The history, legends, and myths surrounding the man known as King Arthur
are some of the most enduring and inspirational material in the English
language. Like Robin Hood, Arthur’s name
resonates in modern history. The amount
of books, fiction and non-fiction which have been spun off the man is
increasingly difficult to quantify.
Appearing in such a wide variety of Western media and culture, most
people, in fact, have only a hazy idea of who he was or might have been
(including this reviewer), Disney as much a teacher as history class in high
school. C.J. Cherryh an Arthurian
aficionado, she applied her interests in a science fiction novel. Knowledge of the surrounding legends required
for full appreciation, Port Eternity
(1982) is a survival in space story that uses a strong sense of character to
play with Arthurian myth to satisfying degree.
Port Eternity is the story of the crew and passengers of the Maid of Estolat. Dela the
rich and influential owner of the pleasure yacht, she routinely takes her
lovers on lengthy space cruises to indulge in the pleasures of life. A lover of Arthurian legend, she has
decorated her ship in a motif of swords and shields, banners and castles, and,
indulgent in the technology of her age, has had her clone servants psych
profiles set to characters from Arthurian legend. Lance is model man who functions as a
lover. Vivien is her keeper of accounts
and protocol aboard the ship. Gawain is
an engineer, and Mordred is the ship’s pilot.
And the narrator, Elaine, is Lady Dela’s personal servant.
The story opens with Dela’s taking of her latest lover, Griffin, on a
tour of the stars. But quickly, as the Maid just gets into hyperspace, things
go awry. Caught in the spatial-temporal
void between the jump point and their destination, things become even stranger
when a bit of indescribable mass drifts the Maid’s
way. Survival becoming the name of the
day, Elaine, her fellow crew members, and Dela and Griffin come to look at life
from a different perspective as the realities of their new situation slowly
come to light.
Fully a character driven novel, Port
Eternity utilizes the personages established in Arthurian legend to tell a
science fiction story. Plot coming
second, character interaction and the tension which arises due to the social
hierarchy inherent to the clone/born-man duality, as well as the natural
differences in personality, are the book’s focus. The conflict increasingly ripe as the Maid’s position in space becomes better
known, the realizations, sentiments, reactions, and turmoil of subservience vs.
autonomy unravel in focused, satisfactory fashion. The novel short, it nevertheless tells an
affective story culminating in a denouement the reader cannot predict—despite
the legendary roots.
The characters occupying individual roles and the plot of Port Eternity straightforward, it’s more
than possible to enjoy the book at face value.
Knowledge of Arthurian legend, however, allows for a deeper
understanding, and is necessary for complete comprehension. Knowing the history and legend which parallel
the Maid’s plight provides layers of
comparison and contrast available only to those who know Lancelot, Mordred,
Arthur, and the other’s back stories.
In the end, Port Eternity is a
character driven story openly in dialogue with Arthurian legend that tells a
tale of survival in space. The ship the
element binding them all together, personality and social status are the facets
threatening to tear them apart—a situation exacerbated by the tension inherent
to the individuals onboard. Cherryh focusing
on the thoughts and emotions swirling in the midst of this interaction, the
result is a solid story that benefits from the reader’s understanding of Arthurian
legend, but is not fully necessary. For
his love and play with similar themes and topics in his fiction, Poul
Anderson’s The Saturn Game and The Queen of Air and Darkness run as
parallel texts to Cherryh’s, more so than say, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s
re-visioning of Arthurian legend in The
Mists of Avalon.
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