The High House
James Stoddard
Aspect
Fiction, Fantasy
*
DESCRIPTION: The High House of Evenmere is a great conglomeration of rooms and passages that seems to extend forever... and just might. Its labyrinthine halls and
vast rooms contain whole kingdoms, and its many walls and windows and doorways intersect with others. The Master of Evenmere has the task of keeping order and fighting the
forces of Entropy and Chaos across the worlds which the house spans. Should they take the High House, all of Eternity would perish and Chaos would rule.
Carter is the son of Ashton Anderson, Master of Evenmere. Sent away as a boy on the wishes of an ambitious, power-hungry stepmother, he returns as a man to find his father
missing, the Master Keys in the hands of evil anarchists led by a dark force called the Bobby, and terror spreading through the kingdoms of the High House. A new Master must be
found to make things right, for if the High House falls, whole worlds will suffer.
REVIEW: It looked like a different idea: a big, old house that touches on and contains whole other worlds. I used to watch the series America's Castles on
occasion, so I'm a sucker for huge, elaborate constructions. At first, that's what I got. Every time the characters entered a room, I was treated to a paragraph or two
describing it, from the carpet to the ceiling. Whenever they found a secret passage, the author generously provided a detailed accounting of how it opened and where it led,
be it a dead end or another room. Every time they ate, I got a description of what they ate, with what decorated silverware, on what dishes, and under which chandelier. Even
when they were being chased and in fear for their very lives, every room, hallway, doorway, and doorknob encountered was elaborated upon.
Every. Single. One.
I wouldn't have minded if Stoddard had been thoughtful enough to provide a plot to go with it, or at least one interesting character. But he knew that doing so would detract
from his descriptions, so the whole deal with the quest for the Master Keys and such is left in the background while he waxes poetic on the High House. It was indeed a spectacular
house, but there was just a little too much of it. It went beyond interesting to surreal in the first third of the book, and thereafter passed into mind-numbing repetition.
Perhaps if the action had moved outside the house a little more, to take a break from yet another empty room or dead-end secret passage, it would've been better. As it was,
things got really old really fast. The writing style was like something from another era, with a lackluster hero (who is the hero just because he's the main character, not through
any special personality attributes, wisdom, or accomplishments) traveling from one surreal situation filled with caricature characters to the next. The villains were no more
dynamic, following no more logical a path than the good guys. Try as I might, I just could not take a bad guy named "the Bobby" seriously! Somewhere around the 1/3 mark, I found
myself skimming here and there, and by the 2/3 mark I was only hitting a few sentences a page. It's the only way I made it to the ending, which was just as dull as the rest of
the book. As a topper, there's at least one sequel. After the agony of crawling through this story? I don't think so. I'll stick with America's Castles. At least they
break for commercials occasionally.
You might also enjoy:
Metropolis (Thea von Harbou, Fiction - A wealthy son of privilege faces the sin and slavery his father created in building a utopian, machine-dominated city)
The Gunslinger (Stephen King, Fiction - An antihero searches the surreal landscape of his dying land for a means of salvation)
The Keys to the Kingdom: Mister Monday (Garth Nix, YA Fiction - On the brink of death, a teen boy is given the key to the vast house of God's own Creation, where Chaos runs amok)
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