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The Fetch
A young boy with amazing--and incredibly dangerous--psychokinetic powers is able to travel into the past and, with guidance from a shadowy spirit, return with artifacts of great value. But, unknown to him ir his family, each trip into the past brings him closer to a terrifying fate, a fate that only a psychic investigator may be able to change.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
11 people are currently reading
224 people want to read
About the author
Robert Holdstock
99 books397 followersRobert Paul Holdstock was an English novelist and author who is best known for his works of fantasy literature, predominantly in the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction.
Holdstock's writing was first published in 1968. His science fiction and fantasy works explore philosophical, psychological, anthropological, spiritual, and woodland themes. He has received three BSFA awards and won the World Fantasy Award in the category of Best Novel in 1985.
Pseudonyms are Chris Carlsen, Robert Faulcon,Robert Black, Steven Eisler and Richard Kirk.
Holdstock's writing was first published in 1968. His science fiction and fantasy works explore philosophical, psychological, anthropological, spiritual, and woodland themes. He has received three BSFA awards and won the World Fantasy Award in the category of Best Novel in 1985.
Pseudonyms are Chris Carlsen, Robert Faulcon,Robert Black, Steven Eisler and Richard Kirk.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
November 28, 2017
An interesting premise and a powerfully written novel drawing on the author's theme of other realities used elsewhere in his 'Mythago Wood' series. Here, the treatment is dark and concerns a haunting of a strange kind. Michael is adopted by parents who seem rather self-absorbed and cannot relate to him as he grows, possibly due to traumatic events occurring around him in the first days after they take him home from the clinic which has made a somewhat dubious arrangement. Inexplicably, dirt is thrown at him whenever he is left alone, and this climaxes in the first section of the book in near disaster. After relocating to a friends' house, things settle for a few years but eventually the adults realise Michael can 'fetch' things, and they eventually understand that these things are taken from the distant past.
The gift turns out to be a kind of curse. Despite the fact that tragedy attends it - that the fetching is a violent wrenching and often includes body parts of humans and animals - the parents start to look on their adopted son as a goldmine. Meanwhile, they transfer their parental affection to their own natural born daughter. Michael is a lonely boy, bullied at school, whose only 'friend' is an alter ego, Chalk Boy, whom he believes to be essential to his ability to fetch valuable items from the past. Chalk Boy is a fetch of another kind - a Trickster character in effect, from the old meaning of trick. He often torments Michael by switching things at the last moment so that what he brings back are rotting animals etc.
As years pass, the boy develops an obsession with the Grail which he believes he can find and recover - perhaps to win back his father's affection which is soon lost when his gift becomes less certain as he approaches puberty, and his father turns to drink.
There is some good character development though I found the father's transformation from an unpleasant drunken sott who landed the family in debt to a dubious and violent group of characters, into an abruptly reawakened repentent man who wants to rebuild his fractured relationship with Michael, less than convincing. The psychic French character Francoise is also rather a plot device. But Michael and his little sister Carol are well realised. The only aspect that becomes a bit repetitious after a while are the graphic descriptions of the aftermath of violent dismemberment which attend Michael's forays into the past. Also, the explanation for what lies behind his psychic abilities and experience is a little 'pat' for me. Hence I'm rating this as 4 stars rather than 5.
The gift turns out to be a kind of curse. Despite the fact that tragedy attends it - that the fetching is a violent wrenching and often includes body parts of humans and animals - the parents start to look on their adopted son as a goldmine. Meanwhile, they transfer their parental affection to their own natural born daughter. Michael is a lonely boy, bullied at school, whose only 'friend' is an alter ego, Chalk Boy, whom he believes to be essential to his ability to fetch valuable items from the past. Chalk Boy is a fetch of another kind - a Trickster character in effect, from the old meaning of trick. He often torments Michael by switching things at the last moment so that what he brings back are rotting animals etc.
As years pass, the boy develops an obsession with the Grail which he believes he can find and recover - perhaps to win back his father's affection which is soon lost when his gift becomes less certain as he approaches puberty, and his father turns to drink.
There is some good character development though I found the father's transformation from an unpleasant drunken sott who landed the family in debt to a dubious and violent group of characters, into an abruptly reawakened repentent man who wants to rebuild his fractured relationship with Michael, less than convincing. The psychic French character Francoise is also rather a plot device. But Michael and his little sister Carol are well realised. The only aspect that becomes a bit repetitious after a while are the graphic descriptions of the aftermath of violent dismemberment which attend Michael's forays into the past. Also, the explanation for what lies behind his psychic abilities and experience is a little 'pat' for me. Hence I'm rating this as 4 stars rather than 5.
June 1, 2011
The Fetch (US: Unknown Regions, taken from a subtitle of Lavondyss) revisits one of Holdstock's favourite tropes, the wood as gateway to other times, places and parallel worlds (as in the Mythago Wood series) but on this occasion the tale is set within the undergrowth which has grown up in a disused chalk quarry on the English south coast. The action revolves around the boy Michael, adopted by a middle-class professional couple, who brings with him a maelstrom of psychic activity, changing their lives forever.
Holdstock's starting point is the three meanings of 'fetch' (the act of retrieving, a spirit doppelganger and a dialect word meaning 'fetish') and interweaves these into a narrative that also draws in archaeology, folklore, ritual, ESP, scientific ethics and a dysfunctional family. As with many Holdstock stories there is a sense of escalating claustrophobia and menace, unleavened by any humour but told with a profound love of words, sense of place and concern over human meddling in Nature's domain.
I must confess a feeling of connection with Holdstock. Born three weeks after him, I shared his interests in British mythology, history and storytelling until his untimely death in 2009, but came across him only once at an Arthurian conference in Cardiff in the 1990s when he must have been working on his Merlin cycle. I was impressed by the Mythago titles I had read but faintly irritated by his deliberate misspellings of many Welsh-rooted names; no such problem arises with The Fetch, however. More convincing is Holdstock's highlighting of the family's claustrophobic life by the occasional foray into the outside world (Scotland, Hadrian's Wall, London) and of course into the world of the past (I especially liked the reference to early 20th-century descriptions of antediluvian sea creatures in the fossil record).
Holdstock has a soft spot for the theme of the Quest, particularly that of the Holy Grail, and that reappears here in an unusual but, in the context of this story, very relevant way, along with a striking treatment of the Fisher King. All in all, this was for me a very well crafted and haunting tale; my only reservation is the conclusion which is simultaneously rather pat and also rather open concerning the boy Michael and his family. Indeed, his sister Carol and parents Richard and Susan, who all bear very ordinary names while being subjected to not very everyday experiences, are at times well drawn but at other times I feel the motivations for their actions are hard to fathom exactly. The other enigma is the psychic archaeologist Francoise, whose ultimate function as a dea ex machina rather loses this reader's empathy with her.
One other point: the cover illustration of my paperback edition is full of details that closely echo the details of the text--all except for the doppelganger spirit itself: true, there are elements of a fetish with a gold mask, the fish face of a foetus, the amorphous aspect of a shape-shifting entity, the height manifested by its appearance to the psychic, but where the blood-red colour comes from I have no idea.
Holdstock's starting point is the three meanings of 'fetch' (the act of retrieving, a spirit doppelganger and a dialect word meaning 'fetish') and interweaves these into a narrative that also draws in archaeology, folklore, ritual, ESP, scientific ethics and a dysfunctional family. As with many Holdstock stories there is a sense of escalating claustrophobia and menace, unleavened by any humour but told with a profound love of words, sense of place and concern over human meddling in Nature's domain.
I must confess a feeling of connection with Holdstock. Born three weeks after him, I shared his interests in British mythology, history and storytelling until his untimely death in 2009, but came across him only once at an Arthurian conference in Cardiff in the 1990s when he must have been working on his Merlin cycle. I was impressed by the Mythago titles I had read but faintly irritated by his deliberate misspellings of many Welsh-rooted names; no such problem arises with The Fetch, however. More convincing is Holdstock's highlighting of the family's claustrophobic life by the occasional foray into the outside world (Scotland, Hadrian's Wall, London) and of course into the world of the past (I especially liked the reference to early 20th-century descriptions of antediluvian sea creatures in the fossil record).
Holdstock has a soft spot for the theme of the Quest, particularly that of the Holy Grail, and that reappears here in an unusual but, in the context of this story, very relevant way, along with a striking treatment of the Fisher King. All in all, this was for me a very well crafted and haunting tale; my only reservation is the conclusion which is simultaneously rather pat and also rather open concerning the boy Michael and his family. Indeed, his sister Carol and parents Richard and Susan, who all bear very ordinary names while being subjected to not very everyday experiences, are at times well drawn but at other times I feel the motivations for their actions are hard to fathom exactly. The other enigma is the psychic archaeologist Francoise, whose ultimate function as a dea ex machina rather loses this reader's empathy with her.
One other point: the cover illustration of my paperback edition is full of details that closely echo the details of the text--all except for the doppelganger spirit itself: true, there are elements of a fetish with a gold mask, the fish face of a foetus, the amorphous aspect of a shape-shifting entity, the height manifested by its appearance to the psychic, but where the blood-red colour comes from I have no idea.
May 1, 2012
Holdstock is excellent at creating an atmosphere of the uncanny and ancient, evoking the fears and beliefs that lie in the marrow of our bones, from a time before words. This story, of a strange child adopted by two rather shallow and self-absorbed academics, who retreats into an invented but increasingly powerful mythological world, involved me closely most of the way. As his father discovers and exploits the boy's power to 'fetch' (the title is a rather clever pun) antiquities out of the past, he also begins to love his son, perhaps too late to save him, and perhaps too late to save anyone.
The ending wasn't totally satisfactory for me. I felt it rationalised or diminished the sheer strangeness that had kept me reading. Others may feel it substituted a new and more frightening strangeness.
The ending wasn't totally satisfactory for me. I felt it rationalised or diminished the sheer strangeness that had kept me reading. Others may feel it substituted a new and more frightening strangeness.
July 21, 2017
Lo han vendido como terror y no lo es. Es algo parecido a su otra novela “Boque Mitago”. En esta, una familia que vive en una casa en el bosque, cuyo hijo adoptado es raro. Debido a que tiene un amigo imaginario, que le dice lugares en el bosque que hay objetos antiguos y muy valioso. Su padre se pone las botas con ellos hasta que se lía por avaricioso.
unread-but-acquired
April 16, 2012By far the most hilarious book cover EVER.
July 28, 2024
Eerie, unsettling, shocking.
May 5, 2017
Robert Holdstock is one of the great masters of fantasy and this standalone novel from 1991 (shockingly, never reissued) is a poetic meditation on childhood, dreams, the Iron Age, and the power of history. Like his Mythago Wood cycle, it delves deep into the real foundations of our myths - not the Disneyland of Tolkien's Orcs and Elves but something deeper, stranger and more disturbing. Idols and totems, blood and bone, carved wood and dead dogs...At the same time, it is a sad tale about an adopted child who is never quite accepted by his parents. Perhaps the only problem with the novel is its slow pace but it fits well with its dreamlike ambiance.
September 12, 2019
Straddling the border between fantasy and folk horror, Holdstock presents an entertaining tale with a dark heart. There are parts that don’t quite work - the trade in artefacts leading to a gangster narrative feels a touch tagged on - but the denouement is splendidly judged and dramatic.
May 16, 2010
If you love the weird (and wonderful) worlds of Robert Holdstock, you'll absolutely love this one! It's not as good as the Mythago woods books, but that is just a minor detail.
June 27, 2015
I adore the idea of "manifested realities". Did you know the old geology book that inspired Michael actually exists? It is this one: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
March 15, 2021
3.5 stars.
So far, I’ve only read one book by Robert Holdstock: Mythago Wood, an utterly captivating tale of mythic power and ancient legends, closely bound to the English landscape. The Fetch turned up in a second-hand bookshop some months after I’d finished Mythago Wood and, although I was keen to explore more of Holdstock’s imaginative world, it didn’t take me long to realise that The Fetch is a very different kettle of fish. I’ve never actually read any Dennis Wheatley, but I suspect this has a similar flavour to his books; I’m reminded, too, of those horror films in which wholesome families are gradually reduced to primeval terror. Yet this isn’t an outright horror novel: if it were, I wouldn’t have read it. In some ways it’s a classic Holdstock story, a tale of the past weaving itself into the present and breaking through in unexpected ways, a tale of treasures and quests and miracles – but one underlaid with the slow, inescapable thrum of something nasty in the woodshed...
For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/05/28/t...
So far, I’ve only read one book by Robert Holdstock: Mythago Wood, an utterly captivating tale of mythic power and ancient legends, closely bound to the English landscape. The Fetch turned up in a second-hand bookshop some months after I’d finished Mythago Wood and, although I was keen to explore more of Holdstock’s imaginative world, it didn’t take me long to realise that The Fetch is a very different kettle of fish. I’ve never actually read any Dennis Wheatley, but I suspect this has a similar flavour to his books; I’m reminded, too, of those horror films in which wholesome families are gradually reduced to primeval terror. Yet this isn’t an outright horror novel: if it were, I wouldn’t have read it. In some ways it’s a classic Holdstock story, a tale of the past weaving itself into the present and breaking through in unexpected ways, a tale of treasures and quests and miracles – but one underlaid with the slow, inescapable thrum of something nasty in the woodshed...
For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/05/28/t...
November 25, 2023
Výborná temne atmosférická vec. Takže v istom zmysle typický Holdstock. Príbehom navyše často išiel až na kosť a bolo to nielen smutné, ale miestami vyslovene žalostne realistické. Mám síce pár výhrad k tomu, ako náhle sa postavám menili postoje, ale tak trochu tej drámy som ochotná prepáčiť.
Ale nebudeme si klamať, autor to vie aj lepšie.
Ale nebudeme si klamať, autor to vie aj lepšie.
December 31, 2022
Fascinating with a bit different kind of story, but from time to time bit confusing too - probably on purpose. Reasonably smooth reading with chapters just perfect sized bites so easy to 'I'll just read one more' and lose a lot of time.
July 25, 2018
I really want to give this a 3.5-3.75 ... but seeing that the first chapter or two was REALLY good, I rounded up.
February 26, 2021
I liked the four other books I have read by this author more than this one.
March 17, 2021
A dark and well sustained fantasy mixed with hints of child abuse. The ending felt rushed and inconclusive.
September 17, 2021
Love it !
March 16, 2023
Just my cup of tea this stuff. Quite good.
September 30, 2023
The best holy grail time traveling story written.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 24, 2024
Strange and a little weird. Parents adopt a boy, they should be reported to social services! Boy brings things from the past. All a bit creepy.
June 16, 2008
My major quibble with this book, and the reason it didn't rate higher is the father in the book. Throughout the entire book he treats his adoptive son like trash, and I'm just waiting for him to get his just punishment at the end...but then, just a few chapters shy of the end, he has a sudden and totally explained change of heart, and plays the loving dad and hero at the end. I didn't buy that at all, and it annoyed the heck out of me. He was just too unpleasant a character throughout the rest of the book. One perfect example is when his son (who can reach into the past and 'fetch' objects into the present) accidentally kills an ancient Roman man while trying to 'fetch' an historical object. The father is so enthralled with idea of there being 'real Roman sweat' on the object, that he's completely unconcerned about the real Roman blood (and half a head) also 'fetched' out of time - other than trying to dispose of it properly so he won't have police poking about. Despite this incident, and others like it, the father's only desire is to force his son to 'fetch' more and more, and hang the cost to anyone but himself. If he had only stayed nasty and come to a suitably bad ending, OR if there had been a good, understandable reason for his total change of behavior, this book could have been four stars, maybe even five.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2016
A very dark, creepy novel that draws on the same ideas as the Mythago Wood series by Holdstock. The author creates an alternate reality which requires the young boy, Michael, to manipulate time and space. This book is set in England, and draws on much of ancient pagan beliefs. Although I loved the Mythago Wood series, this book was much darker, being a horror novel rather than a dark fantasy/alternate reality novel. This is a disturbing novel that plays with your mind because its concept deals with ancient archetypes tha we all recognize at some levels.
March 3, 2018
Ze začátku jsem z toho byla docela rozpačitá - Holdstocka jsem četla naposledy hodně dávno, ale měla jsem nějakou utkvělou představu trochu jiného stylu. V té první půlce knihy mě překvapila určitá "naivita" jak příběhu, tak literárního stylu (těžko říct, jakou v tom sehrál roli překlad). Ale pak jsem si na to buď zvykla, nebo se to vyvinulo, každopádně děj začal nabírat holdstockovské obrátky v napojení na mýty a tam už jsem byla doma. I když pořád mi ten styl připadá naivnější, než mi připadal v patnácti, překvapivě :D. Každopádně od půlky dál se to celkem dobře četlo.
March 30, 2009
After a number of the books I've read recently, it was nice to fall into something that is really an escapist fantasy novel. This is the story about a boy who from nearly the moment of his birth begins to have strange, unexplained phenomena happen around him. The feeling of tension building is lovely. As with many stories that have a horror/thriller element, once the characters were on their way to solving the problems, the story lost some of its steam, but still delightful.
July 5, 2016
Kirja oli ihan hyvä, mutta siinä ei ollut samanlaista lumoa kuin Metsän hengissä. Mystisiä aineksia esiintyi perheen lapsen kykyjen muodossa, mutta itselleni enemmän pinnalle nousi surullissävytteinen tarina hyljeksitystä lapsesta.
February 15, 2025
The Fetch (US: Unknown Regions, taken from a subtitle of Lavondyss)
May 29, 2009
Another win for me! Only took me 2 years to track down a copy of this book. Well worth the time. Holdstock once again brings me to a world of myth and dreams mingling with reality.
August 18, 2011
Una muy buena novela, muy fanatsiosa y interesante.
August 24, 2016
Another rating: 9/10
September 7, 2023
Jak mám Holdstocka rád, tohle mě moc nebralo. A zjišťuju, že čas to nezměnil.
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