The Summer Country

Rating:
Summary: Strange places, familiar faces
Review: *Summer Country* is an intriguing combination of strange places, and familiar faces. Hetley's conception of the "Summer Country" is somewhat different from the usual, in that it's emptier and less fertile than expected, but his characters are all too familiar: the independent, lovely girl who was once raped, her strong, supportive sister, a band member (in yet another Celtic band) and the noble Knight, who has lived longer and seen more than this generation understands. Not that this isn't engaging; I enjoyed it---while wishing for more, especially concerning the hapless Brian Albion, the Pendragon.

Constant warfare between Sean, Dougal and Fionna is as purposeless as any actions taking place in Faerie. This is a plus, for Faerie can be an arbitrary place, and Hetly captures that quality in the place, and in the three Old Ones. (To my mind, Dougal is the most interesting of the trio---a hunter and trainer of beasts.) The violence is appropriately disturbing, which makes this tale anything but a kid's fairy tale.

The pacing is uneven: time slows and speeds up in many ways, and the action seems rushed in other places, but the descriptions and conceptions are often surprising and even fresh: a visit to Fionna's seemingly innocuous cottage is wonderfully evocative---and frightening.

Hetley needs some seasoning in terms of characterization and pacing, but this first novel shows promise. I plan to keep his name on a list labeled "Watch this one." He's much better starting out than Charles de Lint was at the same stage .

Rating:
Summary: In the Shadow of De Lint
Review: Been a while since I registered a review here, but thought I should weigh in, what with all the five star reviews so far posted.

This is a decent debut, but certainly not deserving of all the accolades being showered upon it by previous reviewers. Covering little ground that is new or significant, the author delivers a competant tale that should appeal to De Lint fans, while possessing none of the latter's power of imagery or languange. Further, the tale is hampered at times by a certain clumsiness that often afflicts a first time novelist, which is no where more evident than in the author's attempt to jump start his novel with action more typical of an episode from Buffy than what one would expect of a serious novel. Also, more often than not attempts at humor fall flat or turn toward the burlesque, and it is hard to believe most readers will be satisfied with the novel's resolution, though it does leave room for further sequels.

Still, Hetley's handling of natural description and his secondary world in the main is well done, as is the overall competancy of writing, thereby offering divertissement if not truly serious stimulation. And the novel does touch upon comtemporary issues such as abortion and sexual politics, though not with any great depth.

I suspect the author's fiction will improve in future, but for the moment this offering is only marginally better than average.

Rating:
Summary: This is NOT your little sister's faerie novel.
Review: First, a caveat. Don't let the pretty cover art fool you. This is not a "pretty" book. It's really more horror than fantasy, full of violence and truly twisted characters. That said, I enjoyed this book. It stands out, with a few others, as a novel that presents a distinctive and original way of looking at the Otherworld, the faerie realm.

Hetley's "Summer Country" is ruled by those of the Old Blood, scheming and utterly inhuman despots who keep slaves and mold reality to their wills. Into a war between two of this kind, come four others. Maureen, an emotionally wounded, reclusive young woman, carrying the Old Blood unknowingly in her veins. Jo, her sensual older sister. David, a performer of Celtic music. And Brian, born of the Old Blood but sworn to Christianity. Maureen and Brian are each desired by a powerful ruler of the Summer Country as brood stock. For the Old Blood comes with certain liabilities, and these two will be good for the bloodlines.

And so they are drawn into the Summer Country, where human weapons are useless. Only Power can win the day. Will the newcomers find their Power before it's too late?

My only gripe about this book is that I wouldn't have minded it being longer. The romantic subplots seem a little rushed, as does the defeat of at least one of the villains . And I would certainly like to know more about Brian and the mission of the Pendragons.

Rating:
Summary: This is NOT your little sister's faerie novel.
Review: First, a caveat. Don't let the pretty cover art fool you. This is not a "pretty" book. It's really more horror than fantasy, full of violence and truly twisted characters. That said, I enjoyed this book. It stands out, with a few others, as a novel that presents a distinctive and original way of looking at the Otherworld, the faerie realm.

Hetley's "Summer Country" is ruled by those of the Old Blood, scheming and utterly inhuman despots who keep slaves and mold reality to their wills. Into a war between two of this kind, come four others. Maureen, an emotionally wounded, reclusive young woman, carrying the Old Blood unknowingly in her veins. Jo, her sensual older sister. David, a performer of Celtic music. And Brian, born of the Old Blood but sworn to Christianity. Maureen and Brian are each desired by a powerful ruler of the Summer Country as brood stock. For the Old Blood comes with certain liabilities, and these two will be good for the bloodlines.

And so they are drawn into the Summer Country, where human weapons are useless. Only Power can win the day. Will the newcomers find their Power before it's too late?

My only gripe about this book is that I wouldn't have minded it being longer. The romantic subplots seem a little rushed, as does the defeat of at least one of the villains . And I would certainly like to know more about Brian and the mission of the Pendragons.

Rating:
Summary: Would Make a Great Video Game . . .
Review: I am a big fan of the King Arthur legends, and so when I read the blurb on the back of James A. Hetley's "The Summer Country", I will admit to being excited. It seemed the world of Arthur, Merlin and Morgan Le Fey was being explored as a parallel sort of universe in this paperback of around 350+ pages.
While the premise is admirable. it falls short in the execution. Hetley describes the usual Irish American world of bars with free-flowing Guiness and fey fiddling musicians and their red-haired, green-eyed women. Maureen and her sister Jo are virtually physical twins, but that's where the similarity ends. While Jo achieves a sexiness that Maureen only dreams about, Maureen runs amok, talking to trees and having hallucinations she thinks are triggered by an abusive event in her earlier life. When the call to the alternate reality of the Summer Country comes in the brawny package of Brian Pendragon, Maureen and her family find themselves unprepared for the adventure that spirals into the land of eternal green like a quest straight from the pixels of the Legend of Zelda.
Does it work? Not really. Hetley sets up Maureen in too many semi-nude situations with enough blood and guts to make anyone other than the most adolescent audience a little wary as to its similarity to a Mature rated video game. While the grittiness of the story does move it along, the characters are neither likeable or disalikable enough for any of them to be memorable. The Ancient Ones come off more like quarrelling Greek Gods with an Irish flavor rather than immortal beings fighting for control.
Nevertheless, Hetley does a nice job in the side story of sister Jo and her musician boyfriend who unwittingly get involved with some potent green magic that proves to be a little too tough for them to handle. Even so, I would have liked to have put this story in the hands of Elizabeth Hand of "Mortal Love" fame, who does some wonderful things with language while contemporalizing myth and maintaining a fey air that cannot be and needs not be comprehended.
Bottom line: Entertaining in a video game genre that could have had much more dimension.

Rating:
Summary: WOW! So good I'll have to buy my own copy now!
Review: I borrowed this book from my local library. It's so good that I know I'll want to read it again someday!

This is story of a quartet of characters drawn into amazing circumstances - Maureen, Jo, Brian, & David. The main character is Maureen. She remembers stories told to her of the old country, the summer country, told by her departed grandfather. She assumes those are stories of Ireland. Maureen also talks to trees and sometimes hears things and sees things that no one else hears or sees. Maureen believes she is insane. She lives with her sister Jo who also believes her sister is insane. By some unspoken agreement with her highly dysfunctional family, Jo keeps watch over her sister.

In the beginning of the book Maureen is stalked by a large man on her way home from work. He corners her in an alley and as he approaches is hacked to bits by Brian. Though dressed in ordinary clothes, he is actually a Pendragon - a knight who protects human's from the "old ones." Maureen believes Brian must also be insane until she sees her would-be attacker consumed by blue flames and disappear. Initially she believes in him, then later does not trust him, blaming her suspicions of her own insanity for creating the deadly scene. Her sister Jo and boyfriend Brian are lovers who live under the same roof with Maureen. Their relationship irritates Maureen. She believes Jo stole David from her.

As the story progresses Maureen is drawn into the summer country by one of the "old ones" by magic. The summer country, once a wonderful placed, is twisted and full of hate and fear, and terrible violence. Jo sees her sister disappear before her eyes. She stands still and closes her eyes and wills herself to find her sister. Both Maureen and Jo are of faery blood, but don't know it. Jo opens her eyes and finds herself in the summer country in the middle of an enchanted, dangerous forest. Brian and David discover that both women have disappeared into the summer country and go there after them.

What follows is not a sweet faery tale. It's a fearsome faery land filled with terrors beyond belief and dangers that stretch the bonds of love. To tell more would ruin the story.

This book is so well written that the characters seem real to the reader and you actually learn to care what happens to them. Scenes are so well crafted that you can picture everything. As you close the last page of the book and the story ends you feel like you are saying goodbye to an old friend. Not many books can evoke that feeling. I sincerely hope the author comes out with another book. I would stand in line to buy one. I'll be buying this one for my own shelf as it is one of the most engrossing, wondrous stories I have every read!

Rating:
Summary: A good first book
Review: I enjoyed this book tremendously. There were parts that seemed rather contrived, but overall, I liked the interplay of reality and myth, psychosis and sanity. I think that this could be a good starting point for a *small* series of books about the Summer Country--maybe not the same characters though. Parts of this book made me cry and others made me laugh out loud.

I enjoyed this book and will look for other books by this author.

Rating:
Summary: Promising theme, but a flop
Review: I found this book at a used bookstore wondering why anyone wouldn't want it, it being described as a great fantasy, loved by Charles de Lint and Anne Bishop--great authors. Much to my dismay, when I took it home and started to read it, I was sickened. The main character Maureen lives with her sister in a small apartment in Maine, and works at a gas-station mini-mart. Having a very nasty life, (Her sister sleeps with Maureen's current boyfriends and her sister's junior high boyfriend raped her as a teen), Maureen hates her life. One day while walking home from her "job", she finds that a strange man named Brian is following her. He tells her that she "has magick in her blood" and needs to follow him to the "Summer Country", a place where King Arthur once reigned but now is dead. After lots of "humbley-bumbley-ing" around, with Maureen's passive/agressive IRRITATING attitude, one of the evil residents of the summer country kidnaps her at work. It turns out that it is Dougal, some half-monkey guy who starves her unless she sleeps with him and bears his child. (Supposedly the heir?) After she finally agrees, they sleep together, but while Dougal snores next to her, she takes some crude weapon and kills him with it. (Horribly bloody, Maureen has some weird "Carrie"-ish awakening. Weird. Really Weird.) After escaping, she finds Brian has been put under some evil spell, and she does some weird sexual lap dance to awake him. Then she finds she is pregnant with Dougal's kid, but decides to keep it. (Yuck).

Though the theme would have made a wonderful novel, Mr. Hetley mangled the whole Legends of King Arthur. Way too many odd sexual experiences and weird satanistic awakenings. STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!.

Rating:
Summary: Myth and legend meets modern day Maine
Review: I found this book on accident at the bookstore, and I almost put it down, if not for the great cover art. I started the book on a Tuesday night, and by Thursday morning, I was done with it. The only problem with that was after it was over, I wanted more! If you like fantasy, but are in the mood for a some 'real world' as well, this is your book.
Maureen finds herself with a new and very different friend after he saves her life from someone who wants more from her than her wallet. She has had problems since childhood trusting men in particular, so even though he does try to protect her, she cannot let herself trust him. There is also an interesting sub-plot involving her sister and her sister's boyfriend.
The only thing I would have changed with this book was that we did not really get a lot of character detail about Brian after the beginning. He is still in the story, but I just thought he could have been more developed and/or changed at the end like the other characters.

Bottom line: if you don't mind some violence (read: there is rape, although not explicit, murder, and plenty of blood) accompanying an enveloping story, this is a great read!

Rating:
Summary: So close
Review: I have been on a yearlong search for good urban fantasy along the lines of Charles DeLint and this book was one of my recent discoveries. It's not very productive to compare authors since each must, in the end, stand on their own merits, so I will try to avoid comparing Hetley to DeLint. The action sequences in this book are right up there. There were times my pulse quickened as the two sisters began to tap into their Powers and turn them against their adversaries. The characterization was rich enough to feel empathy for the Mo and Jo and David and Brian, as well as antipathy for Sean, Fionna and Dougal. Where the story lost my connection was the attempts to weave genetics, hybridization and Neanderthals into the explanation for the Old Ones. I for one have grown weary of this particular take on all things magical and fantastic. Also, I felt the interplay between the Summer Country and the "real world" was too weak. What draws me to the urban fantasy genre is the sense that there is an unseen world just visible out of the corner of one's eye, and that we need but turn quickly enough to catch a glimpse of it. Hetley move the story too quickly into the Summer Country to satisfy me. I enjoyed the hints of past encounters between the characters and would have like to see them built on a bit more. In the end I enjoyed Mr. Hetley's writing and would read his work again.