Dance of the Goblins [Paperback]

Jaq D Hawkins has been one of my favourite authors in another genre for many years, so I was eagerly anticipating the release of her first fantasy novel. I was not to be disappointed.

Dance of the Goblins is the most original and imaginative piece of fantasy work I have seen since Marian Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels. It takes you into another world, the world of the goblins, in an enticing manner that makes you want to visit the place in real life and become one of them. To enjoy the spiritual feeling of the Dance, as they do. I can't wait for the conferences that will surely follow the success of the series, and I've heard that a film is in the pipeline.

The story is based in the future rather than the past, but the past flows into the new conditions that have occurred after a cataclysmic planetary pole shift wipes out most of civilisation as we know it. The humans salvage what they can of their world, and the magicians become the ruling class. How this comes about is one of the most amusing parts of the story.

One magician, the respected Count Anton, has befriended the goblins who have lived underground throughout the ages of mankind but remain hidden from human eyes since the old days when humans used to see them as mythological beings of various sorts. The superstitious humans persecuted them until they stopped appearing above ground at all. It is no different in the new world where religion has preserved the mindless superstitions and branded the goblins as demons.

An accidental sighting of one of them begins a chain of events that will lead to a serious conflict and even war between the races for the first time in centuries. As the story unfolds, we get to know the main characters both among the humans and goblins, as they get to know each other. One of the most important of these is a strong female character. Talla is a goblin, but one with a difference. Learning what this is will take us into some of the deeper realms of the goblins, where even the legends fail to depict the layers of goblin society that have formed over the ages of the earth.

If the sequels are anything like the first book, I'm looking forward to this being the next 'must read' series for those who are jaded with LOTR clones and look for a fresh new perspective of the world of fantasy. Even the cover art is a beautiful new approach that laughs in the face of the standard designs you see on big publisher production-line novels. The book comes to a tidy conclusion, and yet leaves much to build on for the continuing series. I'm going to pre-order the second book as soon as the publisher begins taking orders.