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A review by sofijakryz
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
3.0
This should actually be 3.5 but I felt I could not round up to 4.
I found this book several years ago when going through fantasy classics list by Gollancz. It intrigued me as it is a less known classic of fantasy and it promised to be a different kind of story.
In a way, it was.
The premise was great. Mythago - a subconscious created representation if the past - great. Brilliant. Fantastic. In the past, I only came across such an idea once or twice, maybe when reading Harari, Jung or some such: if you take human stories or legends, how far back can you go in time? What are the earliest human memories apart from those 40something thousand year old cave paintings or fertility idols?
The problem I had with this premise was that it was competing with a pretty meh love story and that to my mind it could have been exploited more effectively or dig deeper than just another love story.
I also liked that at times the story resonated with "The Dig", "Jumanji", "Lost Horizon" by James Hilton, "The Broken Sword" by Paul Anderson, "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem or "Vėjas prie jūros" by Giedrius Vilpišauskas.
I liked the atmosphere and the way Holdstock built the world of the mysterious Ryhope Wood. And world in general: rural England with rail leading to the fields in the middle of nowhere, leafy, gloomy forest, isolated cottages, journeys to city being rare and made up of cycling, train and buses, banks in the late 1940s refusing to give access to your relative's account because of reasons, bridleways and horses.
Beautiful and honest.
What I did not like about the book, was the said love story, characters (their motivations) and, at times, slow pace.
The story begins when Stephen, a young, injured WW2 veteran decides to return home from France to England. Not something he wants to do as the house - Oak Lodge is haunted by memories of his emotionally dissociated, maybe even psychologically abusive father. However, the war has been over for a year or two, his older brother Christian (also a WW2 veteran) had recently married, which offers some hope of a safe haven and so Stephen returns, only to find things are not the way he expected them to be.
First, his brother's wife is gone. His brother acts strange. Memories from the past begin haunting both Stephen and Christian. The wood acts strange. And then Christian disappears.
The setting could easily promise a horror story or mystery. Like I said, Holdstock is very good with creating a gloomy, intense atmosphere. Which worked quite well in the beginning - I very quickly became curious about what the hell was happening there.
But then, for some reason, it slowed down and dragged on. And on. And on. Almost to the level I had to push myself to read further.
Spoilers ahead!
For one thing, that initial tension is ruined by some erratic story telling or behaviour of characters. Christian disappears, then reappears, then disappears again. Mysterious characters appear and disappear but then Stephen's father's diary encyclopedically explains what they are. Some of these characters endanger Stephen and then disappear. Creepy discoveries are made, then forgotten completely.
Why? Why???
So that's one thing.
Second thing: Stephen is such a bore and phlegmatic as a character.
First and firemost, he is very passive. War is over? OK. Lazing around for two years? OK (OK, traumatic childhood, fine). Went home, found brother missing a wife and acting strange? OK. Brother went missing? OK. Weir creatures appear? OK. A dead body in your garden? OK. Weird activity around or even inside your house? OK. Only when shit can't get any more weird does he decide to look for answers. Gradually.
He is also very introspective but in such a narrow minded way: wood and his father's notes. And every day routines. But this is a guy who survived a war! Or so the author claims. I could not believe it for a minute. Wars leave traces in people's souls. Here - nothing. No memories, no traumas. No hobbies, no interests other than obsession with the Ryhope wood. And even that - regurgitation of someone else's notes or thoughts.
Now add this to an isolated setting.
Grrrh!
I don't understand how and why anyone would fall in love with him. Especially a hunter-gatherer lady, a princess born in legends to legendary heroes and brought up by legendary heroes.
Please explain. I understand she is a mythago - some sort of subconscious-created representation of what Stephen or Christian imagine about Celts and their interaction with Romans based on legends they read. So it's possible she would be kindly inclined towards her creators. But she's a huntress - why would an empty, phlegmatic, foreign speaking weakling that can hardly support himself (he doesn't want a job!) interest someone whose survival depends on strength, ability to hunt, fight, thinking on her feet, knowledge of nature and relationship with people or creatures with magical properties?
And their love happens just like that. Without any inciting incidents. He just likes her red hair and is attracted to her smell. Fine, the author kind of justifies it through legends - men are destined to fall at her feet just because legends say so. But she? And what was she doing out of the Wood anyway?
Motivations of other characters were a bit shoddily done too (Harry Keeton, I'm thinking about you! And you Christian, I just could not believe you simply behaved as the plot required with excuses you gave!).
These kind of things were annoying but not to the level I would want to stop reading.
And that is because Holdstock does other things well. For instance, he makes Ryhope Wood really mysterious, unusual and even sinister. That's one motherfucking enchanted forest and the more you read about it, the more you want to know about it. It's written in so many layers that it's another character. It's alive, it responds, it acts. It's more alive than Stephen. It is rich in life, in culture, in history, in secrets, it hides, it defends, it protects, it safekeeps. Such a rich, detailed environment and I so enjoyed it. Literally, the second half of the book (after a major inciting incident) was so much more interesting to read than Stephen's ramblings in the first half.
I so enjoyed the journey through the Wood - why did it not happen earlier?
Cultural references - another level too. I love Britain. It's so historically rich. Romans, Celts, Saxons, Vikings, Normans - all in one place, all together in just a few centuries. Mounds, tumuli, Stonehenge, geoglyphs, Iron Age forts, Roman walls, roads and mosaics, knights, astles. In London alone you can find most of these (apart from Stonehenge and geoglyphs). There are woods, fields and hills with significant archeological discoveries all over the country. Every year you get multiple reports of something significant discovered somewhere. And it's all there condensed in the book, tickling the reader's interest. Respect to Holdstock for getting around without the Queens and only squeezing in a sentence related to Tudors and even that tangentially. This country has so much more to show and he demonstrated that.
He is also good at imitating the language of myths and legends. His created stories sound real. And I loved it.
I understand Holdstock was interested in how archetypal stories are created, how they stay in the subconscious over generations and how they interact with the conscious. But I caught myself wishing he had explored it a bit deeper. Maybe he does that in the later books, but something was missing in this one and I ended up wondering if it was "the first book in a series" thing or not.
The story was tied up reasonably. The major drawback again was character believability and their motivations, but they suited the logic of myths and legends, which is often a bit different. I felt a bit like watching one of those movies - you know how they will end and that they will be dramatic but a bit wobbly, but you watch them anyway.
So yes, was it not for an annoying protagonist, underdeveloped, difficult to believe love story, somewhat spiritless main supporting characters and their deficient motivations, and was it for a deeper dig rather than just adventure or love story, I would have enjoyed "Mythago Wood" more. It does fall a bit flat, but it has an interesting premise and an unparalleled atmosphere. Not in a rush to read a sequel, but will consider following up in future.
I found this book several years ago when going through fantasy classics list by Gollancz. It intrigued me as it is a less known classic of fantasy and it promised to be a different kind of story.
In a way, it was.
The premise was great. Mythago - a subconscious created representation if the past - great. Brilliant. Fantastic. In the past, I only came across such an idea once or twice, maybe when reading Harari, Jung or some such: if you take human stories or legends, how far back can you go in time? What are the earliest human memories apart from those 40something thousand year old cave paintings or fertility idols?
The problem I had with this premise was that it was competing with a pretty meh love story and that to my mind it could have been exploited more effectively or dig deeper than just another love story.
I also liked that at times the story resonated with "The Dig", "Jumanji", "Lost Horizon" by James Hilton, "The Broken Sword" by Paul Anderson, "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem or "Vėjas prie jūros" by Giedrius Vilpišauskas.
I liked the atmosphere and the way Holdstock built the world of the mysterious Ryhope Wood. And world in general: rural England with rail leading to the fields in the middle of nowhere, leafy, gloomy forest, isolated cottages, journeys to city being rare and made up of cycling, train and buses, banks in the late 1940s refusing to give access to your relative's account because of reasons, bridleways and horses.
Beautiful and honest.
What I did not like about the book, was the said love story, characters (their motivations) and, at times, slow pace.
The story begins when Stephen, a young, injured WW2 veteran decides to return home from France to England. Not something he wants to do as the house - Oak Lodge is haunted by memories of his emotionally dissociated, maybe even psychologically abusive father. However, the war has been over for a year or two, his older brother Christian (also a WW2 veteran) had recently married, which offers some hope of a safe haven and so Stephen returns, only to find things are not the way he expected them to be.
First, his brother's wife is gone. His brother acts strange. Memories from the past begin haunting both Stephen and Christian. The wood acts strange. And then Christian disappears.
The setting could easily promise a horror story or mystery. Like I said, Holdstock is very good with creating a gloomy, intense atmosphere. Which worked quite well in the beginning - I very quickly became curious about what the hell was happening there.
But then, for some reason, it slowed down and dragged on. And on. And on. Almost to the level I had to push myself to read further.
Spoilers ahead!
For one thing, that initial tension is ruined by some erratic story telling or behaviour of characters. Christian disappears, then reappears, then disappears again. Mysterious characters appear and disappear but then Stephen's father's diary encyclopedically explains what they are. Some of these characters endanger Stephen and then disappear. Creepy discoveries are made, then forgotten completely.
Why? Why???
So that's one thing.
Second thing: Stephen is such a bore and phlegmatic as a character.
First and firemost, he is very passive. War is over? OK. Lazing around for two years? OK (OK, traumatic childhood, fine). Went home, found brother missing a wife and acting strange? OK. Brother went missing? OK. Weir creatures appear? OK. A dead body in your garden? OK. Weird activity around or even inside your house? OK. Only when shit can't get any more weird does he decide to look for answers. Gradually.
He is also very introspective but in such a narrow minded way: wood and his father's notes. And every day routines. But this is a guy who survived a war! Or so the author claims. I could not believe it for a minute. Wars leave traces in people's souls. Here - nothing. No memories, no traumas. No hobbies, no interests other than obsession with the Ryhope wood. And even that - regurgitation of someone else's notes or thoughts.
Now add this to an isolated setting.
Grrrh!
I don't understand how and why anyone would fall in love with him. Especially a hunter-gatherer lady, a princess born in legends to legendary heroes and brought up by legendary heroes.
Please explain. I understand she is a mythago - some sort of subconscious-created representation of what Stephen or Christian imagine about Celts and their interaction with Romans based on legends they read. So it's possible she would be kindly inclined towards her creators. But she's a huntress - why would an empty, phlegmatic, foreign speaking weakling that can hardly support himself (he doesn't want a job!) interest someone whose survival depends on strength, ability to hunt, fight, thinking on her feet, knowledge of nature and relationship with people or creatures with magical properties?
And their love happens just like that. Without any inciting incidents. He just likes her red hair and is attracted to her smell. Fine, the author kind of justifies it through legends - men are destined to fall at her feet just because legends say so. But she? And what was she doing out of the Wood anyway?
Motivations of other characters were a bit shoddily done too (Harry Keeton, I'm thinking about you! And you Christian, I just could not believe you simply behaved as the plot required with excuses you gave!).
These kind of things were annoying but not to the level I would want to stop reading.
And that is because Holdstock does other things well. For instance, he makes Ryhope Wood really mysterious, unusual and even sinister. That's one motherfucking enchanted forest and the more you read about it, the more you want to know about it. It's written in so many layers that it's another character. It's alive, it responds, it acts. It's more alive than Stephen. It is rich in life, in culture, in history, in secrets, it hides, it defends, it protects, it safekeeps. Such a rich, detailed environment and I so enjoyed it. Literally, the second half of the book (after a major inciting incident) was so much more interesting to read than Stephen's ramblings in the first half.
I so enjoyed the journey through the Wood - why did it not happen earlier?
Cultural references - another level too. I love Britain. It's so historically rich. Romans, Celts, Saxons, Vikings, Normans - all in one place, all together in just a few centuries. Mounds, tumuli, Stonehenge, geoglyphs, Iron Age forts, Roman walls, roads and mosaics, knights, astles. In London alone you can find most of these (apart from Stonehenge and geoglyphs). There are woods, fields and hills with significant archeological discoveries all over the country. Every year you get multiple reports of something significant discovered somewhere. And it's all there condensed in the book, tickling the reader's interest. Respect to Holdstock for getting around without the Queens and only squeezing in a sentence related to Tudors and even that tangentially. This country has so much more to show and he demonstrated that.
He is also good at imitating the language of myths and legends. His created stories sound real. And I loved it.
I understand Holdstock was interested in how archetypal stories are created, how they stay in the subconscious over generations and how they interact with the conscious. But I caught myself wishing he had explored it a bit deeper. Maybe he does that in the later books, but something was missing in this one and I ended up wondering if it was "the first book in a series" thing or not.
The story was tied up reasonably. The major drawback again was character believability and their motivations, but they suited the logic of myths and legends, which is often a bit different. I felt a bit like watching one of those movies - you know how they will end and that they will be dramatic but a bit wobbly, but you watch them anyway.
So yes, was it not for an annoying protagonist, underdeveloped, difficult to believe love story, somewhat spiritless main supporting characters and their deficient motivations, and was it for a deeper dig rather than just adventure or love story, I would have enjoyed "Mythago Wood" more. It does fall a bit flat, but it has an interesting premise and an unparalleled atmosphere. Not in a rush to read a sequel, but will consider following up in future.