Armorica

Riverrun (1991) and Forest of the Night (1992; vt Armorica 1994 UK),the first two volumes of a projected trilogy, an ambitious exploration of Reality in which SPS presents characters and viewpoints so fluid as to border on the chaotic. Theo Etchison and his family are travelling to Mexico when they are drawn into a reality-spanning war being fought by the Dragon-children of the Darkling King, Strang, who effect changes on the Etchisons throughout the books. Different characters narrate sections, reflecting both varying perspectives and the shifting realities. What could have been a formless mess is – through unwavering auctorial control – a triumph, and one of the more original and overlooked series of the 1990s.