Review by Simon West Bulford
Rich with the details of an intricately conceived fantasy world, Asaro has spun quite a yarn. There are distinct echoes of C.S Lewis and Tolkien woven into the characters and story. The animal kingdom has been brought to life with fearless foxes, clashing wolves and a host of other fascinating creatures as a small party embarks on a quest to find ‘humans’. I particularly loved a character named Mr. Mospholes who, although remarkably unique in description, brought to mind fond thoughts of Treebeard. But while I’m on the Tolkien path, it’s hard not to notice the author’s love of Frodo Baggins, because that’s who we see in the central character, Sebastian Perriwinkle. He’s a humble rabbit, but with bags of gumption and more than a whiff of destiny surrounding him.
And without giving away anything of the plot, it’s refreshing to read something in which humanity, from the perspective of the natural world is not seen as a corrupt species, rather, humans are revered (and there’s another C.S.Lewis influence me thinks). Makes a nice change to have this style revived.
But for all the comparisons you could make with Lord of The Rings, or the Narnian books, Carrot Field does stand apart. There’s a certain sense of excitement you feel at the idea of the characters moving on to each new episode of their quest as they meet new characters and races and obstacles. And growing in the background, there’s the inevitable clash that you’d expect with god-like powers of good and evil. In this case it’s manifested by Arden and Ouroboros. Except it isn’t quite like that. There’s a subtle twist to the tale which is revealed in a particularly surreal scene which I won’t spoil for you. Let’s just say that Asaro didn’t hold back with the weird and wonderful.
A beautiful and thrilling fantasy ride.
