skygiants

Of the various Ursula Vernon books that I've read, Thornhedge may have been the one that I've gotten on with best so far, with one major caveat that I didn't get on with at all, on which more anon.

This is a Sleeping Beauty riff focusing on a humble toad-fairy who has spent centuries guarding an ominous castle containing an ominous sleeping maiden, and the polite young man who comes to disturb the situation by being a polite young man. A classic fairy tale retelling executed well -- I especially liked that it's set in our own world with its own history of transition through the medieval era, and the way those big historical shifts slowly filter through and impact even our heroine's closed fairy-tale world. Vernon is one of those authors who for me has such a distinctive and consistent voice and pattern of narrative interest that once I spend too long in any of her worlds it often starts to blend together with the others, but this one has exactly the right amount of weight and heft for itself.

My major caveat is ( spoilers )