February 11, 2013
In this dramatic beginning to a new trilogy, the talented Fisher (Incarceron) again creates a plot that veers between science fiction and fantasy. The mirror of the title, a dangerous gateway to other time periods, is being pursued by not one but three equally unpleasant and obsessive mad scientists. One of them, Oberon Venn, is the master of spooky Winter-combe Abbey, as well as a famed mountaineer and archaeologist. Jake Wilde, Venn’s teenage godson and his equal in arrogance, has been expelled from boarding school and shipped off to Winter-combe, where the boy plans to accuse Venn of having murdered Jake’s father. Meanwhile, a trio of young women—one from the Victorian past, one from the present, and one from a dystopian
future—have their own plots going, as do Jake’s bluff English professor, a pair of enslaved changelings, a “Replicant” from the future, and Summer, queen of the Shee (fairies), who, conveniently enough, lives in the woods surrounding Wintercombe. Somewhat over the top emotionally, and perhaps a tad overly complex, Fisher’s tale should nonetheless appeal to a wide audience. Ages 12–up.