A Whole New World…

Robert William Berg has written a very articulate analysis of Mark Chadbourn’s Age of Misrule trilogy (World’s End,Darkest Hour,Always Forever),and in so doing, he puts his finger on what I was first drawn to about the series:

What Chadbourn has done is take the framework of The Lord of the Rings and set a similar quest in modern day Britain. Tolkien’s work was a celebration of Celtic and British mythology. He was attempting, in the manner of an archeologist/historian to create a credible retelling and homage of his homeland’s mythology, through intricate, meticulous research. Chadbourn’s series springs from a similar impulse, but instead of reinvisioning the past, he lifts the mythology, wholecloth, and drops it into the present. The Lord of the Rings is, ultimately, the tale of how magic gradually began to leave the everyday world. Age of Misrule is the tale of how it returned. And there is no better setting than Britain, which seems to be one of the few places in the world that not only still has a rich mythological tradition but still has areas that have been all but untouched by the modern day, where one can travel an hour away from a modern, bustling city and find oneself at a medieval castle or abbey or even Stonehenge.

I told Mark he has to take me on a walking tour one day, but only if he can guarantee we won’t return and find 100 years have magically passed…