Subject: _Prince Ombra_ by Roderick MacLeish

From: [email-masked] (Christina Schulman)
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 1994 23:22:20 GMT

_Prince Ombra_ by Roderick MacLeish

Bentley Ellicott is a hero of the borrowed heart.

Throughout human history, the essence of evil, Prince Ombra, has
periodically embodied itself on Earth.  And it has always been met in
battle by a warrior who has been aware of his mission from birth.  The
great heroes of legend--King Arthur, Hector of Troy, Gilgamesh--all
shared the same warrior heart.  If they were defeated by Prince Ombra, 
the world was plunged into a period of darkness and strife.

Bentley is the latest in this line of heroes.  He's also a nine-year-old
boy with a withered leg, living in a contemporary village in coastal Maine.
Most of the townspeople think Bentley is crazy or just plain weird; the
only people who believe in his mission are his shrink and a little girl
with a speech defect.

Boy of Destiny [tm] vs. Embodiment of Pure Evil is not exactly a new
premise in fantasy, no matter what the cover blurbs say.  However,
MacLeish doesn't wallow in the cliches.  The story manages to be fresh
and interesting largely because of the complex and believable characters
who help and hinder Bentley.  They have their own motivations and
interaction; the only aspect of the character interaction that frustrated
me was that whenever Ombra was in ascendancy, the townspeople acted
according to their baser natures; this made them seem more like puppets
than people.  (This, of course, may have been intended.  Still, it
irritated me.)

MacLeish's prose is lovely and lucid, and the plot moves along fairly
quickly.  The contemporary setting gives the story a somewhat mainstream
feel; it's not steeped in the conventions of the fantasy genre.  _Prince
Ombra_ is a pleasant read, and a good book to give to readers who don't
normally read fantasy.

%A   MacLeish, Roderick
%T   Prince Ombra
%I   Tor/Orb
%C   New York
%D   June 1994 [originally published 1982]
%G   ISBN 0-312-89024-9
%P   320pp
%O   trade paperback, US$11.95

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Christina Schulman     [email-masked]     [email-masked]