The Faraway Country

Top O the morning (or afternoon or evening) to you I hope you are all having a wonderful St. Patrick's day.  I love St. Patrick's day, it combines all my favorites Ireland, faeries, myth, history, beer, everything awesome. Around this time of year I love reading one of my favorite books The Hunters Moon by O.R. Melling, the first in the Chronicles of Faerie.  I have talked about this book briefly before but wanted to go in more detail about it. First a quick synopsis and then I will go on and on about it as usual :-).  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Gwen and Findabhair (called Finn) are teenage cousins who set off on a quest around Ireland to find adventure and magic.  The girls get more than they bargained for when they decide to sleep in an ancient burial mound.  The King of Faeire's and his host come to the girls and offer to take them to the other realm.  Finn always the impulsive one immediately agrees while the more sensible Gwen hesitates and refuses. Gwen is also visited by a ghostly apperation who tells her she can trust people with red hair.  Gwen wakes up to Finn missing and sets off on a quest to rescue her cousin.  This is harder then it sounds (even though it seems pretty hard to begin with) because Gwen is naturally a follower not a leader. Remembering the advice of the ghost Gwen gets a ride from Mattie, a red haired business man who against all odds still believes in the old ways.  She also meets up with Katie, a red headed farmer who still sets out milk for the local Brownies.  With her new friends help, Gwen finally chases down the fairies and with the help of Midir, the faerie

Captain who on occasion can turn into a fox makes it to the faerie ball.  When they arrive Gwen see's a party that is beyond her wildest dreams, dripping with jewels, colors, music, sights, sounds it is everything a faerie party should be and more.  Finn arrives with Finvarra the King of Faeire who is wild and handsome and charming and awe inspiring and everything one could want in a Faeire King (and also one of my book crushes).  Finn tells Gwen that she is Finvarra's new queen and that she is there by choice.  Finvarra tries to convince Gwen to stay as well, but she is not yet ready to give up her mortal life.  She is tested with the food of the faeries and fails miserably, but escapes anyways.  She continues to follow the faeries around trying to find a way to rescue Finn, even though she is repeatedly told that she is there of her own free will.  Gwen eventually ends up on Inch Island in the care of Dara the "king" of the island and his great aunt.  Gwen learns more about faeire history (yes I am aware I am spelling faeire a thousand different ways) and learns that the fairies must give a willing mortal as sacrifice to an ancient entity known as the hunter, if this does not happen the world of faeire will be devoured.  Finvarra wanted Gwen to come so that she could be the sacrifice so that his new love Finn would not have to go.  Gwen with the help f her new friends decides to try one last time to rescue Finn.  As they go
on the rescue Finn appears, telling Gwen that she has only come back to say goodbye, that she has volunteered to be the tribute to save the land of faerie, a land she has become Queen of, a land that she now loves.  In his defense Finvarra declared he would go in her stead, but she would not let him.  Gwen and her friends decide that enough is enough and that they will fight this monster instead of giving in.  Finvarra whole-heartedly agrees to the plan and they collect Katie and Mattie to make the sacred number 7 and set off to fight the monster.  An epic battle ensues and they lose.  To save Finn, Finvarra offers himself as tribute.  The remaining group mourn his loss, especially Finn and all agree to meet up a year later to celebrate/mourn their loss.  As they meet up, a young man who looks like Finvarra appears.  Apparently the monster only took his immortality and left him to live the life of a man.  The group agree to help him adjust and they all live happily ever after.

This book is just so full of faeiry, history, adventure, magic, love, humaness, humor, drama, scenery, pretty much everything.  I cannot even do justice to the amazingness that is this book.  One of my favorite things about fairies and magic is if you ask any given person, they will give you a different opinion or idea on what they think they are, and for me, this book is for the most part how I view them.  Wild, old, ever changing, this is how I think of fairies. The fact that this book is set in Ireland, and that the author adds so many little bits of history and myth and tangles them all up, just makes it even better for me.  Some specific points that catch my attention every time I read this book.  First off the heroine is not the skinny, classically beautiful one that gets the faerie king.  She is the overweight, scared one that ends up with the 100% human boy. Gwen

makes a believable transition from a self doubting scardey-cat who would follow Finn's lead, to a self-possessed young woman who was not only capable of making decisions, but leading the charge to execute them.  I like that Gwen made mistakes, and that there were consequences to her mistakes. The bits of history are awesome, I love books that make me want to do further research and this is one of those.  I love the mix of modern and ancient.  The idea that fairies are still here, that the old ways are still followed, yet the hereditary king of Inch Island talks about getting a collage education and keeping his families tourist business open.  Again this is very similar to how I feel about life in general.  I think it is important to remember the old ways, to understand and keep tradition in a certain sense, to believe in magic, but I find it equally as important to live in the world we live in, to continue forward and to survive and thrive in the present.  My favorite thing in this book is the portrayal of the Fair Folk and their world, the variances of it, one moment as columns of light, riding horses of starlight across the sky, the next dripping in jewels in a magical royal ball, and yet again in the next nature's children with leaves and flowers for clothes reveling in the moonlight.  I just love love love love love these visuals.  Ok obviously I love this book, it appeals to me on many levels and to me is the perfect St. Patrick's Day read.  I give it 9 out of 10 faerie revels and can't wait to read it again.
What is your favorite fairy book? Did you ever think that St. Patrick's Day would have its own genre of book?  Is a grown woman believing in faeries awesome, or a bit weird? How awesome is the cover?