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Freedom Book of the Month for September, 2003:
"Hecate's Glory"
by Karen Michalson
Tor, 2003, paper, 477 pp.
Hecate's Glory is one of the two most beautifully written books I've read in years. The other one is Enemy Glory, to which Hecate's Glory is the sequel.
I don't normally care much for swords and sorcery-type fantasy, of which these Enemy Glory novels are an example. I can enjoy it if the story is really well written, and the magic has some kind of structure, or set of rules so that the characters have to solve problems, instead of just finding the right words or the magic crystal that makes all their problems go away at the end. Still, though, most just never stack up to the Lord of The Rings, and (unlike good science fiction) the worlds described are not ones that can ever come to pass, so I usually don't bother.
But this is different.
Not only has Ms. Michalson created rules of magic that will bring a smile to the face of any seasoned Dungeons & Dragons player, rules that force the characters to apply logic and deal with the consequences when they screw up, her novels are genuine works of art.
Now, I'll be honest and say, snooty as it might sound, that I don't think a lot of people will appreciate art this fine ... but for those who can ... wow!
The writing in Hecate's Glory (and Enemy Glory) is a kind of poetry in prose. A lot of it doesn't make any sense, if you try to think it through. Even knowing that creative use of metaphor is at work -- a creative use that twists the universe as you might expect the universe to seem twisted to anyone who can actually practice magic -- isn't enough to make many passages make sense. But the feel you get after reading some of these passages, the pictures they paint in your mind once you stop trying to make the words conform to the rules, the very taste of the words on your tongue ... It's really amazing.
Having said that, I'm not sure I can pick an example that will work, excerpted from its context in the book. I'll try, though -- here are some words describing the hero's ride into a frozen countryside:
"The night sky an abyss of cold suns and even the fires I created kept no brightness against the vast still thunder of this passionate tranquility called northern Threle .... My horse slid through the great northern silence and still I rode, and the brown hills accepted me into their frozen dream of earth and they bound me upward and upward toward a bright crag in the winter sun, like an icy groaning ocean wave to break on a place of wandering mist and dazzling spires of icy light ..."Or this bit, describing the spot where the hero buried an evil wizard:
"I had buried fistfuls of moonlight in that grave, and ribbons of ice-covered tree shadow, and tattered pieces of words from old wizard spells Mirand had once taught me."
I should mention that the hero actually becomes an evil wizard and cleric himself, in the first book, Enemy Glory. He manages to do some good in spite of this, because he loves beautiful things. Nevertheless, his "evil" nature makes it perfectly natural for him to make some most cutting observations of human nature, such as when he needs to train some apprentices, but can't let on that he's evil:
"I chose my new apprentices based on their lack of ability. They did not know that, of course. I devised a point system which allowed marginally competent wizards to make the grade if their competence was mitigated by an especially overweening pride that I could flatter into submission. But what I generally found was that the least competent individuals invariably had the highest self-regard, so I ended up selecting the magically weakest ones anyway."Or, consider this observation regarding a young woman who is emotionally open and honest:
"Most people mask their emotions to protect themselves against someone else's reaction, which is why so many conversations never really happen, are not real conversations, but intersecting monologues of cowardice. Aeren was not an emotional coward. It was the closest thing I'd found in her to a tragic flaw."And what is the nature of the hero's evil?
"... Evil is often loved and loved fiercely. You need only know that nothing you have is properly your own, not even your life, hmmm. Nothing. That is the highest lesson of evil."
So, of course, the hero's goddess demands his life in payment for his desire to save things of beauty.
Okay, okay, I imagine some readers saying, this all sounds wonderful and artsy, but what does it have to do with liberty? Why should Hecate's Glory receive the honor of FMN's Freedom Book of the Month?
Well, Ms. Michalson is a libertarian, and it shows. There are no 80-page speeches on economics, but somehow the effects of the war between an evil, conquering emperor and the good-guy duke manage to teach some lessons in free market economics and the institutions of civil society. Little vignettes make subtle, and not so subtle, points about freedom:
"I maneuvered the horse into a slow walk and rode leisurely toward the guards, where I had to wait for an old woman on an ill-looking donkey to finish cussing them out ... She wanted to see her son. She had no papers. The son lived in town. He was a cobbler, the best cobbler in the empire, the best everything in everything until Roguehan's [the evil emperor's] new laws put him out of business... 'You tell that cud Roguehan from me you don't milk the goose dry and expect good eggs... How am I supposed to see my son?' ... 'You know the reasons... No crossing without papers. We all have a social responsibility to our own local communities, and we can't let folks shirk that by going elsewhere. New law for the common good.' 'The common what?' she spat. 'The common nothing...' 'You benefit from your town, Madam?' 'Look at my donkey, I benefit from my town.' She spat again. 'My son used to send me piecework to do for a penny -- now I scarcely get hay allowance from the council to feed my poor donkey for the common good...'"
So, in this book, you have good battling evil, in terms Ayn Rand herself would recognize. You have freedom fighters battling an evil dictator, in terms any libertarian would recognize. And you have it all as a non-intrusive backdrop to a great story, a lesson in politics and economics that people may not even notice they are getting.
And then there's the art.
Karen Michalson's poetry in prose might not work for those who just want a fast-paced thriller to engross them, but for those who are willing to read something a little more demanding, I predict moments of pure pleasure. These are not words to simply read, but to savor, like a fine wine -- or maybe a burning brandy -- that sets one aglow inside. This is what real art is all about; reaching into people and touching them. Hecate's Glory does this.
The book is not perfect, though it has fewer jarring flaws than Enemy Glory, Ms. Michalson's first novel. Still, if there's any justice in the world, these works of art will still be studied and enjoyed by students of great literature, long after most fantasies have turned to forgotten dust.
Order Hecate's Glory from Amazon, $19.57
More book information for September 2003
edited by Sunni Maravillosa
August 2003: The Bias Against Guns by John R Lott Jr
July 2003: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
June 2003: Eco-nomics by Richard L. Stroup
May 2003: The Worm in the Apple by Peter Brimelow
April 2003: Shattered Dreams by NCPPR staff
March 2003: The Rule of Lawyers by Walter K. Olson
February 2003: Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths, edited by Ronald Bailey
Freedom Book of the Year 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
December 2002: Blood of the Roses, by Alex Gabbard
November 2002: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, by Ludwig von Mises
October 2002: The Haunted Air, by F. Paul Wilson
September 2002: Lead Astray and Out of Bounds, Out of Control by Peter Samuel and James V. DeLong respectively
August 2002: Boston's Gun Bible II by Boston T. Party
July 2002: Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan
June 2002: Net Assets by Carl Bussjaeger
May 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
April 2002: Toward Liberty: The Idea that is Changing the World edited by David Boaz
March 2002: Liberty for Women edited by Wendy McElroy
February 2002: The State vs. the People by Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe
Freedom Book of the Year, 2001: Hope by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
January 2002: Death by Gun Control by Aaron Zelman and Richard W. Stevens
December 2001: The American Zone by L. Neil Smith
November 2001: Ayn Rand and Business by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni
October 2001: Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy
September 2001: Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland
August 2001: Hope by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
July 2001: Dissenting Electorate edited by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner
June 2001: Tethered Citizens by Sheldon Richman
May 2001: Lever Action by L. Neil Smith
April 2001: The Cato Handbook for Congress from the Cato Institute
March 2001: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley
February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy
January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester
October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz
September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo
August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell
July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
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