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The Kingdom of Kevin Malone
To escape the abuse of his now-dead father, Kevin Malone has created his own magical world, the Fayre Farre, and he is Prince Kavian. Amy, a former classmate, arrives in the final days before the epic battle between Prince Kavian and his nemesis.
272 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1993
76 people want to read
About the author
Suzy McKee Charnas
73 books110 followersSuzy McKee Charnas, a native New Yorker raised and educated in Manhattan, surfaced as an author with WALK TO THE END OF THE WORLD (1974), a no-punches-pulled feminist SF novel and Campbell award finalist. The three further books that sprang from WALK (comprising a futurist, feminist epic about how people make history and create myth) closed in 1999 with THE CONQUEROR’S CHILD, a Tiptree winner (as is the series in its entirety).
Meanwhile, she taught for two years in Nigeria with the Peace Corps, married, and moved to New Mexico, where she has lived, taught, and written fiction and non-fiction for forty five years. She teaches SF from time to time, and travels every year to genre conventions around the country and (occasionally) around the world.
Her varied SF and fantasy works have also won the Hugo award, the Nebula award, the Gigamesh Award (Spain), and the Mythopoeic award for Young-Adult fantasy. A play based on her novel THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY has been staged on both coasts. STAGESTRUCK VAMPIRES (Tachyon Books) collects her best short fiction, plus essays on writing feminist SF and on seeing her play script first become a professionally staged drama in San Francisco. Currently, she’s working at getting all of her work out in e-book, audio, and other formats, and moving several decades’ worth of manuscripts, correspondence, etc. out of a slightly leaky garage and sent off to be archived at the University of Oregon Special Collections. She has two cats and a gentleman boarder (also a cat), good friends and colleagues, ideas for new work, and travel plans for the future.
Meanwhile, she taught for two years in Nigeria with the Peace Corps, married, and moved to New Mexico, where she has lived, taught, and written fiction and non-fiction for forty five years. She teaches SF from time to time, and travels every year to genre conventions around the country and (occasionally) around the world.
Her varied SF and fantasy works have also won the Hugo award, the Nebula award, the Gigamesh Award (Spain), and the Mythopoeic award for Young-Adult fantasy. A play based on her novel THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY has been staged on both coasts. STAGESTRUCK VAMPIRES (Tachyon Books) collects her best short fiction, plus essays on writing feminist SF and on seeing her play script first become a professionally staged drama in San Francisco. Currently, she’s working at getting all of her work out in e-book, audio, and other formats, and moving several decades’ worth of manuscripts, correspondence, etc. out of a slightly leaky garage and sent off to be archived at the University of Oregon Special Collections. She has two cats and a gentleman boarder (also a cat), good friends and colleagues, ideas for new work, and travel plans for the future.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 19, 2018
Suzy McKee Charnas is better known for her adult fiction and non-fiction (she is the author of The Verbal Art of Self-Defense). I picked this book up for a buck and thought, what could I lose?
The better question may have been, for a buck, what could I gain? That’s not to say that this novel is bad. Charnas is too much of a professional to have written a bad book. And there are some little twists to the genre that she nicely pulls off. But, on the whole, it’s rather unimaginative.
The protagonist is a girl whose favorite aunt has just died, and she’s quite bummed about it. So when she finds herself slipping into another world from Central Park, she is skeptical–especially since the hero of this other world is Kevin Malone, a bully who used to pick on her.
As I said, not a bad book. There’s your typical walking skeletons, and the little people, and the quests. But there’s also a more gritty, personal nature to the protagonist. I’m not sure it is altogether successful, but it was at least interesting.
The better question may have been, for a buck, what could I gain? That’s not to say that this novel is bad. Charnas is too much of a professional to have written a bad book. And there are some little twists to the genre that she nicely pulls off. But, on the whole, it’s rather unimaginative.
The protagonist is a girl whose favorite aunt has just died, and she’s quite bummed about it. So when she finds herself slipping into another world from Central Park, she is skeptical–especially since the hero of this other world is Kevin Malone, a bully who used to pick on her.
As I said, not a bad book. There’s your typical walking skeletons, and the little people, and the quests. But there’s also a more gritty, personal nature to the protagonist. I’m not sure it is altogether successful, but it was at least interesting.
August 22, 2017
3.5 stars. A book for young teens set in New York. It is kind of a cross between fantasy and the more realistic social problem novels of Zindel or Bloom. I got a little kick out of the mousie "moorims". Also the importance placed on a PursePet (a bag shaped like a stuffed animal). It seemed to me that Charnas really captured something about imaginative play with that--how one's puppy shaped handbag can become a vital tool in a parallel fantasy world.
December 31, 2017
I was torn between enjoying the characters knowing about the fantasy trope and being frustrated by it. interesting concept.
April 12, 2013
Amy, brooding on a family crisis, retreats to Central Park-from the frying pan straight into the fire! Out of her past swoops her old arch-enemy Kevin Malone, the neighborhood punk who used to bully her. Angrily chasing him now through an arched passage under a park roadway, she emerges into another world. Kevin's feverish imagination has transformed Central Park into the Fayre Farre, a land of danger, magic, and heroic adventure. Here, among castles, elves, monsters, wild men, battles, and prophecies, Kevin is a Prince and a legendary champion. He's also still a self-centered jerk with a chip on his shoulder, and he's lost control of his magnificent creation: chaos and destruction are sweeping the land. Despite Kevin's bravado, Amy sees that he desperately needs her help.
Amy is drawn into a dangerous and disturbing fantasy world.
June 17, 2019
I really loved this book as a kid. It was one of just a few I had that lived at my dad's house, but I read it over and over and over again not because of book scarcity but because I loved it. I'm not sure where my copy went, but I recently tracked it down on Amazon and got a replacement. I'd say it holds up really well. There are some structural/craft of writing things that I wish had been done slightly differently (particularly the last couple pages at the end) that I'd knock half a star off for if I could give a 4.5 star rating, but the story is engaging and interesting enough that I'll round up.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews