THE BOOKS OF THE KEEPERS
by Ann Downer
In the third in a series (The Spellkey, 1987, etc.), the author interweaves four main stories and many minor ones in an intricate braid of elves, humans, and their offspring the goblins, all linked by love and magic. Caitlin the seer seeks the books of the Keepers; the wolf girl Ulfra finds love with the King's gamekeeper; Ylfcwen, elf-queen of Below, loses both her Consort Pending (Caitlin's stolen son Bram) and her goblin son Ethold to Above, where she, too, then goes; humans Fel and Ilona- -two strong and competent women—break tradition to set up as printers and woodcarvers. The many stories meet, separate, and join to form new stories, by turns menacing, poignant, funny, familiar, and strange. Downer's skill in building a wholly believable world that she unveils bit by bit is undiminished. There's not the dominant major plot found in the earlier books; but that hardly lessens the pleasure of exploring a world where the suspension of disbelief comes so easily. (Fiction. 12+)