The High House

ISBN: 0-446-60679-0 Order from: Amazon.com

A fantasy of filled with unusual monsters and settings, with regrettably cliched human characters.

Reviewed by David on January 25, 1999

Genre: Fantasy (Intrigue, War, Sorcery)

Synopsis: In a vaguely English countryside, the High House of Evenmere stands isolated and unique. The Master of the House, Ashton Anderson possesses magic powers, and visits strange lands through the locked doorways of the house. His son, young Carter, becomes the target of malicious enemies. Apprehensive, Lord Anderson sends him away to school to the more mundane lands.

Year later, with the Master missing, Carter Anderson, now a young man, returns back to the High House. Without the Master, not only the House, but the entire Magic Circle of countries reachable from Evenmere is endangered by the plotting Anarchists. Even more terrifying, the whole of creation is somehow tied to the House, and if it falls, no one knows what will happen to the world.

Only young Carter, without proper training or the mystical tools missing with his father, has a chance of preserving the House. However, he will have no chance at all if the Anarchists, lead by their faceless leader, succeed in their plans.

Full Review: This interesting, somehow old-fashioned fable of a mysterious house reflecting all of creation, is made more intriguing by its setting. The heroes travel through halls and rooms. The usual quest travelogue takes us through mysterious attics, endless corridors, mazes of rooms and halls filled with rabble. The hidden passages twist, appear and disappear, and trap doors open into open fields, which end in interior walls.

The magical characters are also unusual: the Dinosaur in the Attic (who was once called Behemoth, and later Dragon, but now, in the modern times, just Dinosaur). There is the shape-shifting man-eating furniture. There are also Tigers, almost directly from Blake. There are ambivalent ghosts and the incarnations of Chaos and Order.

Regrettably, the humans are a lot less interesting. The supporting characters are barely 2-dimensional, the good guys are mostly the bluff yeoman type, courageous and perfectly happy to let their betters (e.g. Carter Anderson) make decisions. There are a few weak-spined bystanders, bolstered by brave talk and defended by our heroes. There are also predictable villains, and rather vaguely defined enemy Anarchists, with a rather unclear agenda or motivation.

The implied political agenda could have easily come from a pre-World War (pick either one) novel.

While moderately entertaining due to its unusual premise and skilled writing, the novel suffers from conventional characters and creaking politics.

Overall: 5; Plot: 4; Characters: 4; Style: 5; World-building: 5.5; Originality: 6;

ISBN: 0-446-60679-0 Order from: Amazon.com