Review: Chronicles of Morgaine

C. J. Cherryh’s melancholy sci-fantasy Chronicles of Morgaine travels across and between worlds way before Grimdark became a genre of it’s own.

The original trilogy, Gate of Ivrel (1976), Well of Shiuan (1978) and Fires of Azeroth (1979) gained a later fourth, Exile’s Gate (1988). The PoV character is Morgaine’s loyal, honorable and superstitious sidekick Vanye. Morgaine’s quest is to close a system of gates between worlds and times, to stem the chaos and time paradoxes the gate builders left behind. The descendants of the gate builders, the alien Qhal, co-exist in difficult relationships with humans on the various worlds they find. Master-slave, slave-master, feudal caste-system: each presents challenges for Morgaine and Vanye.

Relatable-resistant

A kind of feudal samurai pledged to service, Vanye has low self-esteem, beaten down by an insular and prejudiced society. Reluctantly bound to service, he initially regards Morgaine as a ruthless demon, witch, destroyer of nations out of legend. Both she and the gates represent evil sorcery. And certainly, Morgaine’s impenetrable chilliness take some time to break down. She is the last human survivor of the human team sent to close the gates, committed to the mission and seemingly willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to achieve it.

We see more of Morgaine’s humanity through the series, though she makes questionable decisions and sacrifices. She bears the heavy responsibility of preventing all of reality imploding, whatever it takes. She’s not an easy protagonist to like. Vanya gains in self-confidence and competence to deal with the alien worlds, without ever winning an argument with Morgaine that I recall.

The many worlds

It’s a unique setting, across distinct worlds and cultures, each frozen in some low-medieval feudal state. Other than the gates build by the once-advanced Qhal, Morgaine possesses the only obvious technology that works. But against the sci-fi background, we also get magic-like abilities to ‘clone’ people and transfer minds into different bodies. This enables sub-plots and themes around possession and identity, embodied by the series third protagonist, the body-thief, Roh. It’s not an easy blend of genres.

Morgaine’s legacy

Though the friendship of Margaine and Vanye deepens, there’s no romance. Morgaine is almost asexual at the beginning. Seen through Vanye’s eyes, she is often more terrifying than the opposition.

There’s surprisingly little action, a huge amount of travelling, and universally terrible weather on every world. Whatever version of human/Qhal society they find, enemies abound, no one trusts anyone, and the mood is grim from beginning to end. It’s as far from Discworld as anyone wants to go.

Cherryh’s prolific career included a lot of hard sci-fi, best remembered for Down-below Station, the Chanur series and Faded Sun series. But Morgaine’s seemingly doomed quest, with it’s Arthurian-aura and Samurai-Western underpinnings drew me back time and again.