Dawnspell by Katherine Kerr

I’ve covered my memories of 1989 in other readalongs so will go straight into the review

Publisher – Harper Voyager

Published – Out Now

Price - £8.99 paperback

When Jill and Rhodry are forced apart by unexpected circumstance, Rhodry vows to find her, no matter what it takes. But before he can, he disappears.

With his brother injured, Rhodry is next in line to rule. As Deverry’s peace hanging in the balance, the king lifts Rhodry’s exile and bids him return home before it is too late.
 
And so it falls to Jill to save the land and the man she loves. Though her magic is strong, this challenge will test her utterly: for there are those who would see Rhodry gone forever and the fragile peace of the kingdom broken at last.

Sometimes reading a novel you’ve read before gives you new insight sand sometimes you remember why you can’t quite warm to a particular story. Dawnspell is a bit like the Empires Strikes back – it sets up the finale of the first quartet but for me is story of two halves. A fantastic bit of myth-building and a totally problematic tale demonstrating how rape in fantasy can be badly handled.

As always, we get two tales one in the ‘present’ of Deverry and one where the main characters are living a past incarnation. In this case the events of two hundred years earlier. In the past we have the land of Deverry in a dark age. Infighting between royals is tearing the country apart through war and corruption. The dweomer master Nevyn gets an idea that perhaps finding a new king could bring about some sanity. But this time we may need to engineer a miracle himself. In the present Rhodry and Jill get hired by some minor royals that places Rhodry in danger and results in his feeling for his life while Jill falls under the bewitching power of the strange junior noble Perryn. The two are separated and it becomes clear the secretive enemies of the past books have decided to make a move for a final confrontation.

I think you could sum up my response to this book as ARGGHH and a very frustrating one at that. I really like the past adventures plot. Nevyn here is much more a main character and I liked the idea of a fantasy world where the powers of the light and various religions decide enough of this lets create our own Chosen One. This story I think really captures the lyrical storytelling of Kerr. Its fun to watch unroll. Prophecies can be easily manufactured by right event in the right place. I also liked the versions of the main cast – ideas such as someone being re-incarnated in different genders get explored quite well and its interesting seeing how the events of past books influence the choice of life the next incarnation gets. This was the fun part of the novel.

I end up hating the other half. It should be quite tense and nerve-wracking. The Dark dweomer forces are smart and clever. Their evil plan is actually quite effective and sets up a memorable conclusion as Rhodry ends up in a very bad place but what spoils this and the whole book is the events of Perryn and Jill. The character Perryn can control beasts and animals. Perhaps unwittingly but this means anything Perryn wants happens and he wants Jill. She ends up following him and having sexual intercourse and all under the power of magic. This is a form of rape and Dawnspell is a great example of why writers need to be careful here. Rape is used as a character event – highlight Perryn’s strange ability and separate Jill from Rhodry. They don’t really explore the impact on Jill and in fact two male characters tell Jill they need to focus more on why Perryn has such a strange power. The examination of what happened to Jill is really badly handed and forces me out of the story.

Overall then a story I recall disliking last time I read it and now I really dislike it. Happily, I know the next book is a lot better but for this instalment I think I’ll leave it at that.