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At Amberleaf Fair
At the last fair of the season, the toymaker Torin proposes to the beautiful sorceress Sharys, and watches his world shatter. Sharys refuses his marriage token because she has just accepted the proposal of his best friend, the adventurer Valdart. Torin's brother falls suddenly and mysteriously ill, and hovers at the brink of death. Valdart's valuable marriage token is turned into a citron fruit, and he accuses Torin, an ex-magician, of enchanting the necklace to stop his marriage to Torin's beloved. And Torin, who may have created magic in his dreams, doesn't know whether or not he changed Valdart's gift in his sleep.
184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
9 people are currently reading
335 people want to read
About the author
Phyllis Ann Karr
129 books31 followersPhyllis Ann Karr is an author of fantasy, romances, mysteries, and non-fiction. She is best known for her "Frostflower and Thorn" series and Matter of Britain works.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
August 30, 2024
Jo Walton has a column at Tor on Comfort Reads, https://www.tor.com/2020/03/20/books-... and she lists this one:
"And now, my one actual real solid in-genre example of a book where nothing bad happens!
Phyllis Ann Karr’s At Amberleaf Fair is about a far future where people have evolved to be nicer, and there’s a fair, and a woodcarver who can make toys come to life, and there is sex and love and nothing bad happens and everything is all right. It’s gentle and delightful and I genuinely really like this odd sweet little book, and unless I’m forgetting something I don’t think anything bad happens at all."
Her review is the one that led me to read this. The book actually dates back to 1986, and I'd never even heard of the author. Why I pay attention to Jo Walton's stuff at Tor!
This one starts out so slowly that I set it aside for several days. Yesterday I was bogging down in a massive History of Biology book. Looking for light relief, I returned to this one, and soon was under its spell. It's not particularly inspired world-building -- but the little mysteries kept luring me on, and it ends very sweetly. A solid 4-star read for me, and a fine example of a cozy fantasy mystery-romance. Bravo!
I liked Larou's deep analysis of this oddball but very appealing story:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"And now, my one actual real solid in-genre example of a book where nothing bad happens!
Phyllis Ann Karr’s At Amberleaf Fair is about a far future where people have evolved to be nicer, and there’s a fair, and a woodcarver who can make toys come to life, and there is sex and love and nothing bad happens and everything is all right. It’s gentle and delightful and I genuinely really like this odd sweet little book, and unless I’m forgetting something I don’t think anything bad happens at all."
Her review is the one that led me to read this. The book actually dates back to 1986, and I'd never even heard of the author. Why I pay attention to Jo Walton's stuff at Tor!
This one starts out so slowly that I set it aside for several days. Yesterday I was bogging down in a massive History of Biology book. Looking for light relief, I returned to this one, and soon was under its spell. It's not particularly inspired world-building -- but the little mysteries kept luring me on, and it ends very sweetly. A solid 4-star read for me, and a fine example of a cozy fantasy mystery-romance. Bravo!
I liked Larou's deep analysis of this oddball but very appealing story:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Read
February 4, 2020This is not your average Fantasy novel: At Amberleaf Fair contains no Chosen One and no Dark Lord, no swords and only very little sorcery, no battles are waged and no duels fought, no heroes show up and no villains, in fact there is barely any conflict at all, it takes place in a peaceful world among mostly happy people and there is far and wide no sign of that staple of fantasy novel structuring, the travelogue. In short, this brief novel is about both as un-Epic and as un-Grimdark as it gets and reads more like a cozy mystery (except there is no murder either) than a Fantasy novel.
It belongs to a small Fantasy sub-genre which Jo Walton (who wrote an outstanding contribution to it with her novel Lifelode) calls “Domestic Fantasy.” Personally, I’d prefer to see it named “Idyllic Fantasy” instead, because this hints at a somewhat wider range than just home and hearth and also ties it back into a literary tradition going back to Ancient Greece.
At Amberleaf Fair is told from the perspectives of three characters: Torin the toymaker, Dylis the storyteller and Alrathe the Judge and its plot (which is minimal and very reminiscent of a mystery novel) revolves around a necklace whose theft Alrathe is tasked with investigating, with Torin being the prime suspect in the theft; tied up with that are decisions Torin has to make regarding his professional and romantic future. All of this takes place at and during the title-giving fair, so that the novel sticks pretty close to the three Aristotelian unities of time, place and action – in fact one can easily imagine it as a stage play.
Nothing much happens during At Amberleaf Fair – Alrathe investigates, Torin dithers and Dylis does her best to be supportive – and yet there is never a boring moment throughout the novel. Admittedly, that is at least partially due to it being quite short and hence not outstaying its welcome – as a general rule and with proper allowance made for the occasional exception, Idyllic Fantasy seems to work best in story or novella format, and stories belonging to that sub-genre feature quite frequently in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
I think, however, it that it is not just or even chiefly its brevity which makes At Amberleaf Fair such a pleasant read, but that this owes even more to the way Phyllis Ann Karr weaves her tale – the way she keeps the mystery going at a slow but steady pace and thus pulls the reader along, keeping their interest up even through an almost total lack of plot; and the way she paints her characters. In fact, it are precisely the character which make this novel so engaging – in keeping with the idyllic setting most of them are sympathetic – one or two are somewhat unlikable but there is nobody even faintly resembling a villain here. And – I think more important for what the novel and the genre it belongs to set out to do – they are all immensely relatable. We encounter what are basically a bunch of normal people in slightly uncommon circumstances…. okay, in quite uncommon circumstances, what with magic and a Fantasy setting and all that. But the point which At Amberleaf Fair and possibly the whole sub-genre of Idyllic Fantasy is trying bring across (in my opinion, at least) is basically that people will be people and that human nature will assert itself and remain more or less the same no matter how strange and alien the surroundings it finds itself placed in. One does not have to agree with this point (and I for my part am not at all certain I do) but if its made as entertainingly and appealingly as in At Amberleaf Fair it is hard to find issue with it.
It belongs to a small Fantasy sub-genre which Jo Walton (who wrote an outstanding contribution to it with her novel Lifelode) calls “Domestic Fantasy.” Personally, I’d prefer to see it named “Idyllic Fantasy” instead, because this hints at a somewhat wider range than just home and hearth and also ties it back into a literary tradition going back to Ancient Greece.
At Amberleaf Fair is told from the perspectives of three characters: Torin the toymaker, Dylis the storyteller and Alrathe the Judge and its plot (which is minimal and very reminiscent of a mystery novel) revolves around a necklace whose theft Alrathe is tasked with investigating, with Torin being the prime suspect in the theft; tied up with that are decisions Torin has to make regarding his professional and romantic future. All of this takes place at and during the title-giving fair, so that the novel sticks pretty close to the three Aristotelian unities of time, place and action – in fact one can easily imagine it as a stage play.
Nothing much happens during At Amberleaf Fair – Alrathe investigates, Torin dithers and Dylis does her best to be supportive – and yet there is never a boring moment throughout the novel. Admittedly, that is at least partially due to it being quite short and hence not outstaying its welcome – as a general rule and with proper allowance made for the occasional exception, Idyllic Fantasy seems to work best in story or novella format, and stories belonging to that sub-genre feature quite frequently in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
I think, however, it that it is not just or even chiefly its brevity which makes At Amberleaf Fair such a pleasant read, but that this owes even more to the way Phyllis Ann Karr weaves her tale – the way she keeps the mystery going at a slow but steady pace and thus pulls the reader along, keeping their interest up even through an almost total lack of plot; and the way she paints her characters. In fact, it are precisely the character which make this novel so engaging – in keeping with the idyllic setting most of them are sympathetic – one or two are somewhat unlikable but there is nobody even faintly resembling a villain here. And – I think more important for what the novel and the genre it belongs to set out to do – they are all immensely relatable. We encounter what are basically a bunch of normal people in slightly uncommon circumstances…. okay, in quite uncommon circumstances, what with magic and a Fantasy setting and all that. But the point which At Amberleaf Fair and possibly the whole sub-genre of Idyllic Fantasy is trying bring across (in my opinion, at least) is basically that people will be people and that human nature will assert itself and remain more or less the same no matter how strange and alien the surroundings it finds itself placed in. One does not have to agree with this point (and I for my part am not at all certain I do) but if its made as entertainingly and appealingly as in At Amberleaf Fair it is hard to find issue with it.
May 22, 2023
This is a strange little gem of a book that I first read in the mid-80s when it was closer to new and I was a 5th or 6th grader hungry for anything fantasy that I could find. Back then I loved it for the cover, for the poem on the back that I memorised (and still have memorised to this day), and for the setting of the fair, which reminded me of a Renaissance-style fair in my hometown which was at that time the highlight of my year.
Rereading it as an adult I am struck by how odd of a novel it is for fantasy, especially at that time -- the plot is a gentle detective story, the focus is on the characters and their relationships, and while there is overt magic, that is not what the story is about -- it is fantasy because it is set in a world that is not our world, with different social structures and ways of doing things (some of which include magic) and expectations, and all of that is so neatly built into the story that there is something interesting and new on every single page, even when one of the protagonists is making breakfast or walking in the rain or trying to figure out if they've caught a cold. I would love to read many more books like this one, and I am certain I will read this one again and again in the years to come.
Rereading it as an adult I am struck by how odd of a novel it is for fantasy, especially at that time -- the plot is a gentle detective story, the focus is on the characters and their relationships, and while there is overt magic, that is not what the story is about -- it is fantasy because it is set in a world that is not our world, with different social structures and ways of doing things (some of which include magic) and expectations, and all of that is so neatly built into the story that there is something interesting and new on every single page, even when one of the protagonists is making breakfast or walking in the rain or trying to figure out if they've caught a cold. I would love to read many more books like this one, and I am certain I will read this one again and again in the years to come.
December 3, 2018
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
This is a relatively quiet fantasy with a spot of mystery and romance, with a rather fascinating world. I didn’t follow the economics entirely, but the magic, the metaphors, the people’s roles in lives — it was very clear that this was all set up with a great deal of thought and care. I didn’t absolutely love the characters — and I have no idea why Torin liked Valdart at all, or thought he wanted to marry Sharys — but some of the interplay was pretty good, and I enjoyed the fact that the gender of the judge was never mentioned at all.
If you read the author’s note, it’s obvious she envisioned it as our world, post-apocalypse and a lot of growing up for the species. In that light, it’s interesting to see what she thought would change and what she thought would stay the same, and why she thought that (for example, she thought that theft would continue to be a problem, largely because the idea of individual property was breaking down; I’m not sure that follows, since we have a pretty robust idea of individual property now and plenty of theft).
All in all, it’s not groundbreaking, but it works as a gentle read for a quiet evening.
This is a relatively quiet fantasy with a spot of mystery and romance, with a rather fascinating world. I didn’t follow the economics entirely, but the magic, the metaphors, the people’s roles in lives — it was very clear that this was all set up with a great deal of thought and care. I didn’t absolutely love the characters — and I have no idea why Torin liked Valdart at all, or thought he wanted to marry Sharys — but some of the interplay was pretty good, and I enjoyed the fact that the gender of the judge was never mentioned at all.
If you read the author’s note, it’s obvious she envisioned it as our world, post-apocalypse and a lot of growing up for the species. In that light, it’s interesting to see what she thought would change and what she thought would stay the same, and why she thought that (for example, she thought that theft would continue to be a problem, largely because the idea of individual property was breaking down; I’m not sure that follows, since we have a pretty robust idea of individual property now and plenty of theft).
All in all, it’s not groundbreaking, but it works as a gentle read for a quiet evening.
December 12, 2009
From the colorful James Warhola cover, this book entices you in. Karr weaves a gem of a tale, with a prose and style that stands out as not your ordinary fantasy world.
Here craft and trade and magery skills are honored with the payment of pebbles and stones, and honored with song instead of applause. We enter this world and find our protagonist contemplating marriage and offering for a girl that his best friend also desires.
Moments later, we find his brother stricken with what could be an adverse side effect of too much use of magic and desiring that the family traditions not die with him. Our hero is torn for he is a very good toymaker and an indifferent student of magic, though he had shown some success their in his youth.
Thus we have a world with some complexity in it for our story to take place. The story is all of 186 light and quick pages, but the imagery that we get along the way is fabulous, and well worth the investment. Sentences that have been well crafted have you reading them twice and three times to delve into their meaning, for the detail crammed into such few words is amazing. I had first read this book probably 20 years ago and encountering it in my library, wondered what it was about again. I am glad I reread it.
Here craft and trade and magery skills are honored with the payment of pebbles and stones, and honored with song instead of applause. We enter this world and find our protagonist contemplating marriage and offering for a girl that his best friend also desires.
Moments later, we find his brother stricken with what could be an adverse side effect of too much use of magic and desiring that the family traditions not die with him. Our hero is torn for he is a very good toymaker and an indifferent student of magic, though he had shown some success their in his youth.
Thus we have a world with some complexity in it for our story to take place. The story is all of 186 light and quick pages, but the imagery that we get along the way is fabulous, and well worth the investment. Sentences that have been well crafted have you reading them twice and three times to delve into their meaning, for the detail crammed into such few words is amazing. I had first read this book probably 20 years ago and encountering it in my library, wondered what it was about again. I am glad I reread it.
April 14, 2020
It gets an extra star for being a bit unusual and so pleasant.
The cover art is completely wrong, though. This is a post-science future with no armored knights, no castles, no pennants or flags for nations or fiefdoms, no wars, and hardly any fistfights.
This is a mystery plot in a fantasy-like setting, something I don't think I've read before. Yes, there are guilty parties, but the ending is more like the Shaker song where "`tis the gift to come down where we ought to be".
The cover art is completely wrong, though. This is a post-science future with no armored knights, no castles, no pennants or flags for nations or fiefdoms, no wars, and hardly any fistfights.
This is a mystery plot in a fantasy-like setting, something I don't think I've read before. Yes, there are guilty parties, but the ending is more like the Shaker song where "`tis the gift to come down where we ought to be".
January 6, 2012
This is a very strange book. Someone recommended it as a good example of "domestic fantasy" (though actually I think it may be science-fiction - there are hints that it's set in the far-future of our world), and I can see why; it's very understated, and set in a small tightly-knit gathering. Interesting, but. Yeah. Strange.
April 22, 2020
A nice, short, and very positive fantasy story.
November 15, 2022
This is a short novel but there is such depth to the world it contains. It is gentle and the characters are wonderfully drawn. The puzzles that drive the plot are not exactly difficult to solve for the reader though.
March 10, 2021
8/10
What a cute, sweet comfortable read full of cozy mystery and gracious people. I wouldn’t have picked this book if Jo hadn’t suggested it for book club, but I’m really glad to have read it. It was maybe just the perfect book for right now. Nothing bad happens. At all. The graciousness of the people in this society made me long for a time when people care about each other. The judging of the judge was exquisite, and I loved the justice system that was created. And the trades and how respected they were was heartwarming. People accepted criticism with greave and worked hard to not step on each other’s feet. Even without the magic, this world was magical. But it was small and comfortable and had magic, and I loved it.
What a cute, sweet comfortable read full of cozy mystery and gracious people. I wouldn’t have picked this book if Jo hadn’t suggested it for book club, but I’m really glad to have read it. It was maybe just the perfect book for right now. Nothing bad happens. At all. The graciousness of the people in this society made me long for a time when people care about each other. The judging of the judge was exquisite, and I loved the justice system that was created. And the trades and how respected they were was heartwarming. People accepted criticism with greave and worked hard to not step on each other’s feet. Even without the magic, this world was magical. But it was small and comfortable and had magic, and I loved it.
August 8, 2010
A fun book made more interesting by the fact that the gender of the protagonist is nowhere revealed.
March 7, 2023
The toymaker Torin has just had his marriage proposal rejected in favour of that from one of his best friends. His day gets worse, however, as his brother, Talmar, the High Wizard, falls ill, and then his friend's marriage token goes missing, and Torin is the prime suspect. He has to work to clear his name, all the while worrying about his brother, and his own future marriage prospects.
I really enjoyed this book - in the afterword, the author calls Torin's world "The Gentle World", and I very much agree with this characterisation. The whole book is really gentle - nothing really bad happens at all. People are still arrogant, proud and impetuous, but there seems to be no real malicious intent in any character.
It took me a while to get into the flow of it, but once you do, it's a pleasure to read. The narrative is split between Torin, the storyteller Dylis, and the judge Alrathe and it's it's fun to read to build up a picture of the world that the characters inhabit as they go about their lives. There were hints within the text that got me wondering, and again, the afterword confirmed that this is a far-future Earth, rather than secondary world fantasy, albeit one where Clarke's Third Law is in full swing.
A lot of the book is focussed on Torin's choice to break from generations of his family to be a toymaker, not a magic-monger. This decision is being tested by his brother's illness and Talmar's desire to have Torin come back into the "family business" if he dies. Torin spends a lot of the book agonising over this decision, of how he wants to spend his life, versus what others expect of him. That, not the theft, is the greatest intrigue for me, and I had great sympathy for his plight.
This is a good comfort book. It's got a gentle mystery, romance and everything is All Right In The End. Delightful.
I really enjoyed this book - in the afterword, the author calls Torin's world "The Gentle World", and I very much agree with this characterisation. The whole book is really gentle - nothing really bad happens at all. People are still arrogant, proud and impetuous, but there seems to be no real malicious intent in any character.
It took me a while to get into the flow of it, but once you do, it's a pleasure to read. The narrative is split between Torin, the storyteller Dylis, and the judge Alrathe and it's it's fun to read to build up a picture of the world that the characters inhabit as they go about their lives. There were hints within the text that got me wondering, and again, the afterword confirmed that this is a far-future Earth, rather than secondary world fantasy, albeit one where Clarke's Third Law is in full swing.
A lot of the book is focussed on Torin's choice to break from generations of his family to be a toymaker, not a magic-monger. This decision is being tested by his brother's illness and Talmar's desire to have Torin come back into the "family business" if he dies. Torin spends a lot of the book agonising over this decision, of how he wants to spend his life, versus what others expect of him. That, not the theft, is the greatest intrigue for me, and I had great sympathy for his plight.
This is a good comfort book. It's got a gentle mystery, romance and everything is All Right In The End. Delightful.
April 16, 2021
An absolutely delightful book. It is not a long tale, but that is not a bad thing. Length is sometimes confused with profundity. Let us beware this trap. But this book, a small book of under 200 pages (and the words are very big in my copy, so an extremely quick read!) was very worth the read. I don't quite remember who recommended this book to me, but I think I remember the person saying it was an encouraging read in which there are no real villains. That's pretty much true, but there is a bit more drama in this book than I was expecting! This book was published in 1986 and even though that's not that long ago, it almost has a quaint far-away feel to it. The story is set in a time and place that is unfamiliar to me. Hints of the post-apocalyptic, but now humanity has formed new societal norms and new ways to live. It is a very fascinating world the author has constructed, very solid and real. I was fascinated by each new detail the author unveiled. And yes, the story at the heart of this novel is simple, but I enjoyed the journey. This simple tale is mainly concerned with the interactions of people and their desires and longings. Yes, there is magic and there is an unfamiliar world bursting at the seams with intriguing details, but at the end of the day? The characters that inhabit this work are very familiar for they are us. Possibly the author has a slightly overly optimistic view of people's capacity to form a decent society on their own, but sometimes optimism is welcome. There are enough grim and dark tales in this world and I appreciate a book that has some sweetness and decency in it.
February 27, 2023
The first para was a bit confusing for me, since that kind of info is usually a blurb, prologue or a long chapter title/subtitle. It didn't help that two of the named characters started with the same letter.
After a few chapters and getting used the different POVs, I found the plot and worldbuilding very engaging. Especially since I enjoy low stakes and slice-of-life stories these days.
The multiple subplots resolved neatly at the end. I enjoyed the whodunnit part the most, especially the almost relaxed way in which it was handled by everybody involved. The culture and the magic system with builtin limitations were done well too.
Overall, I'd recommend this well written book to anybody looking for a low stakes and character focused fantasy.
After a few chapters and getting used the different POVs, I found the plot and worldbuilding very engaging. Especially since I enjoy low stakes and slice-of-life stories these days.
The multiple subplots resolved neatly at the end. I enjoyed the whodunnit part the most, especially the almost relaxed way in which it was handled by everybody involved. The culture and the magic system with builtin limitations were done well too.
Overall, I'd recommend this well written book to anybody looking for a low stakes and character focused fantasy.
February 8, 2021
My first DNF of the year at about 20 pages. This book has been described to me as 'charming,' but the style bored me and I didn't like any of the characters.
The main hero (age 35) described the woman he supposedly loved as 'you were just a child three years ago.' Which makes him either a creeper or a condescending fuck, and either way leads me to hate him. A romantic rival is happy that same girl from above might pick a different guy, not just because she wants Guy 1, but actively because Guy 2 would make a *worse* match for this girl. Which makes me hate her. Blaaaaagh. Pass. DNF.
The main hero (age 35) described the woman he supposedly loved as 'you were just a child three years ago.' Which makes him either a creeper or a condescending fuck, and either way leads me to hate him. A romantic rival is happy that same girl from above might pick a different guy, not just because she wants Guy 1, but actively because Guy 2 would make a *worse* match for this girl. Which makes me hate her. Blaaaaagh. Pass. DNF.
December 12, 2024
This is likely one of the earliest examples of cozy fantasy. The stakes are deliberately low, with little to no real peril. The plot revolves around a suspected theft at a fair, sparking an investigation that unfolds alongside an exploration of the characters’ relationships. A touch of magic weaves through the narrative, adding to its charm. The author aptly describes the setting as a “Gentle World,” perfectly capturing the book’s essence. If you’re in search of something truly cozy, this book is a great choice.
April 18, 2020
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2020/0...
I’ve been looking for nice gentle things to read, and this certainly fit the bill. It’s set in a far future world, very pastoral, at the titular fair. There are romantic rivalries and small mysteries (who stole a certain necklace) and everything works out just as it should. A/A-.
I’ve been looking for nice gentle things to read, and this certainly fit the bill. It’s set in a far future world, very pastoral, at the titular fair. There are romantic rivalries and small mysteries (who stole a certain necklace) and everything works out just as it should. A/A-.
July 25, 2021
A sweet, gentle, odd little book with a few mysteries, some romantic mixups, and a lovely fair with travelling merchants, storytellers and a magician (or is he really a toymaker?) who can make toys come to life. Full of little touches that gradually reveal a society that’s rather more askew from ours (or from generic European fantasy-land) than it first appears.
May 29, 2022
I bought a paperback copy of this book (first edition) from County Market (grocery store) in Pekin, Illinois - probably in December 1986. I enjoyed this book. I don't often read Fantasy, but the cover (same one on this edition) was interesting enough to lure me in. It was a fun book for an impulse buy.
abandoned
July 24, 2024I got a third of the way through this before getting fed up with the constantly changing names, ridiculous sentence length and convolution, and under-explained world building. I shouldn't still be confused this far into the book. Maybe this will be a better fit for folks who have a high tolerance for high fantasy, where these elements are more common.
November 19, 2020
Jo Walton described this book as one where nothing bad happened to anyone. I picked it up because I felt like that’s what I needed in 2020. It delivered. It’s a lovely world and more than any other fantasy novel, a world where I would want to live.
April 9, 2025
This is THE cozy fantasy book, written in the 80s! It features interesting worldbuilding, intricate relationships, a small-stakes whodunnit, collaborative efforts between people, and a truly egalitarian society. I think this is an author whose entire opus I’m going to read.
April 20, 2025
A wonderful world to visit with magic, entangled romances and mysteries. I never would have heard of this book if not for Jo Walton’s reading lists at Reactor. If you’re looking for a gentle fantasy, this fits the bill.
October 3, 2025
A snooze. And the mmc in particular is a total bore. (and he's 35 chasing a 19 year old girl who doesn't want him from what I could tell by almost 100 pages, where I DNF'd.) what a great cover though...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2020
A sweet, quiet little tale.
May 29, 2020
This was cute but difficult to read, in an almost physical sense.
November 19, 2022
This book was cute but I fell the magic system was to complicated for such a not really complicated book. But that is just me!
October 11, 2023
Began, DNF. Some clever notions, but it reads like poorly thought out fan fiction, at least in the first part I read. Maybe I’m giving up on a secret gem.
November 23, 2023
Most of the characters were introduced straight away which felt a little overwhelming. As we settle in with the main players it becomes an engaging little mystery. Lovely short read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews