Red Moon and Black Mountain: the End of the House of Kendreth is a fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Joy Chant

Joy Chant

Joy Chant is the pen name of British fantasy writer Eileen Joyce Rutter . She is best known for her three novels on the House of Kendreth.-Works:...

, the first of three set in her world of Vandarei. It was first published in hardcover by George Allen & Unwin

Allen & Unwin

Allen & Unwin, formerly a major British publishing house, is now an independent book publisher and distributor based in Australia. The Australian directors have been the sole owners of the Allen & Unwin name since effecting a management buy out at the time the UK parent company, Unwin Hyman, was...

, London, in 1970. The first paperback edition was issued by Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...

 as the thirty-eighth volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series

Ballantine Adult Fantasy series

The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was an imprint of Ballantine Books. Launched in 1969 , the series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature, which were out of print or dispersed in back issues of pulp magazines , in cheap paperback form—including works...

 in March, 1971. The Ballantine edition, which was also the first American edition, includes an introduction by Lin Carter

Lin Carter

Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...

. U.S. hardcover editions followed from the Science Fiction Book Club and Dutton

E. P. Dutton

E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. In 1986, the company was acquired by Penguin Group and split into two imprints: Dutton Penguin and Dutton Children's Books.-History:Edward Payson Dutton founded...

 (1976). The book was reprinted frequently by various publishers in both countries through 1983, but has since gone out of print. It has also been translated into German.

The novel is a high fantasy showing influences from J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

's Lord of the Rings and C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...

's Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages...

 series. It won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for 1972.

Plot summary

The story involves three children of our own world transported to the world of Vandarei and there separated; the older boy Oliver is adopted by horse-lords, and in a peculiar time-dilation effect grows to adulthood among them, forgetting his origins, while his younger siblings, taken in by the princess In'serinna, remain children and pursue their own quest. All their adventures are part of a larger effort to defeat a dark god.

Critical reception

Opinion regarding the book is divided between those who see it as an impressive achievement in its own right and those who see it as an overly-slavish imitation of Tolkien. In the introduction to the subsequent Vandarei novel The Grey Mane of Morning, Chant explains in detail how she created her fantasy world

Fantasy world

A fantasy world is a fictional universe used in fantasy novels and games. Typical worlds involve magic or magical abilities and often, but not always, either a medieval or futuristic theme...

 as a young girl. According to her, elements of Vandarei and its mythology which appear to imitate Tolkien's Middle-earth

Middle-earth

Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....

 or C.S. Lewis' Narnia stories actually have independent origins.

External links

• "Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant" - some positive reviews at sffworld.com
• Alroy, John, and Wilson, David Bertrand. "Wilson & Alroy on High Fantasy Novels: Joy Chant, Red Moon And Black Mountain (1971)" - a negative review