Merlin’s Wood (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Robert Holdstock
- First Published: 1994
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Fantasy—mythological
- Time of Work: Primarily the present, with flashbacks to indeterminate prehistory
- Setting: Brittany, France
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Fantasy, Arthurian romance
- Subjects: Magic or magicians, Mythology or myths, France or French people, Forests or forestry
- Locales: Brittany, France
The Plot
Merlin’s Wood echoes themes from, but is not really a part of, the author’s popular Mythago Cycle, consisting of Mythago Wood (1984), Lavondyss (1988), and The Hollowing (1993). Merlin’s Wood is at its heart an attempt to evoke a “vision of magic” (as the book is subtitled) quite different from standard fantasy fare, based more on a foundation of animism and shamanism than on pseudo-medieval sorcery and enchantment. A variation on a story first told in The Hollowing, where it appeared in much briefer form as the...
[The entire page is 986 words long]
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