The Wild Hunt

ISBN: 0-380-79911-1 Order from: Amazon.com

A pleasant fantasy that takes a standard plot of revenge and adds 3-dimensional characters, this book suffers a bit from predictability and too many actors.

Reviewed by David on February 28, 1999

Genre: Fantasy (Revenge)

Synopsis: A thousand years ago, several men were cursed by three goddesses for violating their temple. Over the centuries, others have been cursed by the three names and have joined this company of the damned. Members of the Wild Hunt, their punishment is to answer a call by a worshipper of the goddesses. If they cannot perform their assigned task within one month, all but three of the Hunt will die in agony. Otherwise, they will not know sleep or death—ever.

In a time when the Wild Hunt is a fading legend, Lady Richenza, performs the ancient ritual to get vengeance for the murder of her brother. Her wish—to destroy the treacherous royal family—is not beyond the skills of soldiers, thiefs, murderers and spies that were cursed to the Wild Hunt. However, even the immortal, sleepless warriors grow weary of killing, and this revenge may have consequences far beyond a woman's anger.

Full Review: The book starts as a typical, magic-assisted revenge story. In this case, the story soon develops complexity when both the avengers and the evil royals acquire grey shades. Some of the princes are truly evil, but some of the doomed family are merely venal or powerless bystanders. The evil manipulator behind the scenes is a understandably paranoid patriot, who thinks the current princes are the best of possible evils. And finally, the Lady Richenza gets cold feet as her vengeance is unleashed in poison, treachery and murder, and the country approaches chaos.

However, the conditions of the Hunt are rigid: the royal family must die, or the Wild Hunt, some of whom become Richenza's friends, will die in fire and pain.

The story contains romance, fighting, some magic and a number of plots. There is skill in handling the many characters and plot complications, and the relationships are developed with subtlety and sympathy.

On the other hand, there are a bit too many characters used for points of view, and the resulting view hopping makes it difficult to develop the proper emotional involvement. One other flaw has to do with predictability: some of the resolutions were telegraphed fairly early.

In general, however, this is a skilled adaptation of some of the major fairy motifs, including the Wild Hunt and Tam Lin, with enough originality to provide considerable reading pleasure.

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

ISBN: 0-380-79911-1 Order from: Amazon.com