The creation of other worlds … leads, naturally, to a preoccupation with landscape and terrain…. [This] is a natural development but in the case of Garner it's something more than this. All his work shows a strong, mystical sense of place….

Often, as in Garner and [Ursula K.] le Guin, there's a strong sense of a vague, disembodied but menacing force which is just hovering around waiting to be loosed, a process which might be as accidental as springing a trap. This is very noticeable in Garner. (p. 146)

[Class antagonism and manipulation] is in its most obvious and usual form in Garner's The Owl Service: it's strange that very few people seem to have noticed that this book is riddled with anti-working-class feeling. (p. 147)

What comes out very strongly, especially in Garner's first three books, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of Gomrath and Elidor is the overpowering sense...