The Lyonesse Trilogy by Jack Vance

Review by Dominic Merrick

This fantasy series seized my imagination and became my favourite trilogy after a single read through. 

It had no previous media infringing upon it (a really important factor with my loving of it so much), I’d never heard of it and I received it as a special gift for my 21st birthday from my parents, with an inscription. All these factors add up. It was also the first book(s) I had read by Jack Vance, who instantly became one of my favourite authors after the fact. 

I hope it isn’t dissuading many potential readers of this blog from checking this trilogy out by saying this; the trilogy is not heavy on character arcs and it’s not heavy on plot.

Vance doesn’t seem to care for readers expectations or completing a neatly tied narrative. Main characters become tertiary characters, secondary characters become main characters, the third book is about Madouc, a character we haven’t met in the trilogy so far.  

Vance often gallivants on seemingly random excursions that seem to go nowhere and serve no purpose… which is all part of its charm. Usually I hate series that do this, series that don’t get to the point. But there is a wit and panache that Vance employs that makes these excursions into the unconscious so dreamy and enthralling, made to feel like the only story to tell in that moment. Even if this wasn’t where you thought it was going, or where it probably should have focused. 

It is a twisted, semi-conventional/semi-original dark fairytale. It has many familiar tropes that I have always loved -  tricksy faeries, scheming wizards (nobody does scheming wizards quite like Vance), duplicitous witches, cursed artefacts (like the Green Pearl), star-crossed lovers, and an Arthurian/European analogue for the fantasy realm.  

This trilogy has a majesty and grandeur I’d never experienced before. Every setting bloomed with exoticism and detail, whether that was an inn by the road that Aillas frequents, arguing with the innkeeper about prices (that surely a prince can afford), or the brooding grim fort of Faude Carfillihiot with its many horrific quirks, or the lush dreaming palace that Shimrod goes to on his lusty hunt for Melancthe the Witch Clone. 

I don’t like to delve too deeply into story and plot with reviews, I’m not a huge fan of synopsis, but to give you all a taste. 

The first book begins with Suldrun, a princess who is not content with her position. Her father is King Casmir of Lyonesse, and he has grand ambitions to rule the continent. Suldrun is intelligent, witty, empathetic and completely my favourite character. I was so drawn to this princess undermined and squashed by her family, she wants away with the hierarchy and to be free. But alas… things are not so simple. 

Christianity is trying to supplant other powers, there are kingdoms all on the verge of war, and a dark forest of the faeries that people dare not go near the edges of. The opening deals mainly with Suldrun and her attempts to overcome her father’s plans for her, whether that be through subjugation with education in being a lady, or with suitors for her hand.

The plot branches out from Suldrun, everything that happens in the plot series is linked to her actions and decisions…

You feel her presence throughout, wherever the plot goes. 

Vance plays with the reader, he shocks them with plot twists, some of which are sudden and debilitating, some of which are grand revelations of overarching schemes you couldn’t fathom. He dances around plot threads and goes on side-quests with his characters that have no overall meaning to the plot, but are unforgettable, such as in The Green Pearl, where one of our heroes finds a barbarian from a strange culture and wants to fall in love with her but can’t. 

There are multiple plots concurring at once, the lamenting of Suldrun in the oppressive halls of the castle, the rise of Aillas from prince to warrior to politician, the scheming of the Wizards (my favourite plot), the interfering of the faeries of Thripsy Shee and the politicking of nations at war.

All brush one another, either hinting at each other or conjoining at some points, openly clashing at others. They weave in and out of each other like a fine tapestry, complimenting each other at some points and tangentially digressing at others. 

The names are some of the best in fantasy. It is shade I throw at fantasy authors often, names are ridiculous and annoying or so simplistic they are laughable. Vance hits the perfect balance for me. The wizards and witches - Tamurello, Murgen, Shimrod, Faude Caufillhiot, Melancthe. The humans - Suldrun, Madouc, Casmir, Aillas, Glyneth, Torqual. The places - Lyonesse, Tintzin Fyral, Murgen’s Manse, Thripsy Shee and Visbume.

Vance’s prose is at times languorous, over-complicated and fluffy… this is the point. It is a cliche to say it has a dreamy quality, but it just does, there is no better way to describe it. His words are a complicated enchantment, magic flowing from the spell-book. Many of the words are archaic and many have to be looked up in the dictionary to be fully understood until you are a grand master of English, like Vance was. I would never recommend this series to non-native speakers unless it was translated. 

The best book is number one, Suldrun’s Garden. Suldrun is the best character and has the most engaging situation. Faude Carfillhiot, with his gender-changing wizard lover Tamurello scheming behind him, probably pip King Casmir as being the best villains of the series. 

The story of Suldrun is heart-wrenching, the scheming of the wizards in this book is at its strongest, and the backstabbing politics of Casmir with the other kingdoms most defined in this book. 

The number one quality of this series for me is engrossment in the world. Every detail, every location and every situation is there, you can see it all. Not the overall setting but the cogs within. The setting is a mish-mash of European cultures, real and fake, all thrown into a boiling pot. Completely unoriginal and yet totally unique and fantastically inspired in its presentation. The world leaps off the page, fighting with its many distinct details for your attention.

I have never read a fantasy series like it, and part of me hopes to write something in homage to it one day, my own kooky, dark, twisted, scheming, sexual, dreamy, faerie-fantasy series. This series is my number one, and it’ll take a lot of rereads or reevaluations of my other favourites or something completely new and brilliant to dare challenge its throne. 

But for now, The Lyonesse Trilogy is King of Fantasy for me.