"Born to Exile" by Phyllis Eisenstein
Born to Exile by Phyllis Eisenstein, © 1977 hardback, Arkham House
This is the 21st in my series of Forgotten Books
Phyllis Eisenstein is a fantasy writer pretty much forgotten these days. It has been 20 years since her last novel appeared, though there have been a scattering of short pieces around. During the period from 1975 through 1989 she published six novels and about a dozen short pieces. She gathered Hugo and Nebula nominations during that period. Her last nominated piece appeared in 1999 while a short story collection appeared in 2003.
BORN TO EXILE is her first book. It consists of several novellas stitched together to make a patchwork novel. Or a short story collection. Call it what you want, it is a fun piece of work. BORN TO EXILE is the story of Alaric, a traveling minstrel in a medieval society. He goes from place to place running into adventure and love and action and resolving puzzles but never quite resolving his own life and purpose. He is looking for answers and while he finds other people’s, he does not answer his own. He possesses the rare ability to teleport himself from place to place which is a fine talent for a minstrel.
"Born to Exile" by Phyllis Eisenstein
I first encountered these stories in the pages of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction back in those days when I had a subscription. A new Eisenstein story was always a cause for joy. Later, the stories were collected by Arkham House with a nice Steve Fabian jacket and interior illustrations. It was Eisenstein’s first book and she followed it with four others as well as a sequel IN THE RED LORD’S REACH (1989), which was her last novel. The stories have the ring of truth that made Manley Wade Wellman’s WHO FEARS THE DEVIL collection of Silver John stories the treasure that it is. These stories come close to that high standard set by Wellman. The book was reprinted several times in the US and the UK and is generally pretty available on the used book market.
I was also fond of her novel SORCERER’S SON (1979) and its sequel THE CRYSTAL PALACE (1988). According to Wikipedia, she retired from her teaching position in 2009 to devote more time to professional writing. I, for one, will be looking for the fruits of those labors.
Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.
I’ve seen Phyllis Eisenstein’s books, but I’ve never read one. After reading your review, I’ll be seeking them out. Thanks for the recommendation!
YOW! George. Goodness, yes. This is one of the books I always cite to people wondering why anyone would read sword and sorcery fiction…Eisenstein’s Alaric stories stand unashamedly with Leiber’s, Vance’s, Russ’s Alyx, Janet Fox’s, KE Wagner’s and relatively few others’.
Typo alert…novellae or novellas, above. A novelet or two, maybe, too. Excellent choice, Scott. I never really thought about the Arkham House and minstrelsy parallels to Wellman and John before.
Todd: Thanks for the correction. I have fixed the mistake.
You got me on the minstrel part. As a former music major with “fond” memories of music history and its jongleurs and troubadours, this sounds like an interesting and unusual book. Thanks!
George – Like Todd said, this is one of the really good ones. I would have loved to have seen this series continue, but am happy with what is out there. Perhaps Phyllis will give us more.
BV – Go forth and read.
Todd – Thanks for the correction. And Paul, thanks for making it. I do need to spend more time on proofing these columns.