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The Caves of Buda

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In the heavens of fantasy, Leah R. Cutter is a new, brightly shining star distinguished as much for her attention to historical/legendary detail as for her sharply poignant prose. She does not describe the settings in which her fiction takes place; she transports you there in such a way that you experience all the sights and sounds of the drama for yourself. In her first novel, Paper Mage, she recreated the world of China during the Tang Dynasty. Now, in The Caves of Buda, she takes the reader on a detail-oriented excursion to the living world of Hungary, where a powerful demon waits for the curses that turned him to stone to be eradicated - and for the former young child with whom his destiny has become intertwined to return and so begin the end game of his release from captivity deep within the caves outside Budapest.

We all have our demons; in the case of Laci (pronounced LAH -tsee), an old man now living in Arizona, the demons are all too real. As a young boy in war-torn Hungary, Laci encountered the demon Belusz in the caves of Buda. Forced into the foul thing's presence by horrific magicians who used to be men, Laci lost his own magical sight but managed to return the demon's curse before escaping. Twelve years later, Laci fled Hungary with his little girl after the Communists killed his wife, and he is now an old man suffering the loss of his mental faculties. Dementia has taken away a large part of the man that Laci's granddaughter Zita knows and loves, so the young lady puts little stock in her grandfather's ravings about returning to Hungary to kill the demon. Then her grandfather escapes from the hospital, and Zita finds herself hurrying across the world to search for him in the land of his birth, unaware of the dark and painful part she will play in the end game of demonic infiltration. The lifting of the first four of five curses is linked to dark events in human history, and only Laci knows the danger that the whole world will face should Belusz be freed completely of his bonds.

Ephraim Cohen also makes his way to Hungary, breaking free of the chains of ritual and changelessness that have always bound him. In the land of his ancestors, Cohen discovers that the rituals he has always relied upon subconsciously are more than just empty motions, for he has magic within him, the kind of magic Belusz needs to gain his freedom - and the kind of magic Laci, now joined by Zita, needs in order to stop and kill the demon. By the time the trio comes together, the reality of demonic forces is no longer a matter of speculation, and the three unite in a desperate attempt to save the world from unimaginable horror.

These are complex characters drawn with masterful touches by Cutter. Past and present interweave in Laci's troubled mind, drawing the reader into Hungary's troubled past as well as its demon-threatened present. Zita and Ephraim are deeply human characters battling their own demons in preparation for the fight to come with Belusz. Laci must overcome his great fear and the dementia that makes his thought processes a tangled web of reason and unreason; Zita must conquer the fear that she will fail and disappoint the grandfather she loves so dearly as well as overcome her weakness for external control currently represented by her unfeeling boyfriend back home; Ephraim must come to terms with the unhappiness of his old life and recognize the intrinsic self-worth of his own existence. The ultimate confrontation with Belusz, when it comes, holds surprises for the reader and plays out in a marvelously crafted fashion.

Cutter's commitment to her writing is impressive indeed. At the end of the book you will find a rarity among novels - a bibliography of works consulted in the construction of the history, myth, and tradition of the entire novel. The Caves of Buda is a product of both extensive research and the magical creativity of Cutter's inspired imagination, and the end result is a highly literary novel that takes on a living and breathing life of its own.

This book is set in modern times, with a bit of magic and a few fantastic creatures added. Two of the three main characters are particularly interesting: an old man who is experiencing dimensia, and a compulsive middle aged man who discovers that some of his habits are magical spells. The third main character is not: the old man's loving granddaughter, whose attitudes regarding her live-in boyfriend are distasteful and selfish.

The plot follows these three, who eventually confront an evil creature in Europe. The plot is internally consistent, characterization nicely done, and the overall mood pleasant. "Caves of Buda" is an enjoyable read, worthwhile but not "can't put it down".

Laci - an older man who escaped the horror of facing a mighty demon while being a young boy living in WWII Budapest - must return to the city of his past and destroy the demon Belusz before it frees itself and destroys the world. His beloved granddaughter, Zita, thinks he is loosing his mind, but follows him back to Budapest. While there, she meets Ephraim, a young man with magical gifts. Slowly realizing that Laci is telling the truth, both Zita and Ephraim stand along the old man and face Belusz and his minions in the final confrontation. Original, with great characters, superb narrative and a deeper meaning. This is a great novel from Leah Cutter. Highly recommended.

In Hungary during the Nazi occupation, Laci and his friend Janos stumbled across a cave near Buda. Being scouts they were eager to explore but Jews were using a part of the isolated area to hide from the Nazis. The two boys became separated and Laci who had "the sight" saw the demon Belusz bound to his stone throne. After a magical alteration, the demon ripped away Laci's magical sight.

Laci is old now, living in Arizona, but though he becomes forgetful he still vividly remembers the cave and the demon as they are bound together so that if one dies so does the other. However Belusz has found a way to break the binding spell and kill Laci without harming himself. Laci goes home to kill the demon before he wrecks havoc on the world. His granddaughter Zita loves him very much, but thinks he's senile and follows him to Hungary determined to bring him back to the States. In Hungary, Zitla discovers she has the sight as she "sees" the demon. She joins forces with the magician Ephraim Cohen and her grandfather to prepare for the biggest battle of their lives fought on the magical plane.

The demons in this novel are not biblical in any sense of the word but are evil entities that are a part of Hungarian mythology. Although Zita is initially a skeptic, when she believes she becomes a dynamo in action, determined to find a way to kill Belusz without getting Laci killed. Leah Cutter, (see PAPER MAGE), has written a horror novel that despite our rational belief system, feels very believable and though in Eastern Europe has no vampires.

Harriet Klausner