The High House by James Stoddard

Title: The High House

Author: James Stoddard

Genre: Fantasy

Summary: The new Master of the High House has an enormous task in front of him -- restore the balance between Chaos and Order while preventing the Anarchists from taking over the House.

The Take-Away: Superb. I really enjoyed the witty language, the well-developed universe that exists within the High House, and the Anarchists. The whole book, nay, the House, serves as a metaphor for the world that the reader inhabits. Every room, stairwell and passage way reveals a part of nature in a new way.

The one downfall is that the narrator is often limited to the new Steward. Because he often doesn't know what is truly going on, the reader is attempting figure it out as well and pieces of it aren't explained as well. To help with this the Steward has the help of the Butler, the Windkeeper and the Lamp-Lighter. All three of these characters amused me to no end and I was thrilled during every one of their scenes.

Recommendation: Look high and low for this one, because it's out of print. It will be worth the hunt.

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