Tillabooks: Will's Book Blog

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

The Snow Queen by Mercedes Lackey

The Snow Queen by Mercedes Lackey. New York: Luna, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-373-80265-4

The latest in the “500 Kingdoms” series by Mercedes Lackey, the undisputed master (or would it be sexist to say “mistress”?) of the fantasy novel for adolescent girls (and boys, and men, and women). Previous novels in this charming and delightful (overworked, but still apt adjectives) series include The Fairy Godmother (2004), One Good Knight (2006), and Fortune's Fool (2007).

So what's the scoop on this latest entry? The Ice Queen is actually a good witch, a benevolent spirit, but further up into the fastness of the north, someone is wickedly impersonating her, and luring handsome young men to their doom. And so the Queen teams up with the latest victim's betrothed and a village witch, plus a couple of blacksmith type wizards to set things aright.

Lots of romantic adventures ensue, to the eventual delight of all.

Only now have I belatedly realized that Luna is a trademark of Harlequin Books! Who knew? Frankly, who cares? Light but vastly entertaining is my enthusiastic verdict. Highly recommended, as were all of the previous instances of this series.

Labels: fairy tales, fantasy, lapland, Mercedes Lackey, north, romance, snow queen, The 500 Kingdoms

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Once Upon an Autumn Eve by Dennis L. McKiernan

Once Upon an Autumn Eve by Dennis L. McKiernan. New York: Roc, 2006. ISBN: 0-451-46069-3

This is the third in McKiernan's series of seasonal fairy tale-inspired stories. It follows in the footsteps of Once Upon a Winter's Night and Once Upon a Summer Day, and is followed by Once Upon a Spring Morn, which I have yet to read and comment upon. Have you noticed how the times of day so neatly correspond with the seasons? Winter and night; summer and day; autumn and evening; springtime and morning. Cute.

If this kind of adult faery tale is your cup of tea, then you'll definitely want to read this one. It's just as good as its predecessors. Liaze, the Princess of the Autumnwood, is our current heroine. Once again (by which I mean, just as in the two previous volumes), she (like her siblings) is ripped away from her lover by one of the four evil witches, acolytes to the evil wizard, Orbane, who has been banished from faery by Liaze's parents.

Once again, Liaze must go on a solitary quest, though eventually joined by worthy if diminutive companions, aided by a rede (poetic prophecy) from Lady Skuld, also known as Lady Wyrd, one of the Fates. Once again there is but a limited time in which to complete the quest and rescue her betrothed knight, the lusty Luc, and many the trials and riddles to endure and solve ere the inevitable happy ending.

In his “Foreword,” McKiernan expresses the fervent hope that this story will hold us (his readers) enthralled. I'm sorry. The first one did, I think. The second one almost did. But by now, the story is becoming just a bit too pat, too predictable, and the overwhelming “niceness” of it all is becoming just a bit too sweet, too much. Yes, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story, and it's just as well-written as the others, but too much of a good thing can still be just that, too much. I probably would have enjoyed it more had I waited a year or two before reading it, so that my sense and remembrance of the previous stories had dulled just a bit. So I don't think I'll be in any big hurry to pick up the fourth volume. Yes, I do want to read it eventually, but not just yet. I need to get the sweet taste out of my mouth first. Recommended, if somewhat gingerly.

Labels: autumn, Dennis McKiernan, eve, faery, fairy tales, fantasy, liaze, luc

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey

Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey. New York: Luna, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-373-80266-1

This is another in Mercedes Lackey's “500 Kingdoms” novels in which she has fun playing with the fairy tale traditions of various countries or ethnic regions. I'm not enough of an expert in this area to analyze all of the traditions she uses, but the primary story takes place in an Eastern European/Russian kind of milieu, with Russalkas, Baba Yaga, and so forth.

Plus we get an undersea kingdom with tritons, mermaids, mermen and sirens (at least mentioned, if not featured). And a nice little side trip diversion to medieval Japan, while the final, culminating episode includes a djinn from the Arabic tradition. All in all, a nice mixture of various traditional cultural folk elements. All woven together into a delightful romance between a princess of the sea kingdom and the seventh prince of the kingdom of Lud Belerus.

One difference between this story and the ones which preceded it (The Fairy Godmother and One Good Knight) is that the rulers of the kingdoms are keenly aware the “the tradition,” the basic law behind this realm of “The 500 Kingdoms,” which attempts to force everything and everyone into the traditional patterns, the archetypical elements of traditional fairy tales, either for good or for ill, for either happy endings, or equally easily into horrific tragedies with truly awful effects on the people who fall into those bad endings.

In the previous books, or so it seemed to me, only fairy godmothers and other high level magical beings were aware of how the tradition wanted to manipulate the lives and stories of the people in the 500 kingdoms, but in this story, the kings of these two kingdoms, at least, are very aware of the tradition; they have deliberately studied it extensively, and work to the best of their ability to manipulate that tradition to the favor of their kingdoms, and those who live in them.

This story involves Ekaterina, “Katya,” the youngest daughter of the Sea King, who, with his court and all of his children, live magically under the sea. The Sea King has carefully groomed each of his children in a role that suits his or her own proclivities, and Katya is his eyes and ears, his intelligence system. She is the only one of his children who can easily switch between land and sea, and so she is often sent on missions to neighboring land-based kingdoms to check on anything unusual or ominous occurring anywhere on the lands that surround their oceanic home.

Interspersed with her story is that of Sasha, the seventh son of the king of Lud Belerus, who because of his seventh son position, has inherited the role of the “fortunate fool.” In addition, he is a “songweaver,” meaning he can influence events magically by singing songs about them. Not big magics, like killing people or healing them, but small magics like better weather, good harvests, good fishing for fishermen, and the like.

Eventually, of course, the two royal children, Sasha and Katya, meet and fall in love. But before they can get on with things in a proper manner, they have to overcome one more monumental challenge. Which they do, bringing together various elements from earlier parts of the story.

Which brings me to the point that in some ways, this novel is a bit of a pastiche of different tales from different cultures, kind of thrown together to create a whole. But each of the individual stories is entertaining enough in its own right, that we don't really mind, especially since the characters are so endearing, and so charmingly portrayed that we are just carried along, happy to be engaged in "The 500 Kingdoms" again for as long as we can. And Lackey DOES bring elements from each previous story into play in the finale, with everything working together for good, as the “good book” says.

Highly recommended for all readers, young and old alike, especially those with a propensity for fairy tales. BTW, you can read the first three chapters online.

Labels: fairy tales, Mercedes Lackey, seventh son, songweaver, The 500 Kingdoms

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Once Upon a Winter's Night by Dennis L. McKiernan

Once Upon a Winter's Night by Dennis L. McKiernan. New York: Roc, 2001. ISBN: 0-451-45840-0

I love fairy tales, don't you? Especially when they're written (or rewritten) for adults. As a child, I didn't get to read them, because my folks didn't believe in such things, and thought fairy stories weren't proper reading for kids. So I never read the spectrum of fairy tales stories that the author mentions in his “Foreword,” The Crimson Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, and so on. This particular story, he says, came from The Blue Fairy Book, and is supposed to be of Norse origin.

The name of the story was “East of the Sun and West of the Moon,” and it was only 11 pages long. To quote the author, “I thought that much too short, and, as is apparent, I did lengthen it a bit.” Quite a bit, in fact, as Once Upon a Winter's Night is a mere 20 pages shy of 400 delightful pages in length.

The tale involves a beautiful, golden-haired poor girl, the youngest of six sisters, who lived on the edge of the realms of Faery. One cold and blustery winter's night, a huge white bear arrives with a note. His master wishes to marry the golden-haired girl who sings in the field. And, not without serious misgivings, she agrees to go to him, riding off on the back of the bear. And thus her adventures begin.

Naturally, there is a dreadful curse, some horrible trolls, ogres and goblins who have to be dealt with, and mainly, there is a lengthy quest, after the prince and his entire household vanish in a flash, when Camille, our plucky heroine, unknowingly violates the terms of the curse. They have been sent to a place “east of the sun, and west of the moon," and no one in all of Faery seems to know where such a place might be. But all's well that ends well, as the bard has said, and we know that there will ultimately be a happy ending.

The reason I read this book, at this particular time (for in fact, I had read it before, probably when it was first published), is that on the new books shelf at my local public library, I recently saw the fourth book in the series, Once Upon a Spring Morn (2006), and naturally decided I should read the books in order. I had forgotten that I had read the first book before, and frankly, I enjoyed it just as much the second time through. The others are Once Upon a Summer's Day (2005) and Once Upon an Autumn Eve (2006).

Highly recommended for all lovers of fantasy and fairy tales. You won't go wrong with this one, and I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the series.

Labels: bear, Camille, Dennis McKiernan, fairy tales, night, winter

Friday, December 16, 2005

Fantasy Author Index

This post is an author index of the fantasy titles that have been reviewed on Tillabooks. Science fiction, mystery and suspense, "other" fiction and nonfiction indexes are also available. This index was last updated on 12/26/2008.

Use the linked letters below to jump directly to that portion of the index.

A | C | D | F | H | K | L | M | R | S | W