Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Book Reviews
Book Review: Once Upon a Dreadful Time
By Sandy Amazeen
Oct 23, 2007, 2:54 GMT

Ever since King Valeray and Queen Saissa’s children imprisoned her mentor, the wizard Orbane in the Castle of Shadows and killed her three sisters, the wicked witch Hradian has plotted revenge. Hradian bides her time, watching the hated ruler’s spouses in secret, looking for a weakness to exploit in order to release her master. The opportunity comes when she discovers who holds the Castle of Shadows key, she impersonates his wife to obtain the key and proceeds to liberate Orbane. Once free, Orbane imprisons the royal families and proceeds to raze havoc through the four woods, even disrupting the River of Time. It falls to the spouses of the imprisoned to assemble an army to fight Orbane but the real key to defeating evil lies in solving the riddles of the Fates.

McKiernan’s final installment of the five book Faery series provides a satisfying conclusion to an imaginative world populated with all the expected fantasy creatures, a world where the laws of magic, not science apply. The four previous titles focused on relationships and romance while this is more a battle between good and evil with some cryptic assistance from the Fates. Although technically a stand-alone novel, readers new to the series should consider starting at the beginning as many of the main protagonists from the earlier books figure strongly and it would be a shame to miss out.