Book Review: When the Hero Comes Home

By Angela Roberts

July 13, 2011

hero comes home

Heroes. Speculative fiction is full of them, depends on them. The hero’s journey is an integral part of most genre fiction, especially fantasy. That journey, that quest, is what draws us in, what fascinates us, what we read for. And it usually ends with the climax of the hero’s quest. We see the hero develop, we track his/her progress, we witness the confrontation between the hero and his/her goal, and then we see its fulfillment. And then we assume everything went well afterwards. Disney is good for this. It’s only within my lifetime that they began making sequels to all of their fairy tales, attempting to make more money by continuing the story. One always assumed that Snow White lived happily ever after with her prince, that Aladdin and Jasmine ruled Bagdad peacefully, that Sleeping Beauty never had to worry about spindles ever again. But as we mature as people and as readers, we question these assumptions. We start to ask, “And then what?” Many an accomplished writer started off by finishing their favourite books, writing new adventures. And as we grow up, we understand that there is more to the story than “And they lived happily ever after.” Because they might not have.

When the Hero Comes Home, edited by Gabrielle Harbowy and Ed Greenwood for Dragon Moon Press, is an anthology of short stories that attempt to address those questions; not with continuations of established stories, but with all-new, all-original stories all centered on the same theme: the aftermath. What happens after the epic battle, after the hero has slain his enemy (or hasn’t). What happens when the hero goes home, wherever home might be. And whether or not there even is a home to go back to. Because, let’s face it, people don’t become heroes expecting to go home one day. Westley may have left to find his fortune so he could marry Buttercup, but he sure as hell didn’t think they’d be back on the farm. Heroes leave home for various reasons; adventure, fame, fortune, escape, love, honour. But they come home (when that’s possible; many don’t survive the culmination of their quests) because they still hold some ideal of Home in their hearts, and whether or not that ideal holds up under scrutiny is one matter explored in these stories.

It’s not all as bleak as you might think from what I’ve described. Yes, many of the heroes of these stories face terrible disappointment, great trauma, and mortal danger. Many return to homes that don’t care for them, and certainly don’t want them around. Some have no idea of who they are or what they’ve done. But there’s also humour, and hope, and, if not a happy ending, then at least one born of acceptance and understanding. This would be a rather poor anthology if every story was nothing but doom and gloom.

And it’s a really good anthology. It’s clear that Harbowy and Greenwood carefully considered their theme and the authors and stories that are its backbone. Every story is well-plotted and contains characters that leap off the page. Characters that feel, that make you feel along with them. When I got the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book, I was excited by the subject matter I’d heard so much about at Ad Astra. I popped it into my Kobo right away, and was glued. Even when my schedule became much busier and my reading time became restricted to forty minutes a day of transit travel, I was absorbed in this book. I read it cover to cover (so to speak), and I read every single story. Not a single one made me want to skip it. There were, of course, ones I liked better than others, but I can’t say I didn’t see the artistic merits of every single one.

In the current marketing climate, it might be considered courageous of Dragon Moon Press to publish a short story anthology. The conventional wisdom is that anthologies just don’t sell as well as novels. Well, that sucks. This anthology proves that SF and Fantasy fans need to delve more deeply into reading short fiction. There are sorts of genres to choose from to satisfy any reader, and some of Dragon Moon Press’ rising stars are joined by some impressive seasoned pros. If you want something that will enlighten you and entertain you, then this book is essential reading.

My Top 5:

Authors Interviewed in this Magazine:

The book can be found on Amazon in Trade Paperback and EBook formats.

This Sunday, July 17th, at 11:00 AM, there will be a Champagne Brunch and Book Launch for When the Hero Comes Home at Polaris in Toronto. This will be the Canadian launch, and will be an opportunity to meet and have books signed by authors from the anthology. Details can be found here.