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    Review of THE MYTH HUNTERS by Christopher Golden

    BOOK ONE OF THE VEIL

    Bantam, February 2006

    The day before his scheduled wedding, Oliver Bascombe has very cold feet. Although he loves his fiancee, Julianna, Oliver believes his marriage will be a final capitulation to his father's plans. He even contemplates suicide before recognizing that as a coward's way out. He's still pondering his future when he sees an impossible face in his window--a man made completely out of ice stands dying just outside. And Oliver is faced with a choice--he can risk his own life to help an impossible being, or he can ignore him and go on with the life his father intended.

    By helping Jack Frost, one of the Borderkind, that increasingly rare magical creature who can still pass the veil between the mundane world of man and the magical world of magic, Oliver joins an ongoing battle. Someone has unleashed hunters against the Borderkind, killing dozens of the super-powerful beings who are still remembered in the human plane and can, therefore, still cross over. But the laws of the magical kingdom are strict--any human who passes over without becoming one of the Lost Ones (humans unable to return), will be killed.

    Somehow connected with the hunt for the Borderkind, an ancient monster, the original Sandman escapes and begins hunting children on the human plane--and eating their eyes. Oliver becomes a suspect--and is in danger on both sides of the veil separating the mundane from the magical.

    Author Christopher Golden has done his research, introducing dozens of fairy tale creatures including those from many cultures. While the idea of a parallel dimension where the magical abide is not new, Golden's Veil universe is unusually well designed and described. THE MYTH HUNTERS falls a bit short when it comes to characters, however. Of all the characters (whether mythical or mundane) in the story, only Sheriff's Deputy Ted Halliwell (introduced in Chapter 5) is fully developed. The others, including Oliver, the primary protagonist, seem flat as they pursue their quest.

    The delightful creatures that make up the world of the Veil, from Jack Frost himself, swirling in the midst of winter storms, to Kitsune the fox-girl, to the diminutive black dragon of storm are definitely the strong element of Golden's story. If he can combine these aspects with more fully developed human characters, he may be on his way to an extremely strong series.

    See more BooksForABuck.com reviews of fantasy by Christopher Golden

    Three Stars

    Reviewed 3/29/05

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