Whispering Mountain (Paperback)

I was uncomfortable with the mixture of comedy and terror in "The Whispering Mountain," a young adult fantasy that takes place in a land resembling eighteenth century Wales. The young hero, Owen Hughes lives with his strict, grumpy grandfather in the small town of Pennygaff. He is on his way home from the Jones Academy for the Sons of Gentlemen and Respectable Tradesman one cold, rainy evening when he is ambushed by the local bullies.

Two gypsies, father and daughter save Owen and take him home to his grandfather. 'Home' also happens to be a museum of curious artifacts, including an old harp.

Grandfather chases the gypsies off of his property then goes to a meeting, leaving his grandson to guard the museum and its ancient harp. Normally Owen doesn't mind staying in the museum, but tonight his encounter with the bullies has made him nervous. Nevertheless, he falls asleep. He doesn't wake up until two rough strangers, speaking London thieves' cant, break into the one-room museum.

(It was hard for me to understand what the thieves were talking about, even though I've read a zillion Regency romances, including the complete works of Georgette Heyer--and one or two of the gothics by Joan Aiken. What does it mean when a character says, "Get a bit o' prog while you're at it," or "...I say that won't happen till Turpentine Sunday, and meanwhile it makes a famous ken, dunnit?" Other characters occasionally lapse into Cymric, so this book isn't a quick read).

At any rate, the two strangers steal the harp and kidnap Owen to make it appear as though he absconded with the harp. The thieves plan to 'finish off the young co' and 'hugger' his body away in one of the region's many caves.

The quest to recover the stolen harp and return it to its true master takes up the rest of the story.

The one element that dissipated the excitement of the quest for me, was the author's introduction of farcical characters or scenes, just as Owen was about to get "five inches of steel in his breadbasket," or was chasing the mad dwarf, Abipaal through the heart of the mountain, or was trapped in a dungeon filled with hungry tiger-snakes, or--

What I'm trying to say is that it detracted from the tension of the story when some oddball character bumbled and babbled into Owen's cliff-hanger, or the tiger-snakes turned out to be sweeties, or the villains got drunk and bawled out ballads like: "Hey-diddle-diddle, my merry men,/ Let's all go to the bousing-ken."

In the little Welsh town of Pennygaff, Owen has come to live with his crotchety, chilly grandfather after his mother's death. He is chased and bullied by the other, larger boys; his only friend is the odd but kind girl Arabis and her dreamy poet father, Tom Dando. In fact, Owen trusts Arabis enough to tell her a secret: His grandfather has unearthed what may be the legendary golden Harp of Teirtu. The ruthless, gold-obsessed Lord Malyn soon asks the grandfather to hand over the harp, but the old man refuses.

When Owen plans to run away from his grandfather, he end up abducted by a pair of none-too-swift criminals hired by Lord Malyn. Unexpectedly rescued by Arabis, Owen finds himself being blamed for the theft of the harp. He ends up in a bewildering adventure full of subterranean dwarves, oddly-speaking foreigners, sneaky and none-too-swift criminals, and the missing Prince of Wales.

Owen is sympathetic by being a "Charlie Brown" hero. As the book opens, we see him being pursued by a bunch of bullies; he is also near-sighted, meek, and fears being a burden on his grandfather. Arabis is reminiscent of a Lloyd Alexander heroine, with her sharp mind and slightly out-of-the-ordinary ways. She is a fascinating character, who doesn't so much as blink at the idea of healing enormous numbers of underground dwarves. (And she has her bird ride around on her head, an extra quirk that makes her even more intriguing) Tom Dando is a sweet and poignant character, who often lapses out of the real world as he writes poetry; Lord Malyn is relentlessly evil, while the Seljuk of Rum is a quirky, instantly sympathetic character.

The writing is snappy and well-paced, and the dialogue is interspersed with delightful bits of Welsh language. There's a slightly archaic feel to it, as if it takes place in a time far removed from our own, though it's not actually too far back in time. Aiken displays a stunning sense of atmosphere, whether it's the pleasantly dull town, sinister castle, or strange underground caverns.

On a quality basis, this book lags behind its content. My copy had a couple of lines missing from a crucial conversation, and the paper was of poor quality. This is a problem with several of the Starscape reprints, but the previous books I purchased didn't have sections of the text missing. Another problem is that while the book has a translation index at the end for the various Welsh words, it only includes a handful of them! It does get points for actually having a cover that accurately depicts Arabis and Owen.

A delightful and utterly original fantasy, a must-read for anyone who enjoys a dark and misty read. Dewi Sant!