Memory, Sorrow and Thorn: The Dragonbone Chair

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is a slightly older series, from the late 80s, which the author himself describes as a “bloated epic.” (And bloated it is: the third “book” of the trilogy is actually two 700-page paperbacks.) I originally became interested in Tad William’s trilogy after reading his short story “The Burning Man” in the Legends anthology, and then discovering on the Internet that this series was very popular. What intrigued me most at the time was that his fantasy world has a version of the Catholic Church — in his books, Jesus Christ becomes “Usires Aedon,” the Cross becomes “the Tree,” etc., and priest and monk characters (some holy, some fallen) play a significant role.

That said, I actually found it very difficult to get into this series. I never felt like I really empathized with the main character, Simon — and I think the author realized his failure in the second book, when he began to transform some of the background characters into main characters — all of whom were more satisfying to read about. I think the most troublesome thing, though, was that the author tended to be extremely verbose, and constantly repeated the same information to the reader, over, and over, and over — from a different character’s viewpoint, for example. Very often — even up to the very last pages — I found myself skimming over large sections of redundant information.

Although I found the ending rushed and generally unsatisfying, it did have an interestingly unique message: that hatred and revenge are ultimately useless. At the end, the Sauron-like enemy is defeated when Simon and Camaris forgive him. It’s a powerful moment, but ultimately marred by the author’s inability to integrate their choice with the series’ earlier pseudo-Christian moral messages.