The Prodigal Troll

April 11, 2005
In Finlay's meandering first novel, a heroic quest fantasy, loyal retainers spirit the human infant Claye away from his home, a castle under siege, but they die before they can bring him to safety. Adopted by a troll and renamed Maggot, Claye grows up among the trolls, who regard him as weak and puny but smart. Eventually realizing that he has to find his destiny among his own kind, Maggot first befriends humans in a clan culture, who involve him in their impossible war, fought against a far superior army. Next, he seeks to learn more about the marauders, a decadent city folk. Throughout, he keeps his eye on an elusive prize—Portia, a woman of the marauders, who falls in love with Maggot after a brief meeting. The narrative strives to be both funny and moving, but the humor tends to the slapstick and clashes with the tone of the rest of the book. Despite the emphasis on matriarchal societies, all we see are men doing warlike things (or trolls being spectacularly stupid). Still, Maggot's distance from humans and his role as the ultimate outsider ring true. Since Maggot never really completes his quest, a sequel seems in the offing. Agent, Matt Bialer.

May 15, 2005
Young Claye is the infant son of Lord Gruethrist, smuggled out of the castle before it fell in one of those bloody feudal wars that are the plot springs of so many fantasy novels. Unfortunately, Claye's caretakers are killed, and he survives only through the kindness of a bereaved female troll and despite the loud objections of her husband--and a loud troll is very loud indeed. Growing up under the name Maggot, Claye learns a formidable array of survival skills from his neighbors, some of whom are creatures even weirder than trolls. It develops that he wants to win the hand of Lady Portia without using so many of his nonhuman skills that she will wonder what he really is and spurn him. Finlay's short stories have given him a reputation for originality, to which this novel should add reputations for characterization, for world building, and for satire that never goes over the edge into bad taste.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)