REVELATOR by Daryl Gregory is an interesting historical fantasy set alternately in the mid-1930s and post-WW II 1940s. Protagonist Stella is a member of a Primitive Baptist Church (yes, that’s a real thing) except her church is a Lovecraftian cult worshipping the strange entity in a nearby mountain; Stella is one of a series of “revelators,” women who commune with the god after which men record their stories.
This Southern Gothic evokes it’s setting and era (with the obvious caveat I wasn’t there — take my assessment for what it’s worth). I like the details of the patriarchal church culture, where the men who take down the Revelators’ words appoint themselves up as the leaders — sure, the women are important but you can’t let them take charge or anything, right? The book is slow and for long stretches it plays like a straight historical; while that’s normally a dealbreaker for me, this one works.
THE BLACK DRAGON by Chris Claremont and John Bolton does not work. It’s 1193, King Henry II of England has died and James Dunreith, exiled by the king for practicing black magic, has returned home. Queen Mother Eleanor suspects one of Dunreith’s close friends of treason; Dunreith’s mission, if he chooses to accept it, is to investigate. It turns out Dunreith’s buddy is much worse than a traitor: he and his incestuous sister are plotting to bind the Black Dragon, the soul of England itself, and this would be a very bad thing …
As I complained recently on Atomic Junk Shop, by the end of the 1980s Claremont’s favorite tropes (mind-control with related body horror, women struggling against their dark side) had swallowed him whole. While this book has plenty of that, the Claremontisms weren’t as bad as how contemporary it felt. The battle to control the Black Dragon isn’t that far from a Dark Phoenix story; everyone’s attitudes feel 20th century (it’s a 1996 graphic novel). Other than a couple of monks nobody sees things in a Christian framework — not that the magic has to operate in that framework but that’s how people interpreted things — instead going with “pagan” a lot. And no, witchcraft trials were not a thing in the 1100s.
The creators also throw in everything but the kitchen sink: Robin Hood, Morgan le Fay, faerie, without adding enough to the story to justify it.
#SFWApro. Top cover by Dan Hillier, bottom by Bolton, all rights to images remain with current holders.
