Portal – The Unseen Library

Fairy Tale Cover

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (Trade Paperback – 6 September 2022)

Series: Standalone

Length: 579 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

The master of horror and thriller fiction, Stephen King, dives into the world of fantasy in a big way with his compelling 2022 novel, Fairy Tale.

I have finally started to get into some of the more recent books of legendary author Stephen King, which has usually worked out pretty well for me. His two 2021 novels, Later and Billy Summers were both excellent reads, with the later proving to be one of my favourite novels of 2021. We also have another new Stephen King novel, Holly, coming in a couple of months, but before we get to that I thought I would quickly review King’s 2022 release, Fairy Tale, which I read last year. While I had fun with Fairy Tale, I failed to write a review for it, which is something I am hoping to rectify now, especially after all the recent interest people have shown in his next book. Fairy Tale was a great dark fantasy read from King that took his typical teenager protagonist on a harrowing and compelling journey into a unique and hidden realm.

Plot Synopsis:

Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.

Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.” And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.

A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, Fairy Tale is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.

Fairy Tale was a pretty awesome book, although I have to admit that it wasn’t my absolute favourite Stephen King novel so far. While it was a great story loaded with King’s usual coming-of-age themes and great characters, it did have a few issues regarding pacing and a somewhat disconnected story.

The main issue that I had with the book was that Fairy Tale honestly felt like it was two separate novels combined into one massive read. The first half of Fairy Tale is probably my favourite, mainly because it contains the classic King coming-of-age story as the author introduces the reader to the protagonist of Charlie Reade and his complicated life. King really hits the reader strong from the beginning, describing the tragic events of Charlie’s young life, including the death of his mother, the alcoholic crumbling of his father, and the eventual resumption of a normal life once his father recovers from grief and drink. These events are covered perfectly, and they form a great basis for Charlie’s story, especially as they drive him to be a better person, which leads him to try and help his elderly neighbour, Howard Bowditch.

Mr Bowditch is a fantastic character, mainly because King gets his cranky persona and loner attitude down perfectly. The growing friendship between Charlie and Mr Bowditch, as well as Charlie’s bonding with Mr Bowditch’s old dog, Radar, forms a solid emotional centre for Fairy Tale’s narrative, which really hangs around to the end. I had a great time with the part of the book that followed Charlie helping Mr Bowditch and Radar, and I honestly think King could have written a great story purely around that. The combination of brilliant character work, a fun generational divide, true friendship, and even some mystery elements, really produced an excellent first part to the story. Even the hints of the fantasy elements to come are very well done, and King did a good job of only featuring a few subtle moments meant to tease the imagination. However, this doesn’t last nearly as long as I would have liked, as you are soon drawn into the next part of the story once Mr Bowditch dies. This sad but expected death serves as the catalyst for the second half the story, and the reader gets a full story about the hidden realm which can be accessed via a portal in the toolshed.

Now, I was initially very onboard for this second part of the book, especially as the protagonist’s main reason to visit the fantasy realm was to find a way to save Radar. Frankly anyone who has ever owned a dog should be pretty drawn into this part of the story, and the sheer desperation that the protagonist experiences as he journeys towards the potential restorative device made this story very relatable to me. This desperate quest with a tangible and heartbreaking time constraint melded well with the unique new land that the protagonist found himself in, and I loved seeing King’s imagination as he crafted a dying world of mysterious and damaged figures. The story at this point had an intriguing old-school quest vibe to it, very much like a classic fable, and I was so damn invested in seeing what happened to Radar. However, once that part of the story was resolved, there was so much left of the book left to go, and that’s where I had a little less fun with Fairy Tale.

Don’t get me wrong, King still brought together a lot of great elements that cleverly carried on from the front of the book. The dark fantasy realm had some great fairy tale inspirations which made for an excellent background, and the deranged figures who ruled over it were excellent villains. King also works in a very dark storyline where Charlie experiences some major adversity that he must literally battle to overcome, all while meeting a cohort of desperate new supporting characters. However, this part of the book just didn’t grab me as much as the first half, and there is somewhat of a disconnect between this story and the earlier awesome chapters of the book. Still, it was pretty fun to continue, and the story morphed into a classic hero narrative, with Charlie leading a mystical revolution. I ended up quickly getting through this chunky novel, and it was great to see Charlie grow into Mr Bowditch’s shadow as he encounters some of the events that made him. King ends everything a pretty happy and final note, and the reader comes away from Fairly Tale fairly satisfied with how everything turned out. I felt that the second half, while not as enticing as the first, combined well with the rest of the story and together you have a great, character-driven story, that you can really sink your teeth into.

Overall, I rather enjoyed Fairy Tale, even though it took me a little while to review it. Stephen King showed off his unsurpassed ability to create compelling stories focused on intriguing protagonists, and I love his amazing imagination and awesome ability to make me care about these fiction figures. While I did have some issues with the second half of Fairy Tale, this was still and excellent novel, and it is really worth checking out, especially if you are an established fan of King and his complex stories.

Fairy Tale Cover 2

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Starlight Enclave Cover

Publisher: HarperAudio (Audiobook – 3 August 2021)

Series: The Way of the Drow – Book One

Length: 14 hours and 49 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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The icon of the fantasy world, R. A. Salvatore, returns with a new adventure set in the world of his acclaimed Drizzt Do’Urden novels, with Starlight Enclave, the first book in The Way of the Drow trilogy.

Salvatore is an absolute legend amongst fantasy writers, having been an impressive leading figure for over 30 years with a massive catalogue of more than 60 novels. I have long been a fan of Salvatore, who has written some of my absolute favourite fantasy novels over the years. While he has written several great series, the author is still best known for his iconic, long-running Drizzt Do’Urden novels, which are set within the shared Forgotten Realms universe. Salvatore has had a particularly busy couple of years, simultaneously writing two separate series, including The Coven trilogy (Child of a Mad God, Reckoning of a Fallen God and Song of a Risen God), as well as the three books in the Drizzt focused Generations series (Timeless, Boundless and Relentless). All six of these recent novels have been pretty incredible, with Song of a Risen God and Boundless being amongst some of my favourite audiobooks of 2019 and 2020 respectfully. As a result, I was pretty excited when I saw that Salvatore had another Drizzt Do’Urden novel coming out and I made sure to grab a copy of Starlight Enclave as soon as I could.

Two years after the miraculous end to the Drow siege of Gauntlgrym, peace reigns throughout the Forgotten Realms. However, while some revel in the hard-won tranquillity, others worry about the future. Despite having cemented his rule over the pirate city of Luskan, the Drow rogue Jarlaxle is deeply troubled by the difficulties plaguing his people. Despite the apparent magical miracle that showed her as a false gold, the demonic Spider Queen Loth is still worshiped in the dark Drow city of Menzoberranzan, and civil war appears likely as the powerful Drow houses battle for the city’s soul.

Determined that Loth be thrown down once and for all, Jarlaxle looks for every advantage and weapon he can get his hands on. One of his more ambitious plans leads him to arm his closest friend, the recently resurrected Zaknafein Do’Urden, with two mighty swords of power, including the notorious blade Khazid’hea, better known as Cutter. With a sly and dark intelligence of its own, Khazid’hea has corrupted many wielders over the years, and its last master, the half-Drow Doum’wielle, may prove to be the missing piece in Jarlaxle’s latest master plan. Unfortunately, Doum’wielle was lost years before, thrown through a magical portal to the far north, and to find her Jarlaxle will need to embark on another dangerous quest.

Gathering three mighty companions in Zaknafein, the human priestess Cattie-brie and the former assassin Artemis Entreri, Jarlaxle leads them to the extreme far north, a place few have travelled. However, they are unprepared for just how dangerous this northern land can be, with new foes and mysterious phenomenon they have no idea about. But there are far great surprises waiting in store for them, ones that could change the very fabric of the world and alter the course of the upcoming Drow civil war.

Starlight Enclave is another compelling and fun fantasy novel from Salvatore who continues to expand and polish his iconic characters and settings with another great adventure narrative. This latest book contains a fantastic story that not only takes the series back to its bold adventurous roots, but which also sets up a great new trilogy that will no doubt be some of my favourite books of the next couple of years.

This new book contains a distinctive and powerful narrative that starts off a couple of years after the events of the previous novel, Relentless. The story starts off by setting the scene for a substantial amount of the plot while also recapping some key events of the previous novels in this very long-running series. It took me a little while to initially get into this book, but once the story got to a fantastic and intense sea battle around 50 pages in, I was pretty hooked. From there, the story diverts into two distinctive paths, the first following Jarlaxle and his companions as they venture out into the north, while a second following main series protagonist Drizzt Do’Urden, as he takes his daughter Brie to meet his martial arts master, Grand Master Kane. While initially pretty evenly split, the Jarlaxle adventure storyline quickly becomes the dominant narrative thread, with Drizzt’s storyline stopping about halfway through. I personally was fine with this; by this point, I was really enjoying the unique and cool tale being told around the four adventurers as they discover new lands and great dangers in the far north. This second half of the novel is very intriguing, and Salvatore ensures that there is a great blend of action, character development and world building. Just like with most of Salvatore’s novels, the fight scenes within Starlight Enclave are a thing of beauty and the author does an amazing job bringing the various fantasy battles to life, so much so the reader feels like they are in the room with them. The narrative eventually ends a bit of a cliffhanger that places most of the characters in mortal peril and which serves as a pretty cool conclusion to this great tale. I had a wonderful time getting through this story, and I am very intrigued to see how the narrative continues in the rest of the trilogy.

Due to Starlight Enclave being part of the long running Drizzt Do’Urden series, there is a bit of a question about how easy it is for new readers to enjoy this latest book. I will admit that there might be some difficulties for those unfamiliar with the series. Salvatore has built up quite a lot of background lore in the last 30+ years, and large amount of this comes into play throughout the book as there are a substantial number of references to previous adventures and characters. In addition, new readers might not be familiar with Salvatore’s writing style, which is very similar to how he wrote the original novels back in the 1980s, and as a result, they have a more classic fantasy adventure feel to them. As someone familiar with the previous adventures (although I could use a refresher) and the author’s style, I managed to get into this novel quite well, although I could potentially see new readers having a bit of a harder time breaking into them. Salvatore does take the time to explain the relevant bits of lore, and readers that pay attention should be able to follow the story without any substantial problems. I do think that, at this point, most of Salvatore’s novels are probably best read by his long-term fans, but newer readers will probably find something that they enjoy within them.

Unlike the previous trilogy of novels, which was set in more established settings, Starlight Enclave takes the reader on a big adventure into some brand-new areas of this massive fantasy world. Most of the story takes place in the far, far in the north of the planet, where very few southerners have ventured. This is a pretty unforgiving land of ice and snow, which proves a real challenge to survive in. Salvatore does a really good job bringing this snowy landscape to life, and it proves to be an excellent and treacherous setting for the story, especially as the protagonists soon discover that their magic does not work the same way as it does in the south, severely weakening them. Salvatore also does some major world-building in this book, as he introduces some big new civilisations and opponents. While I won’t go into too much detail about them here, I will say that it is a pretty major new inclusion, and it is clearly one that is going to have some significant impacts on the Drizzt Do’Urden series going forward. Some of the new major locations and races are extremely cool and Salvatore has successfully introduced some great and intriguing new entries into this wider world. I look forward to seeing how these elements are expanded in the future novels, and I have a feeling they are going to produce a few great surprises down the line.

You can’t talk about one of Salvatore’s novels without mentioning the fun and compelling characters. Starlight Enclave is a great example of this, as it includes a fantastic range of characters, with both intriguing new characters to beloved long-running figures from the overarching series. Over the last couple of Drizzt Do’Urden novels, Salvatore has noticeably moved away from some of his classic protagonists and has started to focus on the unique combination of the Drow characters of Jarlaxle and Zaknafein. I quite like these two great characters, especially the constantly manipulative and canny Jarlaxle, and together they form a fantastic pairing who play off each other’s personalities perfectly. The inclusion of other main characters, Cattie-brie and Artemis Entreri rounds out the main quartet nicely and presents a great group of veteran adventurers who are each looking for something very different, whether it be hope, redemption or the long-lost joy of adventure. Long-term fans of Salvatore’s books may be a little disappointed that some major characters, such as Regis and Wulfgar, are overlooked in this novel, but I was personally more than happy with the four main characters Starlight Enclave ended up focusing on.

The other character who got a bit of attention in Starlight Enclave is the overarching series’ main protagonist, Drizzt Do’Urden, who is the focus of the book’s secondary storyline. Like some of the other major characters, Drizzt has not been as heavily featured in the last few books as Salvatore experiments with different protagonists. This is still true in Starlight Enclave, with less than a quarter of the book given over to Drizzt’s adventure. Drizzt still shines as a character, especially as he is going through quite a lot. Drizzt is facing a bit of a crisis of faith and self-identity, brought on by his unique experiences in the previous trilogy when he ascended to a higher plain of existence to escape a deadly foe. Brought back by the love of his family, Drizzt still isn’t all there, and it is quite fascinating to see the more distracted and spiritual version of the character. Due to this development, Drizzt’s scenes tend to be quite philosophical in nature rather than action orientated, and there are several detailed discussions and debates about religion and the morality of the Drow. While not as exciting, Drizzt’s scenes are pretty interesting and form a great counterpoint to the other storyline. Salavatore is clearly building to something big here surrounding Drizzt, and I feel like there are going to be some other major changes around him in the coming novels. Still, it was nice to see a somewhat more peaceful Drizzt in this book, and after all these years, I had a smile to see him as a father rather than a warrior.

To enjoy this cool novel, I ended up grabbing the audiobook version of Starlight Enclave, which was narrated by Victor Bevine. This audiobook has a pretty decent runtime of just under 15 hours, which I was able to get through in around a week. I really enjoyed this version of the book, and I felt that it helped me get more entrenched in the landscapes and detailed fantasy world that Salvatore produced. Bevine, who has narrated a substantial number of Salvatore’s previous novels, does another great job here, and it was great to once again here his take on the various characters, especially as there is a bit of continuity from the previous audiobooks I have enjoyed. Bevine does a good job portraying each of the characters contained within Starlight Enclave, and I like the fun accents he does for the various races, especially the dwarves, who get some fun Scottish tones. Bevine ensures that this audiobook moves along at a fast and exciting pace, and I always enjoy hearing his narration of these exciting and compelling adventures.

In the amazing Starlight Enclave, the iconic R. A. Salvatore continues to expand his impressive and long-running Drizzt Do’Urden series with another bold adventure novel. This great novel does an awesome job setting up the cool new The Way of the Drow trilogy with a unique and exciting story and some compelling world-building. I had a wonderful time getting through Starlight Enclave and it is an excellent read, especially for those established fans of the author who will no doubt love to see another classic fantasy tale. An overall outstanding book, I am extremely excited to see how the rest of this new series unfolds.

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