THE STONE AND THE FLUTE

by Hans Bemmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1987

An epic fantasy from Germany, with few swords, more sorcery, no seething battles between good and evil and, despite several flaws, a resonant charm and conviction. Listener, the young son of the Great Roarer, the judge of Fraglund, is given a mysterious stone--containing within its depths a woman's eyes flashing many colors--by a dying Riding Raider, Arni. (Arni's stone has the power to assure the bearer that love is stronger than hate, but many years pass before Listener appreciates this.) Taking the stone, Listener goes off to see the world--and soon becomes trapped by the witch Gisa and her retinue of wolf-men. After causing great harm, Listener finally breaks free of Gisa's spell, and meets his famous grandfather, the Gentle Fluter, who bequeaths Listener his magic silver flute. Despite warnings to the contrary, Listener uses the flute's power to coerce obedience in others. So he easily falls prey to the wiles of the ambitious green-eyed falcon-woman, Narzia, and unthinkingly performs three evil missions in order to win her hand. In the end, though, Narzia spurns Listener and turns him into a goat--from the waist down; from the waist up, Arni's stone protects him. Outcast, without his flute (and soon without Arni's stone, too--Narzia takes it from him by trickery), Listener exists as an animal in the wild. Eventually, when his burdens become insupportable, he magically turns himself to stone--until such time as the woman whose eyes he sees within Arni's stone shall redeem him. All this is the barest outline of Bemmann's achievement, what with stories within stories, romances, dreams, cross-connections, interludes out of time, mysterious god-like figures, musical duels, songs, redemptions, and a final afterlife. Too, there's a moral dimension here, absent from standard good vs. evil fantasy, in that evil invariably comes from within, not without. And the unadorned narrative is unflagging in its ability to surprise and often delight. The drawbacks: despite 850 pages of complications, the characters fail to grow--they sound and act like teen-agers even when they're old; and Listener makes such a monumental hash of things that one can't help but wonder why he was qualified to receive either the stone or the flute in the first place. Overall: curious, ambitious, different, and satisfying despite the flaws.

Pub Date: May 1, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION