OVER THE SEA'S EDGE

Miss Curry again water bugs in and out of time dimensions -- here from contemporary Ohio to 12th century Wales back to the eddying turmoil of the Seven Cities (cf. The Daybreakers, 1970). And again the dim 20th century protagonist, in this case, one David Reese, a bespectacled, studious and lonely junior high student, improves when aged in a new era and identity. David's early theory was that he and ""Dewi,"" a lad from 12th century Wales, had exchanged dreams but there he was as Dewi, who travels with exiled Prince Maduac across the ocean in search of the golden island of Antilla. There amid the brown-skinned, blue-eyed people is another conundrum linked to a centuries-spanning silver disc and a tale of a woman drowned off Wales and a prophecy. Dewi finally penetrates the cave of mysteries containing the secret of a people's oppression. At the close a bemused David discovers a parchment testimony by ""Dewi"" and also something about his own character. The welter of Welsh and Indian names, the pea-soup fog of suppositions and strange events, may becalm the casual reader, but there is that certain tension of sustained fantasy which impels the following to press on.