I've been wanting to have a thread about these books forever, but was worried that most likely nobody else has read them and I'd look foolish. To hell with that. I'll sperg about them here never mind if anyone else cares. They've been a Special Interest of mine since I read the first two books in 1990 or thereabouts.
One thing that fascinates me about these is how it's told from a non-human (albeit humanoid) point of view. Jame, the heroine, is a Kencyr Highborn — basically the elves of the setting. Alien dimension-hopping elves. Lifespans more than double that of humans. Amazing self-healing ability. Magic, which appears to be an inherited trait. Some, like our heroine, have non-human characteristics; Jame has razor-sharp retractable claws instead of fingernails.
It is awesome, and the series and the character are full of awesome. A bit too full for some people; those with allergies to anything smacking of Mary Sue may want to steer clear. Jame is unashamedly a wish-fulfilment character in a bunch of ways; the author's described her as "my dark alter ego" before. Really, in many ways, it's a superhero story in a fantasy world. Hodgell has a grounding in comic books and she has so many scenes that would be gorgeous as a graphic novel. If superheroes don't feel too Sue-ish to you, then this won't. I also think it's a huge shame these came out too long ago to hit the YA market; they would fit in many ways. Jame's 17 at the beginning, and that's pretty young for her species; formal adulthood is at 32, though I feel that's equivalent to human 25 or so, the point of full mental development. And they're quite definitely a dystopia. Things are wrong, the world is dying, things have been going wrong for thousands of years.
And yet despite the bleakness and darkness of the setting they're also funny. It's also fascinating to try and diagnose the mental issues of everybody. Jame has a serious depressive episode, lots of people have PTSD of various kinds, and a bunch of other stuff. Pretty much every character whose childhood we know had a horrible one; in some cases, we see how patterns of abuse perpetuate down the generations.
Buyable as non copy protected ebooks on baen.com. I don't think region locked, but obviously I can't test that from here.
I can't think of another character in anything that is so frequently misgendered than Jame in these books, who isn't deliberately trying to pass. She ends up being "officially a boy" again and again, but despite this seems to be completely cis and happy as female. She's not happy with the gender roles in her society and others, and this is part of what's behind the misgendering; she doesn't allow female gender roles to dictate her behavior. Also responsible is her androgynous figure; she's skinny and flat as a board, and this is a source of some lament at times. All too often "woe is me, I'm so skinny it's a curse" is the cry of the Mary Sue giving herself compliments in disguise, but in Jame's case it is legit. People also constantly decide she's malnourished and needs feeding up, which is probably true; she forgets to eat, and has some issues besides (trauma from haunted vegetables, seriously).
Oh, and: canon lesbians! There's only one canon gay man that I can think of and he's one of the bad guys, but his sexuality isn't portrayed as being part of his villainy, it just is. The lesbians, though, are definitely not portrayed as bad guys at all. There's a little bit in the first book in passing; famous courtesan Melisande flirts heavily with Jame, who, flustered, exclaims "Contrary to popular opinion, I am not a boy!", only to receive a response of "You silly goose, whoever said you were?", and more flirting. Jame's sexuality is uncertain and she appears asexual for a long time, until she finds herself having incestuous desires for her twin brother (unfulfilled, as of this point). Jame's dancing at the tavern where she lives in the first book results in admirers of both genders. From the third book onward Jame and thus the readers become informed of the situational homosexuality common among Kencyr Highborn women. Kept largely segregated from men in their own Womens' World, and with their partnerships and marriages with men dictated entirely by political alliances rather than any choice, young women are paired up (apparently by the judgment of their elders) into lifelong pairings that sometimes are purely platonic pairings but frequently are romantic and often sexual, something that the men of their caste are kept entirely in the dark about. Since it's customary for most Highborn women to return to the Womens' Halls where they were raised for at least part of every year, these relationships continue for the rest of their lives. It's clear that, while some of these women are only situationally homoromantic or homosexual, others would be oriented that way even if raised with free choice. Kencyr Highborn men live a less restricted life; though mostly separated from the women of their caste, it's considered acceptable for them to have mistresses and lovers from the lower caste (the Kendar) and father halfblood children. The lower Kendar caste, on the other hand, have a fairly gender-egalitarian society, with men and women considered equal, and the Kencyr armies contain fairly large numbers of female Kendar soldiers. Both genders of that caste can suckle children. All sexualities appear to exist among the Kendar with little judgment, and there are definitely canon lesbians among their number; including (in the seventh book) the reveal that this includes one that Jame is quite close to. It's treated very matter-of-fact and unremarkable.
I think one of the reasons I've always identified so strongly with Jame is because she definitely reads as neuroatypical to me. She definitely hyperfocuses on things and wants to take them apart and learn how they work, which is so me. She has food issues. Like me she manages to be both charismatic and fairly socially clueless. She doesn't like crowds and prefers to be alone, though she's slowly learning to work with a team. It's hard because she's so often 20 steps ahead in her thoughts and explaining is so hard. I really understand that one. Some readers have thought her sociopathic in ways that resonate of the ways that neuroatypical are mistaken for that. She's so internalized that she comes across as emotionless and cold. She's not good at thinking of consequences and dangers. She's completely fearless when it comes to physical harm; it seems to not even register with her. She's only afraid of harm to her mind and "self", really, and concern for others she cares about.
Hodgell is really good at taking fantasy tropes and finding a new, different take on them. We have werewolves, but these are wolves who can become human, not humans who become wolves. We have at least one vampire who can only consume blood. He never attacks anyone for blood, instead finding nourishment from animal blood and donations from friends. He's weird but one of the good guys. Oh, and he can also consume honey, but it hurts his teeth. We have shapeshifters, who gained their powers from sex with nonhumans. It's almost impossible to kill them except that their blood is extremely flammable. We have unicorns. Well, really bicorns, since they have a short nose horn and long forehead horn. They are carnivorous killers, with fangs and claws. They're also armored, with tough ivory plates protecting their head, neck, chest, belly and forelegs. They are highly intelligent and hold grudges. A group of them is a "rage". What normally kills them is their own armor and horn, both of which never stop growing. Eventually either the horn curves around and penetrates the rear of their skull, or the armor grows over nostrils, eyes and mouth. There are giant, intelligent, telepathic cat people. And there are "haunts", essentially zombies. Their bites are infectious. But there are also zombie horses. Zombie salmon. Zombie vegetables.
There's also that thing in these books where people's abusive pasts aren't treated as horribly shocking. Because everyone has them, pretty much. Kinda like here, really. Not treated as good, just … shit that happened.
So, I want to talk about binding, and thus must give a bit of backstory. The Kencyr are three different peoples taken by their asshole God circa 30k years ago, changed and meddled with, and given a Purpose (basically, defeating Chaos). Which they have been defeated at time and again, retreating to a different world each time they lose. Meanwhile their God has buggered off somewhere and hardly talks to them anymore. Like once a millennium or so. Maybe it's disgusted with their failure. But who knows. And it looks like they might be stuck on the world they're on now, so things are a right disaster. So, three peoples. One of them, the Arrin-ken, aren't humanoid; they look like giant, rhino-sized big cats, and they are telepathic. They were the judges and mediators, but have spent the last few thousand years in a snit and have withdrawn from everyone else. The other two are humanoid. The Highborn are the rulers, leaders and priests, and frequently manifest powers as a gift or curse from their God. They're small in number, small in stature, possess no artistic talents, and are horrifyingly inbred due to trying to breed for greater powers. This means they're really fucked up; poor reproductive viability, many are sickly, and there's fairly prevalent cognitive or behavioral issues. And the final people are the Kendar, who are the worker, crafting and soldier caste. They are generally big, tall, strong and healthy, though there's natural variation. The Kendar were altered so that they have a deep, primal need for a Highborn master. The lack of one leaves them desperately unhappy and unfulfilled. Even the prospect of eventually being taken in is sufficient to cause intense loyalty. The mechanism for this is called binding, and it creates a two-way psychic link between the Highborn and Kendar. The binding needs to be maintained on both ends; a fairly unconscious process, but the Highborn cannot bind more Kendar than they can remember the name of. The practical upper limit is about two thousand followers, and that's a strain. All Lords, both of the nine major Houses and lesser ones, must have the ability to bind; in addition trusted Highborn relatives are granted the right to, to spread the load. Binding gives the Lord real power; resisting commands is impossible if sufficient power is in them, and the Lord's moods and thoughts strongly influence their followers. One can easily see how this lends itself to abuse, and the books are full of examples. At the same time, refusing to, or binding too loosely, causes extreme distress and hurt. Highborn can also be bound if the one binding is stronger, but this is generally only done for those in trusted positions. But there's one kind of binding that's even worse: blood-binding. Only those Highborn with the purest of bloodlines and sufficient God-touched power can do this. Ingesting a sufficient amount of such a person's blood sets up a bond that makes the regular one look like nothing. A blood-bond is forever, irrevocable, unbreakable. It lasts until death and even beyond; if the binder dies first, the bound will kill themselves too, and if the bound dies first, they remain loyal even after death. Historically, this was only done to bind other Highborn, and hasn't been done in forever. However, some have discovered the abusive power smaller amounts of their blood can cause; amounts insufficient for a permanent bond can still cause compulsion for short periods. So yeah, these books are full of horrible people doing horrible things. Part of why I like them.
The Kencyr are split into nine major houses, which is a nice number. Each has its nature, banner, battlecry, etc. In addition there are minor houses (though these in the present time are very few), but these are offshoots of the major houses and count as being part of them in many ways. First, we have the Knorth, who are the hereditary leaders of the whole people. Their Lord is also Highlord over all the others, and has notionally the loyalty of almost the entire people. The priests, judges, scrollsmen and singers are, however, independent, and the Randon College (randon is the Kencyr word for their officer corps) has a degree of independence. The Knorth are small, skinny, black-haired and grey-eyed in the main. They are prone to God-touched ("Shanir") powers, and are super, super inbred, with a tradition of sibling and cousin marriage. There's a lot of concern that they're too nuts to rule, and in the present time there are only three Knorth Highborn in existence, which makes their status precarious. Our Heroine is one of these; the other two are her twin brother, current Highlord, and her double first cousin. Any family in which you can utter the words 'double first cousin' is way inbred. Their emblem used to be a rearing horse but these days is the rathorn, the two-horned carnivorous armored unicorn of their current world. The rathorn is considered a beast of madness, due to the paralyzing, panicking fear it imparts, and thus is appropriate to the Knorth for that and its cunning and danger. The richest house are the Caineron. They also have the most Highborn, the most Kendar, and the most yondri-gon ("threshold dwellers", those who serve for the promise of possible future acceptance). They are avaricious, gluttonous, perverse and not a little stupid, though there are exceptions. If you know Dune, they are the Harkonnens. They are the Knorth's most obvious enemies; their lord chafes in service to anyone else. Their emblem is a snake devouring its own young, rather appropriate for their infighting. The Randir are the snake in the grass. Sly, cunning, close-mouthed and scheming. They're Slytherin as a Kencyr House. Like Slytherin, not all of them are evil, but the ones in charge right now definitely are. They're actually a bigger enemy than the Caineron, but less likely to make an open move. This House is host to the Priests' College, and tends to manifest powerful Shanir. Their emblem is a gauntleted fist grasping the Sun. The Brandan are another wealthy House, and are close allies with the Knorth. They are solid, hard-working, talented but rather conventional and conservative. Strong sense of hospitality. Their emblem is leaping flames. Other houses sneer at the Jaran, who host the scrollmen's and singers' college, Mount Alban. They're a House full of academics, basically, and aren't much interested in temporal power. Apparently, eligible candidates for Lord Jaran draw lots, and the "winner" is considered the loser, because nobody wanted the job. More likely to come to blows over an academic dispute than anything else; they have soldiers, like the other Houses, but even they appear would-be academics, prone to being distracted by philosophical questions. Generally a Knorth ally. Their emblem is a stricken tree. The Ardeth are known for their powerful Shanir and the purity of their blood, with very few outbreedings in their central line. They're the most Elf-like of the Kencyr Houses, prone to beauty, Shanir powers, arrogance, and blonde hair. Very conscious of appearances, and always have to be the best-dressed. A historic Knorth ally but a demanding one. Their emblem is the full moon, appropriately. The Coman are a small House that is noted for stubbornness and being mistrusting, keeping largely to themselves. They are undecided as to loyalty. Appropriately, their emblem is a double-edged sword. Twin births are way common among the Edirr, a small House known for their clowning, joking nature. Their Lords are a pair of twins, and their emblem is a stooping hawk, showing their rashness. The final House is Danior, the smallest and poorest. They're characterized as being very loyal to the Knorth, and being warm and happy, but rather over-stretched. Their emblem is the wolf.
That's one of my favorite things about the series too, it's dark, yet funny. (I tend to dislike dark=gloomy or dark=despair type stories. There's nothing really there to read.) Hodgell's quirky weirdness combined with the realistic PTSD suffered by several of the characters makes for an fascinating read.
I always thought that the screaming carrots and the potatoes with eyes were mutants, not zombies. Poor Jame, no wonder she's so thin.
