I might be tempted to say that Anne Ursu's book is a REAL find, except that it would be too glib an introduction to what really is an enchanting, amazing and enriching reading experience. What seems like a small book about a small world - for once it is a self-contained fiction that shows no apparent pretensions to be the first in a trilogy, quartet or series - is, in fact, a very BIG book indeed, in heart and in spirit.
This is a classic enclosed world fantasy and its principal action happens within what is really a fairly small compass - an island where a city and its outlying village are surrounded by a dense forest. Of course there is a map in the best traditions of such fantasies. It does, too, follow the near ubiquitous apprentice format, heightened by the fact that for Oscar, the apprentice in question, events are precipitated when he is left alone by his magician master. But any impression that this is a tiredly formulaic fantasy needs to be dispelled very quickly, for indeed the book almost bursts at the binding with imagination, originality, insight and, yes, profundity.
Like many great works it has its challenges; it not always the easiest of reads. But don't think that it is heavy either; far from it. It is written with that apparent simplicity and straightforward narrative clarity that masks great writing skill. It's words are aptly chosen, it's descriptions evocative and it's sentences beautifully crafted. Often it lulls with an almost comfort-reading, cozy familiarity. Then it suddenly shocks and disturbs as when Wolf, the older apprentice, who appears to be shaping up as a significant character, is suddenly delivered to the magician's shop literally in pieces and in a sack that hits the floor with a 'slight splurching sound'. Its issues are complex, its themes interwoven and even it's magic is not always as simple as it at first seems. It springs surprises and twists that cause you to reflect upon and reconsider what is happening, both in the story and in your own life. It is simply quite wonderful storytelling.
One of the most prominent and striking features of the book is that Oscar, its young hero has Asperger's, although this is quite subtly introduced and never, in itself, majored upon. For this is not a book about Asperger's, or indeed about someone having Asperger's, it is more a book with a hero who just happens to have Asperger's. What is most significant is that this doesn't stop him being the hero. He just is who he is. He is a real boy.
The book has many other rich and sensitively drawn characters too, not least Oscar's friend Callie, and indeed a whole bunch of wonderful cats. At first glance, as it were, the book has it's 'goodies' and 'baddies' but in Anne Ursu's skilful writing, nothing is quite so simple; many of the adult characters are in fact much more ambivalent and contradictory. The same applies to the magic itself. This is a real fantasy.
For what is, one one level, a simple story, almost a fairy tale, the book has many strands and themes. There are green issues that connect the death of magic with the destruction of the forest; there are social issues around the attitude of the 'have ' people of the city towards the 'have nots' of the village. There is a whole rich storyline around the city-dwellers' possessive over-protection of children. But at heart it is about Oscar's growth: past gradual realisation of how he is different, through learning to accept himself for what he is, as Callie accepts him, and ultimately on to helping others to accept themselves as 'real' too. It is a book about the most meaningful of fantasy worlds, one that is our own. It is a book about every child's right to be himself or herself - to be real. It is a small masterpiece. It is a great book now. It deserves to become a classic of children's literature. And it is easily the equal of - although magnificently different from - the finest children's fantasy works of preceding decades.
