Rose


By Jeff Smith & Charles Vess (Cartoon Books)
ISBN: 978-1888963113

In Bone Jeff Smith created a fully-realised fantasy milieu with which to tell an astounding magical epic as much Tex Avery and Walt Kelly as J. R. R. Tolkien or the Brothers Grimm. Once the prime series was firmly up and running, much of the rich and textured back-story of that incredible world was further fleshed out and filled in by the author in collaboration with top-flight fantasy illustrator Charles Vess in an enchanting dark fable simply entitled Rose.

Many years ago the Harvestar princesses ‘Briar and Rose’ learned the origins of the world and its creatures. When the land was fresh and reality was still closely linked to the world of dreams the first dragon Mim kept the balance between them. However when the malevolent spirit called Lord of the Locusts possessed her, this primal dreamer went mad and began to destroy everything. Mim’s own dragon children were forced to battle her and after horrendous, blood-soaked clashes they triumphed by turning her to stone, burying the rapacious Locust Lord forever. From debris and carnage the valley was created…

Rose is a gifted but inattentive young student, blessed with a great affinity for The Dreaming World, but her elder sister Briar’s “Dreaming Eye” is blind. Most people assume that when the time comes it is Rose who will inherit the throne and role of the People’s protector…

And that day seems not far off when their father tells them that they must depart for Old Man’s Cave and their graduation test. The sisters had been schooled for years by mystic philosophers called The Disciples of Venu to become Veni-Yan-Cari or “Awakened Ones”, strong in the ways of the Dreaming Arts, but the girls never imagined that the day to take up their responsibilities would come so soon.

‘Our Brightest Hope’ opens with the sagacious Great Red Dragon discussing the sisters with the mystic Headmaster. However the gravest news concerns the river dragon Balsaad who may have turned down an old, dark path…

At dawn a small party of soldiers led by Palace Guard Captain Lucius Down escorts the girls on their trip and Rose, as always, brings along her valiant talking hounds Cleo and Euclid. As they set off Briar is even more acerbic and crabby than usual until Rose is overwhelmed by one of her “gitchy” premonitions. The feeling is strong, disorienting but brief and perhaps simply caused by the distracting proximity of the astonishingly hunky Lucius…

The feelings persist throughout the trip and Captain Down, ever-cautious, soon discovers one of the giant rat-creatures known as “Hairy Men” stalking the party, but drives it off with little fuss.

Soon the pilgrims are ensconced at an inn in the village of Oak Bottom where the girls stayed years before as toddlers, enjoying simple, open hospitality. Rose’s interest in Lucius is clear to all and aspects of her awakening gifts manifest with embarrassing frequency. However the noble Captain seems bizarrely concerned with the comfort of ‘The Ice Queen’ Briar…

When the girls at last are safely deposited with their tutors at the cave in ‘We Ask, Teach’ the surly elder girl seems determined to be difficult, challenging the sages at all points and Rose again feels sympathy for her sibling’s lack of the Family’s hereditary powers. Later Rose has a strangely disturbing dream where she and the dogs respond to a small dragon’s pleas for help and rescue it from a river. The scenes suddenly become nightmarish as she is drawn into a dark cavern by a monstrous giant insect which has smothered her mother and father with fiercely clinging locusts…

Shaken and anxious Rose decides to skip school and play with Euclid and Cleo but annoyingly encounters the scolding Red Dragon who chides her for neglecting her responsibilities. However as she rides back, the dogs spot a figure they think is Briar heading up a remote path. Following, a fearsome apparition terrifyingly orders them to ‘Turn Back’ and a storm of grasshoppers attacks, but undaunted Rose and her loyal hounds persevere and are ambushed by the dragon of her dream, grown to colossal size and bristling with mocking ferocity…

‘Balsaad’ is only driven off after a brutal struggle in which Rose severs his hand with her sword and the chastened princess then rushes to her tutors to inform them but is intercepted by Briar who advises her not tell of her dream and its real-world repercussions in ‘The Warning’…

With the season’s first snows falling Rose is summoned to ‘The Cave’ and questioned by the Headmaster, admitting to having encountered the rogue dragon ravaging the countryside but, heeding her beloved elder sister, denies any knowledge of or pertinent dreams about the creature or its dreaded “Emancipator”. Even whilst suspecting that her elders already know the truth Rose sticks to her story and trusts in her sister, confiding that she is going out into the blizzard to destroy Balsaad.

Her faith in Briar is badly shaken however, when she accidentally spots the beguiled Lucius sneaking into her elder sister’s room…

As the heartbroken Rose marches ‘Into the Night…’ accompanied by Euclid and Cleo she discovers a nocturnal gathering of the normally timid Hairy Men, moving to an irresistible rendezvous at some silent command as the nearby hamlet is being eradicated by the rampant Balsaad until he too responds when ‘The Master Calls’, reaffirming his commitment to the hidden Emancipator’s scheme to free the Lord of the Locusts in ‘The Pact’.

At last given license to destroy all the humans – and those pesky dogs – Balsaad roars off whilst Rose, Euclid and Cleo again encounter the Red Dragon in ‘Frozen’. The antediluvian Scarlet Sage is unable to dissuade the indomitable Princess and regretfully advises how to defeat the beast and the hideous sacrifice Rose must enact to make things right…

At ‘Midnight’ Lucius and his men are ambushed by a rabid army of rat creatures leaving just Rose and dogs to save Oak Bottom in an epic battle against the black river-wyrm and his manipulative master but, just as the benevolent Red Dragon predicted, for Rose to fulfil ‘The Promise’, the tragic princess has to abandon all her hopes, dreams and aspirations before reluctantly destroying the greatest love of her life…

Far darker in tone than the series it spun off from, the saga of Rose combines classic mythic themes and borrowed legends to tell a deeply moving parable about family, duty and responsibility, captivatingly made real by one of the world’s greatest fantasy illustrators.

Lovely, thrilling and unforgettable entertainment for anybody with an ounce of imagination…
Rose is ™ & © 2000, 2001, 2002 Jeff Smith. All rights reserved.