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Title:
Mythago Wood
Series: Mythago Wood #1
Author:
Robert Holdstock
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Fantasy
Pages: 261
Words:
97K
Publish: 1984
This
book typifies why I hate British “Lit”. In fact, it feels almost
identical to American “Lit”! It’s whiny, spineless, cowardly
and so full of bile and self-hatred that you need to cover your hands
in pepto-bismol just to touch the pages.
Normally, something like that would get an automatic 2stars and I’d write a screed against the author and condemn him for a multitude of sins, mainly of being a commie pinko who I would then shoot.
Alas, Holdstock’s skill at writing managed to overcome even my patriotic hatred of commie pinkos hiding in the closet.
But not enough to break the 3star barrier. I believe the series centers around the Mythago Wood itself and not necessarily the characters from this book. That gives me hope.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia & Bookstooge (because whoever did the entry for wikipedia is a complete….)
The events of Mythago Wood occur between 1946 and 1948. Stephen Huxley returns from service (after recuperating from his war wounds) to see his elder brother Christian, who now lives alone in their childhood home, Oak Lodge, just on the edge of Ryhope Wood. Their father, George, has died recently (their mother, Jennifer, died some years earlier). Christian is disturbed but intrigued by his encounters with one of the mythagos, while Stephen is confused and disbelieving when Christian explains the enigma of the wood. Both had seen mythagos as children, but their father explained them away as travelling Gypsies. Christian returns to the wood for longer and longer periods, eventually assuming a mythical role himself. In the meantime Stephen reads about his father's and Edward Wynne-Jones's studies of the wood. Part of his research on the wood causes him to contact Wynne-Jones's daughter, Anne Hayden. Stephen also meets a local man named Harry Keeton, a burn-scarred ex-RAF pilot, who encountered a similar wood when he was shot down over France and has since been trying to find a city that he saw there. Stephen and Harry try to survey and photograph Ryhope Wood from the air, but their small plane is buffeted back by inexplicable winds each time they try to fly over the trees. Stephen soon has his own encounters with the woodland mythagos (and an older Christian) and eventually, to save both his brother and a mythago girl named Guiwenneth (also referred to as Gwyneth or Gwyn), he ventures deep into the wood, accompanied by Harry.
Christian, being chased by the mythago of his father, chases down Gwyn to possess her and kills her. Steve fights his bro and saves the Mythagos from Christian, but doesn’t kill him.
