The Borderkind

by Christopher Golden

$12.00, Spectra Fantasy, 375 pp

This is the second of Golden’s Book of the Veil series and was eagerly anticipated by yours truly. Golden is known for his superlative horror and his fantasy is just as great. It’s really more horror-fantasy. The Veil is what separates our ‘real’ world from where our myths and legends now reside. Oftentimes, people accidently pass through. These are the Lost Ones and can never return. Some creatures, called the Borderkind, are able to travel at will between worlds. Jack Frost is one of the Borderkind. In the first Book of the Veil, Jack Frost was injured by a hunter from his world who appeared to be hunting the Borderkind. A human lawyer, Oliver Bascombe, was forced to assist Frost and in doing so, traveled through the Veil and was unable to return. He fell into fellowship with Frost and other legends and began a journey through the other world. His goal was to find the legend, the Sandman, who murdered his father and kidnapped his sister, Collette, and was apparently murdering children throughout the world.

The second book continues Oliver’s journey to certain goals that he hopes will lift a death sentence on his head, find the child murderer and rescue his sister. Frost and the other Borderkind hope to find the one responsible for setting the hunters and discover why the Borderkind present a threat. Unbeknownst to Oliver, the detective investigating Oliver’s father’s murder, and Oliver’s fiancé accidently pass through the veil while following Oliver’s trail. They are now part of the Lost Ones. While Oliver, due to his unique heritage, is able to pass back and forth at will, just as the Borderkind do, his fiancé, Julianna, will never be able to return to the real world. As the detective, Halliwell, and Julianna travel through the unbelievable world of myths and legends, Halliwell’s sanity is sorely tested while Julianna’s faith in reuniting with Oliver is strengthened. They all finally meet at Collette’s prison and confront the horror who imprisoned her as bait to catch Oliver. Meanwhile, Frost and the other legends are confronting the sorcerer who instigated all the murders and trying to discover the reason why.

It’s wonderful storytelling. The plot is complex enough to keep my interest but not confusing. The characterizations are well drawn. With each book less than 400 pages, this could have been marketed as a single large volume. But I’m real happy that they were published as smaller novels; it was fun anticipating the next installment. - Catherine Book