Booky Things

The Lord of the Wood is firmly in the cozy fantasy space. The style approaches but never quite reaches the twee level of TJ Klune, the comp in the cover copy. Even though the setting is a homophobia included fantasy setting, the edges are always blunted, and you feel confident that everything will turn out fine. Just as Arthur has constrained his life to a small sphere, the worldbuilding is relatively limited: there's the isolated fishing village Arthur grew up in, the barely glimpsed larger town, and the magical woods, which are infected with a strange, uncurable pathogen that kills humans within days. The inevitable romance with the horned Lord of the Wood and quest to heal the forest unfolds without many surprises. Overall, The Lord of the Wood is a familiar story, albeit improved by the addition of a queer, forty-something autistic lead, and I'm sure it will have an eager audience. However, the story was a touch too sweet and affirming for my taste.

Although the book opens with the World War II setting, the Blitz is more scene dressing to emphasize the themes of the Arthurian retelling than anything else. The real plot and most of the action is with Nimue, not museum employee Elaine. The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood is definitely not a story about King Arthur running around smiting German pilots or something. The influence of Elaine's modern setting on the Arthurian plot is much more subtle. I hadn't realized that the agonizing over the inevitability of war in TH White's retelling was so closely inspired by World War II, and Parry is clearly paying homage to that link. And even as a standalone narrative, the Nimue chapters are an excellent interpretation of the character in their own right. There's a strong sense of the inevitability of story capturing people in its wake, and a certain melancholy lent by Nimue entering the story so late, only a year or two before Arthur's fall. While I'm a little disappointed that Parry didn't have much to say about the modern timeline other aside from in reflection, I've always been a sucker for yet another good Arthurian retelling, and the book delivers on that front. Recommended, if not as much as the glorious tragedy of A Far Better Thing.

Happy National Book Lovers Day! 📚

Tea with Matisse, 2025 by Shims Seng (Chinese); Acrylic on canvas, 30x40 in.

Wislawa Szymborska

See you at booth 1544 if you're in Minneapolis!

"The Never Ending Story," (2025) by Frances Featherstone (British, b.1976)

Source: Letters of Note