I think it's me, to be honest. Robert Holdstock is an award-winning author, receiving praise from pretty impressive peers. And I'm a highly critical reader, always reading through the eyes not only of a reader, but writer and editor. Can't help it.

While the concept of Holdstock's sentient forest is haunting, even compelling at times, his characterization is, in my opinion, so stilted that the characters themselves prevent the story from unfolding in a satisfactory manner. Or rather that is to say, Holdstock's method of writing characters gets in the way. His people lack credibility. They lack reasonable motivation. They appear to me as automatons employed to drive the plot, but are so weak that the plot stalls and stutters.

There are credibility problems, for me, with the plot as well. If there is a mystical, magical, haunted wood in real-time, post WWII England, then wouldn't there be local legend of this? Wouldn't the extras in the novel, even the main characters, know about the strangeness of the wood? If people disappear in the woods, wouldn't the locals discuss this? If planes can't fly over the woods, especially in the atmosphere of post WWII Gloucester, England, where there was very sharp, immediate memory of German bombing and raids, wouldn't there be cause for the RAF and other authorities to be involved? Absolutley there would! But no. It's taken as something of a surprise that no one can fly over the woods outside of Gloucester, and moreover a surprise isolated to two men only. This is a major flaw in the realization of this novel, and because of that lack of credibility, the remainder of the novel failed, in my opinion.

Other credibility problems lie with the main protagonist, Steven, whose brother, Christopher, goes missing in the woods, and Steven doesn't seem overly concerned about this, and even after months of Christopher's disappearance, Steven does nothing to notify the authorities, put together a search party. A man recently reuinited with this sibling, after the horrors of WWII, would most certainly set about finding his brother, at least in my world he would.

And while Holdstock's exploration of the genesis of myth, and in particular Arthurian myth, is fascinating, his realization of that concept, for me, is blurred and confusing. There is no clarity in the novel.

Lastly, I feel this novel, the second of the Mythago Cycle, should have come first. The third, Lavondyss should have been second, and the first, The Hollowing, should have been third. But that's just me. Clearly thousands of people have felt otherwise. ( )

Some great ideas but never fully realized. ( )

For me this gets close to the 'perfect' book; nowhere in the fantasy genre have I encountered such an operative exposition of myth, the nature of storytelling itself, and the thumping necessity if you like of our retaining a mythopoeic sensibility.Add to this characters who are as 'modern' and believable as anything out of the kitchen-sink school, a sometimes breathtaking complexity in narrative structure as you progress through the Ryhope wood series (this is the first one), and a credible intimation that the 'Green Man' is not yet dead wood in our minds but may, as surprising as a new shoot on an old fence post, emerge as a quickening force in our otherwise utilitarian imaginations, and you'll be seeking out your own remnant of ancient forest with alacrity. ( )

Robert Holdstock managed to grab both the British Science Fiction award and the World Fantasy Award for best novel in 1985 with this book and it has remained on many people's list of favourites since.

The story concerns an ancient woodland of untouched Oak trees, Ryhope Wood in Goucestershire. On the edge of this wood is the Huxley family home and it is to this sanctuary that Stephen Huxley returns after the second world war. It's not long however before the sanctuary becomes something else, Stephen's brother Christian begins to explore the forest following the discovery of his father's notes. Eventually Christian disappears and Stephen sets out to find him.

The key to the story are the Myth Imagoes of the title, these are physical manifestations of mythical creatures, generated by the humans who visit the area. They exist in a sort of shadowy otherworld within the woodland but as the Huxleys become more in tune with the mythago's so the images and forms become more real and their interactions become physical. Drawing on ancient Celtic and British mythology all sorts of Mythagos appear ranging from the harmless to the horrific, elements of Arthurian, faerie and Celtic mythology are mixed together.

To Read the rest of this review visit www.highlandersbooks.com ( )

Really, when it comes down to it, my only real problem with Tolkien is that, as creations, the Old Forest, Old Man Willow, and Fangorn are SO FRAKKIN' AMAZING I wanted a whole series of books just about them.

This'll suit me nicely as the next best thing. :D ( )