I would like to share with you the review I received from Poppet for Ancient Illumination. It's brilliant! Thank you, Poppet!
Ancient Illumination
In this traditional fantasy story Elaina Davidson starts it
off with the brutal severity of its setting. Life as we know it is ending.
There are only five of them left and they've left behind home, comfort,
civilisation's corpse, in the hopes of finding Castle Drakon.
They have trundled through arctic conditions to reach a
cave; bone weary, disheartened, and desperate. This cave is not on a map, it's
simply a 'feeling' they have followed, like a wish that they can survive the
annihilation which swept across the planet Drakonis. The story is told through
Brennan's eyes, and her companions include the brothers Bastian and Cole. They
seem a disparate bunch, with issues. For one: Audri doesn't speak, from shame
or trauma, only time will tell.
The cave is inhabited by Winter, a wizened old man with
magic in his pockets (such heavy pockets they make noises regularly), and his
two companions, a dwarf and an old woman. Except the old woman feels so
familiar, even looks familiar.
The intrigue is thick from the get-go, and like most of
Davidson's work this one pulled me in quickly to take me on a journey I won't
soon forget. All five characters and the three in the cave have something in common, and this
commonality falls outside the realm of 'mere mortal'. (I'm skirting around
details here so I don't ruin the read).
Drakonis faced fires and now it's facing an ice-age. Human
pride is the same on any planet, and the biggest fear seems to be that 'we'll
be forgotten' by the time life re-emerges on this plane. In a bid to be
remembered these characters are trying to escape Drakonis' fate, so that our
memory lives on, so that we'll never be forgotten. Winter enables their passage
by giving the crew intel they require to reach the portal which is Castle
Drakon, and then gives them the contents of his pockets (bar one).
Full disclosure happens swiftly, and now both brothers (Cole
and Bastion) are looking at Brennan in a very different light. She is best
friends with one, and attracted to the other, what a conundrum for her to be in
now (of all times) when our memory is at stake, and why would they fail as a
group if she doesn't choose one or the other (?).
Davidson does this, she puts her characters in dire
situations and then gives them impossible choices to make, when they are
distraught, when they have no time to contemplate, when they are dehydrated,
starving, emaciated, dirty, and on the cusp of losing all hope.
Halley shows them the movement of memory, memory being a
very central theme to this. It begs the question, why do we care so much
about memory? Is it because we've forgotten something crucial, something so
important that if we remembered all history would be altered, everything we've
done a sham? Is our civilisation built on lies? Why do we care if we're
forgotten when our civilisation dies and our planet kills us? Maybe … just
maybe, it's because we've forgotten, and on a cellular level, deep down in our
memory, we know it.
This is the underlying spine of this tale, it's tall, proud,
strong, but it's hidden by the flesh of so many centuries, so many millennia,
that we've forgotten what all our rituals and tales hide, we think our history
is accurate, but it's not. History is designed to force you into forgetting,
ritual is a subtle reminder, but mankind pays so very little attention to
understanding ritual (they just parrot without looking deeper at the origins).
The characters suddenly gain this insight.
In a bid to hide the truth on Drakonis all ritual was
banned, worship was outlawed, and anyone remembering, speaking, or practising
truth was to be eliminated without judge or jury. Being truthful was an act of
anarchy, one practised only by outlaws. Even exposing true names would result
in death, so our main character is reluctant to give hers to strangers – she
knows the penalty.
How familiar this all sounds – don't shame the rapist, shame
the raped. Oh yes, this system has been in place for so long mankind remembers
no other way to be (at our peril). Davidson doesn't say as much, but she's
pointing fingers throughout this tense excursion to Drakon Castle. It's a
nirvana, a place to escape to, an escape from certain death; hope then. But
once they enter hope, they discover this is not what they were told. The
legends lied, the reality is so far removed from what they thought they'd find
that they are trapped and horrified.
As with any good story they won't all make it out alive,
this is after all the very end of existence. Castle Drakon is supposed to
reverse the journey, but the reversing of the journey would mean surrendering
everything we are, everything we hold dear, and utterly obliterating our morals
and ethics. Right and wrong go out the window, leaving one male and one female
with a horrendous choice. Do they want to be remembered – now?
Winter warned them to use light with caution, for light
reveals (truth will too). Illumination comes with understanding, and when we
understand do we even like what it is we now comprehend (?). The answer in this
tale is, no.
This is about the secret of Castle Drakon, and the
characters discover it. I fell so completely into this tale; it was fraught, it
was a real quest I'd expect from an epic fantasy author, and she did it so well
in the space of what would usually only take up 2 chapters in one of her
novels. I cared about what happened to them, I was riveted to the dilemmas and
'choices', and I gobbled up this story to reach the ending (for closure).
Shadows have presence, they are palpable and as real
as light, they shift, move, have atmosphere, and they fuel our fears. We've
always been warned about the dangers in the dark. Drakonis goes into its dark
phase. Humanity that scorns truth, who persecutes it, well that is a humanity
that have entered their dark phase. The dark ages are when tyranny is allowed
rule without challenge, and when rulers have carte blanche to suppress,
repress, and quash their people. It is now.
The final words gave me such a cold chill I got goosebumps.
I agreed. I agreed with those final words, I agreed with the choice. Some
things are best left forgotten. Would you like to be remembered? Why? Would you
like humanity to remember this world and what we did here? Are you proud of our
wars, the enslavement of other cultures and people, of the daily domestic
violence, crime, - tyranny (?) Are you proud of taxes, of it being illegal to
feed the poor, for illness to become the new plague because all welfare and
charity are now illegal and scorned? There is a lot of hatred and horror in
this world, there is a lot of darkness despite the sun shining still. Will we
become the next Drakonis? If someone keeps you in the dark, is it fair of them
to enforce you to stay in it because you are 'family'? This too is a question
posed in this tale.
Davidson takes on some massive issues in this highly
entertaining tale, and it pulls back the shadows to expose what lurks there.
And once you know, once you've seen, you know your choice. Some like their
darkness, it's a familiar pain, their drama is their own and it's wrong of them
to expect family to join their pantomime if it means surrendering who you are
to please someone else. You have to live for you, no one else but you.
Bravo Elaina Davidson! I loved your story, I loved what you
hid between the lines, I loved where you shone the illumination. It is ancient
illumination indeed when we follow our own instinct instead of surrendering to
familial pressure.
This short story Ancient Illumination from the
anthology The Secrets of Castle Drakon, is a PERFECT example of
Davidson's writing. She'll make you care, she'll suck you in, she'll transport
you out of your mundane life into an alternate reality, and once you're there
she will take you on a journey that exposes their issues, and ours. It will be
familiar – but not. It's the perfect teaser to her other writing, which is epic
fantasy, doing this but on a much broader canvas. I am as always impressed with
this author's scope and ability, her skill will one day be recognised and she
will be a name revered. Well done girl! Well done!
No comments:
Post a Comment