Dun Ladys Jess

I enjoy shape shifter stories. This one took a different tack than most, but was very enjoyable. I felt it was a good mix of action and technical details about horses.

This was a fine story, and such a novel concept: a horse transformed into a woman.

Seems like Ive read a lot of books lately where there is a fresh new concept, the first half is brilliantly executed, then it turns into formula junk that could have been turned out by any hack writer. What gives?

Apart from the Harry Potter books, Ive read few fantasy novels. My one exception: the books of my friend Doranna Durgin. Of course, as shes been my friend for over 20 years, you cant expect me to be wholly objective in a review. So Ill just tell you what I like about her very first published book, Dun Ladys Jess, which has been reissued in a beautiful new edition by Canadian publisher Red Deer Press. Beautiful dun mare Lady, and her rider, Cary, are running for their lives when Cary invokes a spell that sends them hurtling to an alternate reality--a reality that does not include magic. Not only that, but Lady has been transformed into a human woman. Shes found by Eric, a kind-hearted environmentalist, and his friend Dayna. They quickly realize that Lady is in a state of mental confusion. Wary about turning her into the authorities, they take her to Daynas home to try to figure out what to do next. They meet up with their friends Jaime, who owns a horse training facility, and her brother Mark. And when Carey shows up--thats when the fun begins. This book has everything I look for in great storytelling: endearing friendships, action, adventure; suspense, thrills and fun. Im not kidding when I say itll make you laugh and cry. Theres a reason this book won the Compton Crook Award, and its hard to believe this could be someones first book because Doranna got everything right. The characterization, the action, and most importantly, the mindset of Dun Ladys Jess--a horse changed by magic into a woman. Read it. Youll love it, too.

Fantasy books and movies have been rife with shape-shifting heroes and villains in recent years, mostly werewolves and vampires. The teaser for this book stood out from all that, however, in that it included a character who is transformed from a horse to a human. That intrigued me and so I read the Kindle version of the book. The story is solidly a fantasy set in a parallel world to current-day earth, called Camolen. Camolen is very similar to our world, and is very much an Earth II, but not a duplicate. While it is Earth and is inhabited by human beings and the same species of animals, it is not the same people and animals. The level of civilization seems to be more-or-less medieval with the world ruled, or at least led, by wizards. And their level of technology is very low, with most of the functions that we handle by technology and machines, being handled for them by magic. The storyline involves a spell that has been created by the good wizards (including the protag wizard, Arlen) that allows people to transcend dimensions and so travel between worlds (like between Camolen and our Earth). Work on the spell has been accomplished by a “networking” of the wizards via horse-riding couriers (which is less risky than using magic). But with the spell operational, the wizards are concerned that some “of the less conscientious” among them will use the spell to travel to other worlds to ravage them and bring back technology to wreak havoc in Camolen. One such bad wizard is a woman named, Calandre, who has found out about the worlds-traveling spell and is seeking to obtain it. So Arlen purposes to send his lead courier, Carey, to an associate wizard, Sherra, who will create a “checkspell” that will prevent unauthorized use of the world-transversing spell (this is commonly done for all major magic). It’s crucial that Carey not get caught with the spell (contained in a gemstone) and the documentation that goes with it. Arlen warns him to invoke the spell to escape if anyone tries to capture him. His escape will be to another world, where he can invoke it again to return to a safe-house in Camolen (since a connection between worlds will follow him and so give him access to the magic in Camolen). He’ll have to be careful, though, not to take along inadvertent stragglers within the spell’s range. Got that? Now all of this struck me as pretty run-of-the-mill for fantasy stories and, while well-written, didn’t really grab me. Still, it held my interest enough to stay with it. I suspect strong fans of this genre will have no trouble remaining involved with the story. So in a nutshell, Carey is attacked while on the road and flees riding his fast horse, Dun Lady’s Jess (he calls her “Lady”). To save his life and his mission, Carey is forced to invoke the worlds-transversing spell and it takes him and Lady to our Earth. One side effect of the spell is that is changes Lady into a woman. About half the book concerns the adventures of Carey and Lady on our Earth. They find they have been followed by a minion of Calandre and so most of the action is the chasing and battling between them. The strength of the book is the family of characters that develop around Carey and the transformed Lady (who as a woman is called, “Jess”). Ms Durgin handles those characters and their relationships very well. She also does well in developing Jess as a character—as both horse and human. Jess’ struggles to adjust to her new form are told believably and sympathetically, and are the fun of the book. And of course, there’s the complication of the transfer of her feelings of devotion for Carey as a horse, to her love of him as a human. In the last half of the book, the action returns to Camolen where the worlds-traveling magic transforms Jess back to Lady. She is still a Point-Of-View character, however, and Ms Durgin handles those scenes well and we continue to pull for Lady as we pulled for Jess. We also see development in the other protagonist characters and their adjustments to a world where technology is replaced by magic. Dun Lady’s Jess won the Compton Crook for Best First SF/F/H of the Year (in 2013, I suppose) and has a devoted following for it and it’s two sequels (it would make a good TV series, I think). And while it is a good book—well written with a great hook of the horse-to-human angle, and infused with an obvious love for horses, I do have a few criticisms. First, while Ms Durgin does a good job with the characterizations of the protagonists, she leaves the antagonists (especially the bad wizard, Calandre) rather flat. We don’t really know what motivates Calandre other than just being a psychopath, and she’s not in very many scenes. Most of the “bad work” is done by Calandre’s minions and they are mostly just expendables without character. Actually, I think even Arlen could have been developed some more. The idea of magic being used instead of technology in Camolen was kind of interesting but not quite believable to me. I did like, however, the idea that using magic has consequences of collateral damage and side-effects. Overall, though, the main storyline of the conflict between wizards struck me as weak. I didn’t get a feel of “high stakes,” and what battling there was between the wizards seemed to abbreviated. Still, there were moments of insight that appealed to me. Like when Arlen asks Jaime (the horse expert) if there were evil people like Calandre on her world. She replies: “Too many of them. Of course, they don’t have magic to play with. They have to make do with guns and bombs and blind political fervor.” There’s a theme there that I think Ms Durgin could have enlarged on a bit. I did like this book. I think Ms Durgin has come up with a unique, interesting, and sympathetic character in Jess the horse/woman who should be able to sustain a series. Ms Durgin just needs to ramp up her storytelling a bit and expand her character development to the bad guys.

The character development runs deep. Amazingly detailed development of Jess. Having horses myself, I found her portrayal of horse turned woman realistic and compelling. A must reed for anyone who loves horses and likes fantasy.

Dun Ladys Jess is an exciting concept mixing travel between realities and travel between species. I enjoyed the learning process Jess underwent from horse to woman and back. The obstacles that had to be overcome were intriguing, and I was compelled to finish the story. The sy-fy flavor was just enough.

As usual, Ms. Durgin writes a sit on the edge of your seat, cant turn the pages fast enough kinda story. I thought I had them all until I stumbled across this little gem. Love her writing.

This story really captured my heart! I am a horse lover to begin with but, the story itself took me easily away to distant places. The author, Doranna Durgin is an exceptional, imaginative writer!!! Loved her books. Thank you Ms. Durging for bringing this joyous adventure!!

This story lingers in my imagination. If am fascinated by authors knowledge and use of the nuances of horse behavior.