The Wandering Fire

In the second book of Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, the five protagonistsordinary Toronto college studentsreturn once more to become warriors and wizards in the beleaguered fantasy world of Fionavar, now suffering an unnaturally prolonged winter. To combat dread Rakoth Maugrim, King Arthur and Lancelot are revived and the Wild Hunt summoned from its long sleep. Together they vanquish the attacking wolf packs and shatter the cauldron of power. As the book ends, though, they are still deep in danger and hopelessly mired somewhere in mid-story. This elaborate, lore-filled fantasy, smelling of dusty library stacks and perfumed prose, will doubtless please those who enjoyed the first volume, The Summer Tree. Both are striking as unconscious but almost clinical catalogues of an adolescent world view, full of self-dramatization and self-pity, a desperation for instant status or celebrity, a preoccupation with lost love and death (which become equivalent totems) and a general lack of humor or perspective. SF Book Club Main selection. ( June 27)