Tale of the Five

[psocoptera]

Diane Duane's Middle Kingdoms adult fantasy series is a serious contender for "thing I have been meaning to read the longest", in that I *think* I became aware that she had an adult fantasy series sometime back when there were only the three Young Wizards books and I reread them endlessly, and figured I would read it someday, and then probably in college I would have become aware of them as polyam classics, and now, twenty years later, I've finally gotten around to it. (Other contenders: Once and Future King, which I bought at a library booksale some time in the 90s and am really actually retrieving from my parents' house when we're there, and Hoyle's The Black Cloud, which my friend JC recced probably around the 9th grade and I still might read one of these days never mind that I haven't talked to JC in twenty years, but I could tag him in a review on Facebook, it would be hilarious.)

Anyways. The Door Into Fire, The Door Into Shadow, and The Door Into Sunset, originally from 1979, 1984, and 1992, and not related to A Door Into Ocean, which I also want to read. Also known as the Tale of the Five series. Am I glad I read them? Yes, obviously, how often do you get the chance to clear what might be an almost thirty year old to-do item? That's some serious vintage closure! (Maybe someday I'll finish the Newbery Medal reading project I started around 1988, peak aged and seasoned intention...) However, would I recommend them to people who haven't already been wanting to read them for some reason? No.

Part of that is just bias against older works - I mean, I will rec older stuff if I think it's really awesome, or significant, but assuming you share my basic interest in keeping up with interesting stuff that's happening in sff (which if you don't, I suspect much of my reccing is useless to you), there's this underlying question of "why would you read this older work when you could be reading something that's part of the conversation right now", and I didn't think these quite cleared that bar. And also I was not feeling very excited about the kind of fantasy these are - very feudal, chosen ones, divine plan, divine right of kings, rightful kings are basically demigods, meh.

Also also there's a narrative choice in the middle book that ruled out me reccing them, more behind a cut. But before I get into that, some more general thoughts. One thing I did enjoy was seeing how many parallels and echoes there were with So You Want To Be A Wizard, not just in the metaphysics of the worldbuilding but also in specific characters and imagery - SYWTBAW is an extremely dear and personal book to me and so it was interesting to get this look into where it came from, like reading the Patternist books and seeing the pieces that are all going to come together in Xenogenesis. (But I wouldn't really rec the Patternist books either unless you're going for Butler completionism.) I did also enjoy the everyone-is-pan-and-poly social worldbuilding, although not as much as I might have thought I would, because it was also very much "sex is the highest form of human relationships, essential for self-actualization and connection with the divine" (literally, the Goddess has embodied sex with everyone at some point in their lives, I guess unless they die in infancy or something) and I'm ace-adjacent enough to be kind of put off by the idea of sex being that mandatory and universal, and also I guess I'm more into fantasies of divine ecstasy that are more transcendent or mystical than just routing through the, uh, standard genital processes.

(Most interesting worldbuilding detail though goes to the annual ceremonial opportunity to try to kill the queen, with no reprisal, if you think she won't be a good ruler. I can't think of a single goddamn woman politician in the real world that wouldn't be immediately slaughtered by misogynist bigots if given that invitation and it just made Duane's fantasyland feel so irrelevant, like, these characters are all very nobly fighting a made-up evil that doesn't exist, and don't have to deal at all with the real evil that does exist, and what resonance is this even supposed to have.)

And then there's the climax to Door Into Shadow, where the main character forgives and embraces the man who brutally raped her in her childhood (shown in a graphic flashback, major content note for *that* btw) because she's had the mystical realization that everyone is an aspect of the Goddess and so is he and her rape was a necessary part of the divine plan, and my personal feeling is fuck that bullshit. Now, I am not a survivor of rape or childhood sexual abuse, and I don't know if Duane is; if there are survivors who find that narrative comforting or empowering, I am genuinely glad for them, glad Duane wrote it where they could find it. But as an outsider to that experience, who very much does not believe in a real-world divine plan or that we're all aspects of the godhead or whatever, I'm not willing to ever promote/accept/condone that narrative, because as an outsider, it just seems gross and disrespectful, and I favor the worldview in which people who rape children are garbage and it's fine to just despise them forever. So even if I had loved every other bit of these books, I can't be down with metaphysical rape apology. And it's really too bad, because otherwise the second book is by far the best of the three, with a really great premise (accidental draconic soulbonding!) and some vivid magical adventure. But, nope. (Seriously, read behind the cut if you just got excited about the draconic soulbonding, it's not so much a spoiler as a content warning.)

Comments

[katherine]

This is very interesting and helpful. I've had a stray copy of The Door Into Shadow sitting around for a while not least because I wasn't sure if I should track down the start of the series first before trying it, and now I think Perhaps Not. (Draconic soulbonding though...)

[irilyth]

I *have* read A Door Into Ocean, and remember being very confused when I discovered these non-sequels. (Which I haven't read.)