Strange Territory

The Wizard from the Isles, by Ian Rae; Kennedy & Boyd, 2009, 284 pages, £14.95.
Ian Rae’s strange and compelling novel displays the same lucid, patient, almost mesmerising style familiar from his short stories, published under the name Jack Irvine as In Praise of Younger Women. In some respects the novel is three collections of short stories: the first recounts the childhood of the principal character, Robert Taran, in the islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland; the second tells of his adult career, his love affair with an older woman, her death, his subsequent wandering around the world before finally settling in a place where he feels a curious affinity, in France; the third and most startling describes his meeting with other wizards and spirit-projections, who introduce him to his own full capacities as a man with “The Sight” and elemental, subliminal powers, which involve him in various conflicts with wizards given to the Dark Side.

However, such a bald description of the book…