Faerie Wars
The Faerie Wars Chronicles, Book 1
Herbie Brennan
Bloomsbury
Fiction, MG Fantasy
Themes: Epics, Faeries, Portal Adventures
****
Description
Henry's life collapses one morning when his parents tell him that they're separating. He quickly learns fthat his mother had an affair with Dad's female secretary.
Still reeling from this news, Henry goes to work at old Mr. Fogarty's house, hoping to bury himself in some meaningless chore or another. Fogarty's an eccentric old man
with an unusual gift for mechanics and conspiracy theories involving aliens and the CIA, but he likes Henry, and the boy is fond of him. The old man has no trouble finding
makework chorse to keep the boy's mind off his troubles.
In Fogarty's back yard, Henry happens upon a little winged man about to be chomped on by the old man's cat. Henry doesn't believe in fairies, but it's hard to ignore
something sitting in the palm of his hand. His name is Prince Pyrgus, a faerie boy roughly Henry's age, who is suffering the unfortunate physical aftereffects of a poor
"translation" from the parallel world of the faeries. In his own dimension, Pyrgus and the other faeries look much like people, living in a world strikingly similar to our
own, only with magic instead of machines. The rebellious runaway prince's lack of interest in politics worries his royal father, the Purple Emperor; like it or not, the boy
can't ignore his royal responsibilities. The balance of power between the Faeries of the Light, who are generally good and honest, and the Faeries of the Night, who tend to
dabble in darker arts, appear headed toward open conflict as talks break down, due in no small part to the prince's antics (such as breaking into noble houses to release
creatures from abusive captivity.) Pyrgus's sister, Holly Blue, tries to keep tabs on him and the rest of her father's empire through her own clandestine means, but things
are spiraling beyond her ability to track. There are darker forces at work behind the scenes, set on destroying the Peacock throne and plunging the faerie world and Henry's
world both into chaos under a rising tide of demons, who themselves are native of another parallel world and may explain some of Fogarty's UFO theories.
Pyrgus thought he was running from an angry "Nighter" faerie lord when he left his father's castle, and Henry thought his own world was ending. Both soon learn that there are
greater problems then their own, or rather that their personal problems are part of a much larger web. Henry, Pyrgus, and Holly Blue may be the only ones who can stop all
Hell from breaking loose - literally.
Review
This was a good story, its main drawback being that it's the start of a series of unspecified length and thus takes a little while to get off the ground. The fairy world feels pretty solid, something like that in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series with magic and machinery combining, though Brennan's fairies have more actual magic and wizardry in some ways and a little less ultramodern technogadgetry. The jumps between characters and worlds sometimes felt awkwardly spaced, and obviously much was being set up for future installments in the series, but overall I enjoyed this book.