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The Autumn Castle (The Europa Suite book 1) by Kim Wilkins
01/11/2004 . Source: Phil Jones 
pub: Gollancz. 463 page hardback. Price: £17.99 (UK only). ISBN: 0-575-07573-2. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk and www.kimwilkins.com
The leaves are starting to turn. Autumn is descending on Berlin. Christine Starlight lives with her lover Jude in the Hotel Mandy Z. The hotel is owned by Immanuel Z (a billionaire and sculptor) who provides fellowships for up and coming artists. Both Christine and Jude have a good friendship with the other artists living in the hotel but none of them really like Immanuel or Mandy Z as he is informally know, hence, the hotel name. He leaves them to their own artistic pursuits, coming across as being a bit strange but most thinks he's harmless.
Christine had a rough childhood losing both her famous parents in a car crash and suffering a back injury which still plagues her with chronic pain. Jude, through his own beauty and patience, helps her through the worst times. Christine is reminded of her childhood through dreams, having lived in Germany as a kid she grew attached to a nearby neighbour May, a child of her own age. The two became close and ended up making a packed as 'blood sisters'. May disappears one night, thought to be kidnapped, possibly murdered and is never found. The dreams keep coming along with images of a crow.
One day in the kitchen of their apartment, Christine experiences great pain and passes out. She wakes to find herself in a strange medieval land whose Queen is Mayfridh is her old childhood friend May, who is now Queen of the Fairies in a land called Ewigkreis. She also sees the crow from her dreams and memories and discovers it's a shapeshifter called Esengrim. He can take on the form of a wolf, bear or crow. She wakes and wonders if it was a dream but it seems so 'real'.
The crow appears in the real world in Berlin and later, so does Mayfridh. Christine hesitantly glad to see her at first agrees to go back to Ewigkreis as this is the only place that she is free from pain. The situation complicates when Mayfridh falls for Jude. Mayfridh also has problems at home with the witch Hexebart who refuses to give the royal fairy magic to her as Hexebart thinks she is an impostor. There are bigger problems on the horizon though as Mandy Z is not quite as he seems. He is a fairy hunter and is making his ultimate sculpture yet, out of Fairy bones.
Let me first start by saying I enjoyed this book. I just don't want you getting the wrong idea with what I'm about to say about it next. OK, this book has a few problems. The start of the book, first 300 or so pages are slow. Now this you would have thought would have aided character development, but unfortunately this didn't happen. The characters feel a bit one dimensional and always react quite how you would expect. The dialogue at times also feels stilted and false. It is not until characters such as both Jude and Christine are put in stressful situations that Kim Wilkins' really starts to bring them out and to the fore.
Another problem is the plotting just gives away too many clues as to what is going to happen or what will be revealed both to the characters and the reader. I had worked out most of the major revelations before getting to them in the book along with where the story was going to go. It not until well into the book that interest is raised as you see how characters start to deal with situations and information.
Christine, as a character, needed to be brought out and expanded although a good balance was kept with Mayfridh. Her unfamiliarity with the real world was well played upon. Jude was a bit of a non-entity as he just acted as wallpaper and plot element which was a shame, as development of his character could have been an interesting psychological exercise in human nature.
I don't want to come across as totally negative about this book. It was fun and if Kim Wilkins is more careful with giving out information and concentrates on her characters a bit more the next book could really shine. The juxtaposition of the real world and the 'fairy world' was really well done along with Hexebart and Esengrim really help to drive thing along.
This to me falls squarely under urban mythic fantasy. If you've never come across this style before then this may be a good place to start. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this book, it just that it pales against books by other urban mythic writers such as Charles de Lint and Terri Windling. It's got all the usual items, artists/painters, disturbing/macabre charters and mythic elements - in this case fairies - but it's just not quite there. The characters aren't 'real' enough for my liking. I suppose I've been spoilt on de Lint's writing. One thing I did think was superb was the cover.
A good place to start then on this genie and if your looking for a relatively easy read then I can think of a lot worser places to look.
Phil Jones
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