Sunder, Eclipse & Seed

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Calyx may be her father's daughter (and she certainly doesn't look it) or she may be the daughter of a god. Either way, she has an unusual ability to dream true dreams - a power she's afraid to let her power-hungry family know about, and one that almost immediately brings her into danger. Even when she embarrasses her father and is sent to the far north to get her out of the way, she finds...

Review
Sunder, Eclipse, & Seed has a rocky start and a rocky ending, and honestly some rocky bits in the middle. But it also has an interesting concept that I would have loved to see further explored in the intended two sequels that never arrived. I originally read this around when it came out – 1991 or so – and despite its flaws, it stuck in my mind. Enough so that when I unexpectedly ran into the author at a convention, I immediately asked her about it. She confirmed (and I now see that the end note states) that it was intended as a trilogy.

It takes a while to get into the book. The prose feels stiff, it's exposition-heavy but we don't really understand the world, and we don't really engage with the narrator for some time. I'd forgotten all of that, and frankly wondered why I had fond memories of the book. But a few chapters (40 pp or so) in, the story had begun to find its flow.

The narrator is a fairly standard misunderstood teen (who I fear shows some signs of ugly duckling syndrome, though that's not conclusive in this volume), but appealing once she's become a little established. There's quite a lot of vagueness about why she doesn't speak out more – I'm not a big fan of the ‘everything is going wrong because I won't tell anyone anything' model – but the story returns to clarity often enough that it's more occasionally irritating than truly frustrating. The supporting cast are familiar archetypes and the central tropes are familiar.

What raises the story above all this for me is its approach to magic – a hazy dream interpretation/true dreaming theory that captured my imagination – along with an intriguing mythic backstory that has many of the things I enjoy, such as a legendary past, lost resources, etc.

As the adventure got going, I quite enjoyed the core of the book, up until the concluding chapters (30 pp or so). Then, everything began to feel rushed. Rather than really explore the emotional changes in the maturing narrator, that's pushed to the side and instead we get a dramatic action sequence that feels like it should have another several chapters of resolution. Instead, the story ends quite suddenly. And I can see why I had it so clearly in mind that there was more – the story barely concludes, and lays out several clear directions for the rest of the trilogy.

It's not a perfect book. Key parts of it are muddy and the components are familiar. But it has a strong enough core that I would really have liked to go on and see the rest of the story. If you want an unusual approach to magic, and don't mind a partial resolution, I can recommend this. If you want original characters or need a truly complete story, I'd stay away.