his bed for later consumption. There is also a price-
less scene in which a family kills and eats the family
dog and then opines that the missing pet would re-
ally have enjoyed the leftovers.
Bertrand is not an entirely disagreeable charac-
ter. He falls in love, although his proclivity to vio-
lence makes consummation difficult, and is
eventually arrested and confined in an asylum,
where he eventually manages to commit suicide. En-
dore spends a considerable amount of time satirizing
social life among the upper classes of France, some-
times distracting the reader from the central story.
Flawed as it is, however, it was the first skillfully writ-
ten werewolf novel and has few rivals even today.
West, Michelle(1963– )
Michelle Sagara West first began publishing fantasy
fiction as Michelle Sagara with Into the Dark Lands
(1991), the first volume in the Sundered series. It
is a straightforward and well-written story about a
world threatened with a magical conflict between
good and evil. A seeress has a vision of a young
woman who could alter the balance of power to-
ward the side of good, but evil appears to triumph
in the opening volume. The evil ruler seeks to
waken his magically sleeping bride in Children of
the Blood(1992), which will allow him to tighten
his grip over his subjects. A new champion for
good enters the fray in Lady of Mercy(1993), and
the one-time lovers square off for the final battle in
Chains of Darkness, Chains of Light(1994). Al-
though nothing out of the ordinary, the Sundered
series is solid, action-filled fantasy adventure, and
the author did a respectable job of rendering her
characters and placing them in a coherent and
convincing story. Several short stories also ap-
peared under the Sagara byline, but she reverted to
Michelle West for most of her subsequent fiction.
As West she has written two sequences of fan-
tasy novels, both of which are of considerably more
merit. The first is a two-part sequence consisting of
Hunter’s Oath(1995) and Hunter’s Death(1996).
A god of the hunt has proved to be a beneficent
patron for an imaginary nation, but in return for
his gifts and protection the citizens are required to
conduct an annual hunt with a member of the aris-
tocracy as the prey. The background premise pro-
vides an unusual setting, and the two books are a
significant step up from her earlier work.
Even more impressive is her remaining series of
novels, the Sun Sword, which started with Broken
Crown(1997) and ran to six volumes, each of them
quite long even for the fantasy field. The opening
title introduces a very complex world in which two
powerful nations have been long-standing rivals, an
animosity that takes a dangerous turn when magic
is introduced into the mix. The Uncrowned King
(1998) follows the adventures of a young aristocrat
who discovers that he is the target of a band of de-
monic assassins. Open warfare seems to be immi-
nent in The Shining Court(1999), but those leaders
of one nation who have allied themselves with de-
monic forces begin to have second thoughts about
the wisdom of their decision. The validity of their
concerns is proven in Seas of Sorrows(2001) and
The Riven Shield (2003). A mystical weapon
promises to turn the tide of battle in the conclu-
sion, The Sun Sword(2004). West proved with this
series that she can take a typical fantasy adventure
format and use it to produce major character-
driven novels. Her short fiction, though less im-
pressive, is similarly competent. Her only collection
to date is Speaking With Angels(2003).“What Was It?”Fitz-James O’Brien(1859)
Fitz-James O’Brien was an Irish immigrant who died
of wounds suffered during the Civil War. He left be-
hind no novels but a number of short stories, of
which this tale of an invisible stranger is the most
famous. A landlady and most of her tenants relocate
to a new building, even though the house has a rep-
utation of being haunted. They are, in fact, disap-
pointed when weeks pass with no unusual events
taking place and have decided that the rumors are
just as false as they expected when one of their
number, the narrator, is attacked in his bed one
evening by an assailant of unusual strength. He
manages to overcome and capture the other, but
when he lights a candle, he is shocked to discover
that the creature in his grasp is entirely invisible.
With the assistance of one of the other
lodgers, the creature is subdued and tied up. No
one else in the house wants anything to do with it,
and several of the tenants eventually move out.“What Was It?” 377