Runelight by Joanne Harris

If you've read anything else by this author, this is very different (with one exception). Chocolat it is not.

Runelight is fantasy, pure and simple. Good and evil, gods, magic, alternative writing systems, alternative worlds, maps of alternative worlds... It's Phillip Pullman crossed with Paul Stewart with a dollop of Joanne Harris as you know her. But perhaps I'm being unfair.

This is a follow-up to Runemarks (the exception I mentioned earlier), so if you've already read that one, you'll know what to expect. I hadn't, though I will now, and I must say it would have helped a great deal if I had. Nevertheless, I did enjoy this, even if I didn't know all the time exactly what was happening - there's a lot of back history to be explained, though the dramatis personae at the beginning, plus the maps, help a great deal.

The characters are great: varied and appealing or not in equal measure, but what kept me going was the desire to discover what it was all about, what was going to happen and who would win in the end. There's humour and some adult themes including sex (though little violence), but I wouldn't say this is in the same league as, say, Ursual Le Guin's Earthsea stories, though there are similarities.

If you're already a fan of fantasy, then you'll probably enjoy this. If you're more of a Blackberry Wine person, maybe not. But then, I'm both, so what do I know?