March to Other Worlds Day 12 The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson
March to Other Worlds Day 12 The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson
For the twelfth day of the March to Other Worlds I have invited Guest-Reviewer Will Hahn back to share his thoughts with us. Last year, he reviewed Lord Foul’s Bane. This year he returns to Stephen R. Donaldson’s work with his novel The Mirror of Her Dreams. Here’s the review:
As a writer who did the bulk of his fantasy reading in an earlier generation, I would have to say that the Mordant’s Need series, beginning with this volume, is the finest heroic fantasy tale I ever read. And it came on the heels of Donaldson’s incredible epic fantasy series Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever a few years earlier. I did not expect this later effort to even be as good. It’s probably better.
In The Mirror of Her Dreams, Terisa is a sheltered daughter to an uncaring wealthy businessman, who has given her everything except purpose. She crams her apartment with mirrors to continually show her own reflection, as Terisa staves off the suggestion that she doesn’t really exist.
And then a handsome fellow stumbles through one of those mirrors and begs her to come back with him to save the world.
{I will not give spoilers, I will not give spoilers, I will NOT…}
The story that unfolds is incredible for several reasons, all of which were revelations to me. First off, Donaldson resolutely pins himself to Terisa’s PoV; much as you’re screaming to see any hint of what happens with the many characters she meets, you don’t get a sniff. And as with Thomas Covenant, Terisa is such a frustrating narrator! Coming to a medieval kingdom beset with multiple threats, where all magic is quite literally done with mirrors, she takes no active part in helping because she doesn’t believe in herself. The Imagers of Mordant generally think that creations seen in their mystic panes do not have souls and are not worthy of equal treatment. Only her hopeless admirer, the handsome bumbling apprentice, Geraden, is convinced she is the savior; he can’t even get her to agree!
The entire premise of Imagery, how magic is done and its secrets guarded, is beautifully handled and will have you salivating for more details wherever you can find them.
But most of all, the story has simply everything. Action and adventure galore, including fights with magical beasts and duels between master swordsmen. An enormous mystery about who the kingdom’s enemies truly are, and what they’re up to. Intrigue around a monarch and his chief wizard, both evidently mad as hatters. Not a little spicy romance, close to erotica, as everyone agrees Terisa is incredibly attractive (except of course, for herself). Donaldson weaves every major kind of genre fiction together—fantasy, horror, sex, thriller, mystery—and yet it’s always an intact tale, completely true to itself and dancing around the tropes and cliches you’d expect to be there.
Readers as well as writers need to put this book on the nightstand. I dare you not to buy the second one, you won’t be able to put it down.
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