The High House - Softcover

Stoddard, James

4.06

619 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446606790 ISBN 13: 9780446606790

Publisher: Import US, 1999

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Carter Anderson's father is the Master of the High House, a mystical dwelling filled with twisting corridors, magical books, and secret passageways. As Master, his father maintains not only the High House, but the world, keeping it safe from evil. Mr. Anderson sends Carter away for his own safety; but when Carter returns, he finds that the House's worst enemies have invaded -- and his father is nowhere to be found.

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Review:

There is a house we know from dreams whose corridors connect to everything, whose endlessly rewound clocks keep the stars from falling, who are the pulse of life itself. And that house has its wardens, and young Carter Anderson is its heir. Stoddard's fantasy is, in the best sense of the word, reactionary; it inhabits the same moral universe and the same sense of the decorative and bizarre as Victorian classics like MacDonald's Lilith. Its villains, a bunch of anarchists in revolt against the nature of the universe itself, are, in a sense, nightmares that unite Edwardian fantasists like Chesterton with our own time; the doctrines of equality and levelling they preach are subversive of fantasy itself, or of the reasons we read it, and in a fantasy context they both attract and repel. Stoddard's inventions--the dinosaur in the attic, a hereditary guild of polishers--are at once original and creations that fit into a grand tradition. At the core of the book, also, is the story of how Carter grows into his responsibilities, and how his estranged brother comes to respect him. This is a remarkable debut novel, simply by deigning to learn from grand old stuff. --Roz Kaveney

About the Author:

James Stoddard’s debut novel, "The High House" won the Compton Crook Award for best Fantasy novel by a new author, placed in the Locus Top Ten for best SF/Fantasy book of the year, and was named one of five finalists for the Mythopoeic Award, an award given to works reflecting the spirit of the writing of C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and J.R.R. Tolkien. His short stories have appeared in prominent science fiction and fantasy magazines. "The Battle of York" was selected for inclusion in Eos Books’ "Year’s Best Science Fiction 10;" "The First Editions" appeared in the "Year’s Best Fantasy 9" anthology, published by Tor Books.

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