No adult who reads a fair amount of juvenile fantasy aloud to children can help having an odd conception of rodents. Indeed, anyone whose childhood included books along the lines of Stuart Little, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, The Mouse and His Child, or the more recent Redwall books, cannot, when disposing of the contents of a successful mouse trap, help wondering whether the deceased in question, apart from having a fatal attraction to cheese, had not also been a librarian, a detective, or a taxi driver. Mice in fantasy literature are not mildly anthropomorphic, such as the rabbits of Watership Down or the deer of Fire Bringer, animals which, though capable of thought and speech, retain their natural identity. The mice of literature literally are us. We are also prejudiced when it comes to rodents, for we have gleaned that while mice are generally kind, thoughtful, community minded, and good problem solvers, rats tend to be bloodthirsty gangsters and criminal masterminds. Two highly entertaining new books, the Dark Portal, by Robin Jarvis, and Time Stops For No Mouse, by Michael Hoeye, confirm these stereotypes. Of these two books The Dark Portal, which was originally published in Britain in 1989, though new to America, is far more interested in establishing a blend of human and animal natures in its protagonists, while Time Stops For No Mouse has no concerns other than telling a good story, which it certainly does. Hoeye's book follows the adventures of Hermux Tantamoq a thoughtful, fastidious watchmaker. Tantamoq becomes inadvertently embroiled in a mystery involving a deranged cosmetics tycoon, eternal life and a dashing aviatrix, Linka Perflinger, who has caught Tantamoq's fancy. The story is paced nicely, with plenty of surprises, and features healthy doses of character development and detail. Most of all the story maintains a comfortable quality that magnifies its other virtues. In short, Time Stops For No Mouse will delight young fantasy readers. The Dark Portal, is a much edgier, darker story, and much more concerned with establishing and maintaining an atmosphere of tension. Although Jarvis wants to establish the mouseness of his mice and the ratness of his rats, the reader quickly learns that the general stereotypes hold, mice are "kind, gentle" creatures while "the world of rats (is) a nightmare of vicious backstabbing." Jarvis has taken on a much more difficult balancing act than Hoeye, whose simple determination to be entertaining and agreeable supports the "Not Too Scary" rating he put on the back cover. Jarvis, on the other hand, must balance the elements which establish a genuinely macabre atmosphere, relentless uncertainty, dark intimation, nihilism, and forceful villainy, while not overly disturbing a young readership. Jarvis errs
on the side of atmosphere, which is probably a good idea in the sense that being
something definite is preferable to being a sterile hybrid. And certainly,
though Jarvis' rats take a little too much from Tolkien's orcs, the story is a
decidedly good read for juvenile fantasy readers. |
