The Flight of the White Horse

Rating:
Summary: First-Rate Storytelling
Review: Early on, the reader senses the author's emotional investment in this work. Whether involved in a tender love scene, chatting among rivals, or engaged in a life-or-death struggle, the characters' thoughts, actions, and deeds appropriately complement or contrast their detailed environmental, historical and geographical backdrops. A lot of thought and research went into this book!

The story's dream sequences best reveal the author's talent. Through these scenes, Moffett evokes a vivid sense of ephemeral helplessness, hidden desire and mystery. Great reading.

Rating:
Summary: A True Fantasy Adventure
Review: If you want a story full of spells, evil wizards and witches, and swordplay, you have found the right book. Prince Tomlin, the young hero, faces all these dangers and more as he rescues the Lady Vera from her prison, an enchanted necklace. Mr. Moffett has given us a believable character in the young prince. He has many doubts and fears but overcomes them by finding the source of his inner strength, the White Prince, his country's mythological hero. The plot moves along briskly and keeps us entertained with Prince Tomlin's many adventures. The setting is also nicely detailed, and the author brings to life many fine minor characters such as Telec, the friendly old Forecaster, and Kanisen, the insightful scholar. The surprise in the penultimate chapter will send the reader through the action-packed climax. I look forward to more works by this new writer.

Rating:
Summary: A Lyrical, Compelling Fantasy
Review: Todd Moffett has achieved something extraordinary with his book The Flight of the White Horse--he has written a fantasy which both hearkens back to classics such as the Chronicles of Narnia, and tells a story so original that the ending cannot be predicted even by an astute reader of fantasy fiction. This book, which has appeal for adolescent through adult readers, tells the story of Prince Tomlin's quest to free a trapped princess, Vera. This story works on the level of adventure tale as well as that of metaphysical journey, with not a wasted word. This book should delight fantasy fans as well as literary conoisseurs.

Rating:
Summary: Vision Quest
Review: Todd Moffett's novel _The Flight of the White Horse_ is a clever, fantastic narrative built around Prince Tomlin's quest for the Lady Vera, imprisoned by the insidious Lord Harra. When he acts on faith and acknowledges the power and existence of the White Prince, Tomlin defeats the force of darkness in a climactic scene whose vivid, forceful style keeps the reader engaged and hoping for more.
Various elements in this novel appeal greatly to the imagination and draw the reader into Tomlin's vision quest. Paricularly enticing is the idea of having Harra use a necklace to entrap the Lady Vera. Another is Tomlin's encounter with the Lady Sharamar in a section that recalls Odysseus' encountter with Circe. A third is the dream sequence,preceding the climactic battle, in which Tomlin struggles to maintain his sanity. _The Flight of the White Horse_ is a well thought out, well conceived piece of writing.
There is another element that contributes greatly to this novel's effectiveness, and that is Mr. Moffett's use of descriptive detail. The descriptions are vivid and give the narrative a somewhat cinematic flavor. Consider the following passage, for instance: "The floor in front of them screamed open to reveal not a lower level of the castle but a rocky den, horrible with monsters, their gaping mouths clustered with teeth, their claws raking the air; cries and growls and the scent of terrible things eaten billowed from their mouths"(264).
_The Flight of the White Horse_ is a well written, exciting novel. In the future, I hope to see more work of this calibre from Todd Moffett.