The Future is a Trilogy; The Past is a Series

Desperately in need of a good read, I picked this book up in spite of it being the third book of series I’ve never heard of.  I have no regrets.

The Purple Emperor is a big book of unpretenious fun.  It’s nice and thick like just about every other serial fantasy but it’s innards are trim.  Herbie Brennan’s writing has an unobtrusive lilt and flow that is pleasant to the ear and this book is full of delightful faerie imagery without the extra verbiage that can often clutter up the genre.  Descriptive passages are clean and spare, just enough to paint a picture minus interminable descriptions of violet/and or glowing faerie eyes.  While I was jumping into Book III, I was not confused and only flipped to glossary out of curiousity.  The writing is full of wry humour and inuendo; just wait until you find out how the telepathic Wyrms get around!  The writer deftly flips point of view from chapter to chapter giving gleeful insight into the morals and values of the less than savoury characters.  The basic plot is standard fare; the dark elves, or Faeries of the Night (in the glossary listed as FON) lay nefarious plans to take over the Faeries of the Light (FOL) who have more egalitarian and cosmopolitan views.  The world in which they live is a parallel universe, and the Faeries can travel, with varying success from their world to ours, all of which embroils Henry, a naive english teenager in all of their business.  While this type of story may have been told a million times in a million ways, the writing is fresh, clever and wonderful, and I will be happy to leap into its worlds again when I find Book One and Two.