The Flight of Michael McBride

by Midori Snyder

Growing up as the sheltered son of wealthy Irish Americans, Michael McBride is forced to run for his life when a deadly secret about his family is revealed. The young man must confront the forces of magic in the wilds of the New World.

Genres: Fantasy, Westerns, Fairies, Weird West, Fae

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Midori Snyder is the author of eight books for children and adults, published in English, French, and Dutch. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition. Other novels include The Flight of Michael McBride (a mythic western), Soulstring (a lyrical fairy tale), The Oran Trilogy: New Moon, Sadar's Keep, and Beldan's Fire (imaginary-world fantasy, recently re-published in Vikings's Firebird line), and Hannah's Garden (a contemporary faery novel for young adults). Except the Queen, a novel written in collaboration with Jane Yolen is forthcoming in 2010.

Her short stories have appeared in numerous venues including the The Armless Maiden; Black Thorn, White Rose; Xanadu III; Swan Sister; Borderland; and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Recent stories have appeared in Young Adult anthologies, The Greenman, Tales From the Mythic Forest and Troll's Eye View, A Book of Villianous Tales. Her nonfiction has appeared in Realms of Fantasy and other magazines, and in essay collections including Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales.

In addition to writing, she co-directs The Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts with Terri Winding. She co-edited and designed the online Journal of Mythic Arts from 2003 - 2008; and she served as chairwoman on the judges' panel for the 2007 James Tiptree, Jr. Awards.

Midori currently lives in Arizona with her husband, Stephen Haessler.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman]

Emma Bull recommends this one, in her cool Weird Western essay "Home on the Strange"
https://www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/n...
"Urban fantasist Midori Snyder, a contributor to Terri Windling’s Bordertown anthologies, wrote The Flight of Michael McBride (1994, Tor Books). Michael, like so many other young men in trouble in the 19th century, leaves his Eastern home and flees to the Wild West. But his trouble is a faerie-folk vendetta, and the skill he brings with him isn’t gun handling. Along the way he meets a select handful of historical characters, including a cameo by Poker Alice, a Dakota Territory favorite of mine."

Poker Alice! Now, does our library system have a copy? YES!

Well. Absolutely terrible opening chapters, on the death of the MCs mother, and his terrible father. And the griim place he's living. I skimmed ahead: no better. This one looks hopeless. Back to the library it goes! Oh, well.

[Joey Brockert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. McBride was born into a very dysfunctional family. His Father did not talk to his Mother, ever. His Mom loved him and told him stories of Ireland and fairies. His Dad played Chess with him but not much else. As it happens, his Mom died, but before she did, she gave him an odd parting present: some ointment in his left eye. Then, once she died, things changed very rapidly for Micheal. He was beaten and chased and afraid for his life, though there was no rhyme or reason for any of it that he could figure out.
He had enough money to ride the train to Chicago/ On the train he met a female gambler who taught him poker, told his fortune with the cards, gave him some money to go further, so his flight began.
It turns out to be a pretty good story. It is hard to write anymore of it because some of the interest is in learning as Micheal learns. There are no great secrets of life or wondrous thoughts revealed, just good entertainment.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great fusion of the historical west and fairy tale fantasy. I could tell it was one of the author's earlier books, though--it was a pretty linear, uncomplicated plot and I wanted a little bit more than I got. We'll see how her next book, The Innamorati, compares.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantasy/faerie story that takes place in the Old West - don't see many of those!

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

An author I read years ago, with another little series... remembered liking them very much and was intrigued by the idea of a fantasy novel of the American West.... I'll let you know...

Alrighty then.... a very different sort of fantasy... fun reading about the old west along with the Sidhe and Mexican bits of fairy. Enjoyable read with a delightful ending. Five out of five for this one Ms. Snyder!

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

An exciting premise and a poor execution in almost every way.

To be fair, this book is episodic and likely takes that format as an attempt to mirror the mythology features throughout, and I am not typically a fan of such stories. There’s just not enough character through-threads.

The book also lost major points for damn near constant use of “git” and “jest.” Writin’ laik this too much ain’t makin’ yer book charmin’, lil missus. It’s plum er-tatin’.

The cattle drive was definitely the best portion of the story, so much that it should have been the entirety of it. And I say that as someone who is not typically a fan of Westerns. This should have been the vast majority of the book, and I feel robbed that it wasn’t.

There’s a lot that was good about the book, though: most of the writing itself was pleasant and engaging, and Snyder did very well with most of the action and horror sequences.

At its core, this novel has a lot of heart, and many scenes were incredible. But the problem is that only some scenes were great. Those few excellent scenes “jest” couldn’t make up for the problematic pacing nor the anticlimactic ending. Also, at the end there’s such an avalanche of Irish folk names that you’d have to already know everything about them to understand what’s happening. It’s “jest” literal name-dropping to prove the author knows her mythology.

Note: in my copy, there’s about 30 pages missing at page 90, and then after page 146, the pages restarted at 123. That’s the record for the most fucked up binding error I’ve ever seen, but I’m not detracting points for that. Instead, I am recycling the book as I refuse to pass the burden on. That’s a fitting end for all books, I’d say, especially those so unfortunately misprinted. And it could’ve been worse; if I saw “jest” one more instance of the word “flight” used in a poorly veiled innuendo, I was going to burn the fucking thing.

[Akintunde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snyder's attempt at a fusion of western fiction and fantasy works just fine. The book didn't give much in terms of plot twists and suspense.
It was a line the reader had to tow alongside the protagonist, Michael Mcbride, with the story unraveling as Michael's journey from his home in New York into the American West takes flight.

Michael Mcbride, the son of a mortal man and a fairy mother, was given the power of supernatural sight and magic. His father had won his mother from her fairy husband, Red Cap, a god of death and darkness. With this triumph, James Mcbride brought a curse upon himself and his lovely fairy wife.

Now, Michael is being hunted by Red Cap for the gift of sight and magic his dying mother had bestowed upon him. Filled with magical creatures, the flight of Michael Mcbride is a book filled with mild adventure, unassuming romance, and a clear and simple plot.

[Lara Dickens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weird read. The mourning of his mother makes the start of the story so slow but the train journey, the card playing, the working as a cowboy were interesting.The deaths were mean but it was the right move to leave the drive and then time as a crow followed by finally getting laid, an idillic life with a partner and love interest who is quirky and strong. Finally facing his demons coming up with a plan. I liked that she pointed out it wasn’t fair he’d not been told.

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snyder does an incredible job of combining Celtic, American Indian, and Mexican myths and cultures in this fantasy western. The narrative complexity Snyder displays in The Innamorati is missing, which might not be as noticeable if the pacing was more even. Those are only minor complaints, though, and this is a fun novel from a talented and highly imaginative author.

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather interesting fantasy and western combination. Young man's mother dies and he finds out he's half Fae. Both parents have a geas against telling him this, so he never knew and now he's being hunted. A rather fast-paced, interesting read!

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure that this is the only western/fantasy I've ever read, and I really like the way it blended.

[The Fairy Godmother]

A tale of a man from the Unseelie court of Faerie.