Once Upon an Autumn Eve

February 13, 2006
Strictly for younger readers and those who favor frothy extended fairy tales, McKiernan's third seasonal fantasy (after Once Upon a Winter's Night
and Once Upon a Summer Day
) is set in the wondrous land of Faery, "a place of marvel and adventure and magic and peril, populated by mythical and mystical creatures and uncommon beings." When plucky amber-eyed Princess Liaze of the Autumnwoods rescues handsome and mysterious indigo-eyed knight-errant Luc from marauding goblins, the two instantly fall in love. Then Luc is kidnapped, and enemy wizard Orbane and his acolytes—the three witch sisters Hradian, Iniquí and Nefasí—are implicated. Based loosely on the fairy tale of the Glass Mountain and the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin, the novel turns on the truth behind Luc's parentage, but one-dimensional characters and minimal tension won't hold fans of McKiernan's better known Mithgar series (The Dragonstone
, etc.).