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Puzzle, puzzle.<\/strong> What to say about The Ale Boy\u2019s Feast<\/a><\/i>, the final book in Jeffrey Overstreet\u2019s remarkable fantasy tetralogy, The Auralia Thread<\/i>?<\/p>\n I have highly praised the author\u2019s writing skill and creative imagination, and I stand by those evaluations. Overstreet is a writer of rare ability, and he has created an unforgettable world, familiar enough to be recognizable but different enough to be exotic and evocative.<\/p>\n Yet the whole thing works out to a resolution that leaves me\u2026 troubled.<\/p>\n Maybe I\u2019m just not smart enough to get the point.<\/p>\n Or maybe leaving me troubled was the point. <\/p>\n In this fourth volume of the series, there are as usual several plot threads, but the chief ones concern two groups struggling to make their way to the promised goal of New Abascar. One is a group of refugees from Old Abascar, the ruined kingdom, trudging through Fraughtenwood Forest. The other is a group of former prisoners and slaves, fleeing the semihuman Beastmen through underground rivers, led (when they\u2019re willing to listen to him) by the Ale Boy, who was once the friend of the girl Auralia, who wove the colors that set off the story.<\/p>\n Eventually they will reach the promised land, but it will not be exactly what they hoped for.<\/p>\n I think I understand now why there\u2019s been controversy over these books. Although faith is affirmed as true and valuable, there seems to be a message that none of the things we\u2019ve been told about God is more than a useful myth. I thought I saw messages of both syncretism and universalism. And other messages that made no sense to me at all.<\/p>\n Also, the ending was\u2026 strange. I think I understand why the author chose to end the story as he did, but it seemed a poor payoff for readers who had followed him faithfully through four long books.<\/p>\n So my final reaction is ambivalent. I recommend The Ale Boy\u2019s Feast<\/i>, as well as the entire series, in terms of literary style and creative storytelling. In terms of message\u2026 I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Puzzle, puzzle. What to say about The Ale Boy\u2019s Feast, the final book in Jeffrey Overstreet\u2019s remarkable fantasy tetralogy, The Auralia Thread? I have highly praised the author\u2019s writing skill and creative imagination, and I stand by those evaluations. Overstreet is a writer of rare ability, and he has created an unforgettable world, familiar enough … Continue reading The Ale Boy’s Feast, by Jeffrey Overstreet<\/span>