Adult Fantasy

 If you liked

Princess Bride, I think you will like The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar. This book is touted as Louis Sachar's first book for adults.  Think Princess Bride for adults.  It has a princess, a magician, tigers in the castle's moat, and other fantasy kingdom tales.  It's an easy read.  When my book club picks books for next year, this book is definitely one to read around the holidays, because we want easy, short books.

The story takes place around the 1500's, in a land that doesn't exist now.  It was somewhere between Italy, France, and Spain.  The princess is betrothed to a prince. However, the princess falls in love with a scribe.  The magician is called in to make a spell to change their minds.  The magician narrates the tale.  

I like the short chapters.  It's like flash fiction.  It is labeled adult because there are sexual innuendos, and a house of prostitution.  Sachar does it so tastefully that I don't think a young teen would get them. 

If you are not an old grouch, I think you will like this story.

A World of Wonders

 Declare by Tim Powers is a new genre for me.  It's part fantasy novel, part thriller, spy story, and Catholic apologetic.  The author blends everything together, even I could follow the plot.

The name comes from the spy operation, following WWII.  The reader won't learn that until the last third of the book, because the background of the major character has to be established.

Andrew Hale is born without a father.  Gossip has it that his father was a rogue priest. His mother and grandfather raise him in England.  From an early age, he is groomed to be a spy. His godfather is some honcho in England's Secret Intelligence Service.

Andrew graduates from college and is teaching at Oxford, when he is yanked from the classroom into government service. He has to pretend he's a communist.  This is before WWII.  He is working in Paris with a French communist, Elena Ceniza-Bendiga.  They fall in love but can't do anything about it due to the politics of the time and their duties.  

The famous double agent, Kim Philby, is a character in Declare.  In fact, he will be Andrew's boss.  I'll tell you one spoiler: Philby and Hale are brothers, but neither one will learn this until the last chapters.

There are many supernatural elements, mixed in with Biblical symbolism and Catholicism. Philby is after a plant that offers immortality.  Hale is protected numerous times by an ankh (type of cross), that he wears. Philby, being a Russian spy, is being used by the British, or is he? By now, it's after WWII and Hale and Philby are trying to destroy the djinn that live on Mt. Ararat.

Confusing?  It's fantasy.  Elena pops in, here and there.  Elena and Andrew get together in the end and probably get married in the church, since both of them have become unabashedly pious Catholics.

The Golem Meets the Jinni

 The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is fantasy fiction.  A Golem is a creature that is obedient to a master and is used for protection because they are very strong.  However in this case, the golem has been given unusual attributes: intelligence, compassion, the ability to understand thoughts and is multi-lingual.  She was made by a wizard for Mr. Rodfeld.  He was going to America to start a new life and wanted the Golem to be his wife.  Unfortunately, Rodfeld died crossing the ocean and Golem was alone.

Another story comes along.  BTW, Helene Wecker is an excellent story teller.  A tinsmith, Arbeely is working on a special pitcher.  In working on it, he somehow release a Jinni.  The Jinni appears confused and naked.  He is wearing an iron bracelet that doesn't come off and that is what traps him in human form.  Arbeely mentors him.

Meanwhile, the Golem is wandering around New York until a rabbi recognized what she is and takes her under his wing.  Since Golem don't sleep she wanders around at night and bumps into the Jinni.  They don't sleep either.

Many adventures  are undertaken that I am not going into.  There's romance, happiness, sadness, magical spells, wizards, bad guys and worse.  It's quite the tale.

Eventually, all the drama comes together.  While it's not quite the fairy-tale ending, it does conclude the only way it could.