Some authors are masters of worldbuilding and Joanne M. Harris continues her reign as one them. Like the ever-present honeybees who buzz through her fantasy hybrid novel through stories,
Honeycomb, carrying stories from world to world, protecting the Honeycomb Queen and her son, the Lacewing King, Harris constructs a magical universe, called the Nine Worlds and ruled by the insect-like Fae Silken Folk, as intricate as the beehives internal lives and delicate hexagonal walls.
As if each small room of the hive contains a small story,
Honeycomb is comprised of mostly two-to-three page stories that begin as if wholly separate beings and as the book continues on, we see a cast of complicated, beautiful, and terrible recurring characters, all centering around the Lacewing King as we follow him on his adventures and his own complicated emotional maturity throughout his life of near immortality. Amplifying the book’s magic even more are the illustrations of Charles Vess, who never cea
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Like most remarkable stories,
Honeycomb begins with a dream.
But in this universe of sadistic kings, wounded creatures, and wise honeybees, even a dream is more elusive than one might think. In “Nectar”, the origin story of
Honeycomb
, the Dream is a river that runs through the Nine Worlds, reflecting the hearts and desires of the Folk. On its shore, a nameless flower’s pollen gives birth to the powerful Honeycomb Queen, and becomes the first story of the Nine Worlds. According to the bees – the collective choir and inter-world travelers who tell us these tales – stories have the power to communicate across worlds.
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