The British certainly have a way with magical stories.  From Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings tales where magic and danger mix seem to flow regularly from that island. Two new offerings for teen readers try to continue this trend.

The Doomspell is the first part of a trilogy by Cliff McNish and promises an enthralling adventure as the story is developed over the next two episodes.  It uses the common device of a “slip” between worlds to send two children from our present into a threatening world of magic and darkness.

Rachel and Eric soon discover they have been sought because they could have immense powers that others want to control – this is a common enough possibility in fantasy novels.  However, Cliff McNish develops it unexpectedly by tracing it back into our world where many more (if not all) children are under threat for the same reason.

So the threat and the danger and the excitement come much closer to home for readers and Rachel’s desperate efforts to resist the Witch of Ithrea become much more personal.  She and Eric are captured, escape, find friends, get cornered, fight and do all the other things fantasy heroes should, but McNish manages to keep them as children – facing terrible enemies and choices certainly, but still keeping their humanity and innocence.

Other titles in the series:
The Scent of Magic (Orion, 2001)
The Wizard's Promise (Orion, 2002)

Sabrina Fludde looks rather differently at magic in our world.  It goes back to the old folk stories of the creatures of the earth – faeries, weather gods and river spirits.  Pauline Fisk brings them into our present by making the reader question whether a lost and homeless girl is actually one of these spirits caught horribly out of her time and place.

The girl, Abren, literally floats into a town on the Welsh-English border and emerges from the river with no memory of her past.  This is when the book is at its best as Abren tries to discover her real self.  Various people try to help her while others attack her.  The most helpful are actually other homeless characters as Abren's isolation from the ordinary world is highlighted.  Her confusion and pain are both poignantly expressed as she wanders from clue to clue.

However, as Abren's history becomes clearer, the emotion and uncertainty Fisk has created falters a bit.  The characters become much more black and white, obviously good or evil, and while the climax is powerful, the ending drags on a bit far into a "happy ever after" fadeout.

But it is a challenging and thought-provoking story, and shows that fantasy can look at modern social issues just as well as at ancient dreams.

Reviews by David Beagley

© 2001 David Beagley