"Dreamer's Pool: A Blackthorn & Grim Novel" by Juliet Marillier (published 2004)

Now this - this is a good old-fashioned fairy-tale. Perhaps somewhat predictable, at least for me, this by no means ruins the tightly bound suspense Juliet Marillier builds in her perfectly crafted novel "Dreamer's Pool", the first in a series. The story focuses not on the lady elucidated on the cover, but another, Blackthorn, an ex-healer, or wise woman as they used to call them, who is wrongfully imprisoned by an unjust ruler of treacherous lands. Who knows when the story takes place exactly, but it can be deduced that it was a pre-industrial and extremely rural time, a time of forests, kingdoms, peasants, princes, and princesses, good and evil kings, a time seething with enchantment as well as the inevitable fey, a time physically and mentally harsh, a time when people swam through confusion to find what it is we call *value*.

While in prison, Blackthorn becomes an aquaintence of the husky, burly Grim, more like a beast than a man, brutal and monstrous yet gentle and soft-hearted all the same. Their relationship, which builds throughout the book, is one of friendship, that coveted relationship still more rare, yet no less precious, than love. Marillier illuminates the importance of two virtues: patience and trust, which Blackthorn & Grim learn from one another through an adventure story so full of heart it will make you believe in true romance. No, not the kind of crude desire and undeniable passion, but of the standard of chivalry that can be held and possessed by those considered the lowest on the rung of titles: the servant or the fallen woman, the builder or the mead-maker, as well as those highest: the princes and the footmen, and creatures such as the horse and yes, even dogs.

Prince Oran of Dalraida is urged to wed, and soon. So when he sees the portrait of a gorgeous woman lovingly carrying her dog with steady and kind eyes, with innocence, spontaneity, and intellect, he falls. Listening to his better judgement, he decides to exchange letters with her, the one who goes by the name Princess Flidais. The letters, to his shock, match up to her portrait. She is poetic, she is sweet, she is interested in everything he his, and her adoration for all things is so clear in words uniquely hers that he finally agrees to wed. Things take a turn for the worse. When she shows up to his kingdom, she is not full of life and charm, but is unkind and patronizing to others, selfish and still worse, keen on using her sexual prowess to win him over. Some is decidedly wrong, and though Princess Flidais looks like the woman in the picture, she doesn't quite match up his ideal. Mulling this over in head, he arranges a meeting with Blackthorn to see what can be done.

That is the meat of it. A few comments on storytelling: each chapter is written from the perspective of a different character, but not too many: Blackthorn, Grim, and Oran. Those three only. And as each perspective unfolds, the fairy-tale deepens into the psychology of the many-sided facets of subjectivity and what it means to really listen and what it means to really use your resources to help you light the way. For those resources are always there, like magic, as the old fairy-tales used to say: magic found if only one knows where to look.

The cyclical texture of the story is fascinating. Marillier points to old orally transmitted stories, by way of gossip, by way of folklore, by way of early written recordings by scribes and uses these as tools to create and continue "Dreamer's Pool". If you like this sort of thing: fantasy, fairies, lore, and lessons, ah and adventure, read this book and find out what this Dreamer's Pool really is, what it does, what it's worth, and why things aren't always what they seem. Carry it with you, learn - and - live. Thank you Juliet Marillier for writing.