Some time before I was given the opportunity to reprint this novel under my own Parallel Universe Publications imprint this was a review I wrote and had published on
amazon for its first publication in 1989 by Futura Books.
CHILDE
ROLANDE by Samantha Lee
Futura
Publications 1989
Although
this dark fantasy novel of a post-apocalyptic Scotland was published thirty
years ago, it reads as fresh today, with issues that are just as pertinent now
as they were in the 1980s.
Most
of the story is told in the first person by Rolande her-or-himself. I say her-or-himself
because, in the woman-dominating culture that rules Scotland in this future
time, Rolande is that rarest of beings, a hermaphrodite, having both the
genitals of a man and a woman. As only a handful of drugged, caged and pampered
males are allowed to live intact as “breed beasts” in the Scotland of this
story, the dwarf Morangy, a eunuch as
well as chief “healer” in the royal household, steals Rolande away and puts her
in the care of a renegade male known as the prophet. Morangy realises that
Rolande could be the fulfilment of a prophecy that a hermaphrodite will one day
rise to become “the Redeemer”, who will end the vicious tyranny of the female
rulers of Alba and restore equality between the sexes.
Rolande’s
story becomes ever more complex as she grows older, especially after, as part
of a travelling band of entertainers, she catches the romantic attention of the
Maxwell, Chief Warlord of the Clans of Alba (Scotland), which results in her
being brought into the royal household where she meets her twin sister, though neither
know of their relationship yet or even that the other existed, as the events of
Rolande’s birth were a secret known only to a few.
This
is a complex novel, with some strongly delineated characters, and some of the fiercest
violence and graphically described tortures and executions I have ever read,
perhaps expected from a veteran writer of the Pan Books of Horror. Over
and above this, though, it is an epic saga of a struggle to end a repressive
tyranny, with perhaps one of the blackest, most evil villains I have come
across in the form of the mad sorceress and high priestess, Fergael, who
becomes uglier and psychotically more dangerous as time goes on. There is magic
too of the darkest sort and the occasional monster, though both occur sparingly
and are all the more credibly dramatic for it.
An
excellent novel and one I would recommend unreservedly for anyone who loves the
darkest of fantasies in a post-apocalyptic future - and a damn good story too.
Reviewed
by David A. Riley
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