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Opera Vita Aeterna
Apr. 22nd, 2014 09:01 amTheodore Beale, Professional Crank on the Internet (PCotI) is on the Hugo Awards for his novelette Opera Vita Aeterna. (Free download at the moment.) Curiosity having gotten the better of me, I read it last night. Now, full disclosure - I am not a fantasy reader. The only fantasy I read is Jim Hines, Mary Robinette Kowal and whatever hits the final ballot of the Hugos, so take that in consideration.
Opera is definitely high fantasy. The novelette opens with a man walking down the road, past a shockingly Medieval European monastery on a world with two moons. We suddenly learn the man is an elf. He's invited in, where he tells the abbot he killed a Christian missionary and now wants to understand Christ because said missionary had more magical power then any elf.
The abbot invites him to stay - an invitation that stretches 10 years so the elf can copy out the entire bible by hand. While the elf stays, he and the abbot had theological discussions. We're treated to one of them, and my eyes glazed over. At any rate, on the 10 year mark, with the bible about 3/4 done, the elf and two monks head to the nearest city to get supplies and come back to find that goblins have slaughtered the rest of the monks. There's a brief scene where the elf demands that God give the abbot peace in heaven, then we cut 300 years into the future. Apparently the elf finished his bible and the abbot had been writing a book based on their theological discussions which is also finished.
Overall, the story is not as bad as I feared, which is small praise indeed for a Hugo-nominated work. I found the world-building a bit jarring. How much of that is my dislike for bog-standard Dark Ages European fantasy I can't really tell you. I do think the payoff - elf finishes book - was too light for the story. I had no emotional attachment to any character, so that didn't help matters. I also thought the elf's response to the slaughter of his friends was weak - no guilt at not being there to help or blaming himself for putting them at risk, for example.
I've read The Lady Astronaut of Mars. Opera Vita Aeterna is no Lady Astronaut. I haven't read the rest of the offerings, but based on the two I have Opera is at the bottom of my ballot.
ETA: I just re-read Lady Astronaut. Opera doesn't hold a candle to it.
Opera is definitely high fantasy. The novelette opens with a man walking down the road, past a shockingly Medieval European monastery on a world with two moons. We suddenly learn the man is an elf. He's invited in, where he tells the abbot he killed a Christian missionary and now wants to understand Christ because said missionary had more magical power then any elf.
The abbot invites him to stay - an invitation that stretches 10 years so the elf can copy out the entire bible by hand. While the elf stays, he and the abbot had theological discussions. We're treated to one of them, and my eyes glazed over. At any rate, on the 10 year mark, with the bible about 3/4 done, the elf and two monks head to the nearest city to get supplies and come back to find that goblins have slaughtered the rest of the monks. There's a brief scene where the elf demands that God give the abbot peace in heaven, then we cut 300 years into the future. Apparently the elf finished his bible and the abbot had been writing a book based on their theological discussions which is also finished.
Overall, the story is not as bad as I feared, which is small praise indeed for a Hugo-nominated work. I found the world-building a bit jarring. How much of that is my dislike for bog-standard Dark Ages European fantasy I can't really tell you. I do think the payoff - elf finishes book - was too light for the story. I had no emotional attachment to any character, so that didn't help matters. I also thought the elf's response to the slaughter of his friends was weak - no guilt at not being there to help or blaming himself for putting them at risk, for example.
I've read The Lady Astronaut of Mars. Opera Vita Aeterna is no Lady Astronaut. I haven't read the rest of the offerings, but based on the two I have Opera is at the bottom of my ballot.
ETA: I just re-read Lady Astronaut. Opera doesn't hold a candle to it.
