From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Aug 29 12:41:46 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.written Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: schulman+@pitt.edu (Christina Schulman) Subject: _Prince Ombra_ by Roderick MacLeish Message-ID: <33l3lb$o7d@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: St. Dismas Infirmary for the Incurably Informed Date: Sun, 28 Aug 1994 23:22:20 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 46 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:605 rec.arts.sf.written:70443 _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$11.95 ---- Christina Schulman schulman+@pitt.edu schulman@michael.nmr.upmc.edu From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Dec 12 10:54:00 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.written Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: dani@telerama.lm.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: Roderick MacLeish: Prince Ombra Message-ID: <3c02bp$k84@africa.lm.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA USA Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 22:19:07 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 58 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:694 rec.arts.sf.written:83069 I first saw Roderick MacLeish's "Prince Ombra" on a library bookshelf over a decade ago: I gathered from the cover that it was a reworking of "eternal hero is reborn to refight his eternal battle with eternal evil" admixed with fuzzy mysticism, and spent several years passing it over in favor of more promising fare, in which category I included the Matthew Looney books. A couple of weeks ago, though, I was in a bookstore that was having a quarter- price sale, and Christina, who was also there, told me that for the kind of book it was (i.e., my interpretation of the cover was substantially correct), it was surprisingly good. So I got it. And it was. Deft writing redeems what would otherwise be a hopelessly fuzzy premise, and the author doesn't belabor that premise in such a way as to often provoke a cynical reaction. What makes the book work is that the battleground for this round of the eternal battle is extremely limited: A nine-year-old boy will or will not have the strength to overcome a particularly nasty self-doubt; town gossip will destroy a girl or it won't; a couple will overcome its misunderstings or not. Only in the background do we see that the ups and downs of this battle are reflected in the strength or weakness of world peace and that adverse local shifts in public opinion or private attitudes are accompanied by heightened international tensions and the danger of war: If the story ends with a little boy accidentally killed, nobody will ever make the connection between that incident and the global darkness that will follow. The premise is still fuzzier and more...pompous...than I care for. It's hard not to cringe at "His seven brains, which radiate all the world's sin and grief, existed as conceptions of themselves.... Ombra's seventh brain, in which the fury of the cosmos is stored, brightened in the choleric anticipation of battle." But by focusing on an extremely small stage, MacLeish reaps several benefits. He retains his mythological back-story without having to contend with mythologized or larger-than-life characters; he offers a new and accessible story, rather than yet another reworking; and he makes an effective moral about the scope of the batle against evil. The book is still what its cover suggests it is -- fuzzy, mystical, and at the same time much closer to mainstream fiction than to the mainstream of fantasy -- but those for whom this is not a serious impediment will find that it does a good job at being what it is. %A MacLeish, Roderick %T Prince Ombra %I Tor %C New York %D 1982 (recently reissued in trade pb) %G ISBN 0-812-54550 %P 379pp %O $3.50 ----- Dani Zweig dani@telerama.lm.com "You have the reputation of being one of the nicest guys in the field. We both know you're a hyena on its hind legs. How have you fooled everyone?" "By keeping my mouth shut when I read garbage" -- Gene Wolfe