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In the opening pages of Under the Skin, a lone female is scouting the Scottish Highlands in search of well-proportioned men: "Isserley always drove straight past a hitch-hiker when she first saw him, to give herself time to size him up. She was looking for big muscles: a hunk on legs. Puny, scrawny specimens were no use to her." At this point, the reader might be forgiven for anticipating some run-of-the-mill psychosexual drama. But commonplace expectation is no help when it comes to Michel Faber's strange and unsettling first novel; small details, then major clues, suggest that something deeply bizarre is afoot. What are the reasons for Isserley's extensive surgical scarring, her thick glasses, her excruciating backache? Who are the solitary few who work on the farm where her cottage is located? And why are they all nervous about the arrival of someone called Amlis Vess?
The ensuing narrative is of such cumulative, compelling strangeness that it almost defies description. The one thing that can be said with certainty is that Under the Skin is unlike anything else you have ever read. Faber's control of his medium is nearly flawless. Applying the rules of psychological realism to a fictional world that is both terrifying and unearthly, he nonetheless compels the reader's absolute identification with Isserley. Not even the author's fine short-story collection, Some Rain Must Fall, prepared us for such mastery. Under the Skin is ultimately a reviewer's nightmare and a reader's dream: a book so distinctive, so elegantly written, and so original that one can only urge everybody in earshot to experience it, and soon. --Burhan Tufail
Book Description
Hailed as "original and unsettling, an Animal Farm for the new century" (The Wall Street Journal), this first novel lingers long after the last page has been turned.
Described as a "fascinating psychological thriller" (The Baltimore Sun), this entrancing novel introduces Isserley, a female driver who picks up hitchhikers with big muscles. She, herself, is tiny-like a kid peering up over the steering wheel. Scarred and awkward, yet strangely erotic and threatening, she listens to her hitchhikers as they open up to her, revealing clues about who might miss them if they should disappear. At once humane and horrifying, Under the Skin takes us on a heart-thumping ride through dangerous territory-our own moral instincts and the boundaries of compassion. A grotesque and comical allegory, a surreal representation of contemporary society run amok, Under the Skin has been internationally received as the arrival of an exciting talent, rich and assured.
Customer Reviews:
Would not recommend.......2007-08-28
I read at least 1 or 2 books every week or so and this is possibly the worst book I have ever read. Someone gave this book to me a while ago and since I had run out of books, I decided to read this one. Had I had the time to go get a new book, I would have thrown it out at anytime during the week it took me to read it. I got the feeling he was a card carrying member of PETA and trying to make a statement. I had never heard of this author, so maybe that's what he is all about and if you're into those kind of books, you might like it. I stuck with it until the end.....and it never got any better for me.
Humor, horror, and satire.......2007-08-04
I didn't realize it was possible to laugh, cry, and feel sick all at the same time, but that's the effect this novel had on me. You may very well be tempted to turn vegan once you see what becomes of humans at the hands of Isserly and her associates. Faber writes beautiful,lyrical, painful prose that will haunt you.
A wonderful read.......2007-04-08
A wonderfully imaginative and thought provoking horror novel from one of the most talented writers out there. If you're expecting another 'Crimson Petal...' be forewarned; this is completely different although it's just as full of surprises. I absolutely loved it. Quite possibly one of the best books I've ever read
Didn't like it at all.......2007-03-20
I really enjoyed Crimson Petal and the White but was very disappointed by this book. It wasn't the writing, because I find Michael to be a page turner. Just not my cup of tea. I didn't like the subject matter at all. Too "out there" for me.
Under The Skin...Strenge...very strange!.......2006-11-10
Once again I bought a book based on the author's previous work. I absolutely loved Faber's Crimson Petal and the White, but was not really thrilled with this one. If you are into SciFi as well as mystery you would probably like this one.
Book Description
A decade before her dazzling breakthrough novel, The Birth of Venus, Silver Dagger Award-winning author Sarah Dunant won critical acclaim for her Hannah Wolfe crime novels.
In Under My Skin, private investigator Hannah Wolfe's cushy new assignment takes her to the sumptuous Castle Dean health spa. While being plucked, crimped, steamed, and oiled, Hannah is ideally placed to probe some reported cases of sabotage -- fish in the Jacuzzi and steel nails in the massage heads. But spa owner Olivia Marchant has other problems besides sabotage. Someone is threatening her husband, Maurice, one of London's leading cosmetic surgeons and the man responsible for reconstructing many of the world's rich and famous. In a culture where no one wants to grow old and everyone seems to believe in the power of the knife, Hannah feels like an alien visitor. People will do anything in the name of beauty -- perhaps even commit murder.
Customer Reviews:
A great hip mystery.......2006-08-20
Hannah Wolfe is a young, hip London private detective. There are three Hannah Wolfe books, "Fat Farm", "Birth Marks", and "Under My Skin". In "Under My Skin", Hannah goes undercover at an exclusive spa. Someone has been playing some nasty tricks to hurt the business. It sounds like an easy job, and Hannah can get some free beauty treatments, but as usual in a Hannah Wolfe mystery, things soon get more complicated and more serious. All three of these mysteries are really well-written, intelligent, modern, and very fun to read. I really like Hannah, who is very smart, competent and resilient, and funny, without being annoyingly tough. I recommend this series very highly.
An easygoing who-dunnit.......1997-04-01
Hannah Wolfe is a private eye on a simple job to a health farm. Who is tampering the hot bats? Who replaces the massage oil with something nasty? It is all quickley revealed to make way for the real problem: the owner of the farm is married to an surgeon and something went wrong during the last six months of the marriage. One of the blurbs on the UK edition says: "the plot is crowded like a traffic jam." And it shure is!
This is a book in the best english/US tradition. Not too many pages (very english), not to many but some red herrings, a little love, some personal problems and an almost happy end. It is surely not the best i've read but is quite enjoyable.
Book Description
James Rudolph Youngblood, aka Jimmy the Kid, is an enforcer, a "ghost rider" for the Maceo brothers, Rosario and Sam, rulers of "the Free State of Galveston," who are prospering through illicit pleasures in the midst of the Great Depression. Raised on an isolated West Texas ranch that he was forced to flee at age eighteen following the violent breakup of his foster family, Jimmy has found a home and a profession in Galveston -- and a mentor in Rose Maceo.
Looming over Jimmy's story like an ancient curse is the specter of his fearsome father. Their ties of blood, evident since Jimmy's boyhood, have been drawn tighter over time. Then a strange and beautiful girl enters his life and a swift and terrifying sequence of events is set in motion. Jimmy must cross the border and go deep into the brutal and merciless country of his ancestors -- where the story's harrowing climax closes a circle of destiny many years in the making.
Customer Reviews:
The mexican border .......2007-06-27
It was alright. At first you might not catch on cause of all the spanish, but it will be well worth the read once you get further along in the book.
It was kind of short. Page numbers had nothing to do with it, it was just that the story seemed kind of short. I gave this mexican 3 stars.
Elmore Leonard With Teeth.......2003-07-14
This novel by James Carlos Blake reminds me of Elmore Leonard but tougher, maybe a little darker. Set in Texas and Mexico, it is a crime novel with the flavor of a later-day western. Since Pancho Villa appears briefly in the story it can be considered an historical western, but why quibble? On the back of the hardback, there is a quote from The Washingston Post about another of Mr. Blake's books but speaking of his work in general. "He knows in his bones," the Post reviewer declares of Mr. Blake, "that violence is at the heart of American history." Huh? Did this reviewer skip World History 101? The bloody tapestry of European history, woven with pogroms, inquisitions, psychotic rulers, incessant religious wars and ethnic cleansing, makes American history look like a Manhattan cocktail party. What we are talking about here is conflict. A novel without conflict is hardly a novel at all. Conflict resolution is at the heart of any story. Mr. Blake has chosen the crime genre for his current subject and the resolution of conflict among gangsters is -- yep, you guessed it --often violent. If you like Elmore Leonard, you will enjoy "Under The Skin".
Undertones of dreams perverted by greed. Also a great story........2003-05-13
This novel is the story of James Rudolph Youngblood, but you'll call him Jimmy Youngblood and drop the Rudolph if you know what's good for you! His father was Rodolfo Fierro, a Mexican revolutionary who ran with Pancho Villa during the decade long Mexican Revolution. Fierro was Villa's chief executionar and one day he killed 300 enemy prisoners in about 3 hours with a gatling gun. After that he crossed the border into Texas and visited a whorehouse for some much needed relaxation. He chooses a blue eyed, fair skinned prositute for the night and although neither of them can speak the other's language an undeniable and powerful connection is formed between them based soley on mutaual, instinctual, sexual desire. For reasons she does not herself understand the white prostitute, Ava, removes her contraception device during their night of sexual play and becomes pregant with Fierro's child. Fierro himslef of course left before before day break and goes back to fight the Mexican revolution and die his inevitably violent death, never knowing about his bastard son by an anglo whore. Ava, the white protstitute, decides that she wants to keep her child and agrees to marry a customer of hers, Cullen Youngblood, who keeps pestering her with the offer of marriage. At first she kept refusing but once she learns of her pregant condition she accepts Cullen Youngblood's offer on condition that she be allowed to keep the child even though it is not Cullen's. She even tells him that the child is probably Mexican. At first he is upset but decides to marry her anyway. Thus in such bizzare and unlikely cirumstances is Jimmy Youngblood brought into the world. Of course Ava does not tell anyone who Jimmy's father really is even though she secretly takes pride in the fact that her boy's father was such a notirious killer of men. Jimmy knows nothing of his mother's past as a whore and he does not even know she is his mother, he thinks his mother died giving birth to him and that Ava is his aunt. Jimmy has the brown skin of a Mexican but the blue eyes of an anglo. He grows up on Cullen Youngblood's ranch with his half brother Reuben. His life is uneventful except for the fact that he is so good at shooting it is scary. Eventually he runs into trouble with the law and is forced to run away from home and make his own way in the world. He ends up working for an Italian gangster named Rose Maceo who runs all organized crime, gambling, prositution, bootlegging, etc. in Galvaston County, Texas. The novel mostly takes place in 1936. Jimmy is the chief enforcer for Rose Maceo, he is the number 1 assassin for the organization. Jimmy is always beating, crippling, or killing someone but it is always someone who deserves it. His life changes when he encounters a beautiful young Mexican girl, Daniella, who herself is on the run from a rich but evil Mexican hacienda owner. This Mexican hacienda owner, Ceaser Cavalres, kidnapped Daniella from Texas and married her in Mexico on his extensive estate. At first she was awed by his wealth and agreed to marry him but she soon realizes that she is nothing but a prisoner in a gilded cage. She escapes to America and comes to Galveston and meets Jimmy Youngblood. Meanwhile, Ceaser Cvaleres has sent his henchmen after her in order to kidnap her and bring her back to him. It does not take a genius to figure out what happens next, let the mayhem and killing begin! Some nice plot twists for Ceaser Cavalres has a connection with Jimmy Youngblood's past even a experienced and savy reader wont see coming. Lots of moral ambiguity as their is no "good guy" in this novel. Even the "bad guy" Ceaser Cavleres has his sympathic momements. See Rodolfo Fierro, Jimmy's father, might have been a genuine revolutionary fighting for the poor and opressed in a fascist society but he was also a bloodthirsty convict who enjoyed mass murder. Ceaser Cavleres might be a tyranical, elitist land owner who makes his profits off of the hard labor of the peon but even he has feelings and needs. Jimmy himself is sympathic yet he is also somewhat evil as he kills and maims people on a reguar basis. His father may have been a revolutionary but he certainly is not for he works for a pure capitalist gangster. At the same time he is not as blood thirsty as his father. Complex and belivible characters make their choices in a world not sharply contrasted in black and white but like real life is a muddle of different tones of gray. This is no sappy love story, someone dies every 10 pages or so. Not Blake's best but far from his worst.
Good--But Not On Par With Blake's Other Work.......2003-04-18
While entertaining, I found this book too similar in plot to "A World Of Thieves", Blake's last novel. Both books, moreover, are substantially shorter than most of Blake's prior outstanding works. I hope this does not mean that we can look forward to Blake cranking out short, mediocre,and formulaic books in the future in order to cash in on his reader's loyalty (ala Larry McMurtry). Nevertheless, if you like Blake (and there is very much to like) you will undoubtedly enjoy this book.
Poetic violence, beautiful brutality.......2003-02-13
Is it merely coincidence that the anti-heroes in James Carlos Blake's ultra-violent passion plays are constantly crossing state lines, fences, deserts and rivers to reach their fates?
Don't count on it. Mankind's greatest stories from Homer to Hemingway have required their heroes to cross perilous thresholds, from their safe, familiar worlds into a place that would challenge their bodies, hearts and minds. To fail is to die; to succeed is to change irreversibly.
And blood is almost always spilled. Blake has merely elevated bloodshed to a fine art.
Blake's newest contribution to historical crime fiction is "Under the Skin," a borderland noir about love and crime in Depression-era coastal Texas and northern Mexico. But the real borders it crosses are not just geographic.
The bulk of the story is set in gritty and bohemian Galveston in the first few days of 1936, but it really begins 22 years earlier, when Pancho Villa and his most bloodthirsty captain visit an El Paso whorehouse and plant the seed of destiny.
Blake was born in Mexico and raised in Texas, and is among the brightest stars in historical fiction, particularly where bad men make good stories. All his books have been set in the turbulent times between the dawn of Manifest Destiny and the Depression, wherever humans could inflict the most inhumanity on each other.
"Under the Skin" is brutal and beautiful. Blake's savage crime saga isn't driven only by the body count nor its cold-blooded cruelty. What makes this book -- and Blake's others -- truly horrific are passages of pure poetry and the haunting beauty of Blake's writing.
Few writers can skillfully blend the poetic and the perverse, as if the esoteric and animalistic sides of the brain shared an impermeable border. But as Blake has shown, borders are made to be crossed: John Gregory Dunne ("True Confessions") and James Ellroy ("My Dark Places") are among the most seasoned travelers to cross that particular boundary, but Blake lives there.
His unflinching prose drives stake through fainter hearts, but Blake explores dark borderlands of the human spirit. He has rightfully been hailed as one of the most original writers in America today, and is certainly one of the bravest. "Under the Skin" and his other previous stories all have the seductive fascination of a beautiful song scrawled in blood.
Book Description
"I was born with skins too few. Or they were scrubbed off me by...robust and efficient hands."
The experiences absorbed through these "skins too few" are evoked in this memoir of Doris Lessing's childhood and youth as the daughter of a British colonial family in Persia and Southern Rhodesia Honestly and with overwhelming immediacy, Lessing maps the growth of her consciousness, her sexuality, and her politics, offering a rare opportunity to get under her skin and discover the forces that made her one of the most distinguished writers of our time.
Customer Reviews:
Not a Sucker.......2007-06-24
This is a hard-hitting piece of autobiography. Lessing looks at her parents and their world of colonial mastery from the point of view of her younger, increasingly disenchanted self. Lessing was gathering steam in those years, to emerge as one of the prominent novelists of the post-war era. In this, the first of a two-volume autobiography, she is beginning to grow critical of her parents, colonialism, white supremacy, men - her husband in particular - and just beginning to flirt for a short time with the great experiment in group-think of the period known as Communism. She falls for it for a time, but not for long. It will take her a while, but she finally emerges along with George Orwell as the most articulate critic of this mindless, toxic form of self-imposed mental slavery. She writes of her fellow-traveling, communist-sympathizing friends as silly people, which strikes me as as good a way to think of them as any. Lessing provides, along with her political autobiography, a lovely evocation of Africa, the landscape and people, about whom she wrote as a young novelist and to whom she has continued to refer throughout her long and continuing career as a writer.
Not just an autobiography.......2003-04-21
Doris Lessing has led such an interesting life, and writing a diary all the time. She writes of a time completely foreign to me, living a history of the changes in Southern Afica. I find her autobiography a great read, and prefer it to her novels. Interesting and moving, and explains much about her!
masterful autobiography.......2003-02-07
Under My Skin
Doris Lessing's autobiography traces her political and emotional development from her earliest childhood memories to her growing, overwhelming, disenchantment with provincial (as she saw it) small town life. "Small town" life for her was pre-WWII Salisbury in the (then) British colony of Southern Rhodesia. Salisbury was a complacent capital city of 10,000 white settlers in a country the size of Spain.
Lessing is quick to debunk the myth of the prosperous, close knit, white farming community - poverty was a real fact of life both for blacks and whites. Her most vivid childhood memories are of escaping from the family home and off into the limitless veld. The emptiness of the veld parallels her youthful emptiness and her growing convictions that the communist party represents a real hope for the world.
The book, a masterpiece of autobiographical writing, is brutally honest in parts and wilfully obscure in others. Some of her emotional mistakes are hardly glanced at (leaving her first two children, for example) but others (the joys of being part of a fast, hard drinking sect, embracing radical politics) are wonderfully engaging. Reading her thoughts you could be forgiven for thinking that the "party" was the only opposition to conservative white rule in Salisbury. This is what makes her book so appealing, her supreme skill as a novelist allowing us to enter the heady world of rushed meetings, leftist newspaper deliveries, drinks on the sports club verandah and back in time to find the cook still waiting to prepare supper. Naturally it couldn't last and Lessing is far too intelligent to think that that is all there is to life. The book ends in 1949 as she arrives in London, apprehensive and hopeful in the capital city of her parents.
This is more than a `who-did-what' from a long time ago, times and dates are (probably deliberately) rarely mentioned. It is the personalities and the ideas - most of all the ideas - sliding from youthful enthusiasm to mature realism which fuse the book with life and vitality. `Under My Skin', published in 1992, is that rare thing, a candid autobiography written by a consummate novelist with skills to spare. Doris Lessing is a national treasure.
Unvarnished........2002-12-11
This is a candid autobiography with as main themes love, sex (good sex, as Doris Lessing calls it, is a right for everybody) and politics in South-Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) ruled by a blank minority.
It is a gripping, moving and realistic picture, wherein the author tries to find answers to personal and more general human questions: why was she so outspoken rebellious and, on the contrary, so strictly loyal to the communist movement?
Why are people fighting relentlessly each other, and on the other hand, striving for happiness?
Are the people of her generation all children of World War I? Why was her father a freemason?
This book is written like an irresistible waterfall. Not to be missed.
From Bronzed Artemis to Published Author.......2001-09-03
I loved every moment of reading this book.
It begins with the story of how Doris Taylor's parents' met in the aftermath of World War I, in the hospital where her mother was a nurse and her father was recovering from the loss of a leg. With remarkable vividness she describes her earliest experiences, first in a country house in the mountains of Persia (now Iran) and then in the city of Teheran.
The Taylors then moved to a farm in Southern Africa. Except the farm wasn't actually there yet - when they got there, the land had to be cleared and the house built. Doris describes her father sitting and smoking with the native African foreman of the crew that was building the house, talking with great profundity but just a few words, while the little Doris played nearby. This scene stood out for me, because it seemed to explain why the young Doris always took it for granted that the indigenous people were human beings deserving of equal rights, when the society she was growing up in was based on the premise that they were not. Yet she never mentions her father, whom she also describes as criticizing her mother for speaking disrespectfully to the servants, as a positive influence in this area.
I loved the book's evocation of landscape; the plants, animals, earth and sky of southern Africa. The girl whose story this is seems a part of that landscape, a creature of bush and veld and vlei. She struck me as unflappable, irrepressible, sensual, and somehow larger than life. When she describes the first money she earned, by shooting some birds and selling them to the local butcher, I imagined her a bronzed Artemis, striding through the bush with a rifle over her shoulder. It seems this was her true home, which she loved passionately, yet where she could not live, because the exploitation of the indigenous people was intolerable and would have driven her insane if she'd stayed. She hasn't exactly described the loss, in so many words, but I feel it, poignantly.
This autobiography is also a remarkable piece of history, vividly documenting British colonialism in Southern Rhodesia during this period, as well as World War I and its effects on an entire generation, World War II, and the influence of colonial racism in pushing whites who couldn't stand the injustice into communism.
If you are a Doris Lessing fan, you must read this book. If you'd like a first-hand history of the first half of the 20th century, read it. If you're not a Lessing fan because you've tried to read her work and found it too wordy or intellectual, you might really enjoy this one. Loved it!
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Under My Skin: A Hannah Wolfe Crime Novel
Sarah Dunant
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
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ASIN: 0786272414 |
Book Description
A New York Times Bestselling Author
A Silver Dagger Award-winning Author
A decade before her dazzling breakthrough novel, The Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunant won critical acclaim for her Hannah Wolfe crime novels. Private investigator Hannah Wolfe's cushy new assignment takes her to the sumptuous Castle Dean health spa, to probe some reported cases of sabotage. But fish in the Jacuzzi and steel nails in the massage heads aren't spa owner Olivia Marchant's only problem.
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A flor de piel/ Under the Skin (Narrativa, S.a./ Narrative)
Esther Lopez Haro
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 8496641384 |
Book Description
Orphans of the Storm
Lorcan was the son of the noble house of Erondale, but when war came to the dales and his father was killed, he could only flee to safety and hope for a better day. Fostered by relatives until he was turned out by a vicious cousin jealous of his legacy, Lorcan joined with others to fight marauders bent on murder and looting. All the while, Lorcan hoped for peace and a place he could settle and begin anew.
Meive, a noble lass of Landale, was lucky to survive a brutal attack on her dale led by a malcontent who joined with marauders for his own revenge. Like Lorcan, Meive sought only a haven from the violence, a bit of land where she could keep the honeybees that were her blessing and her responsibility.
When these two dispossessed young people meet, neither knows what will come of it. But together they are determined to fight the marauders and reclaim the ravaged land. With a dedicated band of loyal companions and the help of Goddess-blessed warrior bees, they will fight to the last to stake their claim for freedom and a new life. But Lorcan’s vengeful cousin, riding with a crew of bloody raiders, could shatter the dream of a peaceful land . . .
Customer Reviews:
Entertaining Read.......2007-03-10
Silver May Tarnish is another collaboration between Lynn McConchie and Andre Norton. From what I understand, Ms. McConchie wrote a large volume set in Andre Norton's Witch World, and when Ms. Norton read it, she recommended that it be split up into three novels and gave permission for them to be published as part of the Witch World series.
That was a good move, as both _Silver May Tarnish_ and _The Duke's Ballad_ have been good, entertaining books. While they don't plumb depths that some modern fantasy novels try to reach, they are certainly addictive. The endings in both are a bit too neat, but some of that is because the protagonists do a good job of planning ahead and the villians in either book are, while plenty evil, not as powerful or competent as one often encounters in grand fantasy. This is by no means a criticism; to the contrary, I think it lends a surprising note of realism to the books. Good, competent people who have gone through rough times but have gained experience from it are placed in a difficult spot, and find a clever way to prevail against evil but humanly flawed villians.
The magic used in both novels is not overwhelmingly powerful or menacing, but more hearth-side magic. This also helps add to the air of realism of these books, as if the characters could have come from our own family, friends, neighbors, or enemies. There is certainly a place for this kind of "everyday," approachable fantasy in a market dominated by complex, epic tales where both the heroes and villians wield earth-shattering powers.
Very Nice.......2007-01-16
I have to say, I'm becoming a major fan of Lyn McConchie. She's proven very adept at writing what I call "comfort novels", the engaging kind of fare I love to read on a snowy winter's evening, curled up under heaps of quilts and comforters while the snow falls and the wind howls across the eaves. Her latest title, "Silver May Tarnish", is such a book.
Given that Lyn has co-authored several other of my favorite Andre Norton titles, among them "Ciara's Song" and "The Duke's Ballad", she has gotten very comfortable working in Norton's world of Estcarp and Karsten. "Silver May Tarnish" is Lyn's first work set across the ocean to the west, in the land of High Hallack, more commonly known as "The Dales".
Long-time Norton fans will know that she first introduced the Dales in her book "The Year of the Unicorn" over 40 years ago. Under the influence of an extraterrestrial race called the Kolder, evil men from overseas called the Hounds of Alizon introduced futuristic super-weapons to the Dales. The results was great ruin throughout the land, as Alizon laid waste to innumerable dales, smashing mighty stone keeps like fragile teacups, scorching the land, and slaughtering innocents by the thousands. Eventually the Dalefolk were able to gain the upper hand and, at great cost, expel the invaders.
It is a distressing, all-too-common feature of the evening news that lands wracked by total war can take generations to recover. Even when the enemy has gone, anarchy reigns: heartless "wolfshead" bandits wander through the lands, bereft of property, craft and kin, eager only to destroy and make everyone else suffer as well. They have no thought for the future; they care only about satisfying their lusts for food, drink and women, no matter the cost.
But some handle such adversity more nobly, such as the chief protagonists of "Silver May Tarnish". Lorcan of Erondale was only a boy when Alizon invaded, destroying everything and everyone he loved. He became a warrior and fought the enemy to the bitter end. Then he set out to find a new home, with thoughts of healing the land rather than further harming it. Of like mind is Meive, sole survivor of the massacre of Landale. She, however, does not leave her ancestral home, popularly known as "Honeycoombe", because of a special gift she has: a great rapport with honeybees, including a special giant sort of "winged warriors" with inch-long stingers who can handle invaders with frightful aplomb.
It is inevitable that at some point Lorcan and Meive will meet up. They share a special kinship, both with each other and with the chief villain of the novel, Hogeth of Paltendale. Will Lorcan and Meive achieve their dreams of bringing life once more to Honeycoombe? Or will evil ones like Hogeth tear all their hard work down, leading to yet another mass slaughter and endless woe?
As Andre Norton did in some of her own Dale novels, Lyn takes turns writing from the viewpoint of both protagonists: a few chapters at a time with Lorcan, then a few with Meive. Sometimes the storyline overlaps, as when Meive early on rescues Lorcan from bandits, and we get to read the account from both viewpoints.
One of the things I appreciate about Lyn's work is her characterizations; she writes with warmth about sympathetic, believable people whom the reader comes to view as friends. We mourn when certain ones are killed off, and rejoice when things go well for others.
An interesting side note: as "Ciara's Song" and "The Duke's Ballad" both refer to songs within the story, so too "Silver May Tarnish" refers to "a sword song" found at the start of the book, as well as a ballad printed on page 235 of the paperback edition. In all cases, the songs help to set the tone of the stories, and are a nice touch. I can even hear the music.
I don't know if Lyn plans on writing any sequels to "Silver May Tarnish", but I'll eagerly read any that come along. Andre Norton's death in 2005, after an incredibly long and productive career, left a definite void: no one will ever be able to write science fiction and fantasy like she did, over more than 70 years spanning eight decades. But Lyn McConchie has found her own voice, and the worlds Andre created live on.
A Season for War.......2006-08-26
Silver May Tarnish (2005) is the fourth Fantasy novel of the Witch World Chronicles. In this novel, the Hounds of Alizon invaded the Dales of High Hallek with their war machines, overrunning Dales and leaving behind ruins, bodies and dead vegetation. Yet the Dalesmen and their allies, the Riders of the Waste, slowly drove the invaders back until all Alizons were killed.
Lancor is the youngest son of the Lord of Erondale. His family is a cadet branch of the Lords of Palendale. The two Dales foster the sons of each other for weapon training and other education required of a lord.
Lancor was declared to be a child of sorrow by the wisewoman Aynera. Three sorrows were the death of his mother, then of his younger sister, and finally the death of his father and older brothers when the Alizon assault came to Erondale. Nor was this to be the end of his sorrow. Yet the wisewoman stated that he would find joy in flowing gold.
After the destruction of Erondale by the Alizons, young Lancor fled with his weaponmaster to Palendale. There he worked at hunting game to feed the many refugees. Yet Lord Hogar's third son, Hogeth, became his enemy and Lancor fled the household as soon as he was able after reaching his majority.
Lancor joined the Dales army fighting the invaders, becoming a scout in the troop of Lord Salden under the false name of Farris of Eldale. He becomes friends with Aran of Tildale, a man of middling honesty, but always fair to his friends. The two scouts lead the Tildale troop to many battles, including the last one at Hagar Pass. There the troop hold back the Alizons fleeing from the last battle, but only four troopers survive.
Meive is a child of Landale, which is also called Honeycombe for its superb bees. At the age of ten, Meive is chosen by the queen bees as apprentice of Ithia, the wisewoman who speaks with the bees. She is trained somewhat by Ithia for the next two years and then moves into Ithia's cottage at the age of twelve for more advanced training. Her family asks for a two day delay so that they can throw a party for the departing daughter.
Landale is blessed by its remote location and hidden entrance. None of the invaders approach anywhere near the Dale. After the war, bandits attack Merrowdale, a larger valley nearby. Then these bandits attack Landale, with a former resident as their guide. Everyone in Landale is killed except Meive, who has been sent away with the beehives to a distant cave.
With the assistance of the queen bees, Meive lures the bandits into the cave and poisons them. Neeco, the traitor, doesn't drink the deadly mead, but he is stung many times by warrior bees and slowly dies of their stings. Meive relents after a time and gives him succor.
This novel tells of the meeting of Lancor and Meive and their plans to rebuild Honeycombe. They gradually accumulate warriors and other homeless people, all approved by the bees, and settle into the keep and cots of the dale. However, Hogeth still nurses a hatred for Lancor and even believes him to be a source of countless gold pieces. They soon become aware that he is hunting for Lancor.
Although Meive is a wisewoman, her powers differ from those of most wisewomen. Her powers will not fade if she has children. She hopes that her daughters will also become Wisewomen of Bees. She is almost certain that Lancor will be their father.
This is one of the last works influenced directly by Andre Norton. While McConchie wrote a shorter version of the story, she felt that it was an awkward length. So she sent it to Norton and received a reply that her work was only part of the story. With a new beginning and an extended ending, the early story became this published version. Norton had a short, but successful career as an editor in the 1950s and has apparently never lost that guiding touch.
Highly recommended for Norton and McConchie fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure, subtle magic and unstated romance.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Silver May Tarnish.......2006-07-18
This is very much in the WitchWorld Tradition. It goes very well with the series.
It whisked me into an imaginary world.......2006-01-04
Lorcan, a young child and youngest son to the Dale owner, has loved his land very much. However, one day Alizon invaders attacked his land. The Dale army was no match for the Alizon invaders, so they retreated into a cave/passage. After many onslaughts of the invaders, Lorcan's brothers and father dies in the fighting. Lorcan and the head-of-arms master are the only one who escape to another Dale. At the other Dale Lorcan hunts for money, and he gets trained by the head-of-arms there. At the appropiate age, he joins the fight, and they win the battle against the invaders. After the battle, Lorcan travels around the land searching for followers who want to be in his Dale, and with the money that his old Dale secretly left behind for him, he is confident that he can do so. On the way in his travels, he meets Meive, a magic woman, some women with various ages, and 5 blank shields. With these people will Lorcan ever rebuild his Dale?? Or will he have the scars of battle forever, and forever be a nomad?
This book was an amazing book. I loved the flow of the book, and it kept me reading, and wanting to read more. There is always some action about it, and it whisked me into an imaginary world, that could also seem real, since the characters did real things. The author gave just the right amount of detail for certain things, which made the book more interesting for me.
Reviewed by a student reviewer for Flamingnet Book Reviews
www.flamingnet.com
Preteen, teen, and young adult book reviews and recommendations
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Mirabilis
