Kij Johnson “The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe” (Tor.com, 2016)
The first thing that I heard about this novella, and very
likely the first thing that you ever heard, was that it is a Mythos piece. Well it is, but you can forget about that if
you want to. It is absolutely not
necessary to the enjoyment of this novella to know anything at all about HP
Lovecraft.
Deep in the Dreaming Lands, Vellitt Boe is a professor at a
womens college. One night they discover
that one of the students has run off with a man from the Waking World. This is bad for a couple of reasons. There are forces in the university that don’t
think that women should be educated. And
if someone’s daughter can just run off, then they will use that incident as
fuel for closing the college. More
significantly, the girl is question is the granddaughter of a god. If he wakes up and realizes that she is
missing, then he will likely destroy the entire region.
Vellitt Boe, then is sent off to persuade the runaway
scholar to return. Her journey takes her
to far flung kingdoms in a place where distance and travel time itself changes
according to the wims of powerful beings.
This Dream-Quest is a travelogue of sorts, as Boe avoids
dangers and tries to stop the apocalyptic disruption of her home. It is an exploration of this strange world of
dreamers where people from our world can occasionally appear.
And as I started by saying that you don’t need familiarity
with Lovecraft to enjoy this novella, it is also true that if you have that
familiarity you will be rewarded with seeing a contemporary feminist response
to his view of the Dreaming Lands.
But the novella is ultimately carried by Johnson’s writing
chops. This is a flat out wonderful
novella. Beautifully written and boldly
imagined. I would love to read more of
Boe’s adventures in the Dream Lands, perhaps a prequel?
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