The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter, by Lucius Shepard ***1/4

This is follow-up to Shepard's novella "The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaulle", which I read as part of Shepard's collection, The Jaguar Hunter. Both stories have a slightly fable-ish quality, though this one slightly less so that the first story. Griaulle is the universe for both stories, a giant dragon that's so big as to support entire towns and ecosystems on his body. In this context, 'scalehunter' is an occupation - someone who collects scales from the dragon. The daughter of the title goes on a grand adventure, in which Shepard showcases his excellent prose and his bottomless well of ideas. The story is well-paced and exciting, with good characters and some sad situations.

I don't want to give away any of the story, except to say that I appreciate the way Shepard tells a fable that somehow manages to be aimed at adults instead of children. There are some connections to standard fables, with people who behave badly and suffer consequences, issues that require resolution before characters are able to continue, and a coming-of-age story that involves lots of growing-up, but these ideas are not presented in that annoying fable narrator voice that usually makes me want to run screaming from this kind of material. I was reminded again that the issue is not the material itself but in the talent of the storyteller and his ability to ground that material in reality. Shepard is already such a gritty author that I doubt this would be much of a challenge for him. In any case, I really enjoyed this tale and look forward to finishing the Griaulle books at some point (there are more tales out there for me to check out at some point).
(Summer 2007)

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