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Recent Reading: The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
This book appeared in the house one day and we have no recollection of how, but everyone agreed it must be mine because it sounds like something I would buy. I have no memory of it, but I figured it was worth giving a read anyway.
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe is a 165-page fantasy/adventure novel by Kij Johnson. What struck me right away about this book is how rare it is to see a fantasy or adventure story protagonist who's older. Vellitt is 55 at the start of the novel, and while that's certainly not decrepit, she is older and it's reflected in the story: her knees ache after a full day of walking, she spends a lot of her down time reflecting on her life up to this point, the younger characters can seem at times frustratingly impulsive and short-sighted to her. She's reached a point in her life where she's settled down from a more adventurous youth and thought she had found where she was going to spend her days until retirement, until the need for her quest arises.
Her age also impacts the way the story unfolds: several of the key characters she encounters on her quest are people she's known before, either as friends, travel companions, or lovers. It affects, of course, how willing they are to help her and her view of them re-encountering them after many years apart. It makes her successes more believable, as these are not skills she's learning for the first time on the road, but rather old ones she's reviving from her youth.
Vellitt herself I found very likeable. She's a woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. She can cut a rather isolated figure--she mentions flings in her earlier years but at 55 has no romantic partner nor any particularly close friends--but she also seems quite satisfied with her life and what she's done with it so far. People flit in and out of her life and she's comfortable with that, and while at her age she recognized a need to settle down, you can tell that something of the adventure bug is still in her, and that love and wonder of exploring remains. She's very believable as the kind of person who would have spent decades on the road with only what she can carry on her back and only finally stopped when age began to catch up with her.
I didn't realize this until after reading the book, but The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe is something of an outgrowth of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. I haven't read the Lovecraft story myself, but allegedly there are no female characters and a hefty amount of racism, which unfortunately checks out regarding Lovecraft. Johnson's novel takes place in the same dark, beautiful fantasy world subject to the changeable whims of drowsy gods, but takes a more diverse approach.
Johnson's writing is lovely and the world she evokes is one of extremes: there is enormous beauty and potential in Vellitt's world, but it's also impossible to ever feel safe or secure given how frequently a capricious or wrathful minor god decides to smite someone's village to piss off another god.
My only complaint with this book is that it is quite short, and so there's almost never time to linger in a very intriguing world. Johnson offers tantalizing details about this strange place, but we're never able to spend much time in one area or another. Given the urgency of Vellitt's quest, this makes sense, but there were times I wished Johnson would linger in the details a bit more.
Recommend if you:
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe is a 165-page fantasy/adventure novel by Kij Johnson. What struck me right away about this book is how rare it is to see a fantasy or adventure story protagonist who's older. Vellitt is 55 at the start of the novel, and while that's certainly not decrepit, she is older and it's reflected in the story: her knees ache after a full day of walking, she spends a lot of her down time reflecting on her life up to this point, the younger characters can seem at times frustratingly impulsive and short-sighted to her. She's reached a point in her life where she's settled down from a more adventurous youth and thought she had found where she was going to spend her days until retirement, until the need for her quest arises.
Her age also impacts the way the story unfolds: several of the key characters she encounters on her quest are people she's known before, either as friends, travel companions, or lovers. It affects, of course, how willing they are to help her and her view of them re-encountering them after many years apart. It makes her successes more believable, as these are not skills she's learning for the first time on the road, but rather old ones she's reviving from her youth.
Vellitt herself I found very likeable. She's a woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. She can cut a rather isolated figure--she mentions flings in her earlier years but at 55 has no romantic partner nor any particularly close friends--but she also seems quite satisfied with her life and what she's done with it so far. People flit in and out of her life and she's comfortable with that, and while at her age she recognized a need to settle down, you can tell that something of the adventure bug is still in her, and that love and wonder of exploring remains. She's very believable as the kind of person who would have spent decades on the road with only what she can carry on her back and only finally stopped when age began to catch up with her.
I didn't realize this until after reading the book, but The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe is something of an outgrowth of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. I haven't read the Lovecraft story myself, but allegedly there are no female characters and a hefty amount of racism, which unfortunately checks out regarding Lovecraft. Johnson's novel takes place in the same dark, beautiful fantasy world subject to the changeable whims of drowsy gods, but takes a more diverse approach.
Johnson's writing is lovely and the world she evokes is one of extremes: there is enormous beauty and potential in Vellitt's world, but it's also impossible to ever feel safe or secure given how frequently a capricious or wrathful minor god decides to smite someone's village to piss off another god.
My only complaint with this book is that it is quite short, and so there's almost never time to linger in a very intriguing world. Johnson offers tantalizing details about this strange place, but we're never able to spend much time in one area or another. Given the urgency of Vellitt's quest, this makes sense, but there were times I wished Johnson would linger in the details a bit more.
Recommend if you:
- Want to see older fantasy protagonists
- Like a quick-paced or bite-sized novel
- Enjoy a fantasy world that leaves something to the imagination of the reader
- You don't like being dropped into a fantasy world with no explanation offered
- In-universe sexism is a no-go for you
- You're looking for substantial character development--Vellitt's quest is more about her reflection on her life up to this point than about changes to her character during the quest