Rachel and her younger brother Eric are snatched from home to the world of Ithrea by the wicked witch Dragwena, who is exiled on that planet. Rachel feels "an exhilarating strength inside her, of powers strange and unrevealed, waiting to be used." She is captured and escapes more than once as Dragwena tries to gain control of the girl's magic gifts for her own child-hating schemes. Rachel must ultimately confront the Witch's doomspell and liberate the children who have been turned into dwarfs.

A map at the front of the book, and a wicked Witch with a dwarf in the first chapter, had me reaching for Diana Wynne Jones's The Tough Guide to Fantasyland straightaway. With devices such as Dragwena's fatal kiss-breath, there seems to be an implied fear of the feminine; there is a polarisation of bad female witch versus good male wizard, mitigated perhaps by Rachel becoming a good female wizard.

This is high fantasy, and not to everyone's taste, though it is done with a certain panache. The storyline is constantly thrilling - it's a difficult book to put down. It's well-written, with some lyrical passages, notably the sublime and witty eucatastrophic finale.

2007-12-30