Rebellious teenager Janet is rescued from harm by a man riding a Vincent Black Lightning motorcycle, and then it turns out that her knight in shining armor is actually a knight in the Otherworld, at the court of the Faerie Queen. Alas for him, the Queen has gone mad, and it is the knight’s quest to find her and heal her, with the help of the mortal Janet and her family…. Charles Vess is well-known to fantasy readers as one of the premier artists of that genre, gracing the works of modern masters with his amazing art; this is his first foray into writing in the field. The story is a modern retelling of the folk tale Tam Lin, with a few sly nods to that story’s history (I particularly liked his hommage to Richard Thompson, who as a member of Fairport Convention recorded a version of “Tam Lin” and who in his solo career had a lovely song about a motorcycle called “Vincent Black Lightning” - I was proud of catching that reference until I saw that Mr. Vess mentioned it specifically in his acknowledgements). There is some repetition in the book, particularly with respect to Janet’s poor vocabulary and her relationship to her father, but those are minor quibbles in a generally enchanting book. I look forward to reading more of Mr. Vess’s work in the future, although I would hope that he would also illustrate his own writing (not done in the e-book version here); recommended! ( )

When I saw Charles Vess's name I, wrongly as it turns out, assumed The Queen of Summer's Twilight was a graphic novel. The attention to detail Vess shows in his art certainly comes through in his writing, but I think that's actually a bit of a drawback as the story is buried under descriptions.

Workmanlike rather than inspired retelling of Tam Lin. I'm a big fan of Charles Vess as an illustrator and I could really see how an artist's eye had informed the descriptive passages, but I found myself struggling to keep going by about halfway through

This is a lovely tale. I nearly couldn't get into it, because the young boys in the first chapter didn't grab me. But when we met the heroine Janet in chapter 2 I was all in, and Janet alone makes the book worthwhile. The other characters from myth and faerie tale add delightful flavour. The only dissapointment for me was that I was expecting more illustration (it being a Charles Vess book) than just the chapter headers. However, Vess tells the story so well, and I'm so familiar with his art, that my mind drew scenes for me, illustrated in the inimitable Charles Vess style.

This really is a 4.5 star review. If the first and second chapters were switched, it would be 5 stars. ( )

I'm not gonna lie, when I saw this book was by Charles Vess I was expecting a graphic novel or a story with illustrations. This is his first novel. I love the story of Tam Lin and this retelling did not disappoint. I loved Janet and Thomas the moment I met them. I thought some sections were overly long and could have been edited better to move the story along, but overall I enjoyed this book very much.
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