Once Upon an Autumn Eve

Faery #3

by Dennis L. McKiernan

In the sequel to Once Upon a Summer Day, Liaze, Princess of the Autumnwood, falls in love with the wounded knight who somehow has breached the boundary between her faery world and the land of mortals, only to have her beloved stolen from her by a dark force. Reprint.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adult, Novels

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

McKiernan was born in Moberly, Missouri, where he lived until he served the U.S. Air Force for four years, stationed within US territory during the Korean War. After military service, he attended the University of Missouri and received a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1958 and an M.S. in the same field from Duke University in 1964. He worked as an engineer at AT&T, initially at Western Electric but soon at Bell Laboratories, from 1958 until 1989. In 1989, after early retirement from engineering, McKiernan began writing on a full-time basis.

In 1977, while riding his motorcycle, McKiernan was hit by a car which had crossed the center-line, and was confined to a bed, first in traction and then in a hip spica cast, for many months. During his recuperation, he boldly began a sequel to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The publisher Doubleday showed an interest in his work and tried to obtain authorization from Tolkien's estate but was denied. Doubleday then asked McKiernan to rewrite his story, placing the characters in a different fictitious world, and also to write a prequel supporting it. The prequel, of necessity, resembles The Lord of the Rings; the decision of Doubleday to issue the work as a trilogy increased that resemblance; and some critics have seen McKiernan as simply imitating Tolkien's epic work. McKiernan has subsequently developed stories in the series that followed along a story line different from those that plausibly could have been taken by Tolkien.

McKiernan's Faery Series expands tales draw from Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, additionally tying the selected tales together with a larger plot.

McKiernan currently lives in Tucson, Arizona.

(Biography taken from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the first book in this series. And the 2nd one was alright, too. However, it was disappointing my the third book because I realized the PLOT IS EXACTLY THE SAME in all the books. They just changed the name. Girl meets boy. They fall in love. Something happens to tear them apart. A quest insues. Girl meets the Wyrd sisters. They give her riddles. She barely saves guy in the nick of time. They live happily ever after.

That is all fine and good..however, it gets repetitive. Still, I reccomend the first in the series "Once Upon a Winter's Night"

[Sarah Insomnia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This wasn't much better than the last one. Still wordy, with excessive description and characters that leave something to be desired...

[Paul F. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once Upon an Autumn Eve by Dennis L. McKiernan was a major disappointment. There were multiple problems with this novel. For starters, the plot would have been VASTLY more interesting if, instead of Liaze seeking her abducted boyfriend Luc, Liaze and Luc would have embarked on an adventure TOGETHER, and TOGETHER they would have faced dangers and obstacles and worked TOGETHER to overcome them. However, as written, Liaze embarks upon an unintelligible series of adventures to overcome this or that fantasy menace in her way. None of which were attention-grabbing. Moreover, McKiernan interjects sex into the early part of the story, which he seems to feel that readers can't live without. And naturally, it is the kind of purely pleasurable sex where no one ever becomes pregnant and no one contracts a sexually transmitted disease. But beyond even that, this novel becomes pure torture to read when McKiernan injects a character into the story with a heavy accent, one "Gwyd". McKiernan makes the mistake that is typical of much less experienced authors, that is, writing everything this character says in his thick accent, forcing readers to plow through passages such as, for example, "I nae ken, m'lady, f'r I hae ne'er tried it such." The accented spelling of Gwyd's words is annoying from the start, and McKiernan has over 200 pages of it. And the words in French? Try reading this: "Camte Luc du Chateau Blum dans le Lacde la Rose et Guardien de la Cle". Huh??????????? Is this novel written for English speakers or French speakers? Spare yourself the torture of reading this novel.

[Lark of The Bookwyrm's Hoard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The books get shorter as they go along, but I still enjoy McKiernan's take on Faery. Review to come.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

p e r f e c t

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, I wasn't as impressed with this book in the series. I think it was more my personal disagreement with how the author approached the story than actually a lack of skill. The storyline closley followed the first book's. A few parts were unique and that is what I liked the best, however, the author shows the main character pining for love - especially her innerthoughts - which really was quite annoying and didn't add to the story. Some repetition, too, of the same facts and riddles from previous books...

[Kipahni · Rating 3 out of 5]

once again what I didn't like about the other 2 books I didn't like in this one ( Why then do I continue in this series?!) well I will tell you.
I am a sucker for faery tales.
out of the series so far this tale is my favorite.

[The Fairy Godmother]

Third in the series. Based on the fairy tale of the Glass Mountain and the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin.

[Ion · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't really sure which tale this was so it was hard for my to follow or get into. I love his writing style no matter what.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, couldn't put it down.

[Jac · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the enchanting "Once Upon A Winter's Night" I was looking forward to the rest of this series, but alas this was so draggy and boring that I did not finish it.