MS&T I

For a long time while I was trying to get through school I have wanted to re-read Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. These are great books that take common fantasy concepts and smash them with a smithy's hammer. For those of you that are reading Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, he claims that it was MS&T that renewed the belief that good adult fiction could be written today. I am going to try to post the occasional thought, quote, or insight from these books as I read them. I should have started doing this when I first cracked open volume I, The Dragonbone Chair, but I didn't, so you will get a couple of ideas crammed into one post. But who am I kidding - that is probably the way all of these posts will be.

_

My first thought will be regarding the main protagonist, Simon. He is a dislikable young man. That is how I have been thinking of him. But then I asked myself, "Self, what is your issue with young Simon?" I realized that he is just too real for comfort. He thinks things, says things, does things like everyone I know did when they were young (I was trying there to avoid using myself for the example, but I think it is true based on my observations). His foolishness creates a sense of discomfort and embarrassment as I remembered doing similarly ridiculous things.

_

_

The thing that impresses me about this tale is that even though Simon is the "hero," he doesn't get the help that are the mainstay of much fantasy. No one is looking out to protect his secret heritage (ala the Belgariad) or pushing him into a quest (ala the Shannara series) or hunted because of his special powers (ala Wheel of Time). On the whole the only consideration he gets is from Doctor Morgenes who had a fondness for his deceased parents, everyone else is fairly apathetic to his existence and what he does with his time. He does end up with the guide in the form of Binibak the troll, but since Binibak doesn't know what is going on either I don't put that on the level with Gandalf, Allanon, Belgaroth, or many others who are filled with secret knowledge and power. In TDC the guides don't hide information and speak cryptically because the are supposed to be mysterious, they simply don't have any answers. The major events of this book that will have repercussions through the series are all results of his own decisions, at least at 2/3's way through. It has been a long time since I read these last, so I will try not to say too many things that are wrong because I've forgotten what happens later.

_

_

Now for a little quote from Tiamak the Wrannaman, who is pondering the gods and his unbountiful hunt that leaves him eating root soup: "As he climbed the long ladder from his moored boat to the little house perched in the banyan tree, Tiamak vowed to be content with soup and a biscuit. Gluttony was an obstacle, he reminded himself, an impediment between the soul and the realms of truth. As he reeled the ladder up onto the porch he thought of She Who Birthed Mankind, who had not even had a nice bowl of root soup, but had subsisted entirely on rocks and dirt and swamp water until they combined in her stomach and she whelped a litter of clay men, the first humans."

_

_

So what does that make the humans? Tiamak doesn't say, but Williams has given us a good hint, has he not? Oh, the irony. I didn't know that was considered whelping.