Ben Macallan: Desdæmona
Nov. 4th, 2011 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI read the end of Desdæmona - and what an ending it is: unexpected, inevitable, conclusive, teasing ("yes, but what happened after that?") - and I closed the book, and thought "Well, that was fun!"
And then immediately after, "Wait a minute, what do you mean, 'fun'? A really quite extraordinary amount of death, much of it happening to innocent bystanders - not to mention all the angst and betrayal - and that counts as 'fun'?"
Apparently it does. That's by Ben Macallan's standards, of course, and Ben Macallan is Chaz Brenchley, a writer known for putting his characters through the wringer, all in the most beautiful language. (I should admit that he's also a friend of mine, which isn't entirely relevant, and that I am a fan of his, which may be).
Ben Macallan is also a character in two books by Chaz Brenchley, Dead of Light and Light Errant, urban fantasies published before there was such a genre as 'urban fantasy'. There's an extra twist of enjoyment for anyone who has read these, in seeing how exactly Desdæmona is the book that their hero would write: Ben Macallan is young, an undergraduate, but Jordan, the hero of Desdæmona is younger still, seventeen (and planning on staying that way); Ben's has severed all ties with his family, who are very shady characters, but Jordan is on the run from his, who are worse; Ben is in love, but his love is not requited - what else would he write but what happened when Jordan met Desdæmona?
You don't need to know any of that to enjoy Desdæmona. Take it at face value: it's an urban fantasy, Jordan, on the run from his family, helps out other young runaways, and is enlisted by the irresistible Desdæmona to find her sister, who has vanished, hiding from someone very nasty indeed.
They encounter a number of supernatural beings: nothing as commonplace as vampires, vampires are just the warm-up exercise before the action really gets going. The threats in this book are more inventive than that. English folklore provides a Green Man, the Nine Men's Morris, but it's Ben Macallan's imagination and skill with language which makes them so frightening. There are some unexpected allies: a Sibyl in her cave perfectly fitted to contemporary London without losing any of her mythic force.
Episode after episode presents new delights, but the what holds it all together is the desire to know more about Jordan and Desdæmona: who are they (because it's clear from the start that neither of them is being entirely frank with the reader)? what will become of their relationship? and will they survive to the end of the book? The action is fast and furious, but somehow in amongst it all, there's time to become genuinely attached to the pair of them.
How fortunate that there will be a sequel, Pandæmonium in which we can find out what happens next...
And then immediately after, "Wait a minute, what do you mean, 'fun'? A really quite extraordinary amount of death, much of it happening to innocent bystanders - not to mention all the angst and betrayal - and that counts as 'fun'?"
Apparently it does. That's by Ben Macallan's standards, of course, and Ben Macallan is Chaz Brenchley, a writer known for putting his characters through the wringer, all in the most beautiful language. (I should admit that he's also a friend of mine, which isn't entirely relevant, and that I am a fan of his, which may be).
Ben Macallan is also a character in two books by Chaz Brenchley, Dead of Light and Light Errant, urban fantasies published before there was such a genre as 'urban fantasy'. There's an extra twist of enjoyment for anyone who has read these, in seeing how exactly Desdæmona is the book that their hero would write: Ben Macallan is young, an undergraduate, but Jordan, the hero of Desdæmona is younger still, seventeen (and planning on staying that way); Ben's has severed all ties with his family, who are very shady characters, but Jordan is on the run from his, who are worse; Ben is in love, but his love is not requited - what else would he write but what happened when Jordan met Desdæmona?
You don't need to know any of that to enjoy Desdæmona. Take it at face value: it's an urban fantasy, Jordan, on the run from his family, helps out other young runaways, and is enlisted by the irresistible Desdæmona to find her sister, who has vanished, hiding from someone very nasty indeed.
They encounter a number of supernatural beings: nothing as commonplace as vampires, vampires are just the warm-up exercise before the action really gets going. The threats in this book are more inventive than that. English folklore provides a Green Man, the Nine Men's Morris, but it's Ben Macallan's imagination and skill with language which makes them so frightening. There are some unexpected allies: a Sibyl in her cave perfectly fitted to contemporary London without losing any of her mythic force.
Episode after episode presents new delights, but the what holds it all together is the desire to know more about Jordan and Desdæmona: who are they (because it's clear from the start that neither of them is being entirely frank with the reader)? what will become of their relationship? and will they survive to the end of the book? The action is fast and furious, but somehow in amongst it all, there's time to become genuinely attached to the pair of them.
How fortunate that there will be a sequel, Pandæmonium in which we can find out what happens next...
