Book Review - Faerie Tale

Faerie Tale by Raymond E Feist

Review by Jacqui Slaney

Most people who think Of Raymond Feist associate him with the RiftWar, with Pug and Jimmy the Hand and all other such characters, I was the same and then I found this book.

This is the description of the story:

 Successful screenwriter Phil Hastings decides to move his family from sunny California to a ramshackle farmhouse in New York State. The idea is to take some time out, relax and pick up the threads of his career as a novelist.
Good plan, bad choice. The place they choose is surrounded by ancient woodland. The house they choose is the centre point of a centuries-old evil intent on making its presence felt to intruders.

This is a dark fantasy story that borders on horror and if you have read any mythology tales, you soon recognise some of the characters that Feist has used, and weaved together in a story, which is certainly not for children.

The story revolves round a family- a writer and his wife- twin sons and a teenage daughter who move out to a rural location so that Phil the writer can have the peace and quiet that his writing needs. It sounds an ideal location but you soon find out that it certainly is not ideal for the family. The house is next to a gateway to the Land of the Faeries, and is part of an old pact between the two worlds and so should never have been sold. Now I know that sounds like something out of a children’s book, but trust me, these creatures are nothing like Tinkerbelle.

This is a stand-alone book but it is still a very strong story and it is a welcome change from the normal long series. This is another reason that I chose to read it, there is no complicated plot to follow or different characters to remember, and the story is simple but compelling.

 The way Feist describes the other world is imaginative and vivid, and the readers find themselves pulled into the story and the battle between Good and Evil, you can imagine these creatures being there causing these problems quite easily. As always Feist’s characters are well described and real and the action graphic and scary. In fact it is the described sexual violence which though only a tiny part of the story is what makes the whole story more disturbing.

Some people complain that this book is not like a Stephen King horror and is no good, but nowhere does this book claim to be like a Stephen King novel- so I am confused by the comparison. I have read this book countless times and always enjoy it and would recommend this story to anyone who likes fantasy and would like to read something a little different.

10 out of 10