Deryni Rising, by Katherine Kurtz

Deryni Rising
Katherine Kurtz
Ballantine Books: 1970

I first discovered the Deryni series in 1993 following the publication of King Javan's Year. I would have been fourteen that summer and in my quest to find and read as much science fiction and fantasy, preferably fantasy, from my small town library I picked up King Javan's Year. It was brutal. It was wonderful. I didn't know what this was, but I wanted more.

My librarian offered me three books from her person collection to read and eventually to buy: Camber of Culdi, Saint Camber, and Camber the Heretic. While King Javan's Year was my starting point, it was the Camber trilogy that hooked me and hooked me hard.  I would read and re-read most of those novels multiple times until I graduated high school, but only seldom dipping into Kurtz's original Deryni novels beginning with Deryni Rising.

It wasn't that I didn't like the Kelson trilogy, it was that there was such a separation in the chronology from the Camber era novels and the characters I really cared about were several hundred years in Kelson's past. Many of the details that I cared about, the mysteries and the magic and the rituals, were lost by Kelson's time. So I returned once again to Camber and ignored Kelson.

But time passes and a handful of people in 2015 get into a conversation on twitter and one person mentions Katherine Kurtz, another yells out "Deryni!" and without quite realizing how, at least five people are doing a re-read of a forty five year old fantasy novel.  I should note that it is a forty five year old fantasy novel that far more people should be talking about and recommending and putting on lists.

One thing that struck me re-reading Deryni Rising is just how short of a time period the novel takes place in. While technically it is over two weeks, much of that is between the prologue and the opening chapter. Once Alaric Morgan arrives in Rhemuth, the time frame of Deryni Rising is a matter of days.  So much happens in such a short period of time and a LOT of information is conveyed.

I have to wonder what my impressions of Deryni Rising would have been if I had read this book first (as it was the first published), rather than after reading at least five earlier novels in the chronology.  Would those hints of Camber and the Deryni persecutions rang as clearly if I didn't spend much of my teenage years nose deep in the events of that era?  Probably not, but you can only read a book for the first time once.

This time I have had a much longer break since the last time I had read those Camber era novels and I have only read the more recent Childe Morgan trilogy one time as it was published over the last decade (the Childe Morgan trilogy serves as a bit of prologue to Deryni Rising as it focuses on a young Alaric Morgan rather than the grown man we first meet in Deryni Rising). That break served to put my focus almost solely on Kelson and the story being told here and not so much on the Camber era.

Since it has been so long since I've read Deryni Rising, I was impressed by just how good it was and how well it held up as a forty five year old novel. Because of changing tastes, writing styles, pacing, and having read thousands of books in the intervening years, it is not uncommon for an older book to not quite hold up as well as I might have hoped. Deryni Rising remains an excellent and important piece of fantasy fiction. 

Deryni Rising is the story of a prince having to take the throne far younger than he would like, barely into his legal majority, and having to fight the racial prejudice against his closest friend / adviser and battle a foreign challenger to his throne. On its surface, Deryni Rising is not all that remarkable. Plenty of novels deal with the topics Deryni Rising does. Except, they didn't. Not forty five years ago when Deryni Rising was first published. How Katherine Kurtz handled the historical political dramas in a fantasy world was groundbreaking and remarkable and set the stage for many novels to come. Katherine Kurtz deserves to be recognized for the master of fantasy fiction that she is, and her novels should continue to be read for many years to come.

Underappreciated Authors: Part Two

Back in August I wrote about some authors I felt were a touch underappreciated, which really has nothing to do with sales numbers but rather with my perception.  I acknowledged that I may only be looking through a very narrow lens and all sorts of wonderful conversations are occurring in places I don't see, but that's the only lens I'm able to look through right now.

I knew then that I wanted to continue to highlight more writers who I have enjoyed, but don't too much conversation about.  

The first of those is Daniel Keys Moran.  I wrote a bit about Moran in 2007, which is to say that some time during high school I stumbled across The Long Run, the second novel in his Continuing Time setting (which had an ambitious 33 novels planned) and I was absolutely hooked.  I've come back to The Long Run from time to time over the years.  He has published seven novels, though only four in The Continuing Time.  Honestly, his fiction has been a bit hit or miss for me, but The Long Run was one great chase of a novel and The Last Dancer was solid and opened up the scope of the story he was telling.  I'd probably skip Emerald Eyes (or just understand that it's rather rough / raw compared to the next two).  I sound a bit conflicted about Moran, and I suppose I am, but I know that I'd be quite happy if he was able to keep publishing his Continuing Time novels because I would absolutely love to read them. 

The only work I've read from Jennifer Roberson is her multi-generational Chronicles of the Cheysuli series featuring a race of shape changing humans dealing with all sorts of prejudice, love, prophecy, lineage, and expectations.  Cheysuli is an 8 volume completed series and, if my memory serves from high school, is quite good and worth reading.  Years ago, Roberson announced she was going to write three additional Cheysuli novels (two interstitials and a prequel), but that they would be written after three other books which have not yet come to fruition.  Roberson is also the author of the Tiger and Del Sword-Dancer novels. 

Katherine Kurtz is most well known for the long running Deryni series, and has also written the Adapt and Templar series.  I first discovered her novels because of King Javan's Year and then the earlier set Camber of Culdi novels, and what I most appreciated was how Kurtz blended religion and magic - and the ceremonies and traditions of each.  The details were richly written and, despite the nastiness of what is going on, there is beauty in the description and in the faith. Wonderful, wonderful novels.  My preference is the earlier Camberian era novels and not the later set Kelson books.  Kurtz is wrapping up the Childe Morgan trilogy this coming December and with luck, she really will write the 948 novel or the Orin and Jodotha novel she hinted at years ago. 

Any writers you feel have not had enough attention these days?

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist interviews Katherine Kurtz!

Oh, excitement! Pat's Fantasy Hotlist has an interview up with Katherine Kurtz! I have loved her Deryni saga for years, it was some of the earliest fantasy I read and I loved how she mixed the Christian faith and the Catholic traditions with fantasy and magic. It was the novel set earliest in the chronology which really connected with me, specifically The Camber Trilogy beginning with Camber of Culdi and that second trilogy with Cinhil's children, again, specifically King Javan's Year.

At the back of each of those novels there is a chronology for the Haldanes and the MacRories and the mysterious year of 948 was listed as the death year for so many major characters: Joram MacRorie, Tieg, and a bunch of others who I'll remember if I crack open a Deryni novel.

Which is what makes this response by Kurtz so awesome (I had previously heard about this, but I like confirmation):

but when I finish that-which may or may not actually bring us up to right before the beginning of Deryni Rising-I will probably do the book that covers the events of 948, when so many of our favorite characters die. (Of course, some of them are pretty old by then, so that’s OK.) After that….maybe the story of Orin and Jodotha?

Oh, and the Orin and Jodotha thing...that's the other major interest of mine in Kurtz's work.

I think it is great that Pat scored the interview.