Avilion

Last updated
Avilion
Avilion.JPG
First edition cover
Author Robert Holdstock
LanguageEnglish
Series Mythago Wood
Genre Fantasy
Publisher Victor Gollancz Ltd
Publication date
July 16, 2009
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages384
ISBN 978-0-575-08299-1
OCLC 316002569
Preceded by Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn (1997) 

Avilion is a fantasy novel by British author Robert Holdstock. It was published in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2009. It is his first Ryhope wood novel since Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn was published in 1997. Avilion is Tennyson's term for Avalon in Idylls of the King . Avilion is described by Tennyson as an island valley with ideal weather and fertile land.

Contents

The novel Mythago Wood introduces tropes, terminology and a backstory that are built upon in Avilion.

Plot summary

Avilion takes place after the events in Mythago Wood. Steven Huxley and the mythago Guiwenneth have been living in Ryhope wood where they are raising their two children, each half-human, half-mythago. The older boy, Jack, wishes to know about the outside world while the younger girl, Yssobel, dreams about her uncle Christian, who vanished into Lavondyss at the end of Mythago Wood. Despite being comfortably settled and living an idyllic agrarian lifestyle, events at hand will change the family's future.

Reception

Reviews have been very complimentary, with The Times Online saying "This is a wonderful, grown-up fantasy about growing up and moving on, and going home." [1] and The Guardian commenting "Mythago Wood was a seminal expression of British fantasy, and Avilion, though lacking its predecessor's narrative drive and intensity, is an enthralling reworking of myth and a haunting vision of love and loss unmatched in contemporary fantasy." [2]

Avilion was a finalist for a 2010 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in the Adult Literature Category. [3] It won the 2010 Best Fantasy and Horror Award from the Czech Akademie of Science Fiction.

Chronology of works in the Mythago Wood cycle

The order in which the Mythago cycle works were written/published does not necessarily correspond to the order of events within the realm of the Mythago Wood cycle. For example, Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn and the novella The Bone Forest are prequels to Mythago Wood even though they were published at a later date. The novel Merlin's Wood (1994) and short stories in The Bone Forest and Merlin's Wood have little bearing on the events in the Ryhope wood. See the table below for a chronology of events within Ryhope wood.

Preceded by:Chronology of Events in Ryhope Wood:
Followed by:
Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn Mythago Wood Avilion

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Moorcock</span> English writer, editor, critic (born 1939)

Michael John Moorcock is an English–American writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.

Charles de Lint is a Canadian writer.

Keith John Kingston Roberts was an English science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of Science Fantasy magazine, "Anita" and "Escapism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. C. Hodgell</span> American novelist & academic (born 1951)

Patricia "Pat" Christine Hodgell is an American fantasy writer and former academic. Hodgell taught in the English Department at University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, but retired in 2006 to pursue a full-time writing career. She has won several awards for her works.

This is a bibliography of works about King Arthur, his family, his friends or his enemies. This bibliography includes works that are notable or are by notable authors.

<i>Legends</i> (anthology) 1998 anthology of fantasy novellas

Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy is a 1998 anthology of 11 novellas by a number of English-language fantasy authors, edited by Robert Silverberg. All the stories were original to the collection, and set in the authors' established fictional worlds. The anthology won a Locus Award for Best Anthology in 1999. Its science fiction equivalent, Far Horizons, followed in 1999.

The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards. First awarded in 1972 only for novels, the number of award categories increased and in 1976 the BFS renamed them collectively to the British Fantasy Awards. As of 2023 the award categories are:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brocéliande</span> Mythical medieval forest

Brocéliande, earlier known as Brécheliant and Brécilien, is a legendary enchanted forest that had a reputation in the medieval European imagination as a place of magic and mystery. Brocéliande is featured in several medieval texts, mostly related to the Arthurian legend and the characters of Merlin, Morgan le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and some of the Knights of the Round Table. It first appeared in literature in the Roman de Rou chronicle by Wace in 1160 and today is most commonly identified as Paimpont forest in Brittany, France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garry Kilworth</span> British novelist

Garry Douglas Kilworth is a British science fiction, fantasy and historical novelist, and a former Royal Air Force cryptographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Holdstock</span> British fantasy and science fiction author (1948–2009)

Robert Paul Holdstock was an English novelist and author best known for his works of Celtic, Nordic, Gothic and Pictish fantasy literature, predominantly in the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction.

<i>Mythago Wood</i> 1984 fantasy novel by Robert Holdstock

Mythago Wood is a fantasy novel by British writer Robert Holdstock, published in the United Kingdom in 1984. Mythago Wood is set in Herefordshire, England, in and around a stand of ancient woodland, known as Ryhope Wood. The story involves the internally estranged members of the Huxley family, particularly Stephen Huxley, and his experiences with the enigmatic forest and its magical inhabitants. The conception began as a short story written for the 1979 Milford Writer's Workshop; a novella of the same name appeared in the September 1981 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

<i>Lavondyss</i> 1988 fantasy novel by Robert Holdstock

Lavondyss also titled Lavondyss: Journey to an Unknown Region is a fantasy novel by British writer Robert Holdstock, the second book in his Mythago Wood series. Lavondyss was originally published in 1988. The name of the novel hints at the real and mythological locales of Avon, Lyonesse, Avalon and Dis; within the novel Lavondyss is the name of the remote, ice-age heart of Ryhope wood.

<i>The Hollowing</i> 1993 fantasy novel by British writer Robert Holdstock

The Hollowing is a fantasy novel by British writer Robert Holdstock, the third in the Mythago Wood series written. It was originally published in 1993. The title refers to a magical pathway, or hollowing, an archaic English term for a sunken lane or hollow-way. The Hollowing was inspired by the story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

<i>The Beginning Place</i> 1980 novel by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Beginning Place is a short novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, written in 1980. It was subsequently published under the title Threshold in 1986. The story's genre is a mixture of realism and fantasy literature. The novel's epigraph "What river is this through which the Ganges flows?" is quoted from Jorge Luis Borges. The novel has been subject to critical studies comparing it to C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and William Shakespeare's As You Like It.

<i>The Bone Forest</i> 1991 collection of fantasy short stories by Robert Holdstock

The Bone Forest is a collection of fantasy short stories by British writer Robert Holdstock, published in 1991 (UK) and 1992 (US). It opens with a novella of the same name, followed by seven short stories. The novella is a prequel to the entire Mythago Wood cycle. According to the author it was written "to fill in the background and back-story to Mythago Wood" at the request of a screenwriter who was working on a planned movie version of Mythago Wood.

<i>Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn</i> 1997 fantasy novel by Robert Holdstock

Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn is a fantasy novel by British author Robert Holdstock. It was originally published in the United States in 1997 The story is a prequel to Mythago Wood and explores Christian Huxley's quest into Ryhope Wood and the apparent suicide of his mother, Jennifer Huxley. The title of the book refers to the gates of horn and ivory described in both Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.

This is a bibliography of fantasy author Robert Holdstock.

<i>Merlins Wood</i> 1994 short novel by Robert Holdstock

Merlin's Wood; or, The Vision of Magic is a short novel by British writer Robert Holdstock, first published in the United Kingdom in 1994. The novel is considered part of the Mythago Wood cycle, but takes place in Brittany, France instead of Herefordshire, England. The work has all new characters and focuses on the mythical birthplace and burial site of Merlin, the magical wood Brocéliande. Brocéliande is a smaller version of Ryhope wood where British myth predominates.

Stories involving the mythical wizard Merlin have been popular since the Renaissance, especially with the renewed interest in the legend of King Arthur in modern times. As noted by Arthurian scholar Alan Lupack, "numerous novels, poems and plays center around Merlin. In American literature and popular culture, Merlin is perhaps the most frequently portrayed Arthurian character."

References

  1. "Avilion by Robert Holdstock". The Times. London. July 18, 2009. Retrieved April 26, 2010.[ dead link ]
  2. Brown, Eric (July 4, 2009). "Avilion". The Guardian. London. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  3. "Mythopoiec Society 2010 Awards". Archived from the original on 2011-04-06. Retrieved 2011-05-26.

Sources

Preceded by:Chronology of Events in Ryhope Wood:
Followed by:
Mythago Wood Avilion Lavondyss