The Tapestry 3 – The Fiend and the Forge

Henry H. Neff's The Fiend and the Forge is the third Tapestry book, a big magic-school fantasy for 10 year olds where Rowan Academy is about to throw a party for its enemies.

What happens

It opens with Max McDaniels being woken in a cornfield by twelve goslings. Their mum is Hannah, a very bossy goose who thinks he's a lazy bottom (and sings it at him).

Rowan is rebuilding after the siege. The crops are in, the Manse has its windows back and the rowan trees stand along the drive again. Max has spent a month doing chores, and tomorrow there's a feast.

Then the news trickles out. A party of demons is coming to seal a peace. Max has a famous temper, and his friend Nigel makes him promise to behave.

That's only one of the odd things going on. Every printed book is fading, page by page, and a furious Scottish hare called Tweedy wants a hundred more scribes to copy them out by hand. Max finds his own name on the timetable as a teacher. And his roommate David is brewing something in beakers he won't explain, with strange red flowers Max isn't allowed to touch.

That night Max goes to check on him. David's bed is empty.

What's it like to read? Rich and roomy. There's a lot of world here, with hags, Mystics, Agents and a lymrill that eats metal, and the jokes keep it light. Bellagrog the hag, with her triangle teeth and her rota of chores, is a joy. So is Nigel failing to climb onto a statue.

Be warned, it's a demanding read. The sentences are long and the words are big (Lilliputian turns up on the very first page). Max is a teenager now, and the talk around him is about demons, summoning circles and what peace costs. A confident reader who loved the first two books will be right at home. A newer reader may find it hard going.

It really does need the earlier books, too. Starting here would spoil them and confuse your reader at the same time. The place to begin is The Hound of Rowan, where Max is twelve and finds a glowing tapestry in a Chicago museum.

What to read next

If they're already a Neff fan and want something new from him, try Henry H. Neff's Impyrium. It's a separate story set around a royal palace, with a wolf-like vye scholar in its very first scene and sea demons kept in their place by an ancient treaty.