The Healer of GuildenWood: The Soultrekker Chronicles by Mary F. Calvert is a YA portal fantasy in the tradition of the sword and sorcery novels most speculative fiction readers enjoy. It tells the story of a high school senior Margaret Ann who wants to blend in with the rest of her classmates but is instead pulled into a Tolkienesque fantasy world, not as an eighteen-year-old human, but as a young adult elf. Once she arrives in the world of Bensor, she loses track of key memories of her life on Earth but retains enough to remember basic facts and slang. Now named Arwyn, she begins her new life in a small village, rooming with a benevolent husband and his pregnant and equally kind wife. From there, Arwyn has a number of adventures while gaining the admiration, but never the acceptance, of her neighbors. For in Bensor, elves have moved away from humans and, for the most part, keep to themselves. An elf in Arwyn’s small hamlet is certainly unusual. Without spoiling too much, the story interweaves an unwelcome suitor, a corrupt king, a detailed history, superhuman abilities, and a number of loyal friends into the narrative.

There’s a lot to like here. The world-building is, in particular, well thought out and a cut above most novels I’ve read in this genre. The novel comes with a wonderful map (we fantasy readers love our maps). My one critique of the map is it’s small, and I had to squint to read some of the names. Nonetheless, the detail on the map raised the expectations of this reader for the story ahead. I’m happy to say I was not disappointed. The way the author wrote the novel convinced me she had a story or two behind each location in Bensor. Her descriptions of her settings also engage the reader immediately: “…it was the shining city of Maldimere set high atop a cliff overlooking the cobalt blue Eleuvial Sea…And if the palace was the crown, then the mass of white buildings that spread from the top of the hill and down to the bay were golden hair, shimmering in the light of the setting sun.” The author’s descriptions aren’t only about gloriously beautiful places for her description of the dungeon of Dungard below Maldimere channel the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe—unexpected in a fantasy novel. I could picture Dungard perfectly and really enjoyed the chapters set there.

I applaud Calvert’s use of language as well. She has an ear for an “olde tyme” way of speaking without it collapsing into nonsense (e.g. “early” becomes “airly”, etc.). This is hard to keep consistent when you have one character, Arwyn, speak like an American and everyone else in a different manner. She’s also careful to vary the dialect by a character’s station in life.

Bensor has a rich past as well, and some of it comes out in the first half of the book. While the narrative stops for the history lesson—I’d rather it flowed within the episodes of the book—it speaks to the depth of thought in constructing this world. I won’t reveal it, but this portal world has a connection to Earth, and when a major event occurred in our past, the ripples of it impacted Bensor. I love connections like this and thought this idea especially clever.

I especially enjoyed how the author started the book and the interstitials she uses at the beginning of the chapters. The hook from the first two chapters is wonderful.

Arwyn’s character journey through the book comes full circle by the end. She is a different person than Margaret Ann and on the cusp of something great. While the episodes within Guildenwood are contained, you should know the book doesn’t end in the traditional sense. This is very much a Fellowship of the Ring style of a story, not The Hobbit. That is, you’re investing in a trilogy, not a single novel.

Authors, using only words, are capable of pulling magic tricks, and Ms. Calvert pulled off a special one in Guildenwood. It follows the swords and sorcery tradition fairly closely but leaves behind one major element…the big battle. This isn’t that type of novel. This novel takes care to describe how a displaced elf becomes a force to be reckoned with. It’s truly an origin story.

Minor elements that caught my eye include a nice bit of humor thrown in here and there, the characters were honest and memorable, the names alone of people and places builds a picture in one’s mind, and the writing style natural and fluid. Like C. S. Lewis, the author incorporates religious themes into the work without hammering the reader over the head.

This is a great read, not quite what I expected, but a pleasure to get lost in. It’s almost a frontier tale with magic, sort of Little House on the Prairie meets Eragon. I thought the mashup of the two distinct genres fascinating and The Header of Guildenwood is well worth picking up. Onto book number 2!