Excellent SF/fantasy book. ( )

An excellent world-making, with an absorbing plot. Slightly overwritten: it would be a relief to have a noun follow an adjective occasionally, and a tiny bit of editing some repetitive explanations wouldn't have reduced the word count by much but would have made it a smoother read. Despite those niggles, a great read and I am looking forward to the next three seasons. ( )

This book has sat on my shelves for almost a year, and now with the sequel in hand, I finally got it together and started reading. Hyddenworld swept me away before I had even realised it – the legend of Imbolc and the four gemstones of the seasons, the prophesy that seems to revolve around Jack and Katherine – all hooked me in.

I loved the first part of the book, something about the way the wyrd – the fate – of all the characters intertwining and culminating in the meeting of Jack and Katherine was amazing. All the major players were introduced and the scene was set for something amazing. The second part of the book skipped twelve years: Jack and Katherine are on the cusp of adulthood, inexorably bound by the car accident that brought them together. Jack moves in with Katherine, her mother and his foster parents, but his foster-father is missing. And the story stagnates. Endless days of Jack and Katherine slowly getting to know one another again, the slow and disheartening demise of Katherine’s mother from injuries caused in the car accident, strange happenings that the characters ignore. I was well and truly bored by the end of this section, and contemplating letting the book go in favour of more exciting reads. But then Katherine and Jack slipped it into the world of the Hydden.

I loved the subsequent parts of the book in the world of the Hydden – the little people – and found Brum to be well constructed, vividly realised, and much more believable than the human world that Horwood paints. The rich history and mingling of cultures, the exploration of social and economic issues, and the cast of wonderful characters soon reeled me in again. I loved Bedwyn Stort in particular, because of his eccentricities and subsequent adventures, but I enjoyed Master Brief and Pike just as much. Jack was able to grow into his inheritance in their company, and I liked how they believed him to be the half-giant mentioned in the prophesy, but they never pressured him into doing anything, and most of all, believed in him when he needed it most. Katherine also surprised me once she made it into the Hyddenworld – she’s capable and rescued herself many times, and I admired her growth and tenacity throughout.

The most striking aspect of the book is the style in which it’s delivered: it feels like William Horwood is sitting in a rocking chair, telling us, the captive audience sitting around him, a story of old forgotten times. It’s meandering, long, and sometimes sluggish, but always full of magick and mystery. Things are often repeated, histories are recounted at length and Horwood frequently gets sidetracked by the quirks of fate and destiny, only to be reluctantly pulled back into the narrative he is telling. Not a style that everyone enjoys, but well executed all the same.

Hyddenworld is a story from ages long gone, told in a quirky style and featuring some of the strangest, but most endearing, characters I have ever read. It’s a lovely book that will entertain fans of the genre and leave them wanting more. I am excited to get back to the world of the Hydden soon, in Awakening.

You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. ( )

Nearly fifteen years since his last book William Horwood's new fantasy novel was a welcome return. In this, the first of a planned quartet, we are introduced to the Hydden - a race of small humans living in our world but unseen. Most societies have myths of the "little people", what if they are true but with the coming of technology people can no longer see what is really there.

In some ways this is a standard quest fantasy novel. There is a prophecy; a cast of characters - good and bad and a journey. After a slow start I was drawn into the story and look forward to the rest of the series. ( )

Back in the early 1980s, I read Horwood’s bestselling animal fantasy about moles – Duncton Wood. I remember enjoying it immensely, but never read the sequels, and I can’t remember what it was really about apart from religion and war in mole-dom.

But it was remembering the enjoyment of the former that attracted me to Horwood’s new fantasy epic – Hyddenworld. This will be a quartet of novels named for the seasons, being published over the next couple of years. Spring was on the Amazon Vine review list and I requested an ARC. When it arrived I was very pleasantly surprised to receive a signed numbered copy – but did the book live up to the initial promise?

I found it to be an interesting hybrid – on one hand a contemporary urban fairy tale, and on the other a dark ages fantasy. Let me explain …
Humankind has long co-habited with the little folk – the Hydden; however with the advent of technology, humans have almost all lost the ability to see the Hydden in the normal world. At the start of the saga, we learn about an ancient prophecy of the CraftLord involving a giant-born Hydden who must live amongst humans until ready to take his rightful place as leader of the Hydden of Englalond. Imbolc, the aged Peace-weaver, rider of the White Horse, must see that he survives and also finds her successor – this is his wyrd, (an Anglo-Saxon word for fate or destiny).

Jack is that child born of German Hydden folk, and shipped to England to find a foster family to bring him up. The Foales, a childless couple who live near the Uffington White Horse, are going to foster him, but he is involved in a car-crash on the way to them engineered by the evil Hydden – the Fyrd. He heroically rescues Katherine, the daughter of the car’s driver, but at great cost to himself – being badly burned. Thought not to have survived, he was then able to grow up without the Hydden’s attentions. However, when he and Katherine, for their destinies are forever linked, come of age, the Hydden come to get him to bring him to their big city Brum (Birmingham), and thus begin his adventures in that inbetween world.

Having stood on the Ridgeway above the amazingly beautiful and ancient white horse at Uffington, (it dates from around 1000BC), you really do feel part of the Earth. It’s 110m long, and can only be truly appreciated from the air, so how they made it I do not know. The view from the top of the hill is astounding and you can see for miles and miles and miles. One spring day, we were up there, and you could see half a dozen separate showers over the towns and villages looking northwards.

The first part of this book is anchored in this area of the country around the rolling hills and ancient sites and henges – which are the portals into the Hyddenworld, and it is implied that the White Horse is Imbolc’s steed. There is Earth-magic aplenty waiting patiently to be activated, and when it does, Jack and Katherine are thrust into a very different world. I particularly enjoyed these settings and the landscapes evoked.

Katherine is captured by the Fyrd and taken to Brum; the Fyrd know that Jack will follow, but they don’t reckon on the skills of the Hydden band who help him. The Hydden themselves, although they live in harmony with the Earth, are happy to use human artifacts to help them. The wonderfully inventive Bedwyn Stort has shoes with soles made from old car tyres; and the band frequently jump trains to get around. Reduce, reuse, recycle as they say …

"The fire crackled and so did the surface of the venison.
‘Smells good,’ he said.
‘Roadkill,’ she murmured by way of explanation."

It was things like this that endeared me to the Hydden, and gave a contemporary urban twist to their green faery-ness. When we get to meet more Hydden types, it becomes clear that this is a race with issues that often mirror our own; for instance in Brum, there are the Bilgesnipe – brown-skinned Hydden that are skilled waterfolk and keep the canals and sewers from flooding Brum, but are looked down upon almost as slaves by the Fyrd, who are gradually taking over governance of the great city and want to oust the toff Lord Festoon.

I liked the good Hydden very much, even though I couldn’t help thinking of them as hobbit-like, with Imbolc as a female Gandalf who appears at critical times to help things along. They were well-characterised, interesting folk; compared with them, Jack and Katherine were underwritten, but I hope will come into their own in the subsequent books. Just topping 500 pages, there was quite a lot of explanation which, while necessary to an extent, did slow down the pace considerably in the early stages. Despite the length, it was a quick and enjoyable read, and would certainly be suitable for young adults. I find myself actually looking forward to the next installments with anticipation. (7.5/10, ARC supplied by the Amazon Vine programme). ( )