Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood.

The Short of It

Plot: There's a fine line between myth and reality, one that doesn't exist within the Wood. 

Page Count: 274

Award: 1984 World Fantasy Award

Worth a read: No
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Hard Fail
Technobabble: Fantasy Babble in Spades.
Review: Very clever premise and good writing that ultimately lack payoff. Unavoidable and excessive sexism to astounding levels. Obsession is a good character trait - but it's also the only one that anyone in this book has. Plot events occur for the sake of something happening - without reason, often without impact. They just... happen. Also, obsessively explaining the rules of this world while then having arbitrary new rules sneak up for plot convenience feels silly.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

Before this was a novel, it was an award winning novella. Now as a novel, it's a novella that goes on far too long.

The writing is great. Holdstock's descriptions, in particular of people, are vivid and striking. His writing of action is solid - there is real tension, true suspense, fear. It's some of the best writing I've encountered thus far on this literary journey. At times. Then the first person narration and passive voice grow tiresome, and reading it makes you wish that more thoughts were shown and not simply spelled out by the protagonist.

The basic premise is this: all things of myth and legend, existing in the collective conscious, exist physically as well. It takes time and work, but they form within woods, such as the one that is the focus of this book. As one of the early covers says, it's "a place where dreams come alive!" Very snazzy. It's a good premise - a perfect setup for the mixing of myth and reality. Anything is possible!

There are two routes that an author could take with this premise. The first would be to invoke plenty of traditional myths. "Wow! It's a thing that I know, come to life!" The second route - to make up your own myths, "Anything I (the author) make up is possible!" And then there's the awkward middle ground selected by Holdstock. Meagre use of established myths mixed with some tepid personal inventions. It's just such an astonishing waste of potential. I would have loved either extreme - the madness that could be created from a given person, or re-encountering King Arthur, Robin Hood, the Picts, the Green Knight, and so on. 

I guess we need to talk about his treatment of women. The main woman here is made from the dreams and fantasies of the men involved. So, yeah. It's not subtle, and it's addressed a bit, but definitely insufficiently for it to be not-creepy.

So she smelled . . . earthy. Yes. And also of her own secretions, the sharp, not unpleasant smell of sex.

That's how we meet Guiwenneth. What fun.

If this is a choice you decide to make, consider using the link below! I'll get a few cents at no additional cost to you.
Mythago Link

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

There is a particularly frustrating choice made about two thirds of the way into this adventure. A different character, Keeton, keeps a journal. In order for us, the readers, to see it, our first person narrator has to read it. So Steven sneaks in reading this journal each day. 

Instead of this giving us a different voice, the style of writing and speech stays pretty much the same. Keeton is simply there to give a marginally different perspective, including puzzlement at things that we, following Steven, have seen and figured out already. It's a baffling choice and pushes the bounds of credulity. It also adds nothing to the actual arc of this tale.

Holdstock's decisions on when to include nested narratives are also odd. There are few at the beginning - only the personal history of Steven's family. More and more of these are loaded in later on. It feels, at points, like a bad TV show. We need to pause the action to give backstories to characters we did not know - instead of working through background earlier, then catching up. 

This all ties in with my broader gripe for this book: wasted potential. There are notes at points that these creatures - Mythagos - as the physical embodiment of the zeitgeist necessarily exist in many different versions. There is not just "The Robin Hood" - it's every different Robin Hood. Other than for regeneration of the living sex object that is Guiwenneth this is completely unused. Wouldn't it be cool as hell to have a whole bastion of only Robin Hoods come to play?! (I keep bringing up Robin Hood because he's one of the only recognizable figures we encounter.)

There's a big ol' twist here - that Steven is but another figure who must adhere to his own story, that he's just playing out his part. Also cool! Also underdeveloped! It's the type of twist that begs a "yes, and...?" which is never delivered. The related twist - that the mega-evil behemoth beast is basically his dad - is so telegraphed that Samuel F.B. Morse would have rolled his eyes and said, "--- -... ...- .. --- ..- ... .-.. -.--"

If you achieve your dreams, I hope they're a bit more interesting, Stranger.

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