This has been quite a journey! For me this was a very long journey too. After the very first chapter I felt that I did not want to part with the book too soon. Since the beginning of July I’ve been savouring Blackcurrant Fool slowly, allowing myself one chapter per day, and very often none at all. (Ok, ok, I confess: sometimes I read two or three chapters. Because.) Jemis’ life is very complicated as usual, and he is still in shock after the events of book 3. Who wouldn’t be? As a distraction from it all, shouldn’t Jemis and Mr. Dart go off and do some innocent stuff? Pick up a few people, run some errands in the big city? Most definitely. Only… things sort of escalate and don’t go as planned? I loved the arc of this book to pieces. From fantasy of manners romps to dark adventures to fairy tale quests and journeys of the spirit. Fever dreams and beautiful things blend and multiply. Poetry plays and important role in this book, as further proof that poetry is good for you and can save your life. There is great sorrow too, as many secrets are revealed. (Oh, Hal, Violet, Jemis, Mr. Dart. I wish you did not have to carry all this. I teared up a little.) Jemis has a chance to heal. I am so happy for him. Do you see how careful I have been with the plot? This is because you should do yourself a favour and go in blind. The final chapters were awesome, sad, exhilarating, lovely, and touching. There were too many quotes that I liked, but here are some: ”Mr Dart and I, excellently educated modern gentlemen that we were, danced around our emotions.” ”I sat back, contemplating what I might expect of my life if it were actually a fairy ballad in the process of composition.” ”I had decided to see how long Mr Dart could take an insistent lack of questioning before he cracked. We were naturally waylaid by highway men long before.” ”You are not bleeding out over there, are you?” Mr Dart called. ”We’re perishing of curiosity on this side of the room.”
Greenwing & Dart 4: Blackcurrant Fool (PRINT)
Greenwing & Dart 4: Blackcurrant Fool (PRINT)
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Magic is out of fashion.
Orio City is where that's decided.
When his best friend Mr. Dart unexpectedly needs to make an urgent trip to Orio City, Jemis Greenwing's immediate response to ask when. He's willing to make up to his grandmother so she will lend them her falarode, he's willing to offer to run the errands of half the barony, and he's certainly willing to spend a week or so away from the gossips of Ragnor Bella.
It's such a pity that Jemis and Mr. Dart are more than halfway to Orio City before Jemis remembers that his vindictive ex-lover Lark is a rising star in the criminal courts of Orio City. It's an even greater pity when they realize just what her new position is in the legally instituted court there.
What with the dragon Jemis slayed a month ago, his consequent ascension to the position of Viscount St-Noire, and his father's very recent second return from the dead, to say nothing of that still-famous play from the summer, Three Years Gone: the Tragicomedy of the Traitor of Loe, it's really too much to hope for that Jemis will be able to spend even three days in the old capital incognito.
University students. Bear baiting. Unexpected relations. Wild magic. Literary criticism. Kittens. And always that whisper from the highwaymen of the Arguty Forest that someone's death is on the line ...
Book Four of Greenwing & Dart, fantasies of manners—and mischief.
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Customer Reviews
Overall rating: 4.0 / 5 from 2 reviews.
I keep thinking that the Greenwing & Dart sequence is finally going to make the leap from good to great for me — in line with the other entries I’ve read in author Victoria Goddard’s sprawling Nine Worlds fantasy setting — only to have those hopes ultimately dashed again as the present story unfolds. In this case, we at least manage to get through the first half of the book with an interesting (if admittedly slow-paced) plot that showcases the writer’s usual talent for juggling all the various intrigues that surround our young protagonist Jemis Greenwing. He’s still dealing with the fallout of several recent developments from previous volumes, but now finds himself enlisted to journey to a distant city to help escort his friend Mr. Dart’s newly-discovered relations there, in addition to pursuing a few of his own personal errands in the area. Indeed, one of the definite strengths of this novel is that we get to see so much more of Dart, who only now feels as though he’s earned that position as co-lead in the series title. Things even seem to be looking up at the volume’s midpoint, when an antagonist who’s long been lurking in the backstory emerges to confront our hero once again. Unfortunately, what follows is a lengthy digression of Jemis and his friends breaking out of an enchanted prison based on esoteric clues in an obscure poem he happens to have memorized, which is like my least favorite part of book 3 (where he applied similar cryptographic principles to someone’s letter) magnified many times over. This eventually devolves into a strange mystical experience in some version of the afterlife, and never does come back around to advancing any of the new concerns that were introduced earlier. There’s nevertheless a lot to enjoy here in the character interactions, and I adore the subtle link to The Hands of the Emperor in the form of the local innkeeper Mr. White, whom readers of that longer text will plainly recognize as Kip’s lost cousin Basil, the connection between their lands having been severed by the Fall of Astandalas. But overall, Mr. Greenwing’s portion of the saga continues idling in the three-star tier for me. [Content warning for drug abuse.]
Joe K. 3/5