14 April, 2002
Well of Shiuan
C. J. Cherryh
1978
259 pp
This is the sequel to Gate of
Ivrel. (This note contains spoilers for Gate of
Ivrel. Sorry, it's unavoidable.)
Having left Vanye's world through the gate, Vanye and Morgaine find themselves in a land which is slowly drowning. The sea level in this world is rising, flooding the lands of Hiuaj and Shiuan. This calamity was caused by the Gates some thousand years ago. As in the previous book, Morgaine's goal is to travel to the world's other gate, pass through it, and permanently shut it from the far side. Vanye is her sworn warrior/servant, bound by the rules of his society to follow her every order. (It's not quite so awful as it sounds. His service is voluntary, and he has a choice to leave, if he doesn't want to follow her orders. Of course, the circumstances of the plot make it difficult for him to quit his position.)
Morgaine and Vanye are opposed in their quest by a body-hopping entity, who appeared in Gate of Ivrel in the guise of Evil Grand Vizier Liell, and who posessed the body of Vanye's cousin Roh at the end of the book. In the guise of Roh, this person (henceforth referred to as "Roh") went through the Gate ahead of Morgaine and Vanye. His goal is to reach the other gate before them, to save himself from being caught in the drowning world, and probably to shut the Gate behind him, trapping his enemy Morgaine. Thus begins a frantic race across the lands of Hiuaj and Shiuan. Both Roh and Morgaine ruthlessly use the people of the world they've found themselves in, gathering armies, ruining cities, abusing peasants, all to serve their desperate ends.
Although the depiction of the soggy, dreary setting is quite good, the strength of this book, as was the case for the previous one, is in the characterization. None of the three main characters-- Vanye, Morgaine, or Roh-- is particularly sympathetic, but they are very interesting. Roh, the nominal villain, comes across as a relatively nice guy. He's very different from the cruel Liell in Gate of Ivrel, and it rapidly becomes clear that while this Roh is not completely the cousin Vanye knew from his world, he's also not simply an alien mind in Roh's body. He's got Liell's knowledge and some of his goals (stay free, defeat Morgaine), but a large part of his personality-- perhaps the majority of it-- is that of the old Roh, who was really a good, decent fellow. This is in utter contradiction to what Morgaine told Vanye about the body-possession process (that Roh's soul would have been completely destroyed).
Morgaine herself is not a nice person. A certain degree of ruthlessness is to be expected, given the nature of her quest. If the Gates are not closed, the very fabric of the universe could be destroyed. Compared to that, what do the lives of a few thousand people matter? However, she's far beyond a "degree of ruthlessness." Given a choice between kindness and cruelty, she chooses cruelty more often than not, even if being nice would cost her nothing. She's incapable of taking responsibility for the consequences of her actions. For example, after opening the way for a barbarian horde to destroy one of the last bastions of civilization on that doomed planet, she does nothing to stop the pillaging, raping, and murder of the citizens, even though it's within her power to do so. She abuses Vanye's loyalty, using it to force him to do things he despises, and prevents him from helping people who it wouldn't hurt anybody to help. And yet, just at the point where I'd concluded that she was a horrible person with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, she does something kind, and almost selfless: she faces down an army/ravening mob which was pursuing four helpless refugees, when she could have more easily gotten the army off her back by allowing them to take the refugees. Also, there are indications that her feelings for Vanye are not so cold and impersonal as he believes. She's a real cipher, and one of the reasons I will keep reading this series is to discover what her true nature is-- is she really so cold and cruel all the way through, or is it a front she puts up, to protect herself from feeling the all pain and horror she's faced with due to her quest?
Finally, we have Vanye, from whose viewpoint most of the story is told. He is right in the middle of the power struggle between Roh and Morgaine. He's terribly conflicted when he learns that Morgaine's enemy is still very much his cousin Roh. His society values kinship very highly, and kinslaying is a terrible sin. Morgaine has ordered Vanye to kill Roh, as soon as he gets a chance. Technically, the conditions of Vanye's service excuse him in such a situation, but that doesn't help him on an emotional level. Not only is Roh his cousin, he's the only link Vanye has to his home, his past, his life, and he was the only person to show Vanye kindness after he'd been cast out of his father's realm.
Vanye also finds himself conflicted over his mistress, Morgaine. On the one hand, he's terribly in love with her, to the point where he left his world behind, in order to be with her. However, it's not at all clear that she returns his affection, in any degree. She seemed happy when he followed her through the Gate of Ivrel, but for the most part, she treats him like a disposable tool. That's certainly the way he thinks she sees him. As he watches the wreckage she makes of Hiuaj and Shiuan, and her complete indifference to the suffering she causes, he feels that he's a man who's fallen in love with, and devoted his life to, a monster, and the reader feels it, too. Worse, he finds himself becoming more like her, as he becomes even more tightly bound to her and her quest.
Well of Shiuan is relatively self-contained, as books in a series go. That is it say, there's a plot which begins and ends in this volume-- the race between Roh and Morgaine to reach the next Gate. We also get some more insight into the character's natures. However, the most interesting questions are not resolved: the question of Morgaine's true nature, that of Roh's true nature, how Vanye will resolve the conflict between his love for Morgaine, and his horror at her methods.