The Gate of Ivrel (Morgaine, book 1) by C.J. Cherryh

[james_davis_nicoll]

The Gate of Ivrel (Morgaine, book 1) by C.J. Cherryh

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

This came out about the same time as The Warlock in Spite of Himself and a couple other Daw books whose titles I have forgotten. And LeGuin's Rocannon's World etc. appeared around this time too, didn't it? They seem to have represented the last form planetary romance took for quite a long time, and from your review they could arguably all be termed Norton-influenced. Cherryh's Chanur books are more like space opera.

I think I had kind of a reading drought in the '80s, so if I missed some fabulous planetary romance, do let me know. The current resurgence of Mars stories seems to have come out of steampunk/cod-Victoriana interests, rather than from Norton.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

No, this book came out in 1976; Rocannon's World in 1966 and Warlock in 1969. And they were both from Ace, not DAW; DAW started in 1972.

[w. dow rieder (from livejournal.com)]

I think this was the first Cherryh I read. I saw Exile's Gate, got intrigued by the cover, discovered it was book four of a series, and searched out book one and enjoyed it.

From the incomplete and now sadly out of print graphic novel adaptation series Cherryh and Jane Fancher did of Gate of Ivrel, it seemed that this was indeed intended to be the same Union as the Union/Alliance books--there was a reference to Ariane Emory.

And I thoroughly enjoyed the cover, because it was so obviously a deliberate gender reversal (and the earliest one I'm familiar with) of a style of cover epitomized by Frazetta's cover for Conan the Adventurer.

[awesomeaud.livejournal.com]

"And I thoroughly enjoyed the cover, because it was so obviously a deliberate gender reversal ..."

Yes, the first thing I noticed about that cover is the gender reversal.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Battle Bikini is the name of my new band.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The cover blurb's got me wondering how many debut books get compared to Lord of the Rings, and how the pace of that's varied over the decades.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Huh, didn't know it was so early. Or that she started writing so late, in my mind.

Wikipedia says this was first published, but second written, after _Brothers of Earth_ set in the far future of "Alliance/Union". (It mentions Alliance, anyway.) Followed by Hunter of Worlds, supposedly also A/U.

OTOH I don't think any of these books had much detail, so only she can tell us how much she had Union in mind while writing, vs. some inchoate ideas and re-using names.

OTOH Union is around for many centuries (also see Serpent's Reach, or Merovingen Nights set in 3240 AD!), so qhal not being mentioned in earlier books doesn't mean much. Plenty of future time in which to find gates.

In the covers I have, Morgaine is increasingly more clothed. Loincloth in the first, similarly semi-armored in the next two, and the full plate of the fourth.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I remember checking this out (with that "classic" cover) from the library and forgetting it in the doctor's office. The nurses gave me some very interesting looks when I retrieved it in chagrin.

[freshninja.livejournal.com]

The lengthy infodump at the start turned me off it. Is that one of those edition-dependent things, or is it a 'proper' part of the novel?

[ghost-bird.livejournal.com]

It's a proper part of the novel - an occasional side-effect of Cherryh's writing style and approach to worldbuilding.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Not that lengthy, 4 pages in the original edition.

You could skip it; then you'd be as confused as Vanye for most of the book. I could see someone preferring that experience.

[(Anonymous)]

This novel is so special to me- growing up, it (along with LeGuin's The Dispossessed) pretty much taught me how to be a decent human being.

I've read (I think it might have been here) that Cherryh is sometimes a slog to read because she specializes in physically brutal stories with powerless, introspective (male) protagonists, written in close third person. So her books are often "He was cold and tired and his feet hurt. Okay, now he was colder and tireder and his feet hurt more. Yep, really, really cold; really, really tired. Etc til the end."

But man, if you're living in a brutal environment that you can't do much to change, this is an incredibly powerful writing style. And her protagonists are usually kind of messed-up but also very emulation-worthy, and come out okay in the end- which is a veritable ray of sunshine if you're messed-up and in bad circumstances.

Gate of Ivrel is like her platonic ideal of that dynamic. Vanye is pretty badly screwed-up, has obvious PTSD before it was a thing, it can't possibly suck worse to be him, and yet he's clearly doing the best he can, he manages to hold onto the things that matter to him, even at his worst he's still a good person with a huge store of personal integrity, and he comes out someone anyone would be proud to be in the end. (And it's a good adventure story with a kick-ass female lead too.)

One of my two favorite novels ever.

[(Anonymous)]

This was the first Cherryh I read, on publication and just before a long trip to Europe. I loved it, and recall thinking that I really, really had to see what else this woman had written. Her future career, alas, did not go in a direction that interested me, which has put me off rereading this or looking for the sequels.

With that cover I would never have bought the book (not because of the costuming, but because in a 1970s context it screams "Fantasy book you will not like") were it not for the recommendation by Norton. Another thing to thank her for.

William Hyde

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

So, will we have reviews of the other three?

[(Anonymous)]

Really enjoyed this one. (Based my first Traveller campaigns on a combination of the backgrounds from Gate of Ivrel, Non-Stop, and Lord of Light...)