An interesting read, if not in everyone's taste

books:


	• Lud-In-The-Mist Hope Mirrlees Cold Spring Press, 2005 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An interesting read, if not in everyone's taste

I purchased Lud-in-the-Mist based on a review that compared it with Neil Gaiman's Stardust graphic novel. After reading it, I can see how Gaiman could have been inspired by Mirrlees' work, but I slightly prefer Stardust - as a diehard Gaiman fan, and perhaps because I read his story first. Mirrlees' book is best read slowly, and with a sincere attempt to immerse oneself in the world she created. That world may not interest those who prefer high-action fantasy. Some parts were repetitious or dragging, and I felt like the book was a middle draft rather than a polished version whenever I hit one of those spots. Otherwise, I have nothing but praise for Lud-in-the-Mist. I never knew what was going to happen for certain, and half my suspicions were wrong. I liked the ambiance she created, and the book felt like there was more material covered than possible for its actual length. I reccommend it to anyone who thinks they might enjoy a slow-paced fantasy.

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Doesn't live up to the Neil Gaiman Hype

The intro by Neil Gaiman about just how great this book is left me disappointed, when, by the end of the book I was still waiting to be swept away like I expected based on the glowing review by Gaiman. Enjoyable but in like a B-/C range.

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Fairy fruit for the soul

This is a wonderful book; beautiful and melancholy and strange and at times profoundly disturbing. Its touch lingers like a whispered word that you can't quite make out, and the effect on the psyche is eerily similar to that of fairy fruit itself. I only wish I'd had the opportunity to read it as a child, but even so, I would have seen it in an entirely different light as an adult. It's that kind of book.

I also wish more care had been put into the reprinting of so magical a story. It is poorly edited, with words frequently misspelled and the occasional paragraph break in mid-sentence. It's nothing that couldn't have been fixed during the course of a single reading by a mediocre editor, but apparently nobody bothered. Perhaps they were working from an old manuscript and didn't feel right about altering it. My copy also arrived badly water damaged, but the box and every other book in it were in perfect condition, so the damage must have occurred before it left Amazon's warehouse. I'm sure that not every copy shows this damage, and being stationed abroad, I opted to "suck it up" and read the one I had rather than go to the trouble of returning it for a better one. It didn't detract in the slightest from my overall enjoyment of the story. Even fairy fruit must be allowed to have the occasional worm.

In spite of the editing, I give this book my highest recommendation. I savored every word of it. It has earned an honored place on my shelf for as long as I live and will be read to my children by firelight, should I ever have any.

I am a bit puzzled by the implication that Neil Gaiman wrote this book in 1926 with Hope Mirrlees as a co-author, but that's an Amazon thing. Note to Amazon: An introduction does not an authorship make.

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Wonder-full and Original Work

I have been meaning to read this book literally for years, and now it has taken me months to get around to reviewing it, because after reading some of the other reviews, so full of insight and erudition, I wondered if I could possibly have anything meaningful to add about this odd and singular book. I think I might, though I will be brief, I have never come across such an independent work before (only Dunsany's _The King of Elfland's Daughter comes close); perhaps it has to do with the fantasy genre building on itself, until now it is difficult for a writer not to be derivative. Though the "Cauldron of Inspiration" is endless, it is clear that Ms. Mirrlees got into a section of the pot rarely visited. There was a strong sense of her writing about what she loved best and least about her country and countrymen/women, and also I strongly sensed parts of the story had existed possibly in her imagination since childhood, and she wove those into the larger whole. It really astonishes, what she did here. Not that there was no such thing as "Faery" before she wrote of it, but her ways of telling and using Faery in the context of the tale say a great deal about the human progression through life, and the choices we make as to how we live our lives. Really, this is a book that fantasy fans ought not to miss. I am so glad it has been made available in this newer edition.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Lud-in-the-Mist, the capital city of the small country Dorimare, is a port at the confluence of two rivers, the Dapple and the Dawl. The Dapple has its origin beyond the Debatable Hills to the west of Lud-in-the-Mist, in Fairyland. In the days of Duke Aubrey, some centuries earlier, fairy things had been look upon with reverence, and fairy fruit was brought down the Dapple and enjoyed by the people of Dorimare. But after Duke Aubrey had been expelled from Dorimare by the burghers, the eating of fairy fruit came to be regarded as a crime, and anything related to the Fairyland was unspeakable. Now, when his son Ranulph is believed to have eaten fairy fruit, Nathaniel Chanticleer, the mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist, finds himself looking into old mysteries in order to save his son and the people of the city.

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