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A review by brassaf
The High King by Lloyd Alexander
5.0
The 9 year and 2 day journey of my reading of the Chronicles of Prydain has come to an end. What started with my reading aloud to my youngest son the first and second books, turned the corner into me reading book three and book four by myself and culminated with me finally finishing book five this morning.
But really, the journey was much longer than this. To borrow from one of my updates of book four:
But wait, there's more! When we were in high school our computer science teacher let us borrow the school's fancy new Apple IIGS computer for the summer. My brother installed The Bard's Tale onto it and of course his bard was named Fflewddur Fflam, which he told me was from the Prydain Chronicles. I hadn't read the books yet, but the influence continued.
Through middle and high school and even into college I continued to play the D&D character of Taran Wander, with the images of the book covers fully in my mind. I continued to dream up stories of this other Taran. The name seeped into login handles for websites, game domains, and I even seriously thought it would make a fine name for my firstborn son, although my wife and I went with something else.
My first Tunnels & Tunnels character? Taran Dracon the Orc. The main character of my (unpublished) science fiction story universe? Taran Scyll Romulous (aka Tazz). Also the name of the leader of my party of Wasteland characters, and later, Wasteland 2 (post-apocalyptic computer role-playing games), which lived not only in the games but in our family-beloved Tales from the Wasteland fan fiction series and audio dramatizations.
All the while, the magic, mystery and secrecy of this name I had adopted, without even knowing the source material, besides repeatedly reading the back cover blurbs and staring at the front cover illustrations, embedded itself firmly in my brain.
Taran and his various forms are inexorably a part of me. And they pop up in the weirdest places. I just finished listening to Chuck Wendig's Wanderers, where the Prydain Chronicles is mentioned not once, but twice. And in the first reference, he specifically mentioned four of the Prydain chronicles having fallen out of a bookpack, just as I had finished the fourth but had not yet started the fifth (creepy)! I also giggled as the two audiobook narrators pronounced "Prydain" differently--one the way I have always pronounced it (PRY-dane) and the other, the correct way (Pri-DANE). It's like Wendig had some bizarre time-displaced quantum entanglement with me. (Insert innocent whistle here.)
Now, at the end, especially given the utterly perfect way in which Alexander finished the series with the final chapter and even final paragraph, I struggle to put this series to bed. It is a timeless story of good vs. evil, friendship and innocence, fantasy and magic, but at the heart of it, heart.
Book five delivered in all the ways a series finale should deliver. Alexander revisited characters from previous books, many in a way that seems fantastically coincidental but nevertheless completely worked. Perhaps I'm just too fanboyish to see some of the tropes and coincidences for what they are, but this was written in the 1960s so there were no such tropes back then--he probably invented some of them!
Taran goes on one final journey, in this the final installment. It is a journey where he is surrounded by his friends and allies, and even former enemies, and prevails due to having those friendships, but also with a lot of luck. It is a story that will continue to stick with me, as I start my second half-century of years, and think fondly of, for the rest of my days, however many there may be.
Again, a final special thanks to my brother for introducing me to this series, even though it took decades before I finally read it, and to Lloyd Alexander for the hard work of crafting such a memorable story and lovable character.
But really, the journey was much longer than this. To borrow from one of my updates of book four:
35+ years ago, my older brother and I created my very first Dungeons and Dragons character. I couldn’t think of a name for this human ranger I had rolled up. My brother offered the name Taran Wanderer, from a series of books he had on his shelf and had read. Finally, I’m reading the book that inspired the name of that character, the first in a lifelong series of fantasy role-playing game characters. Thanks, bro!
But wait, there's more! When we were in high school our computer science teacher let us borrow the school's fancy new Apple IIGS computer for the summer. My brother installed The Bard's Tale onto it and of course his bard was named Fflewddur Fflam, which he told me was from the Prydain Chronicles. I hadn't read the books yet, but the influence continued.
Through middle and high school and even into college I continued to play the D&D character of Taran Wander, with the images of the book covers fully in my mind. I continued to dream up stories of this other Taran. The name seeped into login handles for websites, game domains, and I even seriously thought it would make a fine name for my firstborn son, although my wife and I went with something else.
My first Tunnels & Tunnels character? Taran Dracon the Orc. The main character of my (unpublished) science fiction story universe? Taran Scyll Romulous (aka Tazz). Also the name of the leader of my party of Wasteland characters, and later, Wasteland 2 (post-apocalyptic computer role-playing games), which lived not only in the games but in our family-beloved Tales from the Wasteland fan fiction series and audio dramatizations.
All the while, the magic, mystery and secrecy of this name I had adopted, without even knowing the source material, besides repeatedly reading the back cover blurbs and staring at the front cover illustrations, embedded itself firmly in my brain.
Taran and his various forms are inexorably a part of me. And they pop up in the weirdest places. I just finished listening to Chuck Wendig's Wanderers, where the Prydain Chronicles is mentioned not once, but twice. And in the first reference, he specifically mentioned four of the Prydain chronicles having fallen out of a bookpack, just as I had finished the fourth but had not yet started the fifth (creepy)! I also giggled as the two audiobook narrators pronounced "Prydain" differently--one the way I have always pronounced it (PRY-dane) and the other, the correct way (Pri-DANE). It's like Wendig had some bizarre time-displaced quantum entanglement with me. (Insert innocent whistle here.)
Now, at the end, especially given the utterly perfect way in which Alexander finished the series with the final chapter and even final paragraph, I struggle to put this series to bed. It is a timeless story of good vs. evil, friendship and innocence, fantasy and magic, but at the heart of it, heart.
Book five delivered in all the ways a series finale should deliver. Alexander revisited characters from previous books, many in a way that seems fantastically coincidental but nevertheless completely worked. Perhaps I'm just too fanboyish to see some of the tropes and coincidences for what they are, but this was written in the 1960s so there were no such tropes back then--he probably invented some of them!
Taran goes on one final journey, in this the final installment. It is a journey where he is surrounded by his friends and allies, and even former enemies, and prevails due to having those friendships, but also with a lot of luck. It is a story that will continue to stick with me, as I start my second half-century of years, and think fondly of, for the rest of my days, however many there may be.
Again, a final special thanks to my brother for introducing me to this series, even though it took decades before I finally read it, and to Lloyd Alexander for the hard work of crafting such a memorable story and lovable character.