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A review by nghia
God Stalk by P.C. Hodgell
2.0
I was drawn to God Stalk because I heard it was second world (i.e. not our own) fantasy with Lovecraftian overtones. The overwhelming majority of Lovecraftian fiction is set in our world and generally in modern(ish) times.
It doesn't really deliver on that promise but I think that's more the fault of the recommendation I got than the book itself.
What it does deliver is a very early 1980s fantasy that has a lot of tremendously innovative things in it but doesn't really have a through-line story; instead it is a fairly disjointed set up episodes over the course of a year in the ancient city of Tai-tastigon.
First, what does this story do well? It was published in 1982, so going in you might expect something like "Tolkien-derivative with pointed-eared elves and poorly written women and some by-the-numbers romantic subplot". Somewhat refreshingly (especially for its vintage) it is none of those things.
Jame is definitely a Mary Sue -- within a few weeks she has conveniently met dozens of major players across town -- and the whole thing with her become an apprentice thief even though she's morally opposed to theft doesn't really hang together. (Allegedly she's doing it to make money to pay for passage out of town but she quickly earns the money another way but keeps on being an apprentice thief...because.)
There's not really much of a plot. Just a bunch of disconnected episodes and few of the other characters feature often enough to really develop. Jame's motivations for doing anything are pretty opaque. In theory she has two big drives in this book: she's missing 10+ years of her memory and she's trying to reconcile her (monotheistic) religion with the obvious reality of multiple gods in the city. Yet she's pretty blase about both of these and long stretches -- many months -- go by with her just, uh, what exactly does she do other than go to work and practice being a thief?
It is pretty clear that this is a debut effort and it doesn't feel that Hodgell got much from an editor in pulling things together. It is hard to shake the feeling that this is the introduction to the "real story", whatever that may be.
What I imagine is the big hook for many is the potential Hodgell shows glimpses of. Both in the bigger lore of the entire universe (some sort of multiverse with a devourer of worlds and a multi-thousand year retreat from losing battle after losing battle) and in the city of Tai-tastigon which has a supra-abundance of gods and temples. And these are really, actually, effective gods. Not "oh we believe in them" kind of gods. Hodgell has tons of great small touches about this but my favorite passage is when she enters one particular temple and she's nearly blinded by the light radiating from the god there. Not a statue of the god but the god itself. Her friend (who is a son of said god) says
It doesn't really deliver on that promise but I think that's more the fault of the recommendation I got than the book itself.
What it does deliver is a very early 1980s fantasy that has a lot of tremendously innovative things in it but doesn't really have a through-line story; instead it is a fairly disjointed set up episodes over the course of a year in the ancient city of Tai-tastigon.
First, what does this story do well? It was published in 1982, so going in you might expect something like "Tolkien-derivative with pointed-eared elves and poorly written women and some by-the-numbers romantic subplot". Somewhat refreshingly (especially for its vintage) it is none of those things.
Jame is definitely a Mary Sue -- within a few weeks she has conveniently met dozens of major players across town -- and the whole thing with her become an apprentice thief even though she's morally opposed to theft doesn't really hang together. (Allegedly she's doing it to make money to pay for passage out of town but she quickly earns the money another way but keeps on being an apprentice thief...because.)
There's not really much of a plot. Just a bunch of disconnected episodes and few of the other characters feature often enough to really develop. Jame's motivations for doing anything are pretty opaque. In theory she has two big drives in this book: she's missing 10+ years of her memory and she's trying to reconcile her (monotheistic) religion with the obvious reality of multiple gods in the city. Yet she's pretty blase about both of these and long stretches -- many months -- go by with her just, uh, what exactly does she do other than go to work and practice being a thief?
It is pretty clear that this is a debut effort and it doesn't feel that Hodgell got much from an editor in pulling things together. It is hard to shake the feeling that this is the introduction to the "real story", whatever that may be.
What I imagine is the big hook for many is the potential Hodgell shows glimpses of. Both in the bigger lore of the entire universe (some sort of multiverse with a devourer of worlds and a multi-thousand year retreat from losing battle after losing battle) and in the city of Tai-tastigon which has a supra-abundance of gods and temples. And these are really, actually, effective gods. Not "oh we believe in them" kind of gods. Hodgell has tons of great small touches about this but my favorite passage is when she enters one particular temple and she's nearly blinded by the light radiating from the god there. Not a statue of the god but the god itself. Her friend (who is a son of said god) says
"It would be even worse," he added, "if he were facing us directly. Instead, yes, he's still glaring back over his own shoulder. That's been going on for a good six years now. No one knows why."