It’s not often that boy-lost-in-another-world fantasies start with the realization that Mom is having an affair with another woman. But that’s just part of the unexpected charm of Herbie Brennan’s best-selling FAERIE WARS, the first of three books in his Faerie Wars Chronicles and newly re-released in paperback by Tor. It’s actually the story of two boys: One is Henry Atherton who lives in our contemporary society and whose parents are having a spot of trouble. And then there’s Pyrgus Malvae, a young man who is next in line to succeed to the very troubled throne of the Purple Emperor, ruler of the land of Faerie.
The two worlds, Faerie and modern Earth, meet through the device of interdimensional portals – or rips in the space-time continuum, if you prefer. Malvae is sent to Earth for his own safety, as he is in danger of being killed, and he quickly meets up with Henry. But eventually, Malvae must return to Faerie to fulfill his destiny. Henry Atherton, a slight teenage boy, and his crotchety aged paranoid friend Mr. Fogarty, also must visit Faerie in order to help their new alien acquaintance.
It’s all quite delightfully weird. Brennan seems to have very carefully thought about the world of Faerie, and how its magicks and technologies work. By featuring a parallel contemporary world that is more familiar to us, he allows us to more easily grow accustomed to the bizarre, and this has the added benefit of making both worlds more believable. As a first book in the series, the outcome of the tale is rather abrupt and surprising, but still open to many new possibilities in sequels.
The Faerie characters are a little bit cliché, and the team of Henry and Mr. Fogarty are very much like BACK TO THE FUTURE, but it still hangs together remarkably well. The wonderments and world details are almost Peakean in their complexity, and the potential clash between the contemporary world and the Faerie world is promising. This would be an excellent time for eager readers to pick up this book in paperback and start from the beginning in the Faerie Wars Chronicles. –Mark Rose
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