an Elf(1991) and Choose Your Enemies Carefully
(1991), both by Robert Charrette. Some are cast in
the form of tough detective stories such as House of
the Sun (1995), by Nigel Findley, and disaster
thrillers such as Clockwork Asylum(1997), by Jak
Koke. Streets of Blood(1992), by Carl Sargent and
Marc Gascoigne, is a more traditional murder mys-
tery, while The Lucifer Deck(1997), by Lisa Smed-
man, is a technothriller. Other titles such as Worlds
Without End(1995), by Caroline Spector, verge on
supernatural horror.
Although to date none of the novels in the se-
ries is individually outstanding, they vary enough
from one title to the next to keep the reader guess-
ing and make the shared universe a reasonably
complex and interesting one. There are no com-
mon characters, which detracts from any real sense
of continuity, and the settings are also scattered all
over the world. This variation helps keep the series
reasonably fresh, although it is less likely to hold
on to a dedicated group of readers.
Sharp, Margery(1905–1991)
Although Margery Sharp wrote primarily main-
stream adult fiction prior to 1959, one of those
novels was actually her first fantasy, The Stone of
Chastity(1940), a marginal piece set in a village
where a magical stone that can determine whether
women are virginal causes considerable upset
when some women object to being subjected to the
test. She made no real impact on the fantasy field
until 1959, and then primarily for younger reader,
when she produced the first adventure of Miss
Bianca, The Rescuers,and introduced the Rescuers,
a band of mice who have taken as their mission the
freeing of prisoners of various kinds. In their debut
the Rescuers liberate one of their number who is
held in a dungeon by a nasty cat, but in the first se-
quel, Miss Bianca(1962), they expand their efforts
to come to the aid of a human child.
Their selflessness is put to the test in The Turret
(1963) because their latest victim is himself a rather
horrible character. The mission is more important,
however, and predictably the act of kindness has its
effect. By Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines(1966) the
stories had become somewhat formulaic, but the title
character and her faithful assistant, Bernard, were
endearing enough to sustain additional volumes,
which included trips to Asia in Miss Bianca in the
Orient(1970), the South Pole in Miss Bianca in
Antarctica(1971), and back home in Miss Bianca and
the Bridesmaid(1972).
The next two volumes vary from the formula,
concentrating on Bernard, who has various adven-
tures opposing and finally defeating an army of rats
in Bernard the Brave(1976) and Bernard into Battle
(1978). Their final adventure was The Rescuers
Down Under(1991), written in conjunction with
the animated film of the same title. There had
been a previous animated movie of their adven-
tures, The Rescuers(1977), which drew upon mul-
tiple books. The Miss Bianca series, particularly
the earlier volumes, are among the better chil-
dren’s fantasies, but like many similar books they
are probably in the long term doomed to be over-
shadowed by the film versions.SheH. Rider Haggard(1886)
H. Rider HAGGARDwas the master of the lost
world adventure, producing almost a dozen of
them during his lifetime, the most famous of which
was King Solomon’s Mines(1885), which also fea-
tured his most popular recurring character, Allan
Quatermain, a great white hunter and explorer.
His second-most-famous was Ayesha, the immortal
demigoddess of She.The chief protagonist is Leo
Vincey, the descendant of a woman who lost her
love to Ayesha, a white woman who never ages
and who lives in a concealed land in a remote part
of Asia. Although Ayesha is her proper name, she
is known to her people as She Who Must Be
Obeyed. Vincey is determined to avenge his ances-
tor and after several adventures finally finds the
lost land. Vincey turns out to be a reincarnation of
the long-dead, unfaithful lover, and he, Ayesha,
and Vincey’s companion are trapped in a repeti-
tion of the romantic triangle that resulted in the
first tragedy. The plot thickens, and eventually
Ayesha attempts to win Vincey’s heart by stepping
into an immortal flame, but against all expecta-
tions it leads to her apparent doom.
Vincey and his wife refuse to believe that
Ayesha is dead, and their search many years later
comes to fruition in Ayesha: The Return of She314 Sharp, Margery