The Platypus Reads Part XXI

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This one came highly recommended from a friend.

"The High House" follows in the footsteps of George MacDonald's "Phantasties" and "Lilith," and that is the best place to start with this quirky, imaginative, highly literate, work. (Speaking of starts, this also seems to be Stoddard's authorial debut.)

Stoddard is absolutely steeped, and I mean STEEPED, in the works of the Inklings (Tolkien, Lewis, and Williams in particular), their influences (Norse Mythology, Chesterton, MacDonald), and their contemporaries (Burroughs, Dunsany, Lovecraft, Eddison). If you aren't borrowing a copy, be prepared to annotate! However, "The High House" does not come off as simply imitative or a pastiche (though as a new author, their are moments when his allusions are too heavy or descend to the level of strait borrowing). At its best, it stands as a genuine, new contribution to the field; both interpreting the works that influenced it and yet producing a new and enjoyable world all its own.

To sum it up, "The High House" is the sort of book I wish I could write.

Comments

Joi said…
Glad you liked it! I thought it was ridiculously impressive for a first book. Hope you enjoy the sequel--it's not as good, but it still has its moments.

Is it just me, or does Jormungand get the best lines?
10:07 PM
Joi said…
p.s. just noticed from a previous post that you've been reading A Princess of Mars! I just discovered those books myself,and find myself rather enamored of Burroughs. Some fo the most fun books I've read in a while. And to top it off, Pixar is planning a John Carter of Mars movie!
10:11 PM
James said…
Woo-hoo for Pixar taking up the John Carter series! That should keep the gratuitous sex and violence down to a bare (pun-intended) minimum. I think Stoddard succeeds in creating a truly "Tolkienesque" dragon without it being merely Smaug redux. You'll note Jormungand's tendency to slip between epic prose and contemporary upper-class English. Like Smaug, he's disturbingly modern, and yet very much at home in the high-fantasy world of the "High House."
12:59 AM
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