I managed to read my way through most of this novel over the last couple of days. Over all it was pretty good. I can see why it was the Winner of the RT Book Reviews Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Fantasy Novel of 2009.
Unfortunately, I thought the quality of writing was a bit spotty. While parts of it were lyrically beautiful, at times I found myself impatiently skimming over paragraphs and even full pages because there were sections where the writing was just too wordy for me. I thought better editing to cut out the superfluous material would have helped keep the flow going more evenly.
If you are like me, and you prefer your Faeries with a dash of danger and darkness, you may enjoy this story. Faeries who live on this side of the "Gate to the Otherworld" and try to pass for human are called "Aetherials". There is always a Gate Keeper who guards the ways between the different realms, but of course there is something terribly wrong with the reigning one in the story. There are seasonings of "star-crossed love", agonizingly unrequited love, painful adolescent crushes, and some warm sensuality and sex, but it is all part of the plot and doesn't ruin the story. Most of the relationships are quite complicated, and there are plenty of the common sorts of mistakes in judgement and abysmal errors in life choices that people often make. There were moments when I got irritated with a particularly stupid move and felt the urge to knock a character on the old noggin. I suppose that's all part of caring what happens in a story.
Below is an exerpt from the Aetherial creation myth.
I like it because it describes the process of creation and destruction as I imagine it probably does occur - a cycle of implosion and explosion, a spiral inwards and a spiral outwards over and over again. I've long been fascinated with Black Holes and their potential for destruction and creation. I'm also fascinated by those huge holes that people make in their ears these days with ever increasing sizes of "plugs". Staring at such a large void in someone's earlobe seems to have the same inexorable, magnetic sort of effect on me as the Accretion disk around a Black Hole has on any matter which approaches it. I feel dizzy, as if I will fall into the hole, like Alice in Wonderland and who knows what transformation will happen on the other side?
I also love the description of the Star Goddess Estel.
"First there was the Cauldron, the void at the beginning and end of time. As if the void brooded upon its own emptiness, a spark appeared like a thought in the blackness. That spark was the Source. For the first time or the ten millionth time -- we can never know -- the Source exploded in an outrush of the starfire."
"As the star-streams cooled they divided and took on qualities each according to its own nature: stone and wind, fire and water and ether. From those primal energies, all worlds were formed."
"On that outrush came Estel the Eternal, also called Lady of the Stars, who created herself with that first spark of thought. Her face is the night sky, her hair a milky river of stars. For eons Estel presided over the birth of the sun and planets and hidden realms. " (Freda Warrington,
Elfland, p: 62).
Below is a passage describing a city in the homeland of the Aetherials that I thought was quite lovely. I wouldn't mind visiting, in fact I wonder if I have in dreams. :
"Rosie opened the diary and said, "Dad, listen to this."
I see a city of gleaming black stone that shines with jewel-colors; crimson, royal purple and blue. I see labyrinthine passages and rooms where you can lose yourself for days, months."
"Lofty pillars. Balconies onto a crystal-clear night full of stars, great sparkling white galaxies like flowers. Statues of winged men looking down with timeless eyes. I want to stand on those balconies and taste the breeze and hear the stars sing and be washed in the light of the moon. There will be ringed planets, and below -- the tops of feathery trees blowing gently. An undiscovered land full of streams, with birch trees in spring green, and oak and hazel -- and their elemental guardians, slender birch-white ladies with soft hazel brown hair -- and mossy banks folding into water. "
"And through this citadel walk graceful men and women with lovely elongated faces and calm, knowing eyes -- with a glint of mischief -- and they are perfect and know it and they are imperfect and know it. They have seen too much. They might wear robes of medieval tapestry or jeans and a shirt but you would never mistake them for human. It's so much more than beauty. Look at them once and you can't look away. These are Aetherials in their oldest city, Tyrynaia. "
"They have been building the city for thousands of years and it will never be finished. Upwards it spreads, and outwards, and down into the rock below. Their seat of power. Their home."
"They take the names of gods, on occasion.
And sometimes they are heroic and help the world.
And sometimes they are malicious and turn it upside down.
Some might be vampires. It's hard to tell.
In the deepest depths of the citadel, a ceiling of rock hangs over an underground lake and here is Persephone's chamber. She welcomes and cares for those who come, soul-sick with despair, seeking solace, rest and sleep. Here they need not speak, only sit on the black marble lip with their feet on the thick glass, and watch the lake and the luminous fish beneath, which is like a reflection of the sky far above. If you lie down in despair, Persephone will lie down with you." (Freda Warrington,
Elfland p: 519)
The following is a quote from Pablo Picasso. I think it works for both the delights and the terrors that make up fantasy:
