Avilion

Avilion

First edition cover
Author Robert Holdstock
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Mythago Wood
Genre Fantasy novel
Publisher Victor Gollancz Ltd
Publication date
 July 16, 2009
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 384 pp
ISBN 978-0-575-08299-1
OCLC 316002569
Preceded by Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn (1997)

Avilion is a fantasy novel by British author Robert Holdstock. It was published in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2009. It is his first Ryhope wood novel since Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn was published in 1997. Avilion is Tennyson's term for Avalon in Idylls of the King. Avilion is described by Tennyson as an island valley with ideal weather and fertile land.

The novel Mythago Wood introduces tropes, terminology and a backstory that are built upon in Avilion.

Plot introduction

Avilion takes place after the events in Mythago Wood. Steven Huxley and the mythago Guiwenneth have been living in Ryhope wood where they are raising their two children, each half-human, half-mythago. The older boy, Jack, wishes to know about the outside world while the younger girl, Yssobel, dreams about her uncle Christian, who vanished into Lavondyss at the end of Mythago Wood. Despite being comfortably settled and living an idyllic agrarian lifestyle, events at hand will change the family's future.

Critical commentary and awards

Reviews have been very complimentary, with The Times Online saying "This is a wonderful, grown-up fantasy about growing up and moving on, and going home."[1] and The Guardian commenting "Mythago Wood was a seminal expression of British fantasy, and Avilion, though lacking its predecessor's narrative drive and intensity, is an enthralling reworking of myth and a haunting vision of love and loss unmatched in contemporary fantasy."[2]

Avilion was a finalist for a 2010 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in the Adult Literature Category.[3] It won the 2010 Best Fantasy and Horror Award from the Czech Akademie of Science Fiction.

Chronology of works in the Mythago Wood cycle

The order in which the Mythago cycle works were written/published does not necessarily correspond to the order of events within the realm of the Mythago Wood cycle. For example, Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn and the novella The Bone Forest are prequels to Mythago Wood even though they were published at a later date. The novel Merlin's Wood (1994) and short stories in The Bone Forest and Merlin's Wood have little bearing on the events in the Ryhope wood. See the table below for a chronology of events within Ryhope wood.

Preceded by: Chronology of Events in Ryhope Wood:
 Followed by:
Mythago Wood Avilion Lavondyss

References

Notes
  1. ↑ "Avilion by Robert Holdstock". The Times. London. July 18, 2009. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  2. ↑ Brown, Eric (July 4, 2009). "Avilion". The Guardian. London. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Mythopoiec Society 2010 Awards". Archived from the original on 2011-04-06. Retrieved 2011-05-26.
Bibliography
  • Morse, Donald E.; Matolcsy, Kalman (2011). The Mythic Fantasy of Robert Holdstock: Critical Essays on the Fiction (1st ed.). London: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-4942-2. 

External links

Short Stories
  • "Pauper's Plot" (1969)
  • "Microcosm" (1972)
  • "Ash, Ash" (1974)
  • "The Graveyard Cross" (1976)
  • "Magic Man" (1976)
  • "On the Inside" (1976)
  • "The Time Beyond Age" (1976)
  • "Travellers" (1976)
  • "A Small Event" (1977)
  • "The Touch of a Vanished Hand" (1977)
  • "In the Valley of the Statues" (1979)
  • "Earth And Stone" (1980)
  • "Where Time Winds Blow" (1981)
  • "The Phantom of the Valley" (1981)
  • "Manchanged" (1981)
  • "Walking on the Shores of Time" (1981)
  • "The Boy who Jumped Rapids" (1984)
  • "Thorn" (1986)
  • "Scarrowfell" (1987)
  • "The Shapechanger" (1989)
  • "Time of the Tree" (1989)
  • "The Bone Forest" (1991)
  • "The Ragthorn" (1991)
  • "The Silvering" (1992)
  • "Infantasm" (1995)
Novellas
Ryhope Wood Series
Merlin Codex Series
  • Celtika (2001)
  • The Iron Grail (2002)
  • The Broken Kings (2007)
Francoise Jeury Series
  • Necromancer (1978)
  • The Fetch (1991)
The Raven Series
  • Swordsmistress of Chaos (1978)
  • A Time of Ghosts (volume two) (1978)
  • Lords of the Shadows (volume four) (1979)
The Professionals Series
  • Cry Wolf (1981)
  • Operation Susie (1982)
  • The Untouchables (1982)
  • You'll be All Right (1982)
Night Hunter Series
  • The Stalking (1983)
  • The Talisman (1983)
  • The Ghost Dance (1984)
  • The Shrine (1984)
  • The Hexing (1984)
  • The Labyrinth (1988)
Berserker Series
  • Shadow of the Wolf (1977)
  • The Bull Chief (1979)
  • The Horned Warrior (1979)
Novelizations of films
  • Legend of the Werewolf (1976)
  • The Satanists (1977)
  • The Emerald Forest (1985)
Other Novels
  • Eye Among the Blind (1976)
  • Earthwind (1977)
  • Where Time Winds Blow (1982)
  • Ancient Echoes (1996)
Edited Anthologies
  • Stars of Albion (1979)
Other Edens Series
  • Other Edens (1987)
  • Other Edens II (1988)
  • Other Edens III (1989)
Nonfiction
  • Alien Landscapes (1979)
  • Space Wars: Worlds & Weapons (1979)
  • Alien World: The Complete Illustrated Guide
  • Tour of the Universe: The Journey of a Lifetime (1980)
  • Magician: The Lost Journals of the Magus Geoffrey Carlyle (1982)
  • Realms of Fantasy (1983)
  • Lost Realms (1985)
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