Yatterings

The Court of the Air is a strange debut which reminds me of Francis Hardinge’s debut novel in its mix of history and genres.



Molly finds herself on the run after a series of brutal murders at her orphanage but she discovers that she was the target when she descends beneath the city. Oliver’s sequestered life is shattered when he is framed for the murder of his uncle. As events begin to move out of control, the political status quo is shattered as an ancient threat tries to reassert itself.



The book starts out as a fantasy but moves into the rollicking adventure stories in the fashion of Kipling. It reminds me a little of the joyousness of Perdido Street Station and the uncertainties of Pullman’s His Dark Material trilogy. Hunt moves the story along with verve and creates a believable underbelly which writhes and squirms. The devil is in the detail and here Hunt excels delivering a rattling yarn without ladening the reader with exceptional detail or ordure. What is frustrating is the abrupt change in politics which occurs changing the tenor of the novel.



The novel becomes more than the sum of its parts - adventure, horror, fantasy and media sf. It remixes each part and comes out with each part slightly fresher than before.

technorati tags:stephen hunt, fantasy, adventure