Feeling Old?
Maybe you need to follow an aged heroine with a bad back on an epic quest.
Title: Kij Johnson: The Dream Quest of Vellitt Bo
Plot: A middle aged professor chases a wayward student to the ‘waking world’
Good For: Old Age, The Blahs, Jump Start My Life
“The tricks came back: how to fold her spare socks and where the tin box of medical supplies best fit. She stowed a sweater, a blouse, heavy gloves, her flat steel canteen, comb and toothbrush, soap in a small bottle, whetstone and oil, matches—all the oddments of traveling finding their places in the pack as though they knew their way.”
Adventures? Aren’t we like- too old for that?
The Dream Quest, almost a novella at 100 pages begins similarly. An unlikely heroine: Vellitt Bo, an aging college professor with a bad back, embarks on a quest to retrieve a runaway student in a world beset by deadly creatures and powerful, ruthless Gods. Our heroine has no magic powers, no powerful allies, just a small black cat and a dwindling purse.
Vellitt runs up against blood thirsty beasts, power mongering gatekeepers, and an old flame who’s become a King, maintaining his youth and strength, when she (for all appearances) has lost hers.
But, surprise! Some things are better when you’re old. Vellitt outsmarts zooms, ghouls and makes unlikely friends, finding her way to the Waking World, a place without gods beneath a sky full of stars.
Kij Johnson has a careful hand with language, and crafts a rich and beautiful world full of tactile details. It was a pleasure to travel through this world, exploring it with her heroine. As Vellitt travels through place, she also travels through time- remembering the adventures of her younger self and seeing them with new eyes.
At its heart, The Dream Quest is a story about possibility. It’s about one person realizing their dreams through simple perseverance. This is a message I cannot hear enough at this time in my life.. It found me at age 49, and suggested, I pack my bag and begin a quest of my own. Dreams are not only for the young!
