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Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Stewart, Sean

Tagged: Author.

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(1965-    ) Canadian writer whose first novel, Passion Play (1992), was an sf detection. His second, Nobody's Son (1993), interestingly reverses the usual plot structure of the High-Fantasy tale of individual growth (see Rite of Passage) by placing the normal climax in the first chapter. Young Shielder's Mark penetrates the dread Ghostwood (see Into the Woods) from which no Hero has returned, successfully deals with the life-or-death Quibbles of a Liminal Being (an old Witch), is granted a necessary Talisman or two, breaks the Spell that has locked the wood in a magic stasis (see Time in Faerie), and returns to demand from the king that he grant – as promised – one Wish. Mark selects the king's youngest daughter as his bride; and the bulk of the tale warmly and engrossingly deals with the consequences of this choice. Resurrection Man (1995) is set in a complexly conceived Alternate-World USA, into which Magic has begun to seep back through fissures in the texture of the previous mundane Reality that have been opened, perhaps, by the Apocalyptic arousals of World War II, when Golems appeared in the death camps. The protagonist is an "angel" (see Angels) whose psychic powers lead him into the depths of family romance, an exploration which succinctly and potently comprises a portrait of a society profoundly in need of Healing. Stewart is one of the fantasy writers of the 1990s who seems able to confirm the potential sharp relevance of the genre to modern life. [JC]

Sean Stewart

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