{"id":7598,"date":"2016-03-28T20:23:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T00:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=7598"},"modified":"2025-01-09T17:13:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T22:13:30","slug":"iron-chamber-of-memory-by-john-c-wright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=7598","title":{"rendered":"‘Iron Chamber of Memory,’ by John C. Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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They spent a few moments looking for her dropped hat, gradually circling out from the path as they searched, but they did not find it. It seemed the wind had taken it away and hidden it somewhere among the trees. He found the size of them oddly disquieting, rather like seeing a cow taller than a man.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have shot my mouth off more than once<\/strong> \u2013 publicly \u2013 about my low opinion of most contemporary Christian fantasy. When I do that (and I expect I\u2019ll do it again) I need to make a clear exception for a very few writers. One of those is John C. Wright, author of the new ebook, Iron Chamber of Memory<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I had to find a comparison for this work, the closest thing I can think of is George MacDonald\u2019s Lilith<\/em>. It takes place (mostly) in a world which is ours, but not quite the same as ours. And there are excursions to worlds even stranger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hal Landfall, the hero, is an American student at Oxford University. His best friend is Manfred Hathaway, who has just inherited the Channel island of Sark, \u201cthe last feudal government in Europe.\u201d On Sark no automobiles are permitted, and no electric lights burn at night. Manfred is engaged to the beautiful Laurel. Hal is attracted to her too, but would never dream of making a move on his friend\u2019s fianc\u00e9e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s in our world. There is a secret room in Manfred\u2019s manor house in which all the relationships are different, and all the identities somehow altered. But Hal only remembers this when he enters that room \u2013 so he has to leave himself messages, to \u201ctrick\u201d himself into going there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that room is only the first of a series of secret rooms\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iron Chamber of Memory<\/em> is simply a wonderful fantasy story \u2013 an original and unforgettable work of imagination. It\u2019s about memory, and it\u2019s about sex \u2013 or rather, erotic love. Not a dirty book, but I wouldn\u2019t give it to younger readers. C.S. Lewis described That Hideous Strength<\/em> as a \u201cfairy tale for adults,\u201d and that\u2019s what this is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Splendid stuff. Much recommended. There are a few copyreading errors (or I think they are), especially where Manfred repeatedly gets called Mandrake for no apparent reason. I assume that\u2019s an incomplete search an replace job in the word processing, though there may be a subtle message being sent that I\u2019m just too dense to comprehend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, read this book. Especially if you\u2019re a MacDonald fan. Strong Protestants may take issue with some Roman Catholic sentiments expressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, what a great cover!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They spent a few moments looking for her dropped hat, gradually circling out from the path as they searched, but they did not find it. It seemed the wind had taken it away and hidden it somewhere among the trees. He found the size of them oddly disquieting, rather like seeing a cow taller than … Continue reading ‘Iron Chamber of Memory,’ by John C. Wright<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[1321,1465],"class_list":["post-7598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-iron-chamber-of-memory","tag-john-c-wright"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20378,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598\/revisions\/20378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}