Deverry Cycle
US Cover for revised version of the first book, Daggerspell
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| Author | Katharine Kerr |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher |
Bantam Books (USA) Voyager Books (UK, Australia) |
| Published | 1986–present |
| Media type | print (hardcover and paperback) audiobook |
The Deverry Cycle is a series of Celtic fantasy novels by Katharine Kerr set in the fictional land of Deverry. As of November 2009, fifteen books have been published in the series.
The series is written in a non-linear style: the principal narrative is frequently interrupted by flashbacks to events that occurred decades, or even centuries, before. These flashbacks concern the prior incarnations of characters in the principal narrative, and provide insight into the relationships of the characters in their current incarnations.
Kerr began working on what would become the Deverry cycle in 1982, expecting to produce a short story. The project grew much larger than that, eventually expanding into a series of fifteen novels. Kerr has likened the Deverry cycle to a play, dividing the story into four acts:
The novels take place in the world of Annwn (Welsh, meaning "no place") an Earth-like planet in a parallel universe. Annwn has six sapient species: humans, elves, dwarves, Horsekin, Drwgi, and dragons.
There are three human nations on Annwn. They are the kingdom of Deverry, the Rhiddaer, and Bardek. Both Deverry and Bardek were colonized by humans from the "real" world, who arrived there by magical means. Only the people of the Riddaer represent the indigenous humans of Annwn.
The kingdom of Deverry was founded by a fictional Gallic tribe that fled Gaul to escape Roman rule. The tribe accomplished its journey across dimensions with the aid of a powerful magical being. The government of Deverry is feudal with the High King at the top and three lower ranks of nobility. The society is characterized by near-continuous internal warfare.
Bardek is a collection of independent city-states on an archipelago to the south of Deverry. There are oblique suggestions in the novels that Bardek, like Deverry, was settled by people from the "real" world, and the author has stated in online discussions that the people of Bardek are descended from Hellenized Moors. The Bardekian city-states have a democratic system of government, resembling that of Classical Athens.
The Rhiddaer, or Freeland, is located on the same continent as Deverry, to the north and west of that country. It is inhabited by the indigenous humans of Annwn, whose ancestors escaped from enslavement by the early Deverrians. The people of the Rhiddaer no longer have their own language, but speak an archaic dialect of the Deverrian language. They have a democratic system of government, headed by an elected Chief Speaker.
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