Lyonesse is a magical group of islands in the Bay of Biscay, inhabited by fairies, wizards, and several warring human nations. Princess Suldrun is the daughter of the King of one of these nations, and her father hopes to marry her off in a politically advantageous way. When Suldrun proves uncooperative, she is locked away in a small garden overlooking the sea.
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One day, a young prince of another Lyonesse nation, Aillas, is washed ashore near the garden and is rescued by Suldrun. He was thrown overboard from a ship by his cousin, to prevent him claiming the throne of Troicinet. Aillas and Suldrun fall in love, but the prince is eventually discovered and imprisoned. Suldrun, however, is now pregnant, but when her baby is born it becomes mixed up with a fairy child, and taken off deep into the forest to be raised by fairies, where it grows up at an accelerated rate due to the magical nature of the world the fairies inhabit.
Suldrun, overcome with despair, commits suicide, not knowing that Aillas is not dead and has escaped imprisonment. He attempts to track down his son, who is now twelve years old. On the way he is captured into slavery by a brutal warrior tribe, and also falls in the way of age-old conflicts between various wizards. His son, meanwhile, leaves the fairy world and begins wandering Lyonesse, but the boy's innocence quickly leaves him vulnerable, unless his father can reach him in time.
The review of this Book prepared by Max Russell
