{First of 4: A Man of His Word series. Fantasy, magic, YA}
Re-read

The world of Pandemia is inhabited by imps, jotuns, goblins, fauns, djinni, faery and so on - but this fantasy is no fairy-tale. The tiny island kingdom of Krasnegar lies in a forgotten corner of Pandemia, strategic only in that in neither belongs to the Impire nor the jotnaar. It is not much more than a rock in the icy northern sea with only a causeway, which shuts down in winter, connecting it to the mainland. Princess Inosolan has grown up here and, necessarily, her childhood friends have been those destined to become chambermaids or herders. Or stableboys, like Rap. But now she is growing up so her father and aunt decide to send her to Kinvale, her cousin's elegant estate in the Impire, to polish her manners - and possibly find a suitable prince.

Meanwhile, Rap is growing too and discovers he has strange new powers which make his friends uncomfortable around him. Then he discovers that there is danger to Inos and he is persuaded to undertake a journey overland in the depths of winter to warn her. But will he be too late?

The magic system Duncan has created for this world is innovative although we only discover it gradually along with Rap; in this book, we only uncover the basics. The title of the series is a pun - but to say more would be to spoil things.

The races who inhabit Pandemia are based on the fairy-tale creatures we know but they are human rather than magical. Each race has its idiosyncracies such as the height of jotuns, goblins' green skin and cruel customs or the hairy legs of fauns. In Inos, Rap feels, all traits are blended to perfection.

My son is currently in the middle of sitting his GCSE exams and I remember when I was his age, not long before I first read this book, I had to learn Keat's [Ode to a Nightingale] for my English Literature exam. I can still quote 'My heart aches and a drowsy numbness stills My sense as though of hemlock I had drunk...' . Duncan uses phrases from the penultimate verse as the titles for this four book series.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that ofttimes hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

I like the way Duncan uses phrases from other poets' poems as the chapter headings and is kind enough to include the lines at the end of that chapter.

I would say that this is a YA book but it has a grittiness to it that readers at the younger end of the spectrum might not appreciate; the inhabitants of Krasnegar wrest their living from the land immediately across the causeway in summer and then hunker down on the rock to wait out the winter and goblins are very enthusiastic about their methods of torture, which they use to test prisoners and cull the weaker of their own boys.

But I like Rap; he has a steadfast loyalty and he's learning as he goes. And I love the colourful cover on my book which is by Don Maitz and has Inos opening the magic casement of the title to be surprised by what lies beyond (although we can't tell what it is).

4.5**** ( )

fun enough that I'm on the third book of the series now ( )

Entirely terrific.

I felt like I was reading a classic (in the best possible sense of the world) and am surprised this isn't better known--I chose it because it was on bestfantasybooks.com's list of under-appreciated books, and it sounded appealing, but I had no idea how much I would like this.

All the characters were interesting and well-developed (sadly, this happens all too rarely!), the rules for magic were very different and well-thought-out, the world building seemed strong and, joy of joys, parceled out as needed (rather than everything at once just because the author had gone to the trouble of creating it), the plot was exciting--I mean, it had it all.

And (I'm a delicate soul) it wasn't too grisly for me, so hurrah for that!

Reminded me in some ways of those marvelous sagas in the 19th century, like Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew, and in other ways like the rather breathless historical novels of the 1960s/70s (e.g. Jean Plaidy's Plantagenet sequence), rather than any particular fantasy novel I can think of--so that's a nice change. (I'm a bit bored of fantasy novels that are so very consistently in the vein of some particular progenitor or other).

So even though the raw elements do not seem like the freshest stuff imaginable (princess, sorceror, stable boy, etc.) the telling of the tale manages to be very new and very classic at the same time. It's a real treat.

(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!) ( )

Duncan takes traditional archetypes and tweaks them just enough to turn the page faster and faster. With other authors where I know immediately where they are going I tend to get bored easily, not so with Duncan. In Magic Casement you've got to pay attention to the brush strokes as the fantasy elements are like lines from a Dylan Moran monologue. Bonus are the nuggets of wisdom shared with Rap and the intriguing magic system. ( )

Synopsis:
A stableboy begins to exhibit mysterious powers that draw attention that could be dangerous, and he finds himself a prisoner on the goblin waste as the princess he’s sworn to serve comes ever closer to a danger that only he is aware of.
Review:
Magic Casement is a fantastic start to a four book series that [read the rest:]

http://superfastreader.com/magic-casement-by-dave-duncan.htm