Lud In The Mist

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Enticed by the promises of a great many favorite writers, I took up Lud-In-The-Mist expecting a change in what female fantasy could be.


The name, the time, the author's story, all attracted me. Despite this, i couldn't manage to lose myself in it.


Essentially, for me, it didn't hold up.

I found the characters shrill and predictable, the bewildered goodies were good, and the baddies just as you found them.

As I read, I had a sense that I was waiting for the literary ah-ha to happen - the plot is thick as molasses, even the interesting characters are quickly stunted or oversimplified (I'm looking at you, Endymion Leer - such a great name, sigh!).


The whole plot and execution felt like a great dance around saying what the authoress wanted to say - I imagine this was quite effective in 1925, but I live in the 21st century, and I've seen LOST.


The premise is still interesting - a town on the border to the realm of Faerie, and the invariable cultural crossover that seeps in - and the prose was fittingly British and pretty, but Lud' left me with little to go on... and the slightly irked feeling of having missed the boat.


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