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A review by charlotekerstenauthor
Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn
“You say I have the power to break you- well, you have changed me, and I did not think I was capable of changing again. I only hope you will not abandon me, so altered and strange to myself, because you think I am too proud to accept your love. I would hate for my life to go on like that, empty of you. I think I would be the one to finally break, after that.”
So What’s It About?
There are stirrings of discontent in the southern Houses of Gillengaria, rumors of growing power and terrible acts committed against magic users. The King dispatches the talented mystic Senneth to travel the twelve Houses of the kingdom and assess the true level of danger to the throne. A number of unlikely allies accompany her: two of the most esteemed King’s Riders, Tayse and Justin, the noble and well-connected mystic Kirra and her loyal companion Donnal, and an enslaved mystic boy that they free early in their quest, Cammon. As they travel they grow closer and realize that this closeness may be the only thing that will keep them alive through their increasingly dangerous journey.
What Did I Think?
There really is absolutely nothing like a found family, is there? I live for those motley collections of oddballs who bicker and squabble with the ease that comes with familiarity, who gradually come to share more of who they are and love each other is spite of and because of their differences. When Mystic and Rider starts there are very clear demarcations of loyalty between members of the traveling party – Tayse and Justin are a guarded, almost-hostile unit, Kirra and Donnal are another unit, albeit much friendlier, and Cammon and Senneth are the loners. Through a gradual and delicate process throughout the story these demarcations blur and ease until the whole is much greater than its parts. Senneth is at the heart of this process and a great deal of her growth comes from gradually realizing that she can let her walls down and trust others. As the gang travels with company of soldiers at the end of their journey, it is apparent how true this is, and how much the others have come to care for her:
“Everyone was civil to her, though completely indifferent; she thought, if she wanted, she could slip away entirely.
Except that , on the day she was feeling most glum about her near-invisibility, Cammon sought her out to reside beside her for two solid hours. Except that, over nearly every meal as she was being most outrageous, Kirra would send a look and a smile her way. Except that, when a Rider accidentally bumped Senneth on horseback, Justin was instantly beside her, calling the young man by all sorts of furious names and making sure that Senneth was entirely unhurt.
Except that, every night as he made his circuit around the campfire, Tayse looked first for her.”
I said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but it should be clear that those individual parts are also very special. Each member of the group is a well-drawn and dimensional individual- Senneth is calm, serene and steady, Kirra is delightfully charming and warm, Donnal is long-suffering and single-mindedly devoted to Kirra, Justin is surly and defensive, Tayse is guarded but steadfast and rational, and Cammon is both shy and eager to learn. I want to talk about Justin and Kirra in a little more detail, as they were the standout members of the cast to me.
When the story begins, Justin is easily the most hostile character- he is fiercely devoted to Tayse but has nothing but contempt for the rest of the group. As the story progresses, it gradually becomes clear that a great deal of this comes from the manner in which Tayse rescued him from a life of deprivation and violence. When Tayse is kidnapped, Justin shows more vulnerability than he has at any other point in the story and must learn to trust the other members of the group. The following is my favorite moment in the book, so you’ll have to excuse the long quote:
“Let go of me!” he cried. “He is-Tayse is- I have to go to him! Stay here if you want-all of you-but I must find him! He is-he is-“
And he stood there in the middle of the road, that sneering, cynical boy, and began to weep with grief.
“Justin-Justin.” Senneth exclaimed, pulling him back to her with one hand on his arm, putting her other hand up to his cheek. “Justin, listen to me, we will get him back. Justin, do yo hear me?”…
He tried desperately to stop his crying and made an effort to turn away from her, humiliated and terrified and paralyzed with helplessness…
“We will go after him. But we have to have a plan. Are you with me, Justin? Will you trust me? I can do this. But you have to help.”
Finally he looked at her, his eyes swollen, his face blotched with tears and terror. For a moment she way the boy Tayse must have seen so long ago on the streets of Ghosenhall-fighting for his life knowing it was such an easy thing to lose. She put her hands again to both sides of his face and drew him closer so that his forehead rested against hers. “I trust you,” he whispered. “What do you want me to do?”
What a beautiful moment, right? It shows so much of Senneth’s strength and kindness, and so much of the fear and devotion that Justin carries with him in equal measure.
I was also delighted by Kirra, who is just this exuberant, charming beam of light and goodness. I have an incredible soft spot for the type of character that she is- I lovr charming and warm and possibly-slightly-spoiled female characters who may be written off as superficial by some people but have secret hidden depths of insight and strength. To level with you, most of my notes for this review were just passages involving Kirra being an absolute revelation:
Kirra gestured. “Our room-his room-empty except for the two of you. Surely you can think of ways to mend your differences.”
Senneth groaned and slid down on the bed, pulling one of the pillows over her face. ‘Go. Out. Leave before I set you on fire.”
“Other people you could be enflaming tonight,” Kirra said, and hastily departed.
Or:
“…all of them were losing pretty handily to Donnal.
“I think he’s cheating,” Justin said at last. “I think he’s changing the cards as he holds them in his hands.”
“That’s what I’m doing, but it doesn’t seem to be doing me any good,” Kirra said.
Absolutely delightful. The close friendship between Kirra and Senneth is also wonderful, and oftentimes it is with Senneth that Kirra reveals her more serious and genuine side:
“If terrible things are coming, you probably cannot avert them,” Kirra said softly. “And if they come, it will not be up to you alone to stop them. Why do you always think that? Why do you always believe there is no one nearby to help you?”
To summarize: Kirra!!!!!!!!!
As the entire group of travelers grows into a group of friends, Senneth and Tayse gradually fall in love with each other, and it is the relationship between the two that gives the book its name. As with almost everything in the book, their romance is a deliberate, gentle development. There is a tiny bit of angst over one particular revelation but overall it’s an incredibly mature romance in the sense that it is more or less just two rational, kind people gradually overcoming justified distrust and finding that they truly respect and care for each other. As such, its extremely refreshing.
My main struggle with Mystic and Rider has to do with the use of magic as an oppression metaphor. I’ve thought a lot about this in terms of one of my favorite game series, Dragon Age, and I think some of same considerations apply here. With any form of real world oppression, the oppressor’s justifications for their violence are not backed up by any kind of verity, but when mages are oppressed in a fantasy setting there is oftentimes a very valid basis for fear. There is a difference between the nature of the oppressive narratives that just doesn’t track well with me: if a misogynist states that men are superior to women because they are innately more intelligent and capable of leadership than women, there is no basis to that belief other than prejudice. But Senneth actually can fucking light anyone or anything ablaze at any given moment!! I would say that a certain level of caution is justified!! I am not trying to say that the kind of mass paranoia and mob violence seen in Mystic and Rider would ever be justified in response to fear, but to me it does change the narrative when that fear is actually somewhat based upon the fact that the feared group has a massively destructive kind of power that no one else possesses, as opposed to being based solely and entirely upon lies and mechanisms of othering propagated by oppressive forces.
One final note is that poor Donnal seems to get much less characterization than the rest of the gang, He spends 90% of the time standing guard in one animal form or another, and the other 10% of his time is essentially spend silently and devotedly traipsing after Kirra like a lovesick puppy. I wish he had been given the same amount of attention that the others were. This is a minor quibble, however, and I nonetheless leave Mystic and Rider with a full heart and a sense of deep contentment.
So What’s It About?
There are stirrings of discontent in the southern Houses of Gillengaria, rumors of growing power and terrible acts committed against magic users. The King dispatches the talented mystic Senneth to travel the twelve Houses of the kingdom and assess the true level of danger to the throne. A number of unlikely allies accompany her: two of the most esteemed King’s Riders, Tayse and Justin, the noble and well-connected mystic Kirra and her loyal companion Donnal, and an enslaved mystic boy that they free early in their quest, Cammon. As they travel they grow closer and realize that this closeness may be the only thing that will keep them alive through their increasingly dangerous journey.
What Did I Think?
There really is absolutely nothing like a found family, is there? I live for those motley collections of oddballs who bicker and squabble with the ease that comes with familiarity, who gradually come to share more of who they are and love each other is spite of and because of their differences. When Mystic and Rider starts there are very clear demarcations of loyalty between members of the traveling party – Tayse and Justin are a guarded, almost-hostile unit, Kirra and Donnal are another unit, albeit much friendlier, and Cammon and Senneth are the loners. Through a gradual and delicate process throughout the story these demarcations blur and ease until the whole is much greater than its parts. Senneth is at the heart of this process and a great deal of her growth comes from gradually realizing that she can let her walls down and trust others. As the gang travels with company of soldiers at the end of their journey, it is apparent how true this is, and how much the others have come to care for her:
“Everyone was civil to her, though completely indifferent; she thought, if she wanted, she could slip away entirely.
Except that , on the day she was feeling most glum about her near-invisibility, Cammon sought her out to reside beside her for two solid hours. Except that, over nearly every meal as she was being most outrageous, Kirra would send a look and a smile her way. Except that, when a Rider accidentally bumped Senneth on horseback, Justin was instantly beside her, calling the young man by all sorts of furious names and making sure that Senneth was entirely unhurt.
Except that, every night as he made his circuit around the campfire, Tayse looked first for her.”
I said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but it should be clear that those individual parts are also very special. Each member of the group is a well-drawn and dimensional individual- Senneth is calm, serene and steady, Kirra is delightfully charming and warm, Donnal is long-suffering and single-mindedly devoted to Kirra, Justin is surly and defensive, Tayse is guarded but steadfast and rational, and Cammon is both shy and eager to learn. I want to talk about Justin and Kirra in a little more detail, as they were the standout members of the cast to me.
When the story begins, Justin is easily the most hostile character- he is fiercely devoted to Tayse but has nothing but contempt for the rest of the group. As the story progresses, it gradually becomes clear that a great deal of this comes from the manner in which Tayse rescued him from a life of deprivation and violence. When Tayse is kidnapped, Justin shows more vulnerability than he has at any other point in the story and must learn to trust the other members of the group. The following is my favorite moment in the book, so you’ll have to excuse the long quote:
“Let go of me!” he cried. “He is-Tayse is- I have to go to him! Stay here if you want-all of you-but I must find him! He is-he is-“
And he stood there in the middle of the road, that sneering, cynical boy, and began to weep with grief.
“Justin-Justin.” Senneth exclaimed, pulling him back to her with one hand on his arm, putting her other hand up to his cheek. “Justin, listen to me, we will get him back. Justin, do yo hear me?”…
He tried desperately to stop his crying and made an effort to turn away from her, humiliated and terrified and paralyzed with helplessness…
“We will go after him. But we have to have a plan. Are you with me, Justin? Will you trust me? I can do this. But you have to help.”
Finally he looked at her, his eyes swollen, his face blotched with tears and terror. For a moment she way the boy Tayse must have seen so long ago on the streets of Ghosenhall-fighting for his life knowing it was such an easy thing to lose. She put her hands again to both sides of his face and drew him closer so that his forehead rested against hers. “I trust you,” he whispered. “What do you want me to do?”
What a beautiful moment, right? It shows so much of Senneth’s strength and kindness, and so much of the fear and devotion that Justin carries with him in equal measure.
I was also delighted by Kirra, who is just this exuberant, charming beam of light and goodness. I have an incredible soft spot for the type of character that she is- I lovr charming and warm and possibly-slightly-spoiled female characters who may be written off as superficial by some people but have secret hidden depths of insight and strength. To level with you, most of my notes for this review were just passages involving Kirra being an absolute revelation:
Kirra gestured. “Our room-his room-empty except for the two of you. Surely you can think of ways to mend your differences.”
Senneth groaned and slid down on the bed, pulling one of the pillows over her face. ‘Go. Out. Leave before I set you on fire.”
“Other people you could be enflaming tonight,” Kirra said, and hastily departed.
Or:
“…all of them were losing pretty handily to Donnal.
“I think he’s cheating,” Justin said at last. “I think he’s changing the cards as he holds them in his hands.”
“That’s what I’m doing, but it doesn’t seem to be doing me any good,” Kirra said.
Absolutely delightful. The close friendship between Kirra and Senneth is also wonderful, and oftentimes it is with Senneth that Kirra reveals her more serious and genuine side:
“If terrible things are coming, you probably cannot avert them,” Kirra said softly. “And if they come, it will not be up to you alone to stop them. Why do you always think that? Why do you always believe there is no one nearby to help you?”
To summarize: Kirra!!!!!!!!!
As the entire group of travelers grows into a group of friends, Senneth and Tayse gradually fall in love with each other, and it is the relationship between the two that gives the book its name. As with almost everything in the book, their romance is a deliberate, gentle development. There is a tiny bit of angst over one particular revelation but overall it’s an incredibly mature romance in the sense that it is more or less just two rational, kind people gradually overcoming justified distrust and finding that they truly respect and care for each other. As such, its extremely refreshing.
My main struggle with Mystic and Rider has to do with the use of magic as an oppression metaphor. I’ve thought a lot about this in terms of one of my favorite game series, Dragon Age, and I think some of same considerations apply here. With any form of real world oppression, the oppressor’s justifications for their violence are not backed up by any kind of verity, but when mages are oppressed in a fantasy setting there is oftentimes a very valid basis for fear. There is a difference between the nature of the oppressive narratives that just doesn’t track well with me: if a misogynist states that men are superior to women because they are innately more intelligent and capable of leadership than women, there is no basis to that belief other than prejudice. But Senneth actually can fucking light anyone or anything ablaze at any given moment!! I would say that a certain level of caution is justified!! I am not trying to say that the kind of mass paranoia and mob violence seen in Mystic and Rider would ever be justified in response to fear, but to me it does change the narrative when that fear is actually somewhat based upon the fact that the feared group has a massively destructive kind of power that no one else possesses, as opposed to being based solely and entirely upon lies and mechanisms of othering propagated by oppressive forces.
One final note is that poor Donnal seems to get much less characterization than the rest of the gang, He spends 90% of the time standing guard in one animal form or another, and the other 10% of his time is essentially spend silently and devotedly traipsing after Kirra like a lovesick puppy. I wish he had been given the same amount of attention that the others were. This is a minor quibble, however, and I nonetheless leave Mystic and Rider with a full heart and a sense of deep contentment.