OKAY
FINALLY
So
King's Dragon, by Kate Elliott, is set in a world that is very, very heavily based in early medieval Europe. The map IS Europe, centered on the Holy Roman Empire about a century after Charlemagne's death; all of the countries/regions have counterparts here, sometimes only slightly renamed (Westfall, Austra, Gent). Once upon a time the land was united under the Dariyan (Roman) Empire, based out of Darre (Rome), where the skopos (papacy) now sits, and before that people don't really know what went on. Not!Europe is threatened by the Eika, who are not!Vikings that appear to be not human. There's some magic, but it's not part of everyday life, though everyone is aware of the existence of the Aoi (fae, fair folk, elves) in some other dimension and the seemingly more theoretical existence of daimones (demons); religion is much much much more present in everyday life. The religion is centered on the Lord and Lady, who together make up God, but there's also the Blessed Daisan who is basically Jesus plus an obscure gnostic I'd never heard of called Bardaisan - the orthodox tradition is that Daisan had a sort of vision and then ascended to heaven, but there's a heresy that he was actually tortured to death. The orthodoxy/heresy tension isn't very big in this book, but I strongly suspect that it becomes a more major part of later books. There are a lot of saints, mostly martyrs, and biscops (bishops), monasteries, etc. The book opens with a prologue in which a young nobleman named Henry chases down the Aoi mother of his baby son, only to lose her as she goes back to her people; eventually you realize that this Henry is now the not!HREmperor in the present of the novel, and the baby is now the grown up Prince Sanglant.
Our most main characters are Alain, the foster son of a merchant from the western edge of the empire, and Liath, who is hard to sum up ... she and her father traveled all over before settling in not!Denmark, and her father knew sorcery that had to be kept secret. Alain is destined to be given to the church, a plan that's scuppered when the local monastery is devastated by an Eika attack, and instead he's sent to the local count as part of an annual service levy. Liath's father dies, and to pay his debts there's an auction, which includes her as a slave to make up the difference. She is bought by the local priest, who wants her father's knowledge but also wants her as a possession and concubine.
The presence of religion in politics and everyday life is a major part of what makes this feel REALLY medieval, unlike a lot of fantasy. Time is kept by the religious services (nones, terce, etc. etc.) and the date by holidays (Mariansmass, Candlemass, St. Eusebe's Day, etc.). There are a lot of characters who are in the church in various positions and with various personalities, rather than the situation you often see where it's uniformly oppressive, misogynistic, and either zealous and persecuting True Believers or people just using the power of the institution to further their own ends. The characters, particularly Alain, also go to religious faith for comfort when frightened or sad, and both Alain and Liath see a saintly vision at one point (implying a certain amount of realness of the religion to the reader, and conforming with medieval primary sources as well).
Another big point of realism is how much power parents have in deciding their children's futures. "Young people are given more responsibility" is a common trope for "realistic" fantasy, but there should actually be this weird middle ground where teenagers are old enough to do all sorts of occupational stuff, but at the same time are completely under their parents' authority. You often see a sort of enforced childhood that they chafe under or parents wanting them to do something (usually get married) and the characters being shocked and rebellious. But it's the norm and most would accept it, as they do in the book. Alain would rather become a merchant, but he knows what he's supposed to do and is reluctantly willing to do it. Practically everyone in the church is there because their parents chose to put them there, and they're not resentful. Parents assign their children to their future careers with apprenticeships and such. It's just how it is. Duty and obligation.
At the same time, and very interestingly, Elliott vanishes sexism from her version of medieval Europe. The presence of Lord
and Lady in the godhead allows for (or is allowed by?) men's and women's equality in life and marriage. A lot of inheritance is matrilineal, with women largely owning property and their husbands being given a role in running it -
men marry out, while women keep the family property, with the eldest child of each typically doing that and the younger ones going into the church. The heir to the empire is decided by the reigning king sending out his children one by one as they come of age, and the one that gets pregnant or gets his wife pregnant first is seen as divinely chosen. Women do the same kinds of work as men, hold the same kind of positions in the church as men (if not better - all deacons are women, I'm not 100% on what deacons are but it's a position of authority) and sometimes fight as soldiers. There is not even rape culture: men do not think they have the right to a woman's body, women do not fear being raped if they're in dangerous situations. (Liath and Frater Hugh are a sort of special situation: he's violent toward her, but as she's a slave that's expected, he doesn't force her sexually (though there is certainly coercion involved), and I think most of the townsfolk think that he's just sort of offering her a position as his bedfellow, they don't really perceive that he's trying to Own Her.)
( okay, onto the spoilers )Also, the shamelessly over-the-top ca. 2000 fantasy covers ... I have a couple of Mercedes Lackey paperbacks in the same vein.
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