Other kingdoms

There have been several recent collections of Matheson's short fiction, but his legion of fans will be thrilled that here, finally, is a new full-length novel. Set during WWI, it tells the story of Alex White, an American soldier who comes to a small British village to recuperate from injuries. There he discovers that stories concerning strange goings-on around the village aren't just stories, and soon he finds himself drawn into a world that is magical, astounding, and chillingly dangerous. Alex tells us the story himself, 64 years later, from the perspective of a veteran horror novelist looking back on events of his youth. Matheson gives the elderly Alex a somewhat bemused tone, as though he is both astonished and slightly embarrassed by the wide-eyed innocence exhibited by his younger self as well as his own six-decade hesitation in telling this story. Matheson is a veteran genre writer, who published his first novel nearly 60 years ago, and fans will be delighted to see that his abilities have not diminished.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist

Genre veteran Matheson (I Am Legend) frames this bittersweet blend of fantasy and romantic suspense as the "true" reminiscences of 82-year-old Alex White, the author of such novels as Midnight Blood Thirst and Midnight Flesh Hunger under the name Alex Black. In the spring of 1918, the then 18-year-old Alex, a wounded soldier who's been discharged from the American Army, settles in the isolated English town of Gatford, where he soon finds himself caught between two supernaturally empowered women: Magda, an alluring witch, and Ruthana, a charming faerie. Alex, himself powerless, is willing to make great sacrifices to be with his one true love, whichever one she might be, but their different natures and disapproving relatives may doom the relationship. Which of the two women Alex will choose is never really in doubt; the loser is clearly unsuitable and conveniently malicious in defeat. The self-pitying Alex may ramble in telling his straightforward tale, but Matheson remains as ever a competent craftsman. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Small bites of horror punctuate a young soldier's discovery that there are worse things than war as Alex White finds that witches and faeries are not only real but also have teeth. Matheson, a multiple award-winning Grand Master of Horror known for his typically taut bullets of story that deliver back-of-the-neck lingering chills (Hell House; I Am Legend), delivers a rambling, erotically charged first-person reminiscence. Eighteen-year-old World War I vet Alex becomes the fulcrum of a mystical lovers' triangle, seduced by both voluptuous red-haired widow Magda, who turns out to be a witch, and ethereally beautiful Ruthana, a faerie who wants him for her own. Unfortunately, the story suffers from too-frequent parenthetical asides by Alex in the guise of his older, wiser 82-year-old pulp writing persona, Arthur Black. Tongue-in-cheek purple prose abounds, adding some sly humor to an otherwise disjointed tale. -VERDICT Matheson's cachet will guarantee a readership, but fans with high expectations may be disappointed by the legendary author's gender-switched version of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, with witches and faeries in the vampire and werewolf roles.-Charli Osborne, Oxford P.L., MI (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.