by Ellen Kushner

ages: adult

First sentence: “I’m not a teller of tales, not like the Rhymer.”

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I know very little about the Thomas the Rhymer tale; just the basic brief outline of the plot. What I got from Ellen Kushner was a lyrical tale, not like anything I expected.

Thomas is a talented harper, but also a bit cocky. He’s in at court, making his living wooing women with his fine words and lies. Something happens and he has to leave court; he finds his way to a farming community, and takes up with an elderly couple. There he meets Elspeth, a country girl with spirit. She falls for him first, but he’s too caught up in himself to notice much. Then, one day, the beautiful Queen of Faeries comes to him, offers him herself in exchange for seven years service. Of course he takes it. She takes him away, without saying goodbye; he serves his time, and returns with one caveat: he can no longer tell a lie.

It’s a very earthy novel, one that’s filled with homespun images of hearth and home. Weaving plays a role, as does bread-making and feasting. The things that Thomas misses most when he’s with the faerie are the work of home. The things that endear Thomas to Elspeth in the end are the things of the mortal world: she’s not as beautiful as the Queen, but she’s more real, more earthy, for lack of a better word.

I liked this book, but it wasn’t quite I was expecting. I think I was expecting more about his time in faerie, or a something more grand or significant when it came to the consequences of his choice to go to faerie. It was a subtle book, almost too subtle. That’s not to say it wasn’t enjoyable; it was incredibly well-written, and Kushner knows how to spin a tale. But it lacks excitement, and while there’s sex (though not graphic), there’s no romance. I enjoyed the tale, but I never really connected with it.

And I missed that.