Elves in Elizabeth's England

[bibliogramma]

This Scepter’d Isle
Ill Met by Moonlight

The first two novels in a series by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Geillis, This Scepter’d Isle and Ill Met by Moonlight make for delightful light reading. The premise, that the balance of power in the land of the Sidhe will be disrupted if the Tudor succession does not happen as our earthly history says it did, allows for a delicious mix of life as it really was in the court of Henry VIII of England and a vision of Faerie that has room for all the folk under the hill, Seleighe, Unseleighe, and all that's inbetween.

The Farseers of the Sidhe have seen that if Henry's rule is followed by that of a certain red-haired heir, England will be a land of prosperity and creativity, but that if Henry's successor is instead one who would deliver the land into the hands of the Spanish Inquisition, then hatred and pain and sorrow will reign - and the power of the Unseleighe Court will be enhanced and the Seleighe Court diminished.

Vidal Dhu, ruler of the Unseleighe Court, picks two of his courtiers, Rhoslyn Teleri Dagfael Silverhair and Pasgen Peblig Rodrig Silverhair, twin brother and sister, to keep an eye on mortal affairs to prevent the coming to power of this red-haired heir. However, from the Seleighe Court, their half-siblings, Denoriel Siencyn Macreth Silverhair and Aleneil Arwyddion Ysfael Silverhair, also twin brother and sister, are preparing to find and protect the foretold heir and ensure that he - or she - gains the throne of England.

And frankly, the mix of Tudor England and the world of the Sidhe is a combination I can't resist. Lackey and her collaborator Geillis have begun a series that I'll be reading right until the last glimpse of Elizabeth of England they choose to provide. Yes, it's a bit overblown at times, and breathless at others, but it's glorious fun.