THE FIRE OPAL

Celtic spirituality and dreamlike symbolism intertwine in a poetic but languid historical fantasy. Maeve O’Tullagh was only a child when she discovered a mystical weapon on the shore of her fishing village in 16th-century Ireland; years later, it becomes pivotal to a battle between two ancient goddesses, with the souls of Maeve’s sister and mother at stake. The story is built upon a strict gender division: Female interactions with all the male characters are as awkward (and sometimes hostile) as the coexistence of the magical feminine Other Realm with the practical masculine world of fishing and fighting. Maeve seems curiously remote from the remarkable events around her and even from her own deeds; her sudden passions and hatreds are inexplicably instinctive, her choices reactive, and everything seems to be driven by the needs of the narrative rather than by the characters themselves. The luminous style creates evocative, layered images, but the plot is tortuously slow, leisurely accumulating minutiae then rushing to a climax in the last 50 pages, leaving far too much unresolved. Frustrating. (Fantasy. YA)