Window on the World

When I heard that Michael Williams, who co-wrote many of the books in the Dragonlance fantasy series, had a new book out, I was very interested to read it. I really enjoyed reading the Dragonlance books in the 80s, and looked forward to seeing how Williams' personal writing style read.

Vine: An Urban Legend, is nothing like Dragonlance, but that is not a bad thing. Vine interweaves characters from Greek mythology with the story of a modern retelling of the story of Dionysus, god of wine and excess. At the start of the novel, the characters are released from their slumber and begin inserting themselves into the lives of the actors, their friends and family. Real-life tragedy ensues as the discontented and disenfranchised are swept up in the wild bacchanalia of the gods.

Is there a moral here? I'm not sure, but while I found the book a little unsatisfying, I loved reading it all the same. The words ebbed and flowed like poetry in my mind. See what you think:

"What Stephen does not see -- what only a goddess herself would notice, her eyes expectant on a green, half-imagined glade behind the car-- is the shadow rising over the pond, indistinguishable at first from the reflection of new leaves and the shade cast by the dip of the sun below the high hill that Stephen's car is now ascending. That darkness slowly resolves into something more solid. Dead branches, impervious to the new spring, bend before a stronger, invisible power, their reflections stirred by something surfacing into expectant dusk."