Seven Citadels by Geraldine Harris

[sholio]

This is an epic fantasy series mentioned recently at yhlee's journal. I had never heard of it, but it sounded interesting and is all on Kindle, so I picked up the first one to see whether I'd like it, and uhhhh tore through all four of them in about a week. They're excellent!

There are four books:
Prince of the Godborn
The Children of the Wind
The Dead Kingdom
The Seventh Gate

To me it had a lot of the feeling of the parts of Narnia I liked best - a journey of discovery through a series of strange and magical lands, with something new around every corner. The protagonists (initially a spoiled, selfish prince and his soldier half-brother who is tasked with guarding him, but they pick up more traveling companions along the way) are collecting a set of magical keys to save their doomed homeland, each of which must be obtained from a magical guardian in a different land - they climb a frozen mountain ruled by an immortal sorceress, have to navigate a magical labyrinth, sail a riverboat through a swamp full of giant serpents, and so forth.

This could easily feel very Plot Token-ish, but it really doesn't, between the underlying darker aspects of the world and the characters' ongoing, evolving relationships and personalities.

It's also a lot more multicultural than I expect from fantasy of the era; actually, I didn't realize it was from the early 80s until looking at the copyright dates. I would have said mid-90s to early 2000s. The characters' homeland is a sort of Ancient Egypt analog, with a divine royal family heavily engaged in backstabbing, and most of the parts of the world they visit are generally Mediterranean-flavored with some Central Asia detours. But none of it is in a heavy-handed "This is a clear stand-in for this specific country" kind of way. It all feels very much itself, and the different cultures of the places they visit have a variety of interesting, appealing, and repressive aspects that make them feel real. I particularly liked that the protagonists aren't trying to save their homeland because it is uniquely just or perfect - it's a flawed, socially stratified theocracy run by self-proclaimed divine rulers who are mostly backstabbing assholes. But that doesn't matter; they're trying to save it because it's home.

The feeling of the series overall is deeply mythic. It makes me think of the kind of fairy tale where stepsisters dance in iron shoes until they fall down dead. I'm really surprised these books aren't better known, because I found it incredibly engaging and would often tear through each book until 2 or 3 in the morning. The series was sad enough that I'm not sure if I'll want to read it again anytime soon, but I'm glad I did; it's that cathartic, resonant kind of sadness that happens when everything turns out exactly as it should, even if it's not exactly what you'd hope for.

Content note for something animal-related that I know some people bounce off hard: The characters acquire a cute magical pet who travels with them for a while. It dies.

Comments

[yhlee]

I think one thing that made this especially interesting to me was the nature of the "magical guardians" - each key is guarded by a sorcerer who basically obtained Ultimate Magical Knowledge, and the key was given them as a reward, and grants them immortality. If they give up the key, they start to age and die. So not only can you sort of see where persuading each sorcerer to give up their key is inherently going to be hard, there was this psychological dimension of "what did this sorcerer think they wanted vs. what they actually NEED." (I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the sorcerers all have Immense Emotional Baggage.)

Possibly also relevant: the author, Geraldine Harris, is an Egyptologist at Oxford.

[sholio]

Yes! I loved that - with the setup the way that it is, there's an incredible personal cost to each sorcerer for giving up the key, and also, each of them has a unique way of dealing with their immortality and therefore a specific reason for wanting to keep it (beyond just not wanting to die) and/or a new quest to send the protagonists on before they can give their key up and die.

[rachelmanija]

I've been meaning to read this for ages. It used to be extremely hard to find.

[sholio]

I'd never heard of it AT ALL, which is pretty rare for me for SFF from this era! There's a lot I haven't read, but aside from obscure one-offs, I've usually heard of it at least vaguely.

[loligo]

Likewise! I stalked those shelves pretty religiously in some decent-sized bookstores, but never encountered these!

[yhlee]

You have no idea how grateful I was when Geraldine Harris self-published these as ebooks (presumably the rights reverted), despite what everyone seems to agree are ATROCIOUS covers. Literally I would offer to do new covers for her if I had the capability. But yeah, these were astonishingly difficult to find and I was gutted when my hardcopy set was a flood casualty.

[sholio]

I have a high tolerance for bad covers but those are indeed unusually bad! They remind me vaguely of the horrendous cover on the re-issue of another book I really like.

[yhlee]

OMG, it looks like bad Assassin's Creed cosplay.

I sort of grew resigned to Darrell K. Sweet covers back when his art seemed to be EVERYWHERE - some of his covers were pretty good, some...less so.

[goodbyebird]

They seem to have been released in softcover as well, not just ebook :)

[yhlee]

Oh, re: the death of the magical pet - I think the two reasons that didn't bother me in this series are (a) I imprinted on these books as a child, when ironically I was far less sensitive to tragic animal deaths (I read Where the Red Fern Grows over and over as a child and LOVED it) and (b) the theme of the ENTIRE SERIES is coming to terms with death, both on an individual and societal level. So in that context it makes sense.

That said, I don't blame anyone for noping out of sad animal deaths! I usually do too.

[sholio]

Yeah, I thought I should mention it specifically because I know this is something that is a big thing for some people! It isn't a particular thing for me (though I was gutted by a couple of the book 4 deaths), but yeah, the whole series is really *about* that, so characters (human and animal) were gonna die.

[yhlee]

Oh, absolutely! It's a pretty big DNW for a lot of people so it makes sense to warn people up front.

BTW, this is the series where Joe started book 1 because I wanted him to read My Favorite Books, got to the bit about the quest for a saviour for Galkis, said to me, [spoiler] is the saviour, right? and refused to read further because he knew how it was going to end. When actually the fact that [spoiler] is the saviour is actually not the point of the books. I think he thought these were really much more "plot coupon quest" than they actually are in execution.

[sholio]

Yeah, guessing where the plot's going is *really* not the point of these books; they're very much about the journey.

[honigfrosch]

Thanks for the detailed review, I love when I can get a clear picture of what a book has to offer. *adding to BOOKS TO READ list*

[suncani]

I've not heard of this series before but you've done an excellent job of describing them. I love the idea of an Ancient Egypt-inspired setting so shall add to the winter break reading list :D

[goodbyebird]

This does indeed sound interesting *jots it down*.

[scioscribe]

You have definitely sold me on this!

[trobadora]

I've never heard of this either, but it sounds very fun!

[sally_maria]

Wow, I hadn't heard of those books for such a long time, I must have read them soon after they were published, when I'd pick up any fantasy/sci-fi that came into my local library. I don't remember them well, but they obviously had something, to stick in my mind all these years.

[sheron]

This looks fun! *puts on toread*

[ranalore]

I remember being so excited when yhlee mentioned these books, because no one else I knew had ever heard of them, and I love them dearly.

[sevenall]

I read the Seven Citadels series a long time ago, but the story has stayed with me. The storytelling and world building is impressive and even if the descriptions are sometimes on the extravagant side (why is everything made out of luxurious materials everywhere?) I enjoyed it, especially the immortality aspects and the geography. The beginning is more or less what one might expect, but the end twist is surprising and the entire last book is somehow liberated from the usual constraints and environments in a fantasy series from that period. There are a great deal of things in the narrative I disagree with, however, I think I need to read it again.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

That sounds worth reading! Thanks for the rec! I love getting into new series.