Weekly Reader: Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson; A Brilliant But Slightly Flawed Fantasy About Witches, Fairies, and WWI.

Weekly Reader: Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson; A Brilliant But Slightly Flawed Fantasy About Witches, Fairies, and WWI.

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Richard Matheson's Other Kingdoms could go down in that legendary file marked “Modern Fairy Tale” in which characters encounter fairies, magic, and other situations in the 20th and 21st century. Luckily, he does so in a book that is clever and brilliant but with some flaws that keep it from being a perfect retelling.

Much of the cleverness lies in its protagonist. Alex White AKA Arthur Black, a popular author in his 80’s, retells his past of when he was an 18-year-old WWI vet. Many times he comments on his past actions with a self-aware wryness and wit such as when he calls his younger self an idiot for doing certain things. Alex also is found of complimenting his own writing by referring to a particularly poetic quote as “worthy of Arthur Black.”

One particular moment that displays Alex (and Matheson's) clever narrative is that he at first refuses to go into too many gory details about trench warfare by saying “it's too horrifying” and that he “will tell (The Reader) later.” When later comes and he graphically describes the death of a fellow soldier, Harold Lightfoot complete with intestines blown out of his body and rats scurrying from the approaching bombs, Alex then adds “I told you it would be horrifying.”

The self-awareness of the genre also continues when Alex moves to Gatford, England, Lightfoot's childhood home. (Alex, an American, has nothing to go back to except an abusive widowed father whom he dubs “Capt. Arthur Bradford White USN” or sometimes “You Know Who.”) At first he is confused by the superstitious locals who warn him of fairies which he mocks. It is only when he encounters the fairies for the first time that he realizes that they have reasons to be superstitious.


Far from being a stereotypical Fairy Tale, Matheson turns the genre on its head by making the Fairy Tale stock characters more relatable and interesting than most of the human characters except Alex. He is warned at first away from “The Witch in the Woods” but when he encounters, Magda Variel, he sees a kind beautiful woman who is in mourning for her late husband and son. She also explains that she is a Wiccan telling him about the nature based religion (earning this Wiccan's gratitude). Finding her to be beautiful yet troubled and her magical practice to be fascinating and not scary, the much younger Alex engages in an affair with the middle-aged Magda. (Leaving the older Alex to be both proud of his younger self for getting lucky with an older woman and appalled because he knows what is to come.)

Matheson is also brilliant in reconstructing the Fairies making them very developed and somehow...human. Alex encounters Ruthanna, a lovely Fairy and falls in love with her. He is warned by everyone including Magda that the fairies are shape shifters and mischief makers who will use any trick to lure a human because it amuses them. So when he encounters Ruthanna, he and the Reader, are on guard for any mischief.

Instead Ruthanna reveals herself to be a complex misunderstood being who genuinely falls in love with Alex at first sight. She and the others of her kind explain that many of their tricks such as shape shifting are survival instincts to avoid the human race that have been known to hunt the Fair Folk down to potential extinction.

Matheson's complex writing is particularly noticeable when Magda and Ruthanna both confront Alex. They both say they can be trusted and the other is lying. Alex (and the Reader) are not sure who to trust. All of thee stereotypes surrounding them have been challenged so who is right and who is wrong? It becomes a well-written dilemma as Alex is uncertain so Magda makes the decision for him.

Unfortunately, Magda's decision leads to the book's huge glaring flaw. Once it is made, Alex joins Ruthanna in her Fairy World. There are many beautiful moments as the two explore the world together and Alex learns about Fairy culture from her Uncle Garal. (He also learns the late Harold Lightfoot was her brother who died fighting for a human country in which he felt a deep connection). Their romance would be complete if not for Magda.

Once Alex gets involved with Ruthanna, Magda just kind of disappears. In her final confrontation with Alex, she reveals some graphic secrets that the Reader never learns if they were true or just a blatant attempt to push Alex away because she is angry with him. The book never tells us and she fades into the background becoming an afterthought. For a character to begin so brilliantly realized to have such an anticlimactic resolution is wrong somehow.

However Alex and Ruthanna's romance is solid and is movingly felt even long afterwords when Alex becomes exiled from the Fairy World after a confrontation with Ruthanna's bad tempered kinsman.

Despite the lack of resolution with Magda, the book is an excellent modern fairy tale that gives compelling characters, plenty of magic, and an ending that may not be happily ever after but for Alex White and Ruthanna might be as close as they are going to get.