Never After

Rebecca Lickiss' second work is one of my absolute favorites. Sometimes, I read a book, go 'Oh, that was nice' and put it down for several years. This one, I can finish and immediately start reading again. Never After is in the vein of fairy tales, but treats them in the manner of turning them upside down and spinning them 'round on their heads.

The main tale is that of Sleeping Beauty, except instead of one sleeping princess, it's three sleeping princes, as Prince Althelstan finds out after he finally hacks through the tangled briar barrier and searches for a month for the sleeping princess. He does find one, but kissing her does no good for the general curse. Also, there is a severe shortage of princesses in the land, so Althelstan comes up with the idea to get his cousin, the Lady Vevila, who technically is a princess, to come a'kissing. One problem: Vevila is more interested in adventuring than princes. After bribing Vevila with her own horse and a sword, he finally gets her to agree, but that's only the beginning.

The characters are strong, well-formed, and interesting. Vevila is sure and no-nonsense, who can take care of herself. The three wizards are all humorous, and Lickiss pulls an interesting trick by cursing one wizard to only speak in quotes from The Merchant of Venice. The story is excellent. Though is draws on familiar material, the plot is fresh and inventive. So far I've been borrowing Brown's copy for the last 150 times I've read it, and I will certainly have to get a copy of my own.

Blue