In which the
Reader is Respectfully Advised to invest in a Good reading light.
Goblin Moon, recently re-released by Tickety-boo press, is
unlike any fantasy book I’ve read. Its swashbuckling setting gives a vibrancy
and unique feel, and the light handling of the scope of the story and intertwined
storylines, makes for a book that’s easy to read and keeps the pages turning
long after lights-out.
We start on a river under a Goblin Moon, with the discovery
of a coffin and the body it contains, and follow a story that stays intimate to
its characters but expands to fill a richly created world, where fae, dwarves,
goblins and humans intermingle in polite society. The descriptions of the world
are lush, with details of the clothes, food and manners all adding up to a
convincing world that fully pulled me in.
The plot follows several strands: what happens to the body
found in the coffin; Sera’s tale as the impoverished companion to a sickly
heiress; Lord Skelbrooke’s derring-dos as a vigilante determined to bring
justice to those in need. Each of these strands – and several sub-stories – intertwine
and keep the reader guessing throughout.
It’s refreshing to see female protagonists allowed to be both
women of their time and active and strong, even when in a weakened position as
Sera is socially, and Elsie health-wise. So often we hear the argument in
fantasy that women characters are inhibited by the times they must live in, yet
here we have two women, shaped by their times and forced to live within its
constraints, fully fleshed out and strong. It would have been easy to portray Elsie
as meek, under the thrall of her mother and those who wish to use her for their
own ends, and leave Sera to be the strong female character. But, in fact, Elsie
has strength as a person who has met her challenges and continues to meet them
as best she can.
In the two main protagonists we have a nice contrast. Sera, unafraid
to speak her mind, is an engaging point of view, whose knowledge of both the
rich society she must operate within and the poorer culture of her wider
family, brings richness to the world, as well as a sense of its injustice. Lord
Skelbrooke, however, presents a contrast: a dandy on the one hand, intelligent
and poetic; ruthless on the other. He presents a hero we can fully buy into,
one with edges that are unflattering, and a vision to believe in.
The antagonists are suitably odious and nicely-drawn with
subtle hints to their depravity left for the reader to pick up. In fact, the
subtlety of the different threads, the ah-ha moments the reader suddenly gets
when a strand leads to a satisfying resolution, are one of the joys of the
book. So, too, are the chapter headings, which are both playful and give a
sense of place. They gave me, an inveterate ficker on if a book has grabbed me,
something to glance at, wondering what the chapter might contain, and take a
hint but not an answer.
The book ends by tying many of the loose ends, but leaves
enough that the need for a sequel is fully built, and a wider story arc
supported.
I, for one, will be lining up to read it and I very much recommend
Goblin Moon to any lovers of high fantasy: it’s a fantastic tale, well-written
and executed, with a charm rarely found.
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