Re-read this again. Love it. My current laptop's name is from it. ( )

After having re-read Mythago Wood as part of a critical study, I decided to carry on and re-read Lavondyss. Many people have commented that this narrative drags, but in my humble opinion, as with how cinema, prior to rhythmic editing trends, perhaps may seem slow or wafting, Lavondyss is no more unhurried than any other book of the 19th or 20th century. Whereas, Mythago Wood was a deliberate intrusion into the mythical realms of Ryhope, Lavondyss is a more gentle discovery of it through oracle and divination. The character of Tallis really carries the burden of life and death through her imagination, her journey is in the grandest sense of time, epic. Lavondyss is a book of familial sorrow, entropy, of suffering and superstition. You are not going to find a rip-roaring adventure full of spellbinding and combat, this book is more reflective but it is also, as Holdstock mentions in his afterward, a fictional version of a treatise he might have liked to write on the theme of stories and myths. For me, there are some moments that I will never forget, some moments where Robert's writing held me unflinchingly, and others where I just let time unfold in a world where time has no linear meaning. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2827113.html

I really enjoyed it, a great intense exploration of inner space and myth in English wilderness, with a rite of passage combined with quest for lost relative and connection with mythic figures from the collective unconscious. Anyone who has ever loved a woodland will connect with this. Quite a remarkable book. ( )

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Many times I don't like sequels because there's nothing new to learn. Authors tend to give us all of their world-building in the first novel, so I'm often bored by a sequel. But Lavondyss blew my mind. It is, I have no doubt, one of the best fantasy novels ever written.

In Mythago Wood, Harry Keeton entered the forest with Steven and he's been there for years. We got the sense back then that Harry had some secret personal purpose for going in — it wasn't just to help Steven. His sister Tallis remembers him leaving when she was four years old. Her parents are distressed and assume he's dead. When Tallis hears what she believes is a communication from Harry and starts interacting with the wood, her parents think she's gone batty. But Tallis is determined to bring Harry home.

Lavondyss may be the perfect fantasy novel. First of all, it's written in Robert Holdstock's beautiful style. I tend to be picky and demanding about style. A good story will not do it for me if the writing is pedestrian. It doesn't have to be poetic, but it needs to be interesting and creative — not just, as we say, "serviceable." Robert Holdstock's writing style, at least in these novels, is similar to Patricia McKillip's: straightforward, but kind of dreamy, too. To me, it's perfect.

Secondly, Lavondyss made me think. It was complex and convoluted, and I didn't even know how complex it was until I got to the end. At that point I had to go back and re-read several passages so I could try to understand what had happened. It's not that it wasn't related effectively, but rather that Mr. Holdstock does not spoon-feed the reader. He does not divulge everything we want to know when we want to know it. We're given hints and impressions (and maybe even some false information from unreliable characters?) that must be accumulated and assembled. My brain had trouble bringing it all together in the end. What, exactly, is Lavondyss? Why do the mythagos travel there? What drove Harry into the forest? Who is he there? How is he related to the mythagos? How do Mr. Williams and Wynne-Jones fit in? Most importantly: what is the nature of myth, story, and legend, and where do they come from? (There are lots of other questions I could ask, but I'd be giving too much away.) Instead of leaving me frustrated, I am fascinated, and motivated to find the answers.

Lastly, the story made me feel. The characters are endearing and I experienced their joy, pain, hope, and hopelessness. The ending was sad, happy, chilling, shocking, wonderful, and inconclusive. It stayed with me for days.

I am still confused about a lot of stuff that I was hoping would be cleared up, but I'm happily confused. This is a story that requires a re-read in order to appreciate its richness. I've jotted down some notes — stuff I learned in the parts of Lavondyss that I re-read. I will have to go back to Mythago Wood and then read further in the series. I look forward to it and I can't wait to spend more time in, and learn more about, Rhyhope Wood.
See my review for Mythago Wood. ( )

Ryhope Wood in Hertfordshire, England is where myth comes alive. It draws images from the dreams and the collective unconscious of human beings and produces beings called Mythagos: heroes, shamans, fantastic beasts and beautiful damsels from the primordial depths of the psyche, walking about in flesh and blood. Robert Holdstock, award-winning author of Mythago Wood, follows up the first tale of his fantastic realm with an even more daring one: a journey to The Old Forbidden Place, Lavondyss, where all myth is generated.

Rivetting stuff, right?

Wrong.

Lavondyss is one large snooze-fest. The story opens with a bang, then stays exactly where it is. The background is lovingly created, and we get to know more and more about the inner workings of Ryhope Wood and the location of Lavondyss: but Tallis Keeton's journey in search of her lost brother Harry (lost in Mythago Wood) just does not take off.

As the story progresses, it begins to sound more and more like a notebook on world-building or a treatise: there is precious little action. And what there is, is disjointed. The story takes a huge leap between part one and two, and it is some time before the reader comes to grip with all that has happened in between. Holdstock's prose is good-one only hopes he had put it to better use.

The two stars are for the world the author has created. I honestly cannot give any stars to the story - whatever there is! ( )