I'm kind of sorry to say this, and mean no offense to anybody who has praise for it, but I really don't like this story.
The writing that begins it is skillfully done, there's no doubt about that.
I am a sensible man. I have been blacksmith, wheelwright, and ironmonger for this village for seven years; and I have not seen the need to believe in magic, no matter what that loon, mad Festil my brother, says. I have not had need of magic. I am a man who does what he wills without such things--without such nonsense, I might once have said.
Here we are, only four sentences into the story, and already the "hook" has been set, instilling enough suspense to pull the reader forward, wondering, "What does he mean? What changed for him?"
And I can't deny that our lead character, Mardik the blacksmith, is designed with enough complexity to make him far more interesting than some skeptical, hard-headed bully. That's evident in scenes like where he describes his reaction to seeing the intensely leprous woman who wants him to make love to her.
Gazing upon her, I could not say which of them had become the greater, my loathing or my pity--for I was sickened by the sight of her, it's true; and yet the deepness of her misery wrung my heart.
Something else I liked in Mardik's character design:
Well, I thought of all this often in my smithy--and not with displeasure, it's true. If our young men were fool enough to lose themselves in the Deep Forest--why, soon the village would be full of maidens in need of consolation. And who better to console them than Mardik the blacksmith?
Clever fellow. Not just a medieval version of the barroom brawler, after all.
So, what's my problem with this story, then?
I'm irritated with this statement in the tale:
And the Lady in White stood before me. "Ah, Mardik," she said gently, "be comforted," and her voice was a music that made my heart cry out within me. "My magic is strait and perilous, but it is not unkind."
Really? Her showing up in town to lure men costs the lives of Paoul (son of Megan and Pandeler the weavers), and Forin (the son of Fimm the fruiterer). No doubt that causes Megan, Pandeler, and Fimm deep pain that can never be healed. And the uncommitted women of the village keep getting available men stolen from them, and if they DO come back, these men will be more unappreciative of them because of the Lady in White's spell. And there's Mardik's confession to consider.
"And yet, I am not what I was. There is a lack in me that ale cannot quench and work and women cannot fill. For I have failed the test of the Lady in White in my way, and that is a failure not to be forgotten or redeemed."
The Lady in White causes harm aplenty. And there's no indication she has any intention of stopping it.
So, I'm dissatisfied with the Lady's accounting for herself, and that poisons the story for me. If fans of this story want to lob any criticisms towards me for that, I'll guess I'll just have to learn to keep my head down.
aTOMiC wrote:What would it be like to be blinded to all other things [as Festil was] except a constant image of your heart's desire? Wouldn't you get sick of looking at her after a few months or years?
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There's THAT, too.
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