In the Palace of Repose

January 31, 2005
This collection of nine fantasy and slipstream short stories from Canadian author Phillips, her first book, offers a neat package of quietly thoughtful, composed writing. In the title story and "The Other Grace," characters must deal with the unalterable changes caused when dream and reality diverge. Similarly, in "The New Ecology" and "One of the Hungry Ones," runaway girls learn that safety is relative and the easiest route is seldom the safest. Likewise in "Pen and Ink," "A Woman's Bones" and "By the Light of Tomorrow's Sun," the main character must discover the fate of a forebear before she may define her place in the world. "Summer Ice" and "Variations on a Theme" detail the efforts of artists to find completion in their lives and work. Indeed, each of the stories is a variation on a theme, illustrating the many methods—some successful, some not—one may attempt in search of a place to belong. Along the way, Phillips offers gentle epiphanies rather than more conclusive endings, often leaving her characters hanging in mid-revelation. Despite the thematic repetition, readers will find themselves drawn in by elegant imagery and evocative settings. (Feb.)

Forecast:
A blurb from Michael Bishop, prominently displayed on the attractive jacket (depicting Thomas Cole's
The Course of Empire: Desolation), will make this one stand out from the pack on the fantasy shelf.

Starred review from February 1, 2005
Horror-movie buffs may love monsters and mayhem, but many of them also laud the 1940s B movies produced by Val Lewton and famed for suggesting horrors rather than showing them. Canadian newcomer Phillips one-ups Lewton by refraining to characterize what menaces her protagonists as evil or necessarily threatening. The king locked away for five centuries in "In the Palace of Repose" may be too much for all society to handle, but when he emerges, the three men who assume his keeping seem up to the challenge. The spirit of the female conqueror interred in a barrow in "A Woman's Bones" is dreaded by the native peoples who know her legends, but the interpreter for the archaeologists digging at the barrow becomes prepared to welcome the violent wraith's release. The girl art thief in "Pen and Ink" seems threatened more by the mysterious curator who spurs her on than by her quest for her vanished father literally " in" his paintings. Often Phillips' protagonists' desire to bring magic back into the world is greater than any fear of supernatural forces. The heroine of Phillips' least fantastic story, "Summer Ice," succeeds at working magic, and her reward, like her accomplishment, is altogether natural, though wonderful indeed. Phillips writes dark fantasy mostly with the aura of heroic fantasy, aiming to awe far more than to frighten--and succeeding, awesomely.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)