The Fetch

December 8, 2008
Whitcomb (A Certain Slant of Light
) revisits the hereafter with this ambitious fantasy that dips into Russian history to explain why Princess Anastasia and Prince Alex's remains were not found alongside the rest of the slain Romanov family: they were spirited away by Calder, a Fetch, who attends the dying and escorts souls to heaven. Calder is a hugely empathetic figure, abandoned as a baby and killed at age 19, but he errs, first by falling in love with a Romanov, and then in taking the dying mystic Rasputin's body as his own in order to pursue her, causing a major rupture in the spirit world. To heal the wound, he, Anastasia and Alexei (here called Alexis) travel the globe in search of a lost key. The story, riveting until this point, loses its focus as they begin their trek. Whitcomb's inventive vision of the afterlife almost makes up for the plodding pace of the narrative—it's an ultimately comforting place where souls see their deepest regrets woven into tapestries and their contributions displayed in the form of a garden only they can interpret. Ages 12–up.

Calder is a Fetch, a death escort who helps the dying along their journey from Earth to Heaven. When he falls in love with a woman who is attending a dying child, he makes the fateful decision to join the world of the living, thereby upsetting the balance between Heaven and Earth and unleashing chaos he must then undo. Jack Garrett does a fine job narrating this richly written but somewhat confusing fantasy, which takes place during the Russian Revolution. His pacing carries the plot along, and his tone matches the heady subject matter. Garrett's understated narration allows the listener to focus on the plot twists and richly described settings. Subtle vocal characterizations for the main characters help distinguish their interactions with others along the round-the-world and cross-world journeys they take. J.K.R. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine