Novarian series

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The Reluctant King by L. Sprague de Camp, Nelson Doubleday, 1985

The Novarian series is a sequence of fantasy stories by L. Sprague de Camp, written between 1968 and 1989. The series contains some of de Camp's most innovative works of fantasy, featuring explorations of various political systems, an inversion of the "rags to royalty" pattern characteristic of much heroic fantasy, a satiric look at the foibles of humanity through the eyes of a demon, and a consistently wry and ironic take on conventions of the genre that plays out by taking them to their logical (or illogical) conclusions. Another singular feature of the series is their frequent use of folk tales integrated into the plot to painlessly convey something of the background and history of the invented world. This device obviates the need for lengthy appendices, as in The Lord of the Rings.

1 The setting
2 The stories
3 Bibliography
- 3.1 The stories
- 3.2 Collected editions

[edit] The setting

The world of which Novaria is part is a parallel world to Earth, a plane of existence related to ours in that ours constitutes its afterlife. Culturally it bears resemblances to the eras of both Classical Greece and Medieval Europe. Mankind shares this world with other intelligent beings, like the serpent people of Beraoti, the beast-men of Komilakh, and the silvans of the mountain forests. The fauna is largely that of Earth's Ice Age, while the vegetation is similar to that of present-day Earth. Novaria's world is one in which the supernatural element is dominant. Magic works, though in a strictly logical fashion that often leaves its practitioners dissatisfied. Gods are real and strongly influence mortal affairs, communicating with their worshipers through dreams. Demons can, and often are, summoned from other planes of existence, which Novarians number in relation to their own (which to them is the Prime Plane).

Novaria itself is a broad isthmus joining two continental masses to the north and the south. (De Camp oddly yet consistently refers to it as a peninsula, though it is plainly an isthmus in both his maps and descriptions.) The northern continent consists primarily of the steppe country of Shven, with the pirate isles of Algarth off its western coast and the land of Hroth to the north. The southern continent contains the empire of Penembei and the desert of Fedirun to the south of Novaria and the jungles of Mulvan and Komilakh to the southeast; other lands, notably Beraoti, lie further south. Novaria is separated from the northern continent by the high Ellorna Mountains and from the southern by the great Logram Mountains. On its other sides it drains into the Western Ocean and the Inner Sea, which communicates with the Eastern Ocean via the smaller Sea of Sikhon. Across the Eastern Ocean are the archipelagos known as the Peppercorns, Salimor, and Gwoling, and an eastern continent on which is found the great empire of Kuromon and another nomad-inhabited steppe belt. Across the Western Ocean is the country of the cannibal Paaluan sea raiders; as these are also stated (in The Honorable Barbarian) to be a threat in the Eastern Ocean, there is evidently a navigable sea passage around either the main Novarian continent or the eastern continent, or both.

The twelve city-states into which Novaria is split are Solymbria, Boaktis, Tarxia, Zolon, Ir, Metouro, Govannion, Alissar, Xylar, Othomae, Kortoli and Vindium. The Twelve Cities are ruled under a wide variety of competing governmental systems, some of them unique. For instance, Solymbria is an archonate whose leader is selected by random drawing, Boaktis is a dictatorship, Tarxia is a theocracy, Zolon is an island ruled by its navy, Ir is under the control of a syndicate of plutocrats, Metouro is ruled by a secret society, Xylar chooses its kings by lot and beheads each after a five year term, Othomae divides civil and military power between a Grand Duke and a Grand Bastard, respectively the eldest legitimate and illegitimate sons of the previous Grand Duke, Kortoli is a traditional hereditary monarchy, and Vindium a republic of the classical variety. The series explores various pros and cons of different modes of governance as the action moves through Novaria and various other countries.

As for the other countries, Shven and Fedirun are home to nomads patterned after the Mongols and Beduin, respectively, Mulvan is a caste-bound empire combining features of India, China and Persia, and Iraz, divided from Mulvan by Fedirun, is modeled on the Byzantine Empire. The jungles of Komilakh east of Mulvan are inhabited by beast men, and the far-off islands of Salimor in the Eastern Ocean comprise a monarchy mingling elements of Japan and the Philippines. The distant empire of Kuromon is based on China and Japan.

[edit] The stories

The core of the Novarian series is the "Reluctant King" trilogy, consisting of The Goblin Tower (1968), The Clocks of Iraz (1971) and The Unbeheaded King (1983), all collected as The Reluctant King (1985). The trilogy is the story of King Jorian of Xylar and his quest to shed the fatal crown of Xylar, recover his true love, and settle down into his ideal life as a simple craftsman. On the route to his goal he must travel through much of the known world, rescue a consignment of maidens destined for the executioner's block, romance a serpent princess and steal a chest of ancient spells, match wits with gods, escape being sacrificed by beast men and being sold by nomads, abet a revolution in a priest-ruled city, become enmeshed in the sorcerous politics of a magicians' guild, repair the clocks in a famous lighthouse tower, save a besieged city from four enemy hosts at once, brave a perilous flight in a demon-powered bathtub, negotiate with an unreliable magician, spirit a woman from a city that has sworn to kill him, and exorcise the ghost of a cursed baron. Two other tales are set earlier in Novaria's history; "The Emperor's Fan", which illustrates the perils of a magical artifact, and The Fallible Fiend, a satire told the point of view of the demon Zdim, who is condemned to service in the perplexing world of humans. A final story, The Honorable Barbarian, is a sequel to the Jorian sequence, relating the adventures of his younger brother Kerin in the far east.