cover image The Mirror Prince

The Mirror Prince

Violette Malan, . . DAW, $15 (309pp) ISBN 978-0-7564-0339-3

In Malan's Narnia-spiced fantasy debut, which also contains dashes of de Lint, Rowling and Tolkien, Canadian Max Ravenhill thinks he's just a young professor of history with a crush on Cassandra Kennaby, a pretty martial arts expert, but he's really Dawntreader, a Faerie Prince Guardian, who lost a war and was exiled to the Shadowland of Earth. And Cassandra is actually his soul mate, Truthsheart, a Rider charged to protect him from the Hounds of the Hunt during the time of Banishment. Cassandra is also trying to keep him far from his evil brother, Dreamer of Time (aka the Basilisk Prince), who thinks Max knows the location of powerful Talismans. The revelation of the identity of the High Prince, whom the Lands of the People have been awaiting, provides the best surprise in a book that suffers from overly complicated world building, fragmentary plotting and lead characters who never really come alive until the end. (July)