Cry Silver Bells

I don't know how I managed to miss the work of Thomas Burnett Swann for all these decades. Cry Silver Bells is the first novel of his I've read, and I liked it very much. It is set in ancient Crete, with the matter-of-fact inclusion of various Beasts (Swann's capital) of ancient myth and fable, such as Harpies, Centaurs, Tritons, and Sphinxes. The title character is a Minotaur. Narration duties alternate between a young Egyptian exile (of Achaean descent) and a Dryad, but the book as a whole is really the Dryad's story, with the human narrator just supplying a more familiar viewpoint and priming the reader to sympathize with the Dryad Zoe.

George Barr provided the cover art and a small handful of interior illustrations for the DAW show more paperback, and they are all quite nice. I don't think it was just Barr's art, though, that made me think this book would make a wonderful animated feature, although not a Disnified juvenile one by any means. Swann is frank about the erotic motives and activities of his ancient characters. There is a significant plot twist, but enough foreshadowing that an attentive reader will be prepared for a less-than-happy ending.

Cry Silver Bells is a short book, with some interpolated poetry (sung by various characters). The prose style is direct and lucid. I wouldn't call the book especially edifying, but it was a pleasure to read. I will certainly read more by this author, who died of cancer in his late 40s when I was under ten years old. Although Cry Silver Bells is part of a trilogy (the first of the three in narrative chronology, the last in publication order), I have already acquired a copy of Swann's standalone novel Moondust. show less

Set in a Minoan Age Crete populated by both humans and figures from ancient legend, Cry Silver Bells follows the fortunes of two cousins, caught between the kingdom of men and that of the Beasts.

I had somehow expected something similar in tone to E.R.R. Eddison's The Worm Ourorboros or Zimamvian Trilogy: High Fantasy with lots of classical references, but Swann's work is more earth-bound, despite the fantasy subject matter. It put me more in mind of Charles Finney's The Magician Out of Manchuria, though as I read that some 30 years ago, I'm not sure how close the comparison might actually be.

The plot is fairly slight and I did not find the characters of the cousins, at the first, to be particularly endearing, though Swann managed to win show more me over by the end. In fact, while the whole book is readable, it is probably the last 20 pages that are the best.

I will certainly read the other books in the Minotaur Trilogy: I've had them on my shelves for some years but only recently found this, the first volume. As the first in the trilogy was the last written, it will be interesting to see how the styles contrast. . show less

I know I read this book but years later I have no memory of its contents, which says something.