There is a forest where all of the thoughts of it's neighbors bring powerful legends and myths to life. What a wonderful idea, populating your woods with archetypal heroes and then interacting with them. That wasn't sarcasm, it actually did seem interesting, so I was engaged in the first part of this book learning about what exactly is going on. Somewhere it morphed from "isn't that neat" to "what is going on here." This became more of a weird, creepy, twisted, love story than an ancient myth and exploration novel. I'm sure that people out there love this and find it deep, and moving, and things like that, but on an entertainment level, and an intellectual level, this didn't do it for me. There was the bad guy and the good guy, the girl they both wanted, and their crazy dad. The girl in question is basically created from their thoughts, so there's that, and their dad, well I'll leave that stone unturned for you. Just not really my thing, though in general the idea had promise.

An outstanding contribution to the genre. Robert Holdstock's writing is most similar to the work of a cult fantasist like [a:Ursula Le guin|8094097|Ursula Le guin|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png], whose material is similarly rooted in Celtic mythology, but I could never quite get into her stories - there was always a layer that eluded me. With Robert Holdstock, the opposite is true. His work is lively, invigorating, and yet immersed in mystery and obscurity. A better analogy than Ursula Le Guin might be found in a comparison to the book [b:Thursbitch|925775|Thursbitch|Alan Garner|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320484654s/925775.jpg|910780], which similarly tells of places that exist outside time and space, but stay preserved, constantly experiencing one particular historical period.

In any case, I found this book remarkably worthwhile. It does take a little time to get going, but after the first 100 pages or so, things start happening with increasing urgency, and the inevitable crushing conclusion starts to be hinted at. So, if you want a quick read, a good page-turner, try something less esoteric, but if a good story is what you're looking for, one that will stay with you well after you've reached the last page and finished reading, then [b:Mythago Wood|126192|Mythago Wood (Mythago Wood, #1)|Robert Holdstock|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1308639607s/126192.jpg|121534] is the one to choose.

I don't really remember the details of this book but I know that it is different than most fantasy books. It draws on Celtic myths and has interesting characters. I've kept the book all these years and am not getting rid of it anytime soon. I have a relationship with it, even if I can't remember it! Clean and wonderful.

It's been a very long time since I read Mythago Wood, so I'm glad I reread it before plunging into any of the other books in the Mythago series.

Mythago wood is at once a ghost story, gritty fairy tale, love story, legend, and epic fantasy. For a very long time it's very cozy, only occupying one house and a very few characters, but with a very haunting presence of Ryhope Forest, a small woodland that is left over from before the encroachment of human beings in Britain. The wood is haunted, but not by ghosts so much as legends inherited by modern humanity from the days of the previous ice-age to more recent times. These are dangerous legends, none of them cute or sweet-smelling. Even the most beautiful and delicate of them could easily kill a modern man with her spear. You don't want most of them to pay you a visit, but if you live on the edge of this woodland, they will come, drawn from your own racial memory from times of great need.

I can't do a good synopsis of this book, but I can say that it's one of my favorite to be categorized as fantasy. It feels more like... something real? Much of R. Holdstock's book seems to be grounded in anthropological studies of legendary figures, but also in the reality of what people would really be like in the Medieval times or even earlier. You get a sense not of Narnia, but of primitive people being plucked from hundreds or thousands of years ago, and set loose in a wood that should not have wild boars or wolves roaming through it, or a mighty river that enters and exits the forest as a trickling stream. Yet it does, and it's not hard to believe it, to be fearful of it, but also to be fascinated by it, by what hard reality those legendary figures were molded from. Reading this story feels like something real, something I could thankfully experience vicariously through words on a page.

Wow, so much going on here--the interplay of environment, culture, and human imagination; some fraught family relationships; archetypes lost to modern human stories; the power of terror, revenge, and hope to create realities. A haunting and at times confusing book, almost like something you barely remember on waking from a dream. Utterly engrossing.

Ryhope Wood lies outside Oak Lodge, the Huxley home. Steven, recovering in France post WW2, delays going home, estranged from his father and brother. His father's death and brother's marriage finally pull him home. The Wood is primal forest, and something more. It is a source of mythagos, mythic images from various periods in time. George Huxley was totally consumed by the Wood, and it cost him everything. Christian's wife actually was a mythago, but she's killed. He goes in search of her in the wood, but he's changed. She actually does return, in a different form, to Steven. Christian abducts her and Steven chases them into the wood to bring her back. Time passes differently in the wood, which is bigger within. Christian is killed and Guiwenneth lost, but Steven is left with hope of her return.