Friday 28 July 2017

Emberverse And Ys

SM Stirling's Emberverse reminds me in some respects of Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys:

politics and war with swords;
deities in the background;
a divinely chosen King.

In the Ysan milieu, the many ancient gods were retreating before one new God whereas, in the Emberverse, the One and the Many coexist. In Ys, Gratillonius, a Mithraist servant of a Christian state who is also the incarnation of the Ysan Taranis, has insoluble conflicts with the Gods (!) whereas Artos will remain true to Those Who gave him the Sword. Gratillonius must consult a bishop so that he will be able to appoint a suitable Christian minister to Ys whereas Artos will marry a Catholic for both personal and political reasons.

The King Of Ys is a discrete, but thankfully lengthy, tetralogy where Emberverse is a continuing sequence of trilogies. Is this what Game Of Thrones is like? I have neither read nor seen any of that series as yet.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

If I remember correctly, Gratillonius, by the second volume of THE KING OF YS, came to privately LOATHE the gods of Ys so much that he discreetly aided the Christians against them. And this despite him being a Mithraist!

Sean