Friday, March 7, 2014

The Second "Faeraven" Tale: Strange and Thought-Provoking -- Review of WayFarer by Janalyn Voigt

NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
Reviewer: Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258
March 7, 2014

The Second Faeraven Tale: Strange and Thought-Provoking
A Review of
Janalyn Voigt WayFarer (Harbourlight Books, 2013)
$15.99 261 pp ISBN: 978-1-61116-292-9
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz SPOILER ALERT: THIS REVIEW MAY "GIVE AWAY" THE STORY
The first book in Janalyn Voigt's Tales of Faeraven trilogy ends with Princess Shae's successful summoning of the world's saviour, which is followed, in the second book (under review here) by his strange reception from her brother Elcon, the High Prince of Faeraven. But, on a deeper level, it is actually not so strange after all, as is his strange romantic life, when we learn from the Author's Note (in the back of the book) that her story is an allegory!
Things get stranger still and even more thought-provoking because I like her tale and her characters, so much so that I find it difficult to harmonize with Tolkien's derogation of allegory. AND the characters, especially Elcon and Aewen and Arillia are so REAL and vibrant and moving that it is really really hard to think of them as allegories! I highly recommend reading this story both because it is a good tale and because it is thought-provoking.
Information is available on the author's website http://janalynvoigt.com/
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