“Runemarks,” by Joanne Harris. Random House. 2007. 527 pp. $18.99.
By Deirdre Parker Smith
dp1@salisburypost.com
The complexity of Joanne Harris’ mind certainly shows in “Runemarks,” a fantasy novel that came out about the same time as her follow-up to “Chocolat,” “The Girl With No Shadow.”
Known for her multiple first-person narrators, Harris, in this big book is telling a long story and uses an omniscient narrator who can be in all places at all times. Handy, as “Runemarks” takes place in all places and at all times.
The story is set in the past ó or the future. Just not now. Heroine Maddy Smith lives in a backwoods village, Malbry, in the middle of nowhere you know, although a map at the front of the book shows an island called Inland in the midst of the One Sea that looks very much like Great Britain. Malbry is on the river Strond, which flows as far as … well, you’ll find out.Another map shows The Nine Worlds, a bit confusing at first, but based on Norse legend. A casual glance will tell you enough ó the river Dream leads to the World Below, Hel, The Black Fortress and beyond.
In her acknowledgements, Harris thanks daughter Anouchka for nagging her long enough to write these stories down ó they began, Harris said during her April visit to the Brady Author’s Symposium at Catawba College, as “faerie” stories she and her daughter made up.But there’s nothing simple here.
Good guys can be bad; bad guys can be redeemed ó if briefly. Pure evil is part of the balance. Order is destructive. Everyone has a motive.
Harris studied the ancient language of runes and the Norse gods ó Thor, Odin, Heimdall, Frey and Freyja. Incorporating known mythology into a new fiction can be tricky, but “Runemarks” succeeds.This isn’t Harry Potter ó though it tickles the imagination in the same way. If you’re willing to enter this world, you’ll be caught up pretty quickly.
That it begins with ale-stealing goblins in the cellar is a clue unusual beings and events will follow. Maddy is an outcast, marked by a rune shape on her hand. She has imagination and dreams ó things much feared and repressed in this world.
Ignorance is bliss. Only the parson and members of the Order can read the Good Book, which is full of prohibitions. It gives permission to destroy all that is different ó even animals born with certain markings are to be slaughtered. Maddy has been a suspicious case from the day she was born.
It’s only when she meets a stranger, a one-eyed trader passing through town, that she makes a friend. One-eye, as she calls him, immediately sees Maddy’s ‘gift and begins to teach her how to use it.
The runes are powerful magical tools, not just symbols, used by the ancient gods, now fallen from favor.
As in all great stories, Maddy is given a task, the great warrior test. Find the Whisperer and prevent another world-ending war. She must protect what is left of the old gods and fight against the devious Order that would destroy them using dark magic.
On her journey through the World Below, Maddy meets the Trickster, who has an old score to settle. She knows she shouldn’t trust him ó but she must. Aboveground, One-Eye is left to face the wrath of the Order and keep Maddy safe until her mission is complete. He quickly discovers how dangerous these people are.
Underground, much is revealed, much is concealed. Knowledge is a double-edged sword.
Harris draws exceptionally clear characters, giving the reader a certain level of intimacy with them.
Her imaginative descriptions of the fantastic spaces creates three dimensional pictures, sounds and even smells.
She maintains a high level of suspense with episode after episode above and below ground, showing the simple folk, the “fieries,” the gods as real beings in a scary conflict that could lead to death or worse ó Chaos.
“Runemarks” is good versus evil ó but not drawn in black and white. Everything is shaded in some way. Maddy’s quest takes her into impossible dangers ó into Hel and beyond ó and Chaos threatens to end all that is known.
Maddy and the old gods have to restore balance and make many sacrifices to do so. Those who must be punished are, sometimes. Those who are willing to give all for a kind of peace will be required to do so.
The book harks back to the old fairy tales ó the ones that taught a lesson with a good scare before they were Disney-ized. And it’s loads of fun, too, perfect for days on the porch now or nights by the fireplace later.