Daughter of Regals & Other Tales

"Daughter of Regals" - Magic, in this land, is the art of manipulating images of the Real: the Wood of the Ash tree, Wind, the Fire deep in the earth, or images of Real creatures: the Basilisk, the Wyvern, the Phoenix. Such magic is inherited by those who descend from some Real man or woman: someone who can shapechange into a Real creature. The Regals who unified the three kingdoms of Canna, Nabal, and Loden into an uneasy realm are such people. Now Chrysalis, on this night of her 21st birthday, must ascend to the Seat in full view of the realm's nobles and take her Real shape and her place as Regal, or watch the Realm shatter. And she alone knows that she's already failed once. (Excellent story, taking place in the single night that will mark Chrysalis' ascension, death, or flight, told by her.) "Gilden-Fire" - This tale of Korik of the Bloodguard and the mission to the Giants of Seareach was cut from THE ILLEARTH WAR, not because the sequence isn't good, but because 1) Donaldson needed to cut about 150 pages, and 2) using Korik as the viewpoint character caused problems when set beside Covenant's Unbelief. Enjoy; Korik fills in some of the background of the Bloodguard as lagniappe. "Mythological Beast" - Norman lives a perfectly sane, perfectly safe life as a librarian, in an age when violence has been eliminated by eliminating the causes of fear. Not that many people can read, or that anyone uses the library. He can't understand why the new nub of horn on his forehead doesn't register as anything odd on his biomitter, or why nobody seems surprised by his other gradual changes. "The Lady in White" - The narrator, Mardik the blacksmith, tells the tale of how his 'mad' dreamer of a younger brother came to be blinded, in rescuing him from the mysterious Lady in White, who had lured many men to their deaths in the Deep Forest. "Animal Lover" - The narrator is a cyborg government agent, for whom serious injury just means a few more experiments with new equipment. In this age of overpopulation, genetic engineering is outlawed, and the government subsidizes anything that'll act as a pressure valve: slamming cars around a racetrack, game preserves. But the exclusive game preserve the agent's asked to investigate has a *far* higher death rate than normal, and seems to advertise only by word of mouth. The narrator's the best pick, since he'll be inclined to root for the animals rather than slant his report the other way, if no criminal activity is going on. "Unworthy of the Angel" - The title comes from the saying, Let no man be unworthy of the Angel who stands over him. The narrator, a guardian angel (literally) whose memory of each assignment is wiped away by the next, has the unsavory task of coping with a charge who's selling his soul to become a better sculptor. This isn't a blatant diabolical contract in brimstone, nothing so crude; the sculptor just has to be willfully blind to the consequences of his actions. But an angel can't help you unle

The jewels of this collection are "Ser Visal's Tale" and "Daughter of Regals". These stories don't just create anticipation and uncertainty in the telling, they also generate complete conviction when all is told.Donaldson's shorter short stories don't give him enough scope for his forte, i.e. unfolding layers of the truth. In order to shine, he needs time for his characters to be acting on incomplete information at first, but eventually realize what is going on. Unfortunately, his big novels, which have unlimited room for intricacy, tend to bloat with repetition and bog down under lengthy delays.I believe that if Donaldson would write all his stories in the 50-page range, he would be an even larger figure than he already is in the world of the sci-fi/fantasy novel.

In this excellent fantasy short story, the theme of monarchial sucession is dealt with from the insider's point of view. Of course all is not simple nor magic free (after all this is Stephen Donaldson!), and the heir apparant finds herself pitted against high born rivals, sexy traitors, personal assault and worst of all self doubt..that she is REAL?Confused? read the book, it is short and unputdownable, and then tell me afterwards....what would you have been?

I havn't read this book but it looks great.

A collection of short stories, Daughter or Regals suffers most from its title story, which takes its own sweet time getting to a point. Taken as a sketch of his work to come however, particularly Mirror of Her Dreams, it gives you a look at one of Mr. Donaldson's rough drafts. The rest of the stories included are better, a wide mix of urban fantasy and cyberpunk. Of greatest interest to the fan of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles is a deleted Book of The Illearth War, written entirely from the perspective of the haruchai. The author explains why it was deleted, which make sense, but I found myself coming away with a greater understanding of the Chronicles after reading it, and I wish that it had not been removed.