Customer Reviews

Hyddenworld

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Sometimes it's hard to separate our feelings for a book from the setting in which we read it. Somewhere along the way of my first backpacking trip through Great Britain, I managed to obtain a copy of William Horwood's Duncton Wood. A purchase at Waterstone's, a swap with another backpacker, a left-behind-for-anyone copy on a hostel table; I have no idea how or why I picked it up. But I was quickly glad I did and once I'd finished it, immediately found the ensuing books as well, buying them one by one and leaving finished copies behind me like a trail of bread crumbs (first rule of backpacking: never carry what you don't absolutely have to). When I got home I re-collected the series and it still sits on my shelf, my love for it an inseparable combination of its literary quality and its physical associations with two of the best months of my life. So it was with no little excitement that I picked up Horwood's newest work, Hyddenworld, the start to another fantasy series. To be sure, it'd be unfair to expect Hyddenworld to recapture that same sense of magic I had reading Duncton Wood strolling through the English countryside, and I knew going in I'd have to temper that desire, but I have to admit even with lowered expectations I still found Hyddenworld a disappointment.

Hyddenworld is, as the name suggests, a whole other world hidden within our own, populated by "hydden" roughly three feet in size who make use of our world's items but remain unseen due to human's unwillingness to see what "shouldn't" be. And so they ride beneath our trains, live beneath our cities (in this case Birmingham), traverse our sewers and roads. I confess, this opening premise was one of my first and largest problems with the book; I never quite bought it. I can buy Hobbits having a trick of moving stealthily so it's difficult to see them, but there's always the possibility and for them, that fear. And they still get caught. I can buy Borrowers being so small that we wouldn't catch them behind a book, but they still tend to come out only when Big People aren't around for fear of being seen. And they still get caught. But here, not only do the Hydden not hide or come out only when "it's safe," they walk right by us, can even wave and yell and jump up and down. I needed a bit more than human's "willful ignorance" to buy this and it was a constant nagging distraction no matter how often I tried to push it aside.

Every now and then, one is born among the Hydden as a "giant-born," and their births usually foreshadow great upheavals. In this case, the giant-born is Jack, who is sent into the human world (there are gates and portals--sometimes simple gates, other times henges) to protect him from those who wish to do him harm. There he becomes connected to Katherine, a young girl who may or may not become a Shield Maiden, a mythic figure of huge importance in the Hydden world. Along with Jack and Katherine, major characters include the Hydden Bedywn Stort--a scatter-minded genius; Pike--a terse warrior with a soft heart; Brief--the Master Scrivener; Brunte--an ambitious Fyrd (who rule the Hydden world); and the human Arthur Foale, who has long sought the Hydden and has recently disappeared.

Early on we're set up for a major quest tale about retrieving Spring, a missing gem in a legendary magical amulet worn by the Peace-Weaver and whose stones must be recovered if the Earth is to be saved (mostly it seems from the greedy short-sighted environmental depredations of humanity). Other plot questions abound: What happened to Arthur Foale? Who and what is Jack? How is Katherine connected to the Shield Maiden myth? Why are the Fyrd seeking both Jack and Katherine? What do Brief and Stort know that they aren't saying (it's obviously something). What does Brunte plan? And a few others as well.

Outside of the basic premise, the other major problem I had with the story was simply pace; it was far too slow. I have no problem with long books; I recently embarked on a reread of Steven Erikson's Malazan series where each book is between 700-1000 pages. Bleak House at nearly 1000 is one of my favorite novels. So I can do long. And I can do quiet and character-driven (as in Robin Hobb's latest duology). But Hyddenworld, while somewhat long (nearly 500 pages) and mostly character-driven (a few chase scenes) was just too slow for me. Not the leisurely enjoyable, revel in the voice slow but the more maddening this should have been 150 pages shorter slow.

Pace can sometimes be overcome by character. But here again, Hyddenworld fell short, as I just couldn't find myself caring much about most of those involved, including unfortunately the two main characters, Jack and Katherine. Both are relatively passive throughout--done to rather than doing--, both seems to accept way too easily this whole new worldview they're presented with, and both are pretty slimly developed save a few repeated shorthand characterizations: each one's unstated and confusing feelings for the other, Jack's self-consciousness about some burn scars and a few others. The Hydden are not really better developed (many can be summed up in a simple phrase, such as "absent-minded genius" or "gruff fighter") but are more engaging: Pike and Stort are both endearingly likable in their roles, Brunte's ambition and desire for vengeance is darkly compelling. Perhaps the most original and enthralling characters are the figurehead ruler of Brum (the city under Birmingham) and his chef: Festoon and Parlance respectively, whose dialogue and relationship bring a much-needed spark of life to the novel. Unfortunately, though, the two don't show up until the last 50 pages or so.

Finally, despite the 500 pages and despite spending so much time with Hydden or in the Hydden city (much of the last third or so takes place there), I can't really say I have a strong sense of their world or society.

In short, this was a real struggle of a read and to be wholly honest, if I were not reviewing it or had I not so fallen in love with a group of moles a few decades ago on my way to Stonehenge or Avesbury, I almost certainly would have put it down a third of the way in. I know from experience that if it takes me more than two days to finish a sub-500 page book, I'm not really enjoying it. Hyddenworld took me a week to get through. Honestly, it feels a bit of betrayal to say I don't recommend it, but at this point I just can't see how to. But I'll pick up book two and let you know if the story improves and leave you with the recommendation to read Duncton Wood instead. I owe Mr. Horwood at least that much.

As someone who has read every book that William Horwood has ever published I awaited his return to the fantasy genre with some excitement. He is an author who is capable of stylistic variation to suit his material and so his books both please and surprise.
If I were to offer criticism of Hyddenworld Spring it would be that Horwood's work was hampered in the hardback edition by some careless copy-editing which allowed a number of spelling mistakes and small plot errors to remain when they should have been picked up prior to publication. I've just bought the paperback version and I'm delighted to see that, not only have errors been corrected, but some clever editing of the first few pages has created an even stronger beginning to the novel.
The book itself is lovely. Hyddenworld Spring flows very easily and draws the reader into a fantasy world of the Hydden, who live close to us but with whom we don't interact because we have forgotten how to see them. This is a clever plot device because it separates the Hydden from other small creatures such as Hobbits and, because we know that human beings are quite capable of not seeing things they don't want to see, it makes the Hydden's "invisible" state a condition which is within imaginative possibility.
The book has two main threads, those of the human and hydden societies, which intertwine at different stages of the book and each of which has its own colourful characters. William Horwood is a master of characterisation and it is often tempting to go over bits of his prose simply to savour the quality of his description, some of which is very funny in this book.
The two main human characters, Jack and Katherine are dealt with in a fascinating manner because Horwood has, unusually, held back from letting us know too much about them. They are young children at the start of the story and they grow up as the book progresses, revealing insecurities, suffering trauma, experiencing adventure and with elements of their natures being offered to us in tiny, subtle titbits so that while I was reading I felt I was gradually getting to know them as they became adult. It must have been tempting for the author to fill out their characters more fully as he has so often done in this and other books, but in this case I think that would have detracted from the curiosity which he successfully embedded in my mind in scenes where Jack and Katherine are to the fore. When they appear I'm pleased to see them and want to know more.
The Hydden are quite simply a delight and even the names chosen for them are imaginative while retaining a feeling of viability. They really are very believable indeed, starting with Bedwyn Stort, the young scrivener whose apparent scattiness hides talent and the potential for further development in later books; Lord Festoon, whose excessive eating habits have turned him into an obese and affable man, but whose appearance hides a sharp and intelligent mind and Imbolc, the very beautiful Peace Weaver whose love for Beornamund sustains her through fifteen-hundred years of wandering the earth as she loses her beauty and fades away until she is little more than a crone, but who remains vital to the plot.
I don't want to spoil anything for future readers by saying much about the plot itself but I will say that the world of the hydden is described beautifully and allows one to form very strong mental pictures of who and what each character is. Horwood manages to convey feelings of strong camaraderie between hydden and human characters so that one senses a depth to the characterisation: the main characters of this book somehow feel like old friends.
I notice that one reviewer on this site, whose review I felt was very well written and carefully thought out, found the book slow. I can't say I agree because I was aware of the hints and prompts within the text which pushed me as a reader to develop my own mental images of this new and increasingly complex world. I felt that the author was very skilfully giving me time to get to know this new place and I have a feeling that he might use this as a springboard for a faster pace in his next book in this series, which I hear he plans to call "Awakening". I shall certainly buy it and I would encourage others to do so as well.
It's very easy to refer to a slightly slow pace in a critical manner as though a fast pace is the only correct method of writing but in this case we are treated to action, pathos and humour, some of which moves very quickly and some of which deliberately meanders gently so that we can acclimatise ourselves to the world in which the book exists.
William Horwood has lost none of the skill he displayed in his wonderful Duncton books and I very much look forward to reading the remaining books in this series.