This is a tribute to the greatest writer of whom I’ve had the pleasure to read from during the last year and a half. This is to Katharine Kerr.

Katharine Kerr is mostly known for her today fifteen parts long book series called the “Deverry Cycle”, a “high fantasy” tale with strong influences from Anglo-Saxon and Celtic culture. And this is a tribute and a contemplation, if you will, of the first four books in the series, also known as the “first act”. For this book series, and especially the first two books in the series (Daggerspell and Darkspell), have left a special mark on my heart. They have opened my eyes for a kind of Fantasy I did not realize existed, and with its great writing and lovely characters that left me feeling nothing else but pure fan love for this now twenty-six years old book series.

As I mentioned the book series as of now consists of 15 pocket-sized books, though it has been mentioned that the fifteenth book is the last in the series, it has been rumored that Katharine Kerr plans to continue the story. But for now one could say that the series has ended.
The series  is split into four “acts”, very much like in a play, each act consisting of four books, except the third act which only consists of three books. The acts each focuses on a part of the storyline and even though the stories of the different acts intertwine and move back and forth within each others in the different acts, one could at least say that each has a theme. For example the second act, subtitled “The Westlands” focuses more on the Elves, also known as the “Westfolks”. But this does not mean that it ignores the storyline of the other racers during this act.

There is also a supposed reference to Celtic lore with the structuring of the plot in the book series, each act serving as a knot in a Celtic Knot, all the acts intertwining and ultimately repeating. Illustrating how the story is woven together in what at first seems like pieces, but in the end forms a pattern. Which also references another great theme of the book called Wyrd, the old Celtic and Anglo-Saxon belief in fate (Originating from old Norse Religion) and how it like strings “weave”  together peoples fates in life and death.

I mainly wanted to talk about the first two books in the series, but since the first four books makes a perfect kind of benchmark (due to it making one act) I decided to talk about the first four books and in doing so, the first act.  The books in the first act are:

• Daggerspell (1986)
• Darkspell (1987)
• The Bristling Wood (1989) (Published in UK as “Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood”)
• The Dragon Revenant (1990) (Published in UK as “Dragonspell: The Southern Sea”)

I really like the UK published titles more, they hold the name theme with using “-spell”, as the following three acts in both US and UK releases use a different theme for the names for each act. And it might also be good to mention that Katherine Kerr is an American author but her family is British, so growing up she was highly influenced by her British roots, and thus writes very much like a British author.

Anyway on to the first book. It was mostly accident that I happen to pick it up and read it in the first place. I had been searching through the website of my local Fantasy and Science Fiction book store, Science Fiction Bokhandeln in Stockholm, and on the website I happen to notice that they had a review for the “Fantasy book of the Month”, and it just so happen to be the 12th book in the Deverry series (The Golden Falcon). At this point I had never heard of the series before, so I read the review, and in the end it strongly recommended new readers of the series to pick up the first book in this “classic Fantasy series that any reader of classic fantasy (i.e High Fantasy) would love”. Intrigued with what I had read about the story and about the strong recommendation, I decided to at least take a peak at the book next time I went to the store to “stock up” on other Fantasy books. And so I did.

I had not decided at first to buy it, but when I picked up this book it was just something about it that spoke to me, spoke of epic tales and true hearted fantasy, of tales akin to those of Tolkien’s but also much akin to those of classic Anglo-Saxon tales like “Braveheart” and “Robin Hood” and the likes that I used to watch on the television when I was young. The beautiful 80′s styled cover spoke of Fantasy that was more akin to “Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” than the Fantasy we normally see today (Update: I added the cover in question to the article). Anyway it just bought it at a hunch, for it just spoke to me somehow. I know that you should not judge a book by the cover, but I think that it was fate really that I picked it up, it was just meant to find me.

But I have to admit though, when I first started reading the book… I hated it.

Let me explain. The first couple of pages are dedicated to explaining the proper pronunciation of words and also describing the language spoken in Deverry and what British dialects it referenced, but for me neither being British or accustomed to the different dialects of Britain I skipped these pages.
These first pages really shows early on how Katherine Kerr writes, it is breathtaking the scale on which she writes plot and the language she uses in the books, the detail thats gone into it is maddening. But for someone like me at the time, who really couldn’t enjoy “that kind of writing” because it simply was beyond me, it was too mature for me. With “that kind of writing” I am referencing what some may call “Shakespearian writing”, it is essentially how noblemen wrote and spoke during the 1800th century. And having never really enjoyed such things it was beyond me, and thus I hated it.

But I really tried to continue reading it, and I struggled with trying to adapt with it and learn to comprehend it fully, in hopes that I would like it. Because the story that the book told was so compelling to me that I wanted to grasp it. Like a child sitting at a play of Macbeth (or similar), tugging his parents arm asking “What does that mister mean? With all those fancy words?”. It wasn’t necessarily that the words where unfamiliar to me (even though one or two per page was), it was how the lines where delivered, how dialog was spoken, that even though I understood what they where saying, I did not grasp what they meant by it.
Had it not been for the first “chapter” of the book, and how thrilling and tragic it was, basically how good it was, story wise, that i wanted so dearly to find out how it all turned out in the end, I would have put down the book. But because it had been so intense and I felt so much sympathy for the main characters (It can’t be described good enough, it has to be read) I pushed on to find out if there where a happy ending for these characters, so I just “dealt” with the fact that I was annoyed but the deliverance of the book.

But about half way through, my taste had suddenly matured, like I had been staring at a lump of coal and discovering that it in fact was a diamond. So was my change, it went from true dislike to love by the matter of a chapter. And as soon as I had passed this threshold I started devouring the books to come with a love for its story and for the way it was written that I had never experienced before. While reading these books nothing else existed in my mind but the story and the emotions of the books, it felt like I lived in that moment only to read them.

And I must say that I have a very strong feeling towards one of the main characters of the series, as I bet all readers have. Nevynn the main antagonist of the series, the greatest Dweomer Master of Light (Dweomer being a sorts of mental magic in the books) is such a loving character. At first he is known as Galrion, the Prince, takes the name Nevynn following a great tragedy of fate in the beginning of the tale, after which he vows to never rest until he’s set the Wyrds (the fates) of these souls straight again, and to do that he must find them reincarnated over and over through time and try to help them best he can, and to do this and because of his vow he finds himself living several centuries. The pains and sorrows this man shoulders, and the fact that he takes responsibility for the tragedy in the first place, makes him a very special character. But he keeps himself strong, and becomes like a sage, a guardian, and a mentor for the other characters. He is little bit like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and Dumbledore from Harry Potter, he is stout, defiant and unwavering even for his old age and his “shabby herbman” looks, he is strong and harsh when needed to, but also gentle and kind like a grandfather on occasion. One of the characters, Jill, at one point even consider him as her Grandfather. He is truly a character that radiates like the sun out of compassion, love and strength. Even given the grim and sad past and the even grim truth of the motives before him, to reclaim a love that he knows he will never truly be able to reclaim.

A great story that deserves more recognition and fame than it thus has revived.

I bow my head low in humble salutations to you, Katharine Kerr, to having delivered this grand tale.

At the moment of writing this I am half way into the 6th book of the series, and as soon as I’m done with the 8th and with it the 2nd act I will follow up with my thoughts and comments on that part.

Thank you as always for reading, and if you found this dull or too lengthy then I apologize, I write this after all for my own pleasure.