Cloven Hooves
AuthorMegan Lindholm
Cover artistRichard Bober
CountryUnited States
GenreFantasy
PublisherBantam Spectra
Publication date
1991
ISBN0-553-29327-3

Cloven Hooves is a 1991 fantasy novel by Megan Lindholm, published in the US by Bantam Spectra. UK and French editions have also been released.[1][2] The book went out of print in the US, where it was unavailable for nearly thirty years before a Voyager Classics edition was issued in 2019.[3]

Synopsis

The story follows a woman named Evelyn as her imaginary childhood companion, a faun called Pan, makes a real-world appearance in the midst of a crisis in her adult life.

Reception

Critic Don D'Ammassa considered it the best work written under the author's Lindholm byline.[4] In 1992 author Orson Scott Card, writing in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, described the story as passionately written and having a quality of "mythic resonance", while finding its structure awkward. He concluded: "you must experience it, if only to feel again the hard, driving pulse of raw storytelling that is so commonly drained out of more traditional, predictable tales".[5] In a review of the French edition, Le Monde described it as "a singular and moving novel that is a magnificent ode to Mother Nature",[2] and as a "major work" of the author.[6] A 1996 reference work was less positive and found the book "at times, quite tedious".[1]

Several reviewers felt that Cloven Hooves was semi-autobiographical, seeing resemblances between Evelyn's childhood in the Alaskan wilderness and the author's own life.[6][7][8] Lindholm said she had been frequently asked about this and replied, "No more so than any of my books".[9]

References

  1. 1 2 Holliday, Liz; Morgan, Chris (1996). "Lindholm, Megan". In Pringle, David (ed.). St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers. St. James Press. pp. 364–365. ISBN 978-1-55862-205-0.
  2. 1 2 Baudou, Jacques (November 4, 2004). "Le Soudain Succès de Megan Lindholm" [The Sudden Success of Megan Lindholm]. Le Monde (in French). p. 6. ProQuest 2518409372. ... un roman singulier et émouvant qui est une ode magnifique à Mère Nature.
  3. ↑ O'Neill, John (January 22, 2020). "Vintage Treasures: Cloven Hooves by Megan Lindholm". Black Gate.
  4. ↑ D'Ammassa, Don (2006). Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. Infobase Publishing. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-8160-6192-1.
  5. ↑ Card, Orson Scott (April 1992). "Books to Look For". The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Vol. 82, no. 4. pp. 22–24.
  6. 1 2 Baudou, Jacques (April 13, 2007). "Les Fantômes de l'Enfance" [Ghosts of Childhood]. Le Monde (in French). p. 10. ProQuest 2514061688. ...oeuvre majeure.
  7. ↑ Fraser, Alan (February–March 1994). "Megan Lindholm. Cloven Hooves" (PDF). Vector. No. 177. p. 37.
  8. ↑ Todds, Georges T. (November 2002). "Cloven Hooves. Megan Lindholm". SF Site.
  9. ↑ "Megan Lindholm's Novels". Megan Lindholm (personal website). Archived from the original on April 30, 2008.
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