In the late 12th century, a document circulated in Europe purporting to be a letter to the Byzantine Emperor from "Prester John," the ruler of a magical kingdom in India, where one would find not only elephants and camels but also "centaurs, fauns, satyrs, pygmies" and other astonishing creatures. Though the legends were eventually debunked, their hold on the imagination has not lessened. A few years ago, Umberto Eco's Baudolino offered a semi-satirical version; now Lambda-winning fantasy author Catherynne M. Valente has begun a trilogy that combines Eco's fascination with texts and voices with a more earnest take on Prester John's story.
Valente begins with the "confessions" of Hiob von Luzern, a missionary and explorer who, more than 600 years after the letter's appearance, still hopes to find John. "We told each other that he was as strong as a hundred men," Hiob writes, "that he drank from the Fountain of Youth, that his scepter held as jewels the petrified eyes of St. Thomas." Instead, Hiob finds, in a remote village, a tree that grows books, from which he is allowed to pluck three volumes. The first, "The Word in the Quince," is Prester John's own account of his strange adventures, while the next, "The Book of the Fountain," offers the counter-perspective of Hagia, a blemmyae (headless beings whose faces are found on their torsos) who eventually becomes John's wife. Finally, "The Scarlet Nursery" is the memoir of Imtithal, a nursemaid who tells her young charges stories of their homeland. As with any fruit, however, the books are quick to spoil, and Hiob must rush from one volume to the next, hoping to translate and transcribe their contents before they completely deteriorate.
The three stories (and Hiob's attempt to recount them even as they tear away at his faith) interweave marvelously. As John describes his initial fascination with the angels and talking lions of this new land, which he believes might be the Garden of Eden, Hagia recalls her frustration at how John wouldn't stop proselytizing--since everybody in this land can be planted in the ground after their death and return as a tree, nobody has much use for a story about Christ's resurrection. Meanwhile, Imithal's story, which was written centuries earlier, incorporates legends about the Apostle Thomas and his journey to this same kingdom, setting up John's quest to find Thomas's grave, with Hagia and friends in tow. (There's also a more intimate connection between the three books, which Valente doles out slowly, in an exquisite reveal.) While the ending of The Habitation of the Blessed leaves some ambiguity on just how Prester John's story will continue in subsequent volumes, anyone who reaches that point will be eager to discover Valente's solution.--Ron Hogan
Shelf Talker: As Valente's audience in the fantasy community continues to grow, her expert handling of the historical legends surrounding Prester John may be just the thing for readers who shun genre but embrace magic realism in their literary fiction.