THE OLD GODS WAKEN

by Manly Wade Wellman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 14, 1979

Wellman's stories of John the minstrel, who wanders the Appalachian woods overcoming things of darkness by means of a silver-strung guitar and a pure heart, have had a devoted following among fantasy-readers for more than 25 years. This is the usual recipe expanded to novel-length: pretty hill country and good folks and spirits of evil and lots of talk like ""might could"" and ""pure down glad."" One fine June morning there's a pair of pale-eyed British-sounding new arrivals fencing off a funny old corner of Creed Forshay's land, and before you can say ""Midsummer sacrifice"" genial God-fearing Mr. Creed and his fine son Luke are up to their britches in half-seen presences. But John fetches pretty Holly Christopher, who knows all about Druids from graduate school at Chapel Hill, and local Cherokee sage Reuben Manco, who knows all about the ancient Other-people on this side of the Atlantic; and it doesn't take them long to see that some kind of a crossbreeding experiment is underway. Graceful as ever, but the proportions do work better at short-story length.

Pub Date: Dec. 14, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION