Review: A Fine Return to the Early Days of Fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 28, 2013
When Edmund is humiliated in front of Molly, the woman he loves, he decides he is tired of being just a librarian in a small town and heads out seeking adventure. And like that old warning 'be careful what you wish for because you just might get it', Edmund gets a whole lot more adventure than he had ever anticipated and none of it good.Edmund is kind of the antithesis of the usual fantasy hero: he is short, fat, and middle aged with a stutter and and a whole psychiatric lexicon of neuroses and self-doubt rather than the standard young, handsome, and charismatic peasant, prince, or assassin. But, he is a dreamer and a lover of books and despite or maybe because of his own constant second guessing of every move he makes, he is very likeable.In many ways, Riddle in Stone harkens back to the early days of modern fantasy where the hero is really an everyman confronted with an impossible task and, despite his own innocence, insecurities, and sense of inadequacy, accomplishes that which the great heroes of the time could not. Yet, there are enough differences to give it a fresh feel. In a genre which often seems to be full of writers who are trying to bring more shock value through greater violence, sexuality, and increasingly psychotic heroes, it's refreshing to see something old become new again.