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A review by archergal
The Glittering World by Robert Levy
3.0
Warning: spoilerific info below.
This was an interesting book. It's basically a story about changelings. The Other Kind (this author's stand-in for the Fae/Sidhe/Elves/People Under the Hill aren't like our traditional depictions of elves. The one thing the Other Kind have in common with Elves is their ability to enchant humans and draw them away from our world, sometimes. The changelings that are left in the outside world (the ones that survive) have similar "enchanting" qualities.
The story happens when one of the changelings (Blue) returns to the place of his birth. He doesn't KNOW he's a changeling, though, until he gets home. The rest of the story is the fallout of what happens when he hears the old voices of home, realizes what he is, and disappears.
I was reminded a bit of Graham Joyce's Some Kind of Fairy Tale. (TBH, SKoFT is a much more polished and interesting book, written by a very skilled author.) The first part of the book builds up a sense of dread and suspense. It's one of those books that I shouldn't have been reading as I was falling asleep!
Then the ending. The ending was full of strangeness that didn't really work for me. Remember the ending of Stephen King's It? The ending of this book reminded me a little of that, crossed with Aliens, though without ALL the horror. Honestly, I kinda skimmed through the last section (Gabe's), finished, and thought "Well, huh. That was an ending." That's why it's 3 stars instead of 4 for me. I don't need to have everything wrapped up in a tidy package, but there was a certain amount of WTFery for me here.
But the novel was a worthy effort. I think this is the author's first novel. Good work for that.
This was an interesting book. It's basically a story about changelings. The Other Kind (this author's stand-in for the Fae/Sidhe/Elves/People Under the Hill aren't like our traditional depictions of elves. The one thing the Other Kind have in common with Elves is their ability to enchant humans and draw them away from our world, sometimes. The changelings that are left in the outside world (the ones that survive) have similar "enchanting" qualities.
The story happens when one of the changelings (Blue) returns to the place of his birth. He doesn't KNOW he's a changeling, though, until he gets home. The rest of the story is the fallout of what happens when he hears the old voices of home, realizes what he is, and disappears.
I was reminded a bit of Graham Joyce's Some Kind of Fairy Tale. (TBH, SKoFT is a much more polished and interesting book, written by a very skilled author.) The first part of the book builds up a sense of dread and suspense. It's one of those books that I shouldn't have been reading as I was falling asleep!
Then the ending. The ending was full of strangeness that didn't really work for me. Remember the ending of Stephen King's It? The ending of this book reminded me a little of that, crossed with Aliens, though without ALL the horror. Honestly, I kinda skimmed through the last section (Gabe's), finished, and thought "Well, huh. That was an ending." That's why it's 3 stars instead of 4 for me. I don't need to have everything wrapped up in a tidy package, but there was a certain amount of WTFery for me here.
But the novel was a worthy effort. I think this is the author's first novel. Good work for that.