Other Kingdoms

Bronson Pinchot keeps this fantasy grounded with his perfect rendition of the protagonist's Brooklyn accent. Alex White is an 80-something author whose "memoir" focuses primarily on his late teens, when he retreats to England after being wounded in WWI. There he is caught between his enchantment with a middle-aged witch and his attraction to a young faerie, each of whom brings out the sexual fantasies of the young soldier. Pinchot makes the most of the formal style of the author to portray White's restrained frustration when he talks about his father and the undertone of sexual tension he carries. Pinchot also tosses off the story's many asides, augmenting but not distracting from the plot. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

January 17, 2011
Genre veteran Matheson (I Am Legend) frames this bittersweet blend of fantasy and romantic suspense as the "true" reminiscences of 82-year-old Alex White, the author of such novels as Midnight Blood Thirst and Midnight Flesh Hunger under the name Alex Black. In the spring of 1918, the then 18-year-old Alex, a wounded soldier who's been discharged from the American Army, settles in the isolated English town of Gatford, where he soon finds himself caught between two supernaturally empowered women: Magda, an alluring witch, and Ruthana, a charming faerie. Alex, himself powerless, is willing to make great sacrifices to be with his one true love, whichever one she might be, but their different natures and disapproving relatives may doom the relationship. Which of the two women Alex will choose is never really in doubt; the loser is clearly unsuitable and conveniently malicious in defeat. The self-pitying Alex may ramble in telling his straightforward tale, but Matheson remains as ever a competent craftsman.