Review - Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde, 3)

Heather Fawcett
Orbit, 11 February 2025
Available as: HB, 368, audio, e   
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(HB): 9780356519197

I'm grateful to Orbit for giving me access to an advance e-copy of Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales to consider for review.

"Stories shape the realms and the actions of those who dwell there. Some of those stories are known to mortals." - Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales.

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales begins just where Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands finishes, with Emily (Cambridge's foremost dryadolgist) and Wendell about to step through the magic door that will lead them from our world to Wendell's, so that he can reclaim his fairy kingdom. Emily's irritating colleague Wendell is, we have learned, in reality and exiled fairy prince who has been searching for a way back so that he can challenge his stepmother for the throne.

This story is, then, rather different from the previous two because it's less Emily trying to solve a mystery in the course of her research than a deliberate and planned incursion (even if Emily's diary and reporting style are reminiscent of an academic field trip - you can take the woman out of Cambridge, but...)

Or so it would seem. In fact, once the two set foot in Wendell's kingdom, their troubles have only begun. It's less the battle for the throne, more the elusive and downright sulky nature of the kingdom itself. Oh, and the curse that his stepmother has laid upon it...

And that does take us closer to the earlier books, which might be oversimplifiedlified as Emily drawing on her knowledge of fairy lore to solve a situation. In Compendium of Lost Tales, it's a brutal one, the kingdom is dying, how will it be saved? Wendell has an answer, but his solution is likely to cost Emily everything. can she find, as it were, a loophole in the contract? Surrounded by shifty fae, whose loyalty and friendships change like the clouds on a windy day, and with Shadow also ailing, it's a tough challenge.

I enjoyed this book the most of the three Emily Wilde stories. Until now, the fairy kingdoms have only been visited briefly, events being seen through human eyes from our world. While Emily's and Wendell's strong central characters have dominated, the human angle has distracted - I kept trying to pick apart the differences between Fawcett's Earth and our own, and to locate her Cambridge and Emily's and Wendell's society in relation to our own. That isn't really the point of the books, I think. In contrast the full blown engagement with fairyland in this third book rather frees the imagination to engage with the tricksy business of fairy magic, fate and Wendell's complicated family relationships. It also brings a slew of fascinating new characters who I enjoyed meeting.

Great fun, and a fine ending to this brilliant series. 

For more information about Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, see the publisher's website here.