Fortune’s Fool

by Mercedes Lackey

Luna Books $24.95; 362 pp

After reading swaths of horror fic for reviews, Fortune’s Fool was as refreshing as sherbet after a meat course.

This is another of the 500 Kingdoms titles, which began spectacularly with The Fairy Godmother and continued with One Good Knight. The premise of these books is that the quasi-sentient Tradition of fairy tales tries to make things come out ‘according to plan’ for the lives of the people it touches; but not all the plans are nice. Who wants to be Patient Griselda or Rapunzel? Or one of the 99 suitors for Sleeping Beauty who end up impaled on thorns? So certain beings, such as Fairy Godmothers and Champions, acts as guardians and gardeners of the Tradition: redirecting it, modifying it here or there, serving it, occasionally assisting the ones who get left by the wayside in the Tradition’s wake, and opposing wicked sorcerers and such who also derive power from the Tradition.

The hero of Fortune’s Fool is Sasha, a seventh son and a prince of the small seaside kingdom of Led Belarus. (So we are treated to the Eastern block traditional fairy tales: Baba Yaga, Rusalkas, Katschei the Deathless, swan maidens.) His lot in life as the seventh son is to be the Fool, a Trickster of sorts, who seems to stumble about aimlessly, when he is actually promoting the Luck of the kingdom. The heroine is the Sea-King’s daughter, Katya, who has the rare ability to move as freely on land as under water. She is often sent on missions to investigate dangerous or suspicious activities. On one of her reconnoiters, she meets Sasha. They quickly prove to be the cure to each other’s loneliness – there is one explicit bedroom scene you may wish skip if you are reading aloud to child. But duty calls them in different directions, until Katya is kidnapped by a Jinn who collects magical maidens. Sasha sets out to rescue his true love, and Katya organizes the maidens into a sabotage and strike team.

Mercedes Lackey tackles issues in almost all her stories. Some of her recent books have had very pointed passages describing the malfeasances of ‘kings’ (read presidents, prime ministers, and pulpit-pumpers) and the responsibilities of people to not be gullible. She has also been writing some serious military setting stories; her son has been in Iraq, so she has a source for realistic detail. This issue is comparatively subtle. The Jinn’s affects on the realms bears a certain resemblance to the real and present dangers of global warming. But this is a spirit-lifting, fun story, which helps you see the glinting flash of magic in everyday things. – Chris Paige