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
Blog Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/
February 13, 2017
Victory Through
King Arthur’s Sword
!!
A Review of
Susan Cooper
Silver On The Tree (Margaret K.
McElderry Books, 2005
$8.99 275 pp
ISBN: 978-0-689-50088-6
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
This story, like those in the previous
four books of this quintology, involves a multitude of characters, scenes,
actions, and conceptions which carry the reader along in this remarkable tale,
where you never know what is going to happen.
For me, the most significant factors were the Arthuriana: not only King Arthur himself but also his
sword (which in this story is surprisingly not called Excalibur), and Merlin (who was also present in the other four
stories). Also deserving of special note is the strange place called “The Lost
Land”, which appears to be a satire on and/or warning about existentialism which
is expressed sarcastically by one of the characters there in this way: “we are all actors in a play which nobody
wrote and nobody will see” (p. 139) – a sharp contrast with the world-view of
Tolkien’s Hobbit character Sam who expresses delight at “being inside a poem”.
The story (and therefore the series as a
whole) concludes with the defeat of the Dark followed by an ending which bears some similarity to the conclusion of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. But the
most powerful expressions of finality for me were the ones where characters
refer to looking forward to the future blessedness “At the Back of the North
Wind” (pp. 244 & 268), a poignancy also evoked by George McDonald in his
book by that title.
For information on the author, you can
visit her website www.thelostland.com.
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