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Twelve Fair Kingdoms

Suzette Haden Elgin

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Sep 01, 2017 Wealhtheow rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, fantasy

On the planet Ozark, the continents are largely ruled by twelve families, each with their own castle and stereotypes. Responsible is head of Brightwater Castle, and when magical mischief starts discomfiting and discombobulating her kingdom's denizens, it falls to her to sort it out. No matter that Responsible only just turned fourteen--she's been trained from birth in languages, magic, diplomacy, and everything in between. She expects she'll be able to handle herself on a Quest to figure out the On the planet Ozark, the continents are largely ruled by twelve families, each with their own castle and stereotypes. Responsible is head of Brightwater Castle, and when magical mischief starts discomfiting and discombobulating her kingdom's denizens, it falls to her to sort it out. No matter that Responsible only just turned fourteen--she's been trained from birth in languages, magic, diplomacy, and everything in between. She expects she'll be able to handle herself on a Quest to figure out the trouble.

And to her credit, Responsible does largely handle herself, although she makes mistakes as any prideful teenager on her own for the first time would. She tangles with cavecats, tormenting magicians, cursed diseases, and formal balls, and eventually makes it back home. Her adventures were good fun to read, but what really grabbed my attention was how magic and reality work on this planet. Superstition and belief have more power than they ought to on Ozark, and a very few people are privy to this secret. There's this wonderful mixture of old wives' tales, fairy tale logic, and sf to how Responsible does serious spells, so when she really sets down to doing something she'll start:

Three baths, first. One with hot water, and one with cold, and one with the proper crushed herbs from my pack. Then my fine white gown of softest lawn, sewn by my own hands; I pulled it nine times through a golden finger ring, and examined it carefully--not a wrinkle, it was ready to put on...I set wards, Ozark garlic and well-preserved Old Earth lilac, at every door and window, laying the wreaths so anyone passing would be certain I slept no matter what went on.

but then end with

I set down the Structural Index in a double row of herbs, and the Structural Change I laid right underneath it. I set the bowl of desert water in the space of the null term, and I made the double-barred arrow with my hands above the water. 'Let there be,' I said over the whole, 'a name, sub-N; and let there be a filling of the null term, sub-T; and let there be no alteration of the underlying structure, sub-S!'

This unexpected combination is all of a piece with the world itself, which is a rich melding of sf, fantasy, and old timey Ozark pioneer culture. I've never read anything quite like it before. I cannot wait to find the next part in this series! ...more

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May 22, 2016 Janet rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy

An odd reading experience - the world building was good, lots of originality and interesting settings. But the plot had me puzzled. I never could figure out why Responsible went on her quest, what her actual role was, (some kind of leader) and how she got so good at magic when women aren't supposed to. ...more

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