'The Accidental Highwayman' seamlessly blends teen romance, history, and fantasy

Fans of William Goldman's 'The Princess Bride': This is a book for you!

The Accidental Highwayman: Being the Tale of Kit Bristol, His Horse Midnight, a Mysterious Princess, and Sundry Magical Persons Besides by Ben Tripp Tom Doherty Associates 304 pp.

First things first: You’ll want to know the full title of The Accidental Highwayman, Ben Tripp’s glorious foray into young adult literature:

“The Accidental Highwayman, Being the Tale of Kit Bristol, His Horse Midnight, a Mysterious Princess, and Sundry Magical Persons Besides.” It’s such a tidy introduction to a book’s style, humor, and characters, laid out before you even crack the cover.

Second things second: I adored it.

On the face of it, the concept is ridiculous. We begin with a young servant lad, and end with a lovesick hero contractually locked in a multidimensional fantasy battle to save his girl and his country from a power-hungry fairy king.

Cue record scratch, right? You’re thinking, “It can’t be done!” But that’s where you’re wrong and Tripp is oh-so-right. His finesse turns an audacious idea into a balanced, delightful tale that I can’t recommend highly enough.

Christopher “Kit” Bristol is the sole servant to a shabby if respectable country gentleman in 18th-century England. Unbeknownst to Kit, his master masquerades by night as notorious highwayman Whistlin’ Jack. One night Kit finds him mortally wounded and pursued by an angry redcoat army, and he attempts to run for help.

In so doing, Kit assumes the persona of Whistlin’ Jack, unwittingly signing himself up to complete his master’s last mission. Little does he realize, he just jumped feet first into a world of magic, danger, and revolution.

His task is to rescue the fairy princess Morgana from her corrupt father. The king, dreaming of global domination, plans to merge the human and fairy realms by marrying Morgana off to a human. His scheme ignites a bitter civil war with Morgana at the heart.

Morgana is a nuanced and intriguing character, torn between waning respect for her father and devotion to her people. As a fairy princess, she has the requisite beauty (long hair, enchanting eyes), but that’s as far as the trope extends.

Tripp’s vision of Morgana was clear. He said, “I wanted to give the young people a proper princess to get to know – not one of those sparkling ball gown debutantes waiting for Mr. Right, not a tangle-haired tomboy rejecting her femininity.... I wanted to meet somebody with spirit and independence, but meshed in on every side by customs and tradition. A girl who doesn’t necessarily know what she wants or how to get it, but who knows she must shake things up if she’s going to find out.”

Kit and Morgana’s relationship is my favorite part. Poor Kit – he’s a down-to-earth boy in love with a magical creature, bungling every conversation and missing every opportunity. I couldn’t stop laughing at their missed signals, thinking of my own experiences at that age.

You see, teenage girls parse every blink, nod, and stutter for deeper meaning, hoping to draw great romantic conclusions from something as trivial as a loaned pen. Teenage boys just blindly hand over the pen with no concept of the Petrarchan sonnet it has become. Both sides are lashed to the prow of raging hormones, discovering the opposite sex for the first time with no clue how to communicate. It’s what Kit and Morgana are going through, only with supernatural complications.

Tripp (who is also the author of adult horror novels "Rise Again" and Rise Again: Below Zero") achieves a beautiful balance throughout the whole of "The Accidental Highwayman," conquering two tough plot concerns with poise: 1) the introduction of many characters to create a hodgepodge traveling party, and 2) the explanation of lore through fantasy lingo. If done poorly, the reader ends up feeling awash in unnecessary characters and adrift in a sea of vocabulary.

“The Accidental Highwayman” is free of such baggage, and it makes for a snug, streamlined read. Tripp’s skillful writing gives readers a sense of logic in a seemingly preposterous blend of fantasy elements.

This is a book for fans of William Goldman’s “The Princess Bride” or L.A. Meyer’s “Jacky Faber” series, readers who enjoy fantasy hijinks, and anyone looking for a buoyant good tale. It's a rip-roaring, adorable read!

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'The Accidental Highwayman' seamlessly blends teen romance, history, and fantasy
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2014/1211/The-Accidental-Highwayman-seamlessly-blends-teen-romance-history-and-fantasy
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe