I've begun replacing and fle****ng out my Thomas Burnett Swan collection,
which is apparently going to be a small one no matter what, and got a copy
of _The Weirwoods_ (1967) t'other day, and finally got to settle down and
read it--
And choked three times in the first paragraph (remember, this is set in
or around ancient Etruria): "Mt. Cimini"? (inappropriate abbreviation);
"The Ciminian Forest, it was called on maps of the region"? (maps?);
"[T]he townspeople whispered another, more sinister name: The Weirwoods?
Weird Woods? Werewolf Woods? no one remembered the origin of the name . .
.. " (were those roughly, at least initially, homonymous in Etruscan?) . .
. .
And did a quick flip through, checking language, dialog, action, and it
seemed distinctly sub-par.
I suspect this was due to its being his first novel, and, certainly,
_Moondust_, which was published only a year later, is infinitely superior
all around, well-told and weird.
But it still shook me.
And I still haven't been able to bring myself to read it.
Grr.
--
In the old time, there was love in the forest.
< _Where is the Bird of Fire?_
|
