discovery of it through oracle and divination. The character of Tallis really carries the burden of life and death through her imagination, her journey is in the grandest sense of time, epic. Lavondyss is a book of familial sorrow, entropy, of suffering and superstition. You show more are not going to find a rip-roaring adventure full of spellbinding and combat, this book is more reflective but it is also, as Holdstock mentions in his afterward, a fictional version of a treatise he might have liked to write on the theme of stories and myths. For me, there are some moments that I will never forget, some moments where Robert's writing held me unflinchingly, and others where I just let time unfold in a world where time has no linear meaning. show less

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Many 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, show more 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.
See my review for Mythago Wood. show less

This book left me feeling absolutely terrible. Which is a wonderful thing.

I read this book as a journey into the world of the occult (occult being 'that which is hidden'). It gutted me, and left me thinking of eternity.

Highly recommended.

It's also technically a sequel to Mythago Wood, but none of it will make sense anyway and the parts that you would understand from the first book are more MYSTERIOUS and OCCLUDED if you just read Lavondyss first.

The best of the Mythago Cycle novels, Holdstock earns the accolades he's been accorded with Lavondyss. Wonderful characterization, tense plot, a Hardian sense of macrocosmic vs. microcosmic time. Absolutely haunting.

I cannot help but feel Holdstock captures the timelessness of the Cotswold Hills of England, the sense of ancient, brooding intelligence that breathes in the landscape, and deftly knits that into a story that takes it into the realm of classic fairy tale in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm.

Simply a beautiful story that you must read if you are a lover of environmental and historical fantasy.

Tallis Keeton es una niña que vive apegada al extraño Bosque de Ryhope. Es capaz de ver los seres que lo habitan, y da nombre a lugares y encrucijadas. La trama principal de la novela tiene que ver con la búsqueda de la joven Tallis de su hermanastro Harry, perdido en el bosque.

‘Lavondyss’ (Lavondyss, 1988), del británico Robert Holdstock, es la segunda novela del Ciclo Mitago, aunque puede leerse de manera independiente. Si el primer libro me pareció sublime, este segundo se me ha hecho cuesta arriba, sobre todo en su segunda mitad. Está bien escrito, pero el tono es distinto. ‘Bosque Mitago’ es más gótico y lírico, y ‘Lavondyss’ más místico y onírico. Sin lugar a dudas, me quedo con el primer libro.

WARNING - Contains major spoilers.
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I'm not even sure where to begin. I don't even know if I like it or not. No, that's not right - I liked it a lot, it has had a huge impact on me. I guess I don't like how it ended - not the way it was written but what happened itself.

I loved the first half of the book unconditionally (it's in two parts). It was set in the English contryside and the main character (Tallis) is a young girl growing up, interacting with the strange world of myth and wood. This was (relatively) straightforward and lovely to read, quite addictive in it's weaving of mythology and nature, growing up and the beautiful imagery it painted, the worlds it hinted at.

The second half show more of the book begins very abruptly, with the young girl of the first half aged to her early twenties, a sudden shock that almost hits you in the face. She is in the mythological wood now, has been journeying for many years, and from here the book becomes progressively more confusing (in a way) and surreal. Yet not confusing in that you have no idea what's going on - the confusion lies in the nature of the wood and they way it is interlinked (is) the human subconscious, specifically that of certain characters. The book is much darker in the second half, more adult (she is adult) and the world and mythology and strangeness is seen now, not hinted at. It is still catching to read, but different, more stressful.

Her relationship with Scathach in particularly touched me, perhaps because I have someone of my own. So much between them is missed out in the eight year jump in the story, all the good times, and now they are unsure of each other and their relationship. That he dies is sad, but didn't seem to affect Tallis as much I would have expected. At the end, I was happy to see them reunited, but they were old, and again we are told nothing of their time together - the prologue jumps to many years later and he is dead again, she dying. This, the prologue, was what troubled me the most. That her brother should find her as she dies - too late, and her quest all along was to find him and return with him to their parents. This is too heartbreaking, for it all to be for naught. She never even lived a somewhat happy and full life in the woods, as Wynne-Jones did - she lost the majority of her life span in Lavondyss, the heart wood, the First Wood, in her strange visioning and journeying (the most surreal part of the book). I kept expecting a happy ending, for it all to turn out right in the end, but it never did. It was one loss after another, a life ended in a barren and desolate place.

Thus the ending troubled me, and troubles me still. I was too caught up in the characters, particularly Tallis and Scathach, to forget so easily, to really belive it was "just" a book. This is why I like happy endings. Perhaps there is another book? I must look. I know there is a prequel, Mythago Wood, which I will get.

The mythology the author builds, the idea of it all, it is quite fascinating and eminently plausible. So real, so confusing.

This is a book I would recommend you read if you have any interest in mythology, the origin and nature of myth. It is not an easy book, but I think it is worth it. show less