Description:
Hackers, Faeries, Nefarious Cloven-Hooved Bimbos
Jack and Rosie need a vacation. They’ve spent years fighting the malicious fae, befriending the friendly ones, and dancing on the edge of getting eaten. Now their chaotic fae friend Calthine has made them famous for it. In search of a break, they skip town for rural Vermont, where they hope to pick some apples and wait for the spotlight Calthine put on them to dim.
Instead, they get tipped from their relaxing getaway directly into Underhill, where fae run wild and humans are an invasive species. The flow of time seems to have gone crooked on them. Lassie, their brownie roommate, is lost in the woods. They try to find her and escape from Underhill only to learn that the fae are forbidden to help them by order of the Faerie Queen. Instead of Jack and Rosie finding a way out, their friends Zelda and Sarah find a way in…but in Underhill, away from all the technology that has helped them survive, it’s a handful of humans against the preternatural wilderness…
My Take:
From the first page of PHAETHON to the last page of PHANTASMA, I have enjoyed the Phaethon Series. It’s a fundamentally different take on traditional faerie fantasy at many levels. First, the characters are diverse, inclusive, and relatable – even more so because the story expands the myriad possibilities of direct interactions between faeries and humans. Faeries are not all cute and playful as other stories told to us in childhood might have led us to believe. In fact, most fae are hostile toward humans and have historically only given people room in the world we share begrudgingly. Throughout the series, the iron faeries are the least tolerant and dare I say most evil. Though in each of the books they appear to have been dealt with once and for all, there just never seems to be an end to their kind or their plans to rid the world of humankind.
In Phaethon, book one of the trilogy, a high-tech smartphone company appears on the radar of Jack and Rosie, a savvy hacker couple. Because of the manufacturer’s outrageous claims of impossible features well beyond the cutting edge of the competition, they set out to get their hands on one of the marvelous phones to take it apart and figure it out. Once inside, what they discover is an exotic power source, an enslaved brownie. Just wait, the story takes off from there.
And if Phaethon wasn’t dark enough with its sarcastic humor, Pharos, book two of the series, finds our intrepid hackers under direct attack, seemingly from every fae imaginable. They are flown at high speed only to be dumped into the ocean and saved by mermaid-like selkies, one of whom falls in love with Zelda, Jack and Rosie’s psychobilly actress/next-door neighbor. Did you expect anything less than pandemonium?
So, we have come to the grand finale, Phantasma. What kind of conclusion does Rachel Sharp have in mind? She has set a high bar for herself in pushing the envelope of creativity. And, without revealing any spoilers for this delightful capstone, what she delivers is a master class in going for the extremes of possibilities with a completely unexpected twist at the end.
The book is set in rural Vermont, likely somewhere near where Sharp now calls home. Jack and Rosie escape for a respite from press harassment after one of the recurring and perhaps most annoying characters, a raccoon-like bogle named Calthine, has outed them on national network television for their knowledge of and interactions with fae of all kinds. But instead of finding rest and relaxation, they meet up with a nefarious fawn-like fae who has been instructed by the Fae Queen to bring them to Underhill, the clandestine kingdom of all fae-kind. What ensues is something between utter chaos and suspenseful adventure seasoned with the characteristic snarky humor we’ve come to expect from the series.
Although as a story Phantasma stands alone well, I highly recommend strapping in and starting at the beginning to enjoy every word of this trilogy in release order. There is special pricing on the first two books of the series (Kindle version) making the ticket for your full exploration of this fantastic world under $8 US.
Print book is available (6.21.23)
eBook (Kindle) launches 6.28.23
About the Author:
After a decade of touring the country, Rachel Sharp now lives in Vermont with several plants and her questionable sense of humor.
At the time of writing, she is working on entirely too many projects. The previous statement will be true regardless of the time of reading.
She also lives with chronic illness, plays ukulele, and tries to save the planet.
The One & Only Elgon 