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A review by divapitbull
The Fever of the World by Phil Rickman
3.0
This review contains minor spoilers.
I have given the entire Merrily Watkins series 4 stars; but Fever of the World just fell a little…flat. It was nice to catch up with old friends and see that everyone was in a good place: Merrily and Lol, Frannie and Annie, even Jane and Eirion; despite the backdrop of the early days of the pandemic. I usually walk away from a Rickman novel wondering if it was exceptionally cryptic or if I’ve just failed to put all the pieces together. I chalk some of my struggles up to being from the States and not having the benefit of a shared cultural background. I think that was to some extent definitely a problem with this installment. I really was thinking, “I think I get it but…. that’s it? It seems…underwhelming”. Then I really thought about the landscape, and what it would be like to be right in the heart of it, to be next to the Queen Stone; and I don’t think I can even conceptualize how profound an experience that would be.
Still, I have questions. What was the point of the spectral dead kids manifesting to Maya Madden, the TV producer doing the series on Wordsworth? Was it just to highlight the increased activity in the landscape – what with the past suspicion of haunting and exorcism of place by Canon Dobbs, the 250th anniversary of Wordsworth who worshipped nature and may have tapped into some of the ancient druid magic of the place, and the current druid activity with the lovely Diana Portis? Speaking of which, how exactly did Diana Portis “call down” her father-in-law from the Seventh Sister rock? Through an ancient druid ritual or with a foot to his back? Why is the word succubus treated like the pre-Trump era “P” word? And why was detective Darth Vaynor succubied? Just a wrong place, wrong time sitch? His tapping into the energy or Wordsworth, just his presence in King Arthur’s Cave or all of the above? Finally, why exactly does the C of E shy away from the paranormal? Why is deliverance and the Night Job being phased out? Without the paranormal, isn’t religion and the Church just a social club?
Fever of the World was solid. I liked it and I’ll keep reading the series. But it didn’t create the kind of page turning interest of previous installments. Not until the last 10% when things started coming together – hence 3 stars.
I have given the entire Merrily Watkins series 4 stars; but Fever of the World just fell a little…flat. It was nice to catch up with old friends and see that everyone was in a good place: Merrily and Lol, Frannie and Annie, even Jane and Eirion; despite the backdrop of the early days of the pandemic. I usually walk away from a Rickman novel wondering if it was exceptionally cryptic or if I’ve just failed to put all the pieces together. I chalk some of my struggles up to being from the States and not having the benefit of a shared cultural background. I think that was to some extent definitely a problem with this installment. I really was thinking, “I think I get it but…. that’s it? It seems…underwhelming”. Then I really thought about the landscape, and what it would be like to be right in the heart of it, to be next to the Queen Stone; and I don’t think I can even conceptualize how profound an experience that would be.
Still, I have questions. What was the point of the spectral dead kids manifesting to Maya Madden, the TV producer doing the series on Wordsworth? Was it just to highlight the increased activity in the landscape – what with the past suspicion of haunting and exorcism of place by Canon Dobbs, the 250th anniversary of Wordsworth who worshipped nature and may have tapped into some of the ancient druid magic of the place, and the current druid activity with the lovely Diana Portis? Speaking of which, how exactly did Diana Portis “call down” her father-in-law from the Seventh Sister rock? Through an ancient druid ritual or with a foot to his back? Why is the word succubus treated like the pre-Trump era “P” word? And why was detective Darth Vaynor succubied? Just a wrong place, wrong time sitch? His tapping into the energy or Wordsworth, just his presence in King Arthur’s Cave or all of the above? Finally, why exactly does the C of E shy away from the paranormal? Why is deliverance and the Night Job being phased out? Without the paranormal, isn’t religion and the Church just a social club?
Fever of the World was solid. I liked it and I’ll keep reading the series. But it didn’t create the kind of page turning interest of previous installments. Not until the last 10% when things started coming together – hence 3 stars.