The war of the flowers / Tad Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Tad.

Series:

DAW book collectors ; no. 1225.

Language:

English

Genre:

Novels.

Physical Description:

xiii, 686 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Daw Books, Inc., [2003]

Summary:

Theo Vilmos' life is about to take a real turn for the worse.

Not that it was ever that great -- spending the last decade of his life as a singer in a succession of not terribly successful Northern California rock bands isn't exactly a dream come true. But what can Theo do? When his girlfriend Cat gets pregnant, it seems like it's time to give up his irresponsible dreams and settle down. Until now, Theo has always skated through life -- getting by on good looks and charm but short on accomplishments, never quite fitting in. The only place that he's ever felt truly right, the only world to which he's ever really belonged, is onstage, enveloped in music, singing his heart out. But isn't that a pretty immature way for a thirty-year-old to feel? Now Cat is pregnant and things are going to change big time. Theo will be forced to change, too. So maybe this is a good thing -- just what he needs. But, as Theo discovers, he hasn't hit bottom yet, not by a long shot. He soon finds himself alone, heartbroken, and plagued by a recurring nightmare -- and he can't shake the feeling that these bad things are happening to him for a reason. When he comes across a mysterious old letter from his grandmother's brother, a man named Eamonn Dowd, and with it the key to a safe deposit box, he decides to investigate. What he finds is an old handwritten book.

Seeking solace and escape in a cabin in the woods, Theo begins to read his great-uncle's book and quickly becomes mesmerized. Dowd writes of another world -- the world of Faerie -- but it is nothing like the familiar fairyland of childhood stories. Caught up in the book's compelling tale, Theo begins to hear strange sounds and experience odd fears. Then one night, all his fears manifest when a horrifying thing tries to break through his front door -- a terrible hunting-spirit in the body of a dead man. Terrified and trapped, Theo is saved only by the intervention of a tiny, foul-mouthed, winged sprite named Applecore, who transports him through a surreal portal into the realm of Faerie. But this fairyland is even darker and more bizarrely modern than Eamonn Dowd had described, similar to the mortal world and yet dangerously different, and although he can't imagine why, there are creatures in it who intend Theo Vilmos serious harm. Chased by corpselike cave trolls and the undead spirit which had pursued him from his own world, at the mercy of immortal beings whose personal and political affiliations are bafflingly unclear, and with only the reluctant sprite Applecore for a guide, Theo begins a journey that will lead him from the palacetowers of the most powerful and treacherous of the fair folk to the camps of rebel goblins and other places beyond his imagining, on a search for the true meaning of his life -- before those who seek him can cut it mercilessly short.

Contents:

Part 1 Goodnight Nobody

1 Clouds 7

2 The Silent Primrose Maiden 23

3 Descent 26

4 The Hungry Thing 44

6 A Corruption of Moonlight 69

7 Woods 74

8 Runaway Capacitor 89

9 Visitors 95

Part 2 Last Exit to Fairyland

10 Larkspur's Land 111

11 A Disturbance in The Forcing Shed 127

12 The Hollyhock Chest 139

13 A Change in the Weather 160

14 Penumbra Station 179

15 The Plains of Great Rowan 201

16 Poppy 221

17 The Hothouse 240

18 Sidewalks of New Erewhon 246

19 A Holiday Visit 269

20 Among the Creepers 273

21 In Thornapple House 295

22 Status Quo Ante 302

23 The Shadow on the Tower 324

Part 3 Flower War

24 The Bus Stop on Pentacle Street 347

25 A Million Sparks 356

26 Losing a Friend 371

27 Button's Bridge 388

28 Goblin Jazz Bandwagon 411

29 The Hole in the Story 430

30 Family Matters 447

31 In the Bloom Years 458

32 Trendy Fungus 481

33 The Last Breath They Took 505

Part 4 The Lost Child

34 Interlude with Van Gogh Stars 523

35 A Sort of Reunion 534

36 changelings 550

37 The Ebony Box 565

38 The Broken Stick 579

39 Stepchild 591

40 Strawflower Square 605

41 The Cathedral 622

Part 5 Fairytale Ending

42 Farewell Feast 645

43 The Limits of Magic 665.

ISBN:

0756401356 :

OCLC:

52112768