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The King of Attolia
Author: Megan Whalen Turner
Publisher: Greenwillow
ISBN-10: 006083577X
ISBN-13: 978-0060835774


The King of Attolia is the third in the series of books about Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis and long-awaited sequel to The Queen of Attolia. Eugenides or Gen, now the King of Attolia after literally stealing away Queen Irene and marrying her, is now dealing with her court and with being a king. The court thinks he’s an idiot and a pawn of the Queen. She can’t possibly love this guy! I mean after all, she did order his hand to be cut off in a previous book.

The attendants and guards mock him and play tricks on him. Think high school and a medieval "Kick Me" sign stuck on the poor guy’s back. They think he’s a wimp and can’t do anything about it. They think that Queen Irene is all for it because she does nothing. Fact is, she has to let him make his own way, find a way to rein these guys in on his own. There’s even a running palace joke that the Queen and King don’t sleep together. Eugenides is less than a man and certainly not a king to them.

Then one day Costis, a guard in the palace punches Gen right in the face. Beheading is the usual penalty for punching your king’s lights out, but Eugenides devises a better punishment. It is through Costis’ eyes that readers see how he and the court consistently underestimate the clever and calculating mastermind that is the King of Attolia.

There is subterfuge everywhere, plots abound, assassination attempts are prolific and though they litter the story, the real story and focus here is the complicated romance between two people in love who are dealing with the realities of marriage and monarchy.

Whalen’s skilled third person prose is tantalizing, secretive and wonderful. She keeps you guessing, wondering what Eugenides is up to, and dying for the conclusion. Her portrayal of a court full of intrigue and Machiavellian plots is just amazing.

Costis’ gradual grudging respect for Gen really gives readers insight into both Gen and Costis as well as of the seemingly frosty Irene.

The King of Attolia is a worthy addition to the sequel and I feel, the best of the three.

Dreamscape Author: Paul Kidd
Publisher: Kitsune Press/Lulu.com
ISBN 10: 1-84753-242-X
ISBN 13: 978-1-84753-242-8

“Perfection.
The bookstore grew first one detailed neighbour, and then two: a record store owned by a beautiful creature like a sea snail, and a thing like a shaggy, six-legged Afghan hound that slept lazily beside the bookshop door. The girl called the dog-creature ‘the Floop’, and it thumped its tail against the pavement whenever she came by.

The foxes who ran the bookshop were very much in love.

A whole world – each part of it utterly precious. Each part of it unfolding for her as she walked into the world and cared. There was a beautiful infinity of places waiting to be explored…”


In this s-f novel, a young girl has the power to create a detailed fantasy dreamworld of butterfly-filled flowery meadows, old-fashioned seaside resort towns of friendly funny-animal shopkeepers, of soaring ancient griffin statues. She has the ability to invite other people to share her paradise, to add to it with their own dreams. But strangers begin arriving who are not invited, who do not believe in sharing; they must dominate and hurt others. They are followed by men in grey suits who claim that the dreamworld is their stolen virtual amusement park, manufactured by their patented quantum neural gates, and they have the right to take it back from her.

The young girl, Steel, and her friends including Squeee the unicorn, Liz the lizard-woman warrior, and Silk, the debonair falcon-man, are faced with a dilemma: how do you fight to protect a gentle dreamworld without turning it into a nightmare?

Dreamscape is filled with striking fantasy imagery that cries out to be made into an animated movie. The plot is both simplistic – the young girl and her fantasy companions explore, and later must defend their world -- and confusingly solipsistic.

Is the dreamer a goddess or a ghost creating her own world? A woman locked inside her own imagination? A role-player misusing (or trapped in) Dreamscape, Inc.’s new gaming program? Does Dreamscape have the right to “kill” her to gain control of what they claim is their “intellectual property”; and if they do, will she awaken or die in the “real” world? The climactic battle seems overdone and overly ugly; too close to the Biblical description of Armageddon.

Allegory is fine, but Dreamscape the company has been too strongly established with futuristic computer imagery by this point to switch to a vast horde of demonic archaic warriors for the final assault. Still, the novel right up to the climax depicts a lovely fantasy landscape that any of us could wish to escape to, and it is worth reading for that.

Tomorrow’s Magic
Author: Pamela F. Service
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-375-84087-6


England.
Sometime in the future.
Nuclear winter.
Mutants.
Magic.
Arthurian legend.
Boarding school.

It’s five centuries after the world has been torn apart by nuclear war. England has fared better than other countries because they had disarmed and destroyed all nuclear weapons and so weren’t a target when all hell broke loose. Still, the nuclear war has affected everywhere in the world. People that aren’t mutants are dark skinned, the sky is brown not blue and ice is everywhere. Trees and nature are almost extinct.

Wellington Jones and Heather McKenna are outcasts in their British boarding school. Heather isn’t wanted by her mother and her new stepfather, she’s plain and she hangs out with animals. Wellington or Welly is fat, nearsighted and a bit of a nerd. He reads about military campaigns and dreams of becoming a strategist since he can’t become a soldier. Needless to say the bullies of the school, in particular one named Nigel pick on them constantly but Heather and Welly are fast friends and find a way to survive.

On one of their adventures they run into trouble and are saved by Earl, a thin, pale boy who was found years ago speaking a strange language and taken in as a charity case. The children welcome Earl into their circle of friendship and try to find out more about him. Why is he so pale? Who were his people? Where did he come from? Why does he have those screaming nightmares?

One day a couple claiming to be Earl’s aunt and uncle come to claim him but he feels something wrong about them, something evil and escapes. Heather and Welly follow him, determined to protect their newfound friend. A battle with the aunt, who turns out to be Morgan Le Fey of Arthurian legend brings Earl’s memory back and his friends are shocked to find he is the one and only Merlin, rescued from his forced entombment by Nimue and Morgan by a chance blast to the cave.

Earl/Merlin and the children set off on a quest to find Avalon and Arthur who Merlin thinks will save this world. What follows is an incredible and beautiful tale in grand style. There are battles, magic, fairies, trolls, teen angst, friendship and loyalty.

Tomorrow’s Magic is also a timely warning about nuclear war, war in general and the importance of saving our world from destruction. The grim and icy future that Pamela Service illustrates so well is entirely possible and scarily real.

Book description from the publisher:
It's 500 years after the nuclear holocaust that devastated the earth's population and left the few survivors dealing with unending winter. At their remote British boarding school, Wellington Jones and Heather McKenna have a lot in common. Both are misfits trying to avoid attention, and both are fascinated by Earl, a tall, calm, older boy with no recollection of his past, but a remarkable knack for showing up when he is needed most.

When a blow to the head brings Earl's memory back, he claims that he is actually Merlin . . . a 2000-year-old wizard.

Originally published in two volumes in the mid-1980s, Pamela F. Service's creative, futuristic spin on the Camelot legend will appeal to Arthurian purists and fantasy lovers alike.