In the Palace of Repose
by Holly Phillips
(Prime Books, $29.95, 203 pages; hardcover, published in February
2005; reviewed from advance reading copy.)
C anadian
fantasist Holly Phillips's first collection, In the Palace of Repose,
is perhaps a premature release.
Of its nine stories, only two have been previously published: the title
piece in H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror and "The
New Ecology" in Canada's leading speculative-fiction magazine, On
Spec. Both of these show Phillips in top form.
The title story, which follows the travails of a civil servant whose
responsibilities involve tending a king who may or may not exist, is
a gorgeously composed exercise in world-building. Magic simmers menacingly
below the surface of everyday life in this world slightly askew from
our own. Phillips plays enticing games with revelation and allusion,
every revelation opening new questions with ever-more intriguing implications
for the setting she has created. Phillips also balances the mundane
and the fantastic to great effect: on the one hand the quotidian worries
of bureaucratic life, on the other, the fearsome wonders of the story's
eponymous castle.
"The New Ecology" is told in a brash, exciting voice. A young woman
with strange powers fears she is being hunted and moves from city to
city to avoid her pursuers. The tale is filled with surprises, moves
forward at a brisk pace, and again involves a secret world, both wondrous
and frightening, that lurks below the surface of the mundane. This theme
recurs frequently in Phillips's fiction.
Of the seven stories original to this collection, only "A
Woman's Bones" -- a powerful and terrifying archeological tale about
the rediscovery of an ancient warrior goddess -- compares favourably
with the book's previously published selections.
Every story showcases Phillips's deft understated touch, her evocative
allusions, her depth of vocabulary, her knack for beautifully complex
sentences. Yet, the six remaining new pieces all feel somewhat shapeless,
as if they had yet to be sculpted into stories. 
Originally published in
The Montreal Gazette, Saturday, 1 October 2005.
Claude Lalumière's Fantastic Fiction
is a series of
capsule reviews first published in the Saturday Books
section of The Montreal Gazette.
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