Christopher Golden’s THE MYTH HUNTERS: BOOK ONE OF THE VEIL has a premise that hooked me instantly: Late one night, the Maine home of young lawyer Oliver Bascombe is intruded upon by an icy wind … that transforms itself into Jack Frost, the jagged-icy “winter man” himself. Seriously injured, Frost needs Oliver simply to help escort him through the house and to the ocean that borders the man’s backyard. The ocean is a doorway through “the Veil,” an invisible boundary between our world and the Borderland, a parallel world the myths call home.

Oliver agrees to take the few minutes to do so, but en route they’re attacked by the Falconer – an enormous, armor-plated, sword-wielding bird who also has slipped through – thus forcing Oliver to penetrate the Veil in order to survive. The problem is, humans that enter the Borderland are not allowed to return, which is bound to complicate Oliver’s wedding, due to take place the following day. In the Borderland, Oliver is amazed at seeing once-thought-fictional legends – Johnny Appleseed and the Sandman among them – brought to life, although many of them are eager to kill him and Frost as they search for the one man that can help Oliver get back home.

The setup is uniquely Victorian: wealthy bachelor in an old mansion encountering a supernatural event. But Golden smartly knows THE MYTH HUNTERS wouldn’t work in that era, with a well-mannered, wonder-struck protagonist forever spouting “I say!” and “Beg pardon!” No, THE MYTH HUNTERS is made for these times, with our disbelieving protagonist more apt to say, “You have got to be fucking kidding me” (which he does, on page 18). That’s why the horror-fantasy grabbed my attention from the first page, racing quickly to become a more action-oriented AMERICAN GODS.

But Golden’s story gets bogged down toward the middle as the characters seem to repeat the “run-and-hide” scenario a few times too many, to the point where I was far more intrigued by the subplot of a detective’s investigation back home into Oliver’s disapperance and a serial killer who plucks out his victim’s eyes and fills the sockets with sand – incidents thought to be related. Things pick up for Oliver, Frost and friends (a dragon, a fox-woman, etc.) when they exit the Borderland for quick trips to London and Scotland, but then the book comes to an abrupt end.

Golden has grand plans for this series, which will continue in 2007 with THE BORDERKIND: BOOK TWO OF THE VEIL. And while I’m not allergic to trilogies and quadrilogies and the like, I do find it a bit unfair when the story simply stops with no closure. There’s nothing wrong with a little cliffhanger if other threads are resolved, but to just call “cut” and wrap for the day is cruel, like sex without an orgasm. By the time the second book hits a year from now, I’ll have read more than 100 other books and will have trouble recalling all the details still up in the air. What’s here is highly imaginative, occasionally gruesome and mostly fun, but just be aware it has no end as of yet. –Rod Lott

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