When a princess runs away with a gypsy singer to emulate her namesake, a great warrior queen, by facing an unknown power crippling her kingdom, you would expect a typical “swords and sorcery” fantasy.

The surprise in A Journey to Distant Mountains is that Princess Atlanta’s personal journey is far more important than details like clashes of swords or flashes of wizardry.

Certainly there are secret forces and dark magic at work through the story but it is Atlanta’s journey from naïve innocence to mature experience that we follow.  After rejecting an arranged marriage that would have stifled her dreams, she travels through her mythical land and a series of encounters which each bring a little more understanding.

Her friendship with the gypsy Orrin is the common thread through adventures and emotions.  They do not always travel together but their journeys are clearly heading the same way.  He tells her stories and she searches for their meanings in her own life and the wider world.

Jill Dobson uses these stories as a key way of explaining Atlanta’s journey.  The travellers tell each other tales, there are myths and legends that come to life, and there are echoes of traditional stories from our world. Atlanta gradually realises how she must create her own story, rather than following dreams.

Along the way there are plenty of shady characters trying to use and exploit her, and plenty of danger and threat to keep her moving.  In the end, she must choose for herself and control the story’s end.

This is not a typical fantasy.  It is more thoughtful and personal than the usual epic battle fare. Those details are there but remain in the background.  It is Atlanta’s journey towards her mountains that holds the rewards for the willing reader.

Review by David Beagley

© 2001 David Beagley