My reading experience for H. G. Parry’s A Far Better Thing was somewhat non-standard (at least for me). I first picked the book up back in June of last year. I read a couple of chapters, but the story wasn’t really gripping me, so I set it aside. I’ve really enjoyed other books by the author, so a few weeks ago I decided to give it a second chance, and I’m glad I did.
This is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, set before and during the French Revolution, with the addition of faerie and changelings. Sydney Carton was swapped with a changeling as a child, and grew up in the faerie realm. Now an adult returned to the human world and working as a lawyer, he is surprised to encounter his changeling counterpart as the defendant of a case he is working. As he becomes closer to his changeling, as well as the changeling of his childhood friend, he struggles to juggle his relationships with the instructions given to him by two rival faeries from the realm.
I’m not super familiar with Dickens’ original story, so I can’t really comment on how closely it adheres to its inspiration. However, I think it definitely stands on its own, and my enjoyment wasn’t diminished by going in “blind.” From some quick Googling, I think my favourite characters and their subplot weren’t in the original novel at all. It does admittedly have a bit of a slow opening, but once things got moving I pretty much read it straight through.
