Twelve Fair Kingdoms

Ozark Trilogy #1

by Suzette Haden Elgin

Based on Ozark Mountain folklore, this fantasy recounts the adventures of the Brightwater family, who seek revenge when a guest's baby is kidnapped and encased in a life-support bubble hung from a churchyard tree

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

183 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Suzette Haden Elgin was an American science fiction author. She founded the Science Fiction Poetry Association, and is considered an important figure in the field of science fiction constructed languages. Elgin was also a linguist; she published non-fiction, of which the best-known is the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense series.

Born in 1936 in Missouri, Elgin attended the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in the 1960s, and began writing science fiction in order to pay tuition. She has a Ph.D. in linguistics, and was the first UCSD student to ever write two dissertations (on English and Navajo). She created the engineered language Láadan for her Native Tongue science fiction series. A grammar and dictionary was published in 1985. She is a supporter of feminist science fiction, saying "women need to realize that SF is the only genre of literature in which it's possible for a writer to explore the question of what this world would be like if you could get rid of [X], where [X] is filled in with any of the multitude of real world facts that constrain and oppress women. Women need to treasure and support science fiction." [1]

In addition, she published works of shorter fiction. Overlying themes in her work include feminism, linguistics and the impact of language, and peaceful coexistence with nature. Many of her works also draw from her Ozark background and heritage.

Elgin became a professor at her alma mater's cross-town rival, San Diego State University (SDSU). She retired in 1980.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suzette Haden Elgin's Ozark Trilogy is a strange beast of the kind published back in the cheap paperback era of the 80s, but which is far too odd and niche to be published today. It's a straightforward cross of science fiction and fantasy with both elements handwaved all to hell and gone by an author who's far more interested in worldbuilding and storytelling than worrying about whether anything makes sense.

The Planet Ozark was settled a thousand years ago by folks from the Ozarks who were so disgusted by the corruption and pollution and violence of Earth that they got on a starship, back in the year 2012, and took off for the first planet they could find that was Earthlike but far enough removed that no one would ever find them. The ship crashed in the ocean, but was rescued by enormous whale-like creatures (or so it is said in one of the Ozarkers' "Teaching Stories" - it is acknowledged that some of these thousand-year-old legends may be bending the cold bare truth a bit). The Ozarkers disembarked, and the founding Twelve Families formed twelve "kingdoms" (even though they don't have kings, or any other royalty) who are now scattered across Ozark's still-sparsely inhabited six continents and fiercely individualistic, to the point that even their token gesture of a centralized government, the Confederation of Ozark continents, is opposed by some. For a thousand years they have lived in occasionally quarrelsome peace, coexisting with at least three other rarely-seen sentient races on the planet.

Now, anyone with even the slightest taste for "hard" SF will see at least half a dozen things wrong in the premise above, and we haven't even gotten to the magic yet. But none of that matters — the story and the world is one that requires you to take it at face value, and if you do that, you'll be enchanted and richly entertained by this little gem of a sci-fi/fantasy. Follow the solemn Quest of Responsible of Brightwater, who is the kinda sorta ruler of the kinda sorta seat of power on the continent of Marktwain, the oldest and most developed of the six Ozark continents. After a series of magical mischief-making events aimed at disrupting the coming Jubilee, embarrassing Brightwater Kingdom, and undermining the Confederation itself, Responsible sets out to "show the flag" at each of the other eleven families' castles, engaging in battles of wit and elaborate courtesy (and occasionally magic) while trying not to reveal the greatest secret of all — that the planet Ozark is actually faced with an external threat.

Twelve Fair Kingdoms is richly imaginative, and the Ozark fantasy culture is particularly inventive yet authentic — Suzette Haden Elgin is an Ozarker herself. The customs, the culture, the names, and the magic (which comes in several varieties, from Common Sense and Household magic to Granny Magic to Hifalutin' Magic, on up to very serious Substitutions and Transfigurations) will give you a chuckle while also being laid out very logically within the paradigm Elgin creates.

Responsible is a fourteen-year-old girl who, living up to her name (Naming of girlbabies is Very Serious Business for the Grannies, who are a sort of shadow governing council on the planet) has the wisdom and maturity of adults four times her age, and magical power unrivaled by anyone else on the planet. If published today, this would make Twelve Fair Kingdoms a Young Adult novel and Responsible might be risking that dreaded "Mary Sue" label, but in fact we frequently see Responsible making blunders, losing her patience, and reaching her limits, though she still never quite acts like a typical fourteen-year-old.

The story is engaging all the way through, though there isn't any real resolution since this is the first book in a trilogy; uncovering the direct culprit of the mischief that originally sent Responsible on her Quest is a bit anticlimactic.

None of this makes it any less fun to read, and since this is a reread, I'm going to proceed straight through the rest of the trilogy. This is a book worth hunting down a used copy to enjoy, or you can get the new University of Arkansas reprint of the entire trilogy, with its awful and completely boring cover:



Seriously, U of A, that's the best you could do to entice people to read an 80s fantasy classic? No wonder all of Elgin's books are out of print.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the planet Ozark, the continents are largely ruled by twelve families, each with their own castle and stereotypes. Responsible is head of Brightwater Castle, and when magical mischief starts discomfiting and discombobulating her kingdom's denizens, it falls to her to sort it out. No matter that Responsible only just turned fourteen--she's been trained from birth in languages, magic, diplomacy, and everything in between. She expects she'll be able to handle herself on a Quest to figure out the trouble.

And to her credit, Responsible does largely handle herself, although she makes mistakes as any prideful teenager on her own for the first time would. She tangles with cavecats, tormenting magicians, cursed diseases, and formal balls, and eventually makes it back home. Her adventures were good fun to read, but what really grabbed my attention was how magic and reality work on this planet. Superstition and belief have more power than they ought to on Ozark, and a very few people are privy to this secret. There's this wonderful mixture of old wives' tales, fairy tale logic, and sf to how Responsible does serious spells, so when she really sets down to doing something she'll start:

Three baths, first. One with hot water, and one with cold, and one with the proper crushed herbs from my pack. Then my fine white gown of softest lawn, sewn by my own hands; I pulled it nine times through a golden finger ring, and examined it carefully--not a wrinkle, it was ready to put on...I set wards, Ozark garlic and well-preserved Old Earth lilac, at every door and window, laying the wreaths so anyone passing would be certain I slept no matter what went on.

but then end with

I set down the Structural Index in a double row of herbs, and the Structural Change I laid right underneath it. I set the bowl of desert water in the space of the null term, and I made the double-barred arrow with my hands above the water. 'Let there be,' I said over the whole, 'a name, sub-N; and let there be a filling of the null term, sub-T; and let there be no alteration of the underlying structure, sub-S!'

This unexpected combination is all of a piece with the world itself, which is a rich melding of sf, fantasy, and old timey Ozark pioneer culture. I've never read anything quite like it before. I cannot wait to find the next part in this series!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twelve Fair Kingdoms begins the Ozark Trilogy, a space/fantasy set in a universe where 12 Ozark families left earth to establish for themselves a righteous society based on individualism, respect for privacy, and magic. There's Common Sense magic, Granny magic, Hifalutin magic, and Formalisms & Transformations, with each being performed by a class set up within society. Ozark society is highly paternalistic, yet with a delightful subversive twist to it.

The book is told in first person, and Responsible of Brightwater is the precocious 14 year old protagonist. This first book of the trilogy recounts her symbolic quest to "discover and put an end to" some magical mischief that is disrupting the planning of The Grand Jubilee, a celebration marking 500 years of the confederation of the 12 families who landed on Ozark. And it lays the ground for the future books and the menace from another star system, The Garnet Ring, that seeks to rule Ozark as its own.

The book is wry, with a keen ear for ozark dialect (a real dialect from the ozarks of Tennessee), which has a vocabulary and distinct grammatical makeup.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world building in this book is awesome. Responsible of Brightwater must go on a quest. She must be careful of Grannies. She must be careful of her magic. She must be careful of flying mules because they lack powder rooms.

While the plot could use a tend more development, this is a very, very, clever fantasy and modern fairy tale. It is rather a very magical book.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a bit to get into this book, but I fell in love with Responsible and her practical response to her adventures and to the Grannys she met along her way. I liked that she was a flawed character, but that she was also smart and willing to accept the consequences of the mistakes she made. Plus, the worldbuilding is unique, funny, and fascinating.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK fantasy/SiFi series. Recommended

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first in a trilogy of books that were popular in my youth. They are rather hard to classify, they call themselves fantasy so I’ll stick with that. However, it also seems to have some science fictional trappings, along with the magic. The settlers of the Planet Ozark came by starship, leaving the Ozark region of Earth behind (in 2012) in order to establish their own society. They have 12 founding families which established the titular 12 kingdoms. They have spent a thousand years on the planet, and have discovered or developed magic, flying mules, and other trappings of fantasy.

Responsibility Brightwater is a precocious girl who ends up taking on a Quest that requires her to visit all 12 kingdoms to determine the source of miscevious magic intended to destabilize the very limited inter-kingdom government that the world has developed. So she puts on her best outfit (as is required) and sets off on her flying mule to root out the source of the disturbance.

This all sounds silly, but somehow it comes together in a workable story. I guess it helps if one is a little familiar with real Ozark culture and language. This is one of the reasons that the University of Arkansas Press is the only place that is keeping this triology in print in an omnibus edition. The book is filled with quaint language and old-fashioned concepts, that are fun to enjoy in print.

[Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unimaginative person might belittle the Ozark Trilogy as 'hillbillies in space' but it's so much more than this. Imagine a culture far in the future when humans leave Earth with ease yet choose to remain insular with only their own immediate neighbors and recreate their society. Oh, add a bit of magic to it.

It's an incredibly absorbing narrative, with believably odd characters and a setting that will surprise you.

If you become a fan, dig up the final chapter of the series (if you can find it) to understand how it all came to pass.

Truly, great fun.

[Anita · Rating 1 out of 5]

An author I love recommended this book, calling it similar to Terry Pratchett, and while that might be true in some ways, the writing style was VERY far from Pratchett. I found it impossible to slog through and gave up after a chapter or so. I think it's supposed to sound old-timey?? Or perhaps just poorly written. Whatever it was, I hated reading it, so even though there are flying mules, this story will have to remain a mystery to me.

[Priscilla King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, it's nice that so many other people here seem to enjoy this little whimsy...

I read it as a new book in 1982. Responsible, a teenybopper, bops around a fictional world, has some adventures and some fun, solves a mystery that foreshadows the trouble into which she's about to get. (Someone else has already explained the premise and plot, so I don't have to do that.) The end? No; if you want to get all the points and jokes, the beginning of your own literary quest. Mine lasted through college and through years of family pen-friendship with the author, and was quite the best thing that happened to me in 1982. So I'm partial to this book.

One thing people don't like about it: The young age of most of the main characters caused some libraries to mistake it for a kids' book, and considering that the other two volumes are about the impossibly dire consequences of Responsible's attraction to that older fellow she met at Castle Wommack, many parents would say it's anything but a book children should read.

The other thing people don't like about it: You can follow a single straightforward whimsical plot through this trilogy, but you just might feel compelled to go on that literary quest to understand things like: Why "Formalisms & Transformations"?

I remember being so fascinated by the layers of meaning, I dreamed about this book at night. I very rarely dream about other people's novels.

[Judy Cyg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the whole trilogy, but my favorite book is this first one. (I'm partial to first-person narrative, especially when the voice is fresh and funny and memorable.) Funny book, quirky fantasy, and so absorbing and entertaining, I was captivated by the first page. I want to be born a Responsible and have hidden magic at my fingertips, while all the Grannies report to me, and go on a Quest to visit every castle searching for whoever's determined to stop the Grand Jubilee of the Confederation of Continents. I recommend the entire trilogy, and the fourth story about Responsible, but especially this first book. You will love Responsible of Brightwater.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 5 out of 5]

A teenage witch and her flying mule defend a planet ruled by Appalachian custom from alien invasion.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this series!

[Kimba · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remembered reading the book in my youth and wanted to see how it held up. Pretty darn well!

It involves a group of 12 families that have left old earth (in about 2012) because they are disgusted with what has become of humanity and what is has wrought on the Earth -- pollution, chemicals and poison in the soil, gmo's, the works (keep in mind this was written in the late '70's/early 80's). They take to the skies and find a new home (far from other humans). Love it!

Oh, did I mention they are all from the Ozarks?

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd reading experience - the world building was good, lots of originality and interesting settings. But the plot had me puzzled. I never could figure out why Responsible went on her quest, what her actual role was, (some kind of leader) and how she got so good at magic when women aren't supposed to.

[Arlene Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

i don't remember much about this book but it's unique setting - the Ozarks as a mystical kingdom. To this day, this is different and original.