Gate of Ivrel

"I read this book when I was quite young, and there are books that blow your mind then because they do something that you were not expecting at that point in your life. I should add that this was C. J. Cherryh’s debut, which I think is rude, to be quite honest – no one has any right being that good for their debut. It’s presented as a medieval fantasy book, and you see it through the eyes of Vanye, who is a barbarian-type figure. He’s pulled along on the adventures of Morgaine, who is a witch queen. The language is quite archaic, quite difficult, and it all adds to this olde-worlde feel with castles and all of that. But it’s all a lie! It’s not a fantasy book at all, it’s a science fiction novel. Morgaine has this magical sword that, when she draws it, is basically a howling vortex that can drag whole armies into it. She is from an incredibly advanced civilization, and they set up gates that allow you to teleport between worlds, that destabilise the entire universe. She is going through shutting them, and it creates havoc to the world she leaves; she is this bringer of chaos, and absolutely driven by this one purpose. You follow Vanye, trying to understand Morgaine: how she can appear to be a decent human, but be prepared to create such havoc. He’s dragged with her through the first gate to the next world, which is the next book. And I just remember the huge joy of realizing that this book was not what it said it was. It was lying to me. It was doing something entirely different. Yes. There was this, and Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun books, which I never quite managed to click with in the same way. I keep thinking I should go back and make a proper try to read them again, but I didn’t click at the time. I just loved it. I can’t have been that old, maybe sixteen or seventeen, and I thought, ‘Wow, you can do things that I’d not even considered .’ And that’s why I love it, for opening my mind. Cherryh writes fantastic science fiction , but this book has a proper place in my heart. In my own books, there is Girton and Merela in the Assassin books, and Joron and Meas in The Bone Ships … I got an email from someone saying, ‘You like a powerful woman, don’t you?’ And I thought, ‘I know what you’re getting at, but you’re entirely wrong, it’s not a fetish. It’s me running through Morgaine and Vanye from those books, because they had such a huge effect on me; I think they’re always in my work.’"