Corbenic

Starred review from November 6, 2006
Fisherreimagines the enigmatic castle of Grail legend as a roadside inn in this elegiac, mature modern fantasy. Young Cal is leaving his home and his alcoholic mother to stay with his uncle, but gets off the train at the wrong station. Walking through what some local fishermen call the Waste Land in search of a phone, he comes upon Castle Hotel Corbenic, its ominous "vacancies" sign swinging in the wind. Alain Bron, the wheelchair-bound patron of the castle/hotel, befriends Cal, mumbling that Cal is "the one." Bron shows Cal the Holy Grail; only later, when he is back home with his uncle, does he learn the legend, which says if he were to ask Bron about what he saw, the king's wounds would be healed and the kingdom restored. But getting back to Corbenic proves difficult for, as he learns from a ratty man who turns out to be Merlin, "it is not a place... it is a state of mind." Fisher transposes genres to great effect; the opening chapters feel as much like the start of a horror movie as a fantasy tale, with a well-executed sense of dread and mystery. And in a masterful turn, Cal's relationship with his mother is fused with the Grail story into a completely surprising twist ending, one which casts a new, human light on all of the fantasy elements that came before it. Ages 12-up.

November 1, 2006
Gr 7 Up-Seventeen-year-old Cal abandons his alcoholic, schizophrenic mother and shabby English town. On the train to his uncles house in a posh suburb, he gets off at Corbenic, which he later learns is nonexistent. He makes his way to the court of the crippled Fisher King, who knows Cal is really Percival, the last hope to restore the kings wasteland to its former glory. When the teenager fails to identify a vision of the Holy Grail, he is banished back to modern England. Then, as the legend goes, he searches for Corbenic, but can only return when he comes to terms with the mother hes rejected. Along the way he meets Shadow and Hawk, Arthurian reenactors who may or may not be the real thing. The blurring of fantasy and reality is sometimes confusing but helps to sustain the mood of wonder and mystery. Both the real and surreal settings are lushly rendered, and Fishers physical descriptions are especially evocative. The dialogue is sharp, but while Cals conversations with Shadow and Hawk are natural and engaging, his inner monologue is repetitive and boring. Cal is drawn with a heavy hand as a materialistic, pretentious whiner, and while this portrait keeps to the myth, hes impossible for readers to care about. Minor characters are portrayed with subtle wit and sweetness and are unfortunately more compelling than the narrator or his quest. Though the plot moves steadily, those unfamiliar with the myth may find the journey tedious."Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2006
Gr. 8-11. In this dense, mystical quest story, the author of the Oracle Prophecies trilogy interweaves a teen's coming-of-age struggles with an archetypal legend. Cal is leaving his pathetic, alcoholic mother to start a new life with his uncle. On the train toward his future, he falls into an uneasy sleep from which he awakens disoriented but certain he is at his stop. After scrambling to the platform, Cal discovers that he is not where he thought he was. After wending his way through preternaturally quiet hedges and pathways, and past a strange pair of fishermen, he finds himself at an old castlelike building called Corbenic. Presiding within is a wounded king--the Fisher King himself--whose fate overlaps with Cal's and who must be healed to restore balance to the world. Not every reader will know the Fisher King myth but the story's Arthurian trappings are familiar, and many teens will relish the immersion in Cal's complex relationships, choices, and fantasy-fueled journey toward adult understanding.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2007
The author blurs the line between supernatural occurrences and mental illness in this retelling of "The Fisher King." When Cal stumbles into a sumptuous castle helmed by an ailing king, he worries that he's developing his mother's schizophrenia. Arthurian England shares space with a depressingly industrial modern setting; the author handily exploits the Fisher King's motifs of sacrifice, self-discovery, and healing.

(Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)