Subject: Rose Estes: Troll-Taken

From: [email-masked] (Dani Zweig)
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 23:35:21 GMT

In this day and age one doesn't expect to have one's baby stolen by
Elves and replaced by a changeling.  Sure enough, when Katherine
Sinclair's baby is stolen and replaced by a changeling, it's trolls,
not elves, who are responsible.  (In an attempt to have her mythological
cake and eat it too, Estes has given these 'trolls' magic powers and a 
vulnerability to sunlight and to silver, *and* made them a parallel
branch of genus homo.  Neanderthals, basically, though the medical
details seem too far-fetched.  In general, the scientific elements
do more harm than good.)

The book starts out well, with Katherine's actions and reactions
portrayed sympathetically and effectively.  The rest of the book's
characters are tissue-thin, however, and the plot itself has poor
internal consistency.

That, and the fact that the book ends with the major issues
unresolved, leads me to suspect that there are sequels coming,
although the book doesn't say so.  If sequels do materialize,
I'm sure they can get along without me.

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked]

   God helpe the man so wrapt in Errours endless traine  -- Edmund Spenser