The Morgaine Stories, also known as The Morgaine Cycle, are a series of science fantasy novels by science fiction and fantasy writer C. J. Cherryh, published by DAW Books. They concern a time-travelling heroine, Morgaine, and her loyal companion Nhi Vanye i Chya (Vanye).
The first book in the series, Gate of Ivrel (1976), was Cherryh's first published novel, and followed soon thereafter by Well of Shiuan and Fires of Azeroth. These three works were later collected in an omnibus edition, The Morgaine Saga. In 1988, Cherryh published a fourth book in the series, Exile's Gate. Also in the 1980s, Jane Fancher began a graphic novel adaptation of Gate of Ivrel in close collaboration with Cherryh, but did not complete it.
The construct at the center of these novels is a set of "gates" that facilitate time travel among a series of worlds connected by these gates. Because of the temporal paradoxes involved in time travel, the gates are a threat to universal causality and therefore to the future of innumerable civilizations. To prevent such a calamity, Morgaine is engaged on a centuries-long quest that takes her from world to world via the gates, setting each gate to self-destruct just after she has used it to move on to the next. Cherryh has cited the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Andre Norton as influences in the development of her gate system.[1]
The gates and other items in the stories are based on advanced technology, and there are no magical or supernatural elements presented, so the works can be properly classified as science fiction. But the books feature several tropes common to fantasy, including medieval-type settings and low levels of technology on the worlds depicted in the novels, a feudal-like relationship between the main characters, and medieval-style warfare and weaponry.
The device Morgaine uses to destroy the gates, for example, is a specialized sword, albiet one that incorporates advanced technology. This blending of technology and elements more common to fantasy often results in the books being labeled as works of "Science Fantasy." Indeed, on the author's own Web site she lists them under the heading of "Fantasy Novels," not "Science Fiction." %20STORIES
References
- Cherryh, C. J. Exile's Gate, DAW Books, 1988.
- Cherryh, C. J. Fires of Azeroth, DAW Books, 1979.
- Cherryh, C. J. Gate of Ivrel, DAW Books, 1976.
- Cherryh, C. J. The Morgaine Saga (omnibus), DAW Books, 2000. (Published as The Book of Morgaine in the UK and The Chronicles of Morgaine in NZ)
- Cherryh, C. J. Well of Shiuan, DAW Books, 1978.
External links
- Information on the graphic novel adaptation of Gate of Ivrel on C. J. Cherryh's official Web site
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