Deverry cycle
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The Deverry cycle is a series of fantasy novels by Katharine Kerr set in the fictional land of Deverry. As of 2006, twelve books have been published in the series and two more are planned.
The series is written in a non-linear style: the principal narrative is frequently interrupted by flashbacks to events that occurred decades, or even centuries, before. These flashbacks concern the prior incarnations of characters in the principal narrative, and provide insight into the relationships of the characters in their current incarnations.
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[edit] Novels
Kerr began working on what would become the Deverry cycle in 1982, expecting to produce a short story. The project grew much larger than that, eventually expanding into a series of fourteen novels. Kerr has likened the Deverry cycle to a play, dividing the story into four acts:
- Act one: Deverry
- Daggerspell (1986) — "Author's definitive edition" issued in 1993
- Darkspell (1987) — "Author's definitive edition" issued in 1994
- The Bristling Wood (1989) — US title; issued in the UK as Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood
- The Dragon Revenant (1990) — US title; issued in the UK as Dragonspell: The Southern Sea
- Act two: The Westlands
- A Time of Exile (1991)
- A Time of Omens (1992)
- Days of Blood and Fire (1993) — US title; issued in the UK as A Time of War
- Days of Air and Darkness (1994) — US title; issued in the UK as A Time of Justice
- Act three: The Dragon Mage
- Act four: The Silver Wyrm
- The Spirit Stone (expected 2007)
- The Shadow Isle (expected 2008)
[edit] Cultures and peoples
Though much of the story takes place within the kingdom of Deverry, there are several other cultures which also occupy the world of Annwn.
- Westfolk
- Also known as Elcyion Lacar ("Bright Spirits"), and as elves, the Westfolk are a tribe of nomadic horse herders that live on the grasslands west of Deverry since the destruction of their cities by the Horsekin and Gel da'Thae. The Westfolk can be recognized by their pointed and furled ears, and by their eyes, which have catlike irises. The Westfolk live much longer than humans, with five hundred years being the norm. However, they have fewer offspring than humans do. A human-elf pairing can produce offspring. Half-elves tend to look more human than elven, though they may have some muted elven traits, such as slightly sharp ears or strange eyes. Half-elves also live longer than most humans, but not so long as a full-blooded Elcyion Lacar.
- Bardek
- Though Deverrians refer to this southern archipelago as if it were a single country, it is in fact a collection of independent city states. Bardekians, who have much darker skin than Deverrians, consider the Deverrians barbarians. Many Bardekian city-states have a semi-democratic system of government, much like Classical Athens. Their medical skills are valued highly. The are oblique suggestions in the novels that Bardek, like Deverry, was settled by people from our world.
- Mountain Folk
- Living in the mountains north of Deverry, the Mountain Folk, or dwarves, are short but stocky. They see no reason to waste anything ("Thrifty as a dwarf" is a common saying in Deverry). They also take their obligations very seriously. They distrust the Elcyion Lacar, considering them to be thieves. They call their land Dwarvenholt. A remote and sparsely populated city, Haen Marn, travels through space and possibly time. To enter, one must first find it, then use a boat to travel through its river's strong current, then ask for entry. The water contains mysterious monsters.
- Guardians
- The Guardians are spirts who dwell in one of the higher planes. Though they were meant to incarnate like all other souls, they somehow "stayed behind." Most have no sense of individuality. Some Guardians, most notably Evandar, have great magical prowess.
- The Rhiddaer
- To the north and west of Deverry is the Rhiddaer, or Freeland, which is occupied by the descendants of escaped bondsfolk (serfs). Riddaer folk, who speak an archaic-sounding dialect of the Deverrian language, refer to the people of Deverry as "The Slavers."
- Gel da'Thae
- The Gel da'Thae is a large and hairy humanoid species which possesses a strong psychic talent which manifests as animal empaty. They are responsible for the destruction of the former elven civilization, and are referred to by the elves as 'meradan' (demons) and also as Hordes. Because one of their cultural practices is to eat the flesh of their own dead, the Gel da'Thae were struck with a plague which almost completely destroyed their population. The survivors abandoned the elven cities and constructed new settlements nearby. They revere some of the Guardians as gods, and consider the Elcyion Lacar the "children of the gods."
- Horsekin
- The term "Horsekin" refers to those Gel da'Thae that dwell on the high plains north of the Rhiddaer, who have a culture extremely different from those living by the elven ruins. Considered barbarians by the city-dwelling Gel da'Thae, the Horsekin are fierce and cruel.
[edit] Characters
Main article Characters in the Deverry cycle
[edit] Synopsis
The first four books deal with how Nevyn finally fulfils his oath to "set things right," and also with a complex plot by evil sorcerers to plunge the province of Eldidd into war.
Daggerspell deals with a rebellion in the province of Eldidd instigated by the mad half-elven sorcerer Loddlaen. The immortal wizard Nevyn searches for Jill in order to fullfil an ancient oath. Jill becomes the mistress of Lord Rhodry Maelwaedd.
In Darkspell, Rhodry is sent into exile by his brother Rhys, the Gwerbret of Aberwyn, and becomes a mercenary soldier. Jill goes with him; they become involved in an a sorcerer's plot to steal the Great Stone of the West, a magical gemstone which guides the conscience of Deverry's king.
In The Bristling Wood, Jill is kidnapped by a very peculiar lord, and Rhodry searches for her, but is captured by pirates and sold as as slave in the island country of Bardek. When Gwerbret Rhys is mortally wounded, the king overrides Rhodry's sentence of exile.
The Dragon Revanant deals with Rhodry's time as a slave in Bardek. Jill, along with Rhodry's half-brother Ebañy, travel to Bardek to rescue him, where they are later joined by Nevyn. Ebañy begins teaching Jill sorcery, and she becomes Nevyn's apprentice when she returns to Deverry. Rhodry becomes the Gwerbret of Aberwyn, fulfilling a prophecy.
[edit] Pop culture references
- The song Jillian, from Within Temptation's album The Silent Force, is about the relationship between Nevyn and Jill.
[edit] Trivia
- According to a post made by Kerr in the KatherineKerr Yahoogroup, the narrator of the books is not Kerr herself, but an eighteenth century Deverrian novelist, a woman named Cadda Cerrmor. [1]
- As a joke, and as an in-universe explanation for the delay in publishing The Dragon Mage sequence, Kerr had this fictional author become involved in a lawsuit with a "certain Elvish scholar of Elvish." Some fans believed that Kerr herself was actually involved in a suit (she was not). The Dragon Mage novels were really delayed because Kerr was seriously ill for several years with congestive heart failure. [2]
- Daggerspell and Darkspell were originally going to be a single novel called The Silver Dagger. [3]
