Wow.
For days I have sat with only that word on the paper. Just "Wow." I can't come up with a way to describe
North Star that doesn't marginalize the story, the characters and the situations. Saying this is a story
about a man who lost his wings and a centaur traveling beyond the boundaries of its world, to search for a lost
people, would be like saying Beowulf is about a warrior who fights scary monsters, or that Don
Quixote is about a crazy old man who rides around Spain and thinks he is a knight. North Star is so
much more.
I was spellbound by the text, which is wrapped in a lyrical prose, which sings the grief, love, desire, joy,
excitement and fear described by the tale-weaver from the first word. If you enjoy the early classics:
The Canterbury Tales, The Song of Roland, The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnel, you will
revel in Pacifici's attention to style and storytelling.
If you do not normally read fantasy, North Star is a wonderful place to start. There is a link on this
page that will take you to an excerpt. After you read those few carefully chosen words, you will not be able to
rest until you have read the entire novel, and you will be hard pressed to find a finer exemplar of the genre in
any age.