The Gift

Science FictionLarge Print EditionOLeary displays his mastery of fantasy and social motifs, weaving familiar themes into a heartwarming, enchanting story. starred, Publishers Weekly A story within a story, The Gift is a story of innocence betrayed and magic rejected. Tim is robbed of his childhood, and Simon is tormented by hearing made too acute. Both are victims of The User of the Night, once a boy like them, now pathetically twisted by his own ambition and by Tomen, a malevolent creature of magic. Together Simon and Tim must rid their land of the magic that has been misused by Tomen and The User.

For his second outing, O'Leary moves from science fiction (Door Number Three, 1995) to this fantasy consisting of stories within stories within stories. When young King Simon goes deaf, magicians are summoned to help. One (only later revealed to have been the evil Usher of the Night, along with his horrid sidekick, the rook Tomen) cures the boy--by making him telepathic! Poor tormented Simon--he can't shut the thoughts out--teaches himself magic while searching for a cure, but to no avail. Then he meets young orphan Tim, who's been taught wind magic by an eagle, Dub. Tim cures Simon, and the two realize that the Night Usher and Tomen are their mutual enemies. Years before, a mysterious ailment that killed or damaged only females spread through the land; now it appears that the Night Usher recruits only boys for his nefarious plans. Is there a connection? Tim and Simon acquire another ally, Marty, of a froggy race created by the vanished wizards. All this merely hints at the serpentine convolutions here (cf. Michael Coney's The Celestial Steam Locomotive, 1983). It doesn't quite scale the loftiest pinnacles, but it's a weird, witty, often enchanting climb, boosted by the resolutely feminist subtext. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

O'Leary made a widely praised sf debut with his first novel, Door Number Three (LJ 9/15/95). Here he weaves a magical tale about the Usher of the Night, a deaf boy king, and Tim, the woodcutter's son, who becomes the Wind Tamer. In a land where most magic has been forgotten, only Mother Death can vanquish the Usher of the Night, with help from the Wind Tamer. O'Leary cleverly embeds tales within tales as he layers and intersects his story lines. For larger fantasy collections.
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