Bookstore owner Toby Dexter follows an enigmatic and beautiful woman who had been riding the same train through a mysterious door that leads to a strange new world, Mysterie, and into a series of fantastical adventures.
The author of the popular Deathstalker series (Deathstalker War, etc.) offers another wildly fantastic extravaganza bound to please his many fans, even if it won't win him new ones. Toby Dexter, a bored 33-year-old clerk at Gandalf's bookshop in Bradford-on-Avon, becomes an unlikely hero when he follows a woman (the mysterious Gayle, at whom Toby has often gaped during his daily commute) into a doorway she creates by pointing at a wall. Suddenly, Toby finds himself in Mysterie, a fantasy world chock-full of gods and devils and coexistent with Veritie, our mundane world. Gayle warns him that she is beyond mortal love, and is instead preoccupied by a power struggle between Good and Evil with the latter being represented by the Serpent in the Sun, who seeks dominion over everything. Even worse, Gayle says, is that Toby is a "focal point" who will ultimately decide "the fates of people and the world." It's a tall order for a little guy, but Toby's up to it. Magical characters abound and enthusiastically cross the borders between the real and the fantastic: there's the immortal PI Jimmy Thunder, a descendant of Thor; Leo Morn, a bitter and alienated werewolf; the evil Angel, who is restored cleansed; and many more. Green obviously doesn't want to lose favored heroes, so the one loss is Nicholas Hob, son of the Serpent and Luna, Gale's ditsy sister (though Toby himself is shot dead temporarily). Green often pauses to discuss local history, but remembers in time to continue the action and ultimately serves up a happy ending.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
When bookstore employee Toby Dexter follows a beautiful woman through a strange door in a wall, he enters Mysterie, a magical realm that coexists with the real world. Here, he discovers his integral part in a battle against evil that pits him and his newfound allies against a fallen angel and a demonic creature known as Nicholas Hob. The author of the "Deathstalker" series presents an engaging cross-world fantasy that transforms a small English village into a realm of wonder and nightmare. Fans of the urban fantasies of Charles de Lint and Tanya Huff should enjoy this multilayered tale. For most fantasy collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Green gives away the plot of his latest urban fantasy right away--"the fate of two worlds will be decided by one ordinary man who dares to love a woman who is so much more than she seems"--and still it is a trip worth taking. Bookstore clerk Toby Dexter, who has turned underachievement into an art, follows a beautiful woman through a door that wasn't there a moment earlier. Suddenly he is one focus of a conflict that spans the magical realm of Mysterie and the common world of Veritie, and his destiny is linked to mysterious and beautiful Gayle's, much to her dismay. She guides him through Mysterie as they try to learn, with the help of Jimmy Thunder, God for Hire, what Nicholas Hob, the Serpent's Son, and his fallen angel may have planned. Green weaves numerous plot threads together with vivid characters, sharp dialogue, and a touch of Terry Pratchettish absurdity. This world and these characters are so amusing that it will be a shame if Green doesn't revisit them.
Terrence MiltnerCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
