Tom Mock

The Dryad’s Crown & Beyond Misty Mountain
Two lighter fantasy novels today, at least in terms of their quick pacing. Both seem like they would appeal to younger audiences!

(from Before We Go Blog)

116. David Hopkins, The Dryad’s Crown

This has a fairytale beginning. Its prose uses the summarizing style of an oral tradition, which is underscored when the second part of the story is literally related as a bedtime story.

This style is effective for the content, which is active and magical and highly unusual. A woman hears crying in the night and goes to a tree and chops it open and finds a baby inside. She brings the baby home. Four wise people show up later…

Something bad happens, the baby turns into a fish and swims away – wonderfully free flowing magical stuff.

The setting details are spare for now, but they drift in here and there. There is enough for anyone familiar with the genre to get their bearings, but the focus of the narrative is our adventurous girl.

She is lively, that’s for sure. Though the telling of the story slows down somewhat as the narrative proper gets underway, the brief, almost perfunctory declarative narrative style continues.

I have mixed feelings about it. Coupled with the often simple sentence structure, it could begin to wear on me. On the other hand, I may adjust to it in another few chapters, especially if the story continues to be as active as it has been.

Though this hasn’t spent much time on any of its moments to really ground me in the experience of its protagonist, it is developing exceptionally well. I recommend it for the way it moves. It feels light and wonderfully creative.

This also resists explaining everything, which I have found charming. I understand what I need to for now. The story elements feel intuitive. Maybe I will understand more in time.

Though this is listed as an adult novel and is ~550 pages, its simple style and fluid narrative make it feel more like a MG or YA book (assuming our MC ages up). I say this only for descriptive purposes, not evaluative.

The uniqueness of this narrative makes it stand out to me, however it should be categorized. I recommend it especially as a study in fresh, fast, active storytelling. I’m in.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/182101483-the-dryad-s-crown

117) Stephen Howard, Beyond Misty Mountain

This has a frivolous and engaging narrative approach that shines most, I think, in its descriptions as it introduces us to our setting. Tho I occasionally thought there was more energy than sense in some of the asides, the over all effect is a fun start.

A prologue introduces our planet world, but the story doesn’t properly start until chapter 1. I would say the tone of the novel doesn’t really come off until chapter 1 as well.

The informationally dense attempt at a humorous tone in the prologue gets stuck in the middle, for me, of being not quite informative and not quite funny. Chapter 1, however, establishes both with gusto.

A few characters and the beginning of an adventure are briefly established before we move on, tho I do feel that the humorous tone has been overemphasized to the detriment of a clear story.

The narration feels to me a bit like it butts in on the characters. It is heavy-handed with them. They seem, so far, more like caricatures, tho not so well defined. It is early days yet, tho.

Tho off to a marginal start for me so far, the fact that this story is leading with humor, and does seem inventive and active, keeps me turning the pages and invites me not to take it too seriously. That’s to its credit.

I’d recommend this to fans of Terry Pratchett, or any other overtly humorous, slapstick fantasy reads. It’s done enough for me. I’m in.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21765796-beyond-misty-mountain

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