The Cockatrice Boys
By Joan Aiken
Tor Books, $20.95
ISBN 0312860560
Review by Larry Woods
Humor and grotesque imagination combine in The Cockatrice Boys by Joan Aiken. This wicked, whimsical fantasy tale is about evil monsters called Cockatrices as well as Basilisks and
Snarks that invade the British Isles as the result of a hole in the ozone layer. The monsters constantly multiply and are ravenously hungry and have laid waste to the countryside. The people of the city of Manchester are starving, and so the Cockatrice Corps, a brave group of volunteers, journey by armored train, the Cockatrice Belle, to bring food and supplies to Manchester. In this first adult novel by acclaimed British children's author Joan Aiken, the heroes are a drummer boy named Dakin Prestwich and his cousin Sauna who first discover the monsters, then help the volunteers deliver supplies to Manchester, and then search for the source of these problems. While labeled an adult fantasy novel, this entertaining account of a journey through battle, threats, and destruction is more of a young adult book, but then who can resist a novel based on the concept of serpents with deadly gazes that hatch from a rooster's egg?
Larry D. Woods, an attorney, is an avid collector of science fiction.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.
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