Margaret Coventry is having a small bout of rebellion against her match-making family, when she is kidnapped and taken by force into the alternate universe of Plenilune. You see, Rupert de la Mare, soon-to-be Plenilune’s overlord, has been challenged whether he can take a human wife, and the nefarious Rupert doesn’t let challenges slide.
This is only a small part of the plot (the blurb would make you think otherwise). Margaret is a fish out of water as she begins to learn – and love – the magical landscape and history of Plenilune and its people. Along the way, Margaret breaks a curse with the help of a dragon, hunts down a wild boar (not intentionally), and rescues a kingdom. Oh, and she meets Dammerung, the War-wolf.
Book Blurb:
The fate of Plenilune hangs on the election of the Overlord, for which Rupert de la Mare and his brother are the only contenders, but when Rupert’s unwilling bride-to-be uncovers his plot to murder his brother, the conflict explodes into civil war. To assure the minds of the lord-electors of Plenilune that he has some capacity for humanity, Rupert de la Mare has been asked to woo and win a lady before he can become the Overlord, and he will do it—even if he has to kidnap her.
(The blurb really doesn’t do the book any justice, but I suppose the book cover art more than makes up for it. Book cover art is by Carlos Quevedo, his amazing work HERE.)
Brilliantly drawn characters
Dammerung is brother to Rupert and his contender for the overlordship, as Richard the Lionheart to the wicked King John. If there is anyone who can foil Rupert’s plans, it is Dammerung. Dammerung was a delightful surprise. Freitag has given him a marvelous characterization, as this noble, wise, brave, sad, inspiring leader who is also full of mocking wit and who loves his clothes. He is perhaps a closely guarded secret in SFF circles because I haven’t seen much mention of him.
Margaret is an equally powerful protagonist. Her temper gives her courage, and her courage lets her take risks (successfully) when others more experienced have given up. It did take me some time to warm up to Margaret; she spends much of her initial moments fuming and posturing like a refined lady, instead of actively planning or bargaining for an escape. But once she sets her mind to something, she’s a force to reckon with.
Some mixed emotions
The names were a bit jarring. They seem one-third European, one-third English, and one-third foreign. “Rupert” is as English as it gets, but how did he get a brother named “Dammerung”, and a cousin named “Skander”? And there’s a lot of emphasis on “English” manners: polite manners are important above all other things. But this is clearly not an English world. Or is it?
I mean, Plenilune is like a sister moon or a parallel world. (Plenilune is Middle English for Full Moon.) Plenilune is medieval and pan-European, but it’s also different. There are magical beasts, seers and bird-women; yet, there’s no clear explanation of magical systems. The religious system uses Christian symbols, yet it was difficult to get a handle on. If the idea was to simply mirror the earth’s Europe, did we really need a portal thrown in? It left me all mixed-up.
The lovely, lovely writing
But the writing, oh, the writing. It is simply splendid; the imagery of the new world stands out. Freitag uses a lot of metaphors and similes in her narrative, and it was unlike any SFF I’d read before. I am sure there were some allusions which, frankly, escaped me. Some passages now and then do disturb the pace of the story. But overall, everything adds to the poetic brilliance of the writing. For that alone, I recommend this book highly.
Final Thoughts and Rating:
I would have loved to give this a book a 10-rating. But it’s a fairly long book and some chunks veer off course in pace and depth. The beginning was slow and plodding, as Margaret is cooped-up at Rupert’s estates (while pretending all is well). The tail parts also dragged a little, because the war never seems to come to an end (and Margaret gets kidnapped a lot).
But once you get into the meaty middle, the plot begins to make sense.But that meaty middle of the book is what carries Plenilune through. It reminded me again why I read SFF, and what a difference good writing can make to a story.
Recommended for fans of: Medieval literature; Robin Hood; Margaret Rogerson’s Sorcery of Thorns; Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe; or Robin McKinley’s work.
Rating: 8/10 (re-assessed on 11.11.2020)