Enjoyable horrific fantasy, first of a new series, from the author of Wildwood Road (2005).
Oliver Bascombe is on the verge of getting married but is having some doubts. All those doubts fall by the wayside the night before his wedding when a mystical, wintry entity blows into his house through an open window. This entity is none other than Jack Frost, and he needs Oliver's help to get back to the world beyond the Veil—a magical realm where all the myths man used to believe have vanished. Oliver helps Frost, not knowing that by doing so he's going to be trapping himself in this otherworld and will be marking himself as an enemy of the Falconer, a powerful bird-headed man-beast intent on exterminating “Borderkind” like Frost. Oliver and Frost travel across the land known as the Two Kingdoms, evading the Hunters of the Falconer, and seeking out the reason for the land's turmoil. Meanwhile, back in the real world, those whom Oliver left behind frantically search for him, only to quickly find that Frost wasn't the only of the Borderkind to enter our world. Vivid action and snappy, if occasionally contrived, dialogue in a story that feels a bit YA-ish to have so much graphic violence and swearing.
By turns a fun and creepy adventure story.
