Father Christmas: A Wonder Tale of the North by Charles Vess

Father Christmas: A Wonder Tale of the North Reviews

• 
  karen

  AND NOW IS THE TIME OF YEAR I FLOAT OLD CHRISTMAS REVIEWS TO COUNTDOWN TO BING BONG BING BONG!!
  
  Hush now, children. Hush. Listen carefully, or you will never know how young Nikolas became your beloved Father Christmas, will you?
  
  Now, then where was I? Oh yes . . .
  
  this story was a bit too dull and "safe" for my tastes, compared to the darker delights i have enjoyed from these tor.com freebies. on the one hand, it's sweet and moralistic enough that you could read it aloud as some family christmas eve storytime tradition (and it's long enough that the younger kids might fall asleep in the middle of it so you can hit up all those tasty cookies and milk left by the chimney), but on the other hand, it feels like a christmas story, all dusty and bland like a perfunctory present from someone who doesn't know you very well:
  
  Still Nikolas was not content, and so he continued on* and ventured far and far out into the world and saw there many things. Chief among them were greed and malice and war—always, endless war. But here and there he saw too great kindness ministered from one human unto another, and he was then made glad deep in his heart. And because of that he resolved to do what he could with his strength and his skills to encourage the same kindness in all whom he met.
  
  that's just a bit more treacle than i enjoy in my reading. but there's an additional stumble for me because this very beige-toned Story of Christmas is unconvincingly grafted onto a fairytale story that feels almost like a collage with trolls and twelve daughters summoned out of wood and magic pebbles, representing the months of the year, and animal helpers and abstruse rules with disproportionate punishments for their transgression, and a persephone-like arrangement of time spent between realms, and underground imprisonment and really casual royal absolution considering the extent of the punishment…
  
  it's as muddled as cider.
  
  and looooooong.
  
  and you can say "troll queen" all you want, and i will hear "goblin king" every single time.
  
  
  
  
  which, considering this story also involves the kidnap of a child into a fantasy realm, is not entirely my fault.
  
  long live the king.
  
  it's not awful, but there wasn't anything in it that stuck my my ribs. i gave it a three because it's christmas and all (or it was when i read it, before i managed to get MORE THAN FORTY reviews behind…) but it's a generous low three. maybe i am just a grinch.
  
  or maybe…..GOBLIN KING!
  
  
  
  and that's how you deflect.
  
  
  * twenty years or so later, EVERY TIME i see "continue on," i hear janine kishi's voice in my head: "'continue on' is redundant."
  
  
  
  now THAT'S the power of literature.
  
  
  
  read it for yourself here:
  
  
  http://www.tor.com/2014/12/09/father-...
  
  there are actually several other christmas-based tor shorts for your holiday reading pleasure:
  
  
  http://www.tor.com/2013/12/17/the-chr...
  
  
  http://www.tor.com/2012/12/19/the-gho...
  
  
  http://www.tor.com/2010/12/21/the-tra...
  
  
  http://www.tor.com/2014/04/16/cold-wi...
  
  
  come to my blog!
• 
  GoldGato

  I really enjoyed this read. Imaginative and oh so winterish, it came at the perfect time, on a rare gloomy California day. As the sky darkened, this tale grabbed me and I forgot about everything else (including the ManU vs. Liverpool game). I'd say that's a pretty good way to countdown to Christmas.
  
  Unlike most folks, I believe in fairyland. When the earth shakes here, and it shakes so often we don't always feel it, I know the Trolls are stomping around in their living quarters below. It's a given. If humans had more respect for the Trolls, we wouldn't have so many quakes. Well, that's what they say.
  
  My only unhappiness with this read is that it ended far too quickly for my liking. Magic endures.
  
  Book Season = Winter (midwinter's eve)
• 
  Orla

  this was weird but merry christmas 🎅
• 
  Bettie

  
  Bettie's Books
• 
  Wanda

  14 DEC 2014 -- Love this one! Read it for free here --
  
  Tor.com -
  http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/12/fa...
• 
  Nadine in NY Jones

  A holiday Tor short available for free here:
  http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/12/fa...
  
  You may, upon reading the names "Charles Vess" + "Father Christmas," develop certain expectations of what is to come. I am here to tell you: those expectations will be fulfilled.
  
  This is all that I expected: magical, lyrical, mysterious, beautiful, ugly, delightful, frightening, and hopeful.
  
  I pictured Muth's "The Christmas Magic" as I read. (Is it wrong to read one illustrator's work while picturing another? I hope not!) I was hoping that the flying-reindeer part of the mythology would be worked in, and my only disappointment is that it was not included.
• 
  Jacob

  A sweet and substantive tale about Father Christmas's early years. It felt like it was from another time--like the ghost of George MacDonald had reappeared on Christmas Eve to tell his family one more story. I'll definitely read this to my family next Christmas.
• 
  Molly

  Rating 3.5 (Charming though a little uneven.)
  
  
  
  Somehow today I felt more Christmas-y than last Christmas. Yeah, I know it's February, but the mood was just right. Outside the Bora was blowing like mad, and it was the coldest day in at least two years (last winter was more one prolonged damp autumn).With the wind howling outside, cuddled on the couch with a cup of cinnamon scented tea, the mood was just right for the fairy tale about young Nikolas (future Father Christmas)and Nessa the Troll Princess. Magical.
  
  Link here:
  http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/12/fa...
• 
  Amelia

  A really beautiful telling of the origins of Father Christmas in classic fairytale form.
• 
  Kimikimi

  Another Tor.com short story.
  
  I am torn between recommending this to my brother, and finding small children nearby to read this to.
• 
  Maggie Gordon

  Father Christmas is a decent fairy tale if you ignore the poor attempt to attach it to the mythos of Father Christmas. The story shows us Santa before the red suit, but it feel like another story all together. It's a decent enough tale about trolls and romantic and familiar love and magical shenanigans, but seriously, this is not a Christmas tale. It would have been nice for the author to have telegraphed how Father Christmas went from his wooden daughters and half-troll son to the dude with the elves...
• 
  Jill

  Vess never fails me. Never.
• 
  *＊✿❀ Maki ❀✿＊*

  Father Christmas was more confusing than anything.
  
  The narrator begins the story by explaining that Father Christmas' children would often ask about their mother, and aside from a brief mention of how she had to leave, none of them knew anything about her.
  
  

  The only sorrow in his children’s lives was that they had no mother: no smiling face to sing them to sleep at night, no kind hand to wipe away their tears. In the short northern summer, when the wind sighed softly through the trees, or when they heard the murmur of water tumbling over rocks in the nearby stream, they would imagine it was their mother’s voice.
  
  When they asked Father Christmas where their mother might be, he grew sad, and would tell them that long ago, she'd been forced to leave them, yet he never told them why.
  
  But I know. Would you like me to tell you?
  
  Listen and I will.

  
  The next few sections of the story are about Father Christmas (Nikolas) growing up, falling in love with the Troll King's daughter, and having a child.
  
  And don't get me wrong, here - the writing is gorgeous. The descriptions are just wonderful.
  
  Beautiful writing cannot make me overlook the random jumping from one story to another, though.
  
  So, Nikolas and his wife have a son, and they live happily for a few years - long enough for the son to be able to walk around on his own. But the Troll Queen eventually finds out that her daughter has married a mortal and had a son, and the two make a deal - as long as the daughter is alive, the Troll Queen will have no claim to the child. After the daughter dies, though, the Troll Queen will get to take the child, to raise in the Troll courts.
  
  The daughter leaves, thinking she's got the better end of the bargain. But she doesn't quite make it back home before the sun rises, and as anyone who's read The Hobbit knows, sunlight turns trolls to stone.
  
  Nikolas finds his wife turned into a mountain, and his son with a bag of pebbles around his neck. The son is devastated that his mother is gone, so Nikolas starts carving, and nine months and a day later, he has twelve carved little girls. Seeing them makes the son happy, and Nikolas takes the pebbles and uses them to make necklaces for each of the carvings. When he puts the necklaces on them, they eventually come to life.
  
  Around chapter three, the story ceases to be about the children finding out what happened to their mother, and somehow becomes the story of how Nikolas became Father Christmas. Even though that's not the story that the narrator set out to tell.
  
  

  Hush now, children. Hush. Listen carefully, or you will never know how young Nikolas became your beloved Father Christmas, will you?

  
  Back to spoiler territory!
  
  Again, the family lives in peace for a while, until the Troll Queen remembers her promise, and notices that her daughter is now a mountain. She comes to take her grandson away from Nikolas, and in the process steals all of the stones keeping the daughters alive, except for one.
  
  Nikolas and his remaining daughter befriend a series of animals who help them get to Troll country. The daughter insists on Nikolas hiding her stone, so he does. His son is bewitched by Troll magic, and thinks that he's still happily living with his sisters. The Troll Queen has Nikolas locked up for many, many years - long enough for him to carve the history of humans and trolls all over his cell. Word reaches the Queen of the carvings, and she and her grandson go down to see them, and the carvings remind the grandson that Nikolas is his father.
  
  The son pledges his freedom for Nikolas', and the Troll Queen compromises and says that the son only has to stay with her half of the year, because she doesn't want to imprison something she loves. She also gives him back the stones that brought his sisters to life. So Nikolas tours the land, gives gifts, and goes home to visit his children, tearfully reuniting with his wife, the mountain.
  
  My main point in all of that summarizing being that the focus shift halfway through the story completely ruins the original premise, because the children know who and what their mother was.
  
  The story should have either stuck to its original premise, or the opening should have been different.
  
  Like I said, though, the writing itself is beautiful. I didn't hate the story - I just really wished that it would pick what it wanted to say, and stick to that.
• 
  Alex Sarll

  I'm not altogether sure Santa needs an origin story in which he wields a mighty axe. But, referencing Orpheus and Persephone without feeling too knowing about it, this almost achieves the authentic tang of fairytale.
• 
  Marco

  This is the fairy tale of Father Christmas. He was an orphan child that fell in love to a beautiful maiden that turned out to be the troll princess (no this does not turn ugly like Princess Fiona in Shrek). Some parts of the story are promising, but others seems quite random.
• 
  Basht

  What a lovely story, reminiscent of classic fairytale form. I really enjoyed this short story.
• 
  Amy

  Quite a lovely Christmas tale (dammit, I'm reading it in January), on the origin of Santa Claus. Very sweet.
• 
  Jennifer

  A lovely telling of the history of Father Christmas.
• 
  Sarah

  From the title, I expected more overt Christmas in this story than I got. I would have liked it more then, I think.
• 
  Tigress

  Available here:
  
  
  http://www.tor.com/2014/12/09/father-...
• 
  Karyn Kar Mun (Thy Evil Queen)

  I'm sorry, but I found this boring and unoriginal.
• 
  Jon

  4-4.5 stars