NeverneverWill Shetterly
Magic Carpet Books, paperback, 240 pages (USA)
Review by David Clark (2004)
First published in 1993, and part of the Borderland shared universe series for Young Adults, although Nevernever reads OK to me. The series belongs to Terri Windling, apparently; this is edited by Jane Yolen. Both they and Shetterly have written short stories I liked and the Borderland series is highly-rated by people I rate. So, in an idle moment, keen to read someone new and bereft of books by other unread-by-me authors I thought I’d read this, lying about as it was. It didn’t take long, but then it is for kids/Young Adults.
Nevernever is set in Bordertown, which reminds me of Charles de Lint’s Jack, the Giant Killer, in its overlaying of the world of Faerie and our own world, although there’s no significant similarity. In Bordertown there are urban street gangs, magic motorbikes, Elves, humans, people who are part of each, magic, rock and roll and so on, all jumbled up together.
Nevernever is narrated by Wolfboy who is, as you may have guessed, a teenage werewolf (thanks to being cursed in the same author’s Elsewhere, which I haven’t read, and to which this is a sequel). Wolfboy gets mixed up in a murder mystery and the search for the Lost Heir of Faerie. I didn’t like the Lost Heir part. I also didn’t like that I could see the twist coming, but a certain amount of predictability tends to occur when adults read books that were written for kids, or 12-year-olds, or younger tennagers.
I preferred Jack, the Giant Killer, but Nevernever is acceptable. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Borderland books made as a TV series. OK for its readership, and not annoying, unlike a lot of the stuff that’s out there. •