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''Poison'' (2003) is a young-adult English-language fantasy novel written by Chris Wooding, published in 2003. It is a highly metafictional novel which follows the adventures of a young (sixteen-year-old) female protagonist named Poison as she attempts to rescue her sister from the Phaerie Realm. It contains many intertextual references particularly to mythology, fairy tales and secondary world fantasy (i.e. a story about a world in which magic works without any connection to the "real" world) characteristics. Wooding credits his travels through Europe as the inspiration for Poison, which he began writing a year after returning home.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Chris Wooding )〕 He says of the novel: "It can be read one level as a weird, gruesome kind of fairy tale, but there's a lot more to it than that. I spent most of my time writing this novel worrying about whether anyone would 'get' it, or whether it would sound like some degenerate A-Level student's philosophical rant when it was all finished instead of the story it was supposed to be, but I think it all worked out fine in the end. I'm very happy with it, anyways. And at least I got to put all the folklore I studied at University to good use."〔 == Plot == Poison is the story of a rebellious human teenager living in the swamp town of Gull with her father, stepmother, and her baby sister Azalea. She struggles against the oppression in her life, particularly with her strained relationship with her Stepmother. Her only friend in Gull is the old traveler Fleet, who tells her tales of the old wars and phaeries and maintains that Poison has some of the “Old Blood” in her. On Soulswatch Eve, Poison’s baby sister is taken and replaced with a Changeling. After consulting with Fleet, Poison sets out from Gull to rescue her sister from the Phaerie Lord. She pays the Wraith-Catcher Bram to take her to Shieldtown to seek out the creature Lamprey, whom Fleet has referred her to. Once in Shieldtown Poison encounters a young woman heading back to Gull, and asks her to relay a message to her parents. After proving herself to Lamprey Poison is sent to the home of the Bone Witch. In chapters fairly reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel, Poison enters the house of the Bone Witch. She meets another young woman named Peppercorn who keeps house for the blind, old witch. Peppercorn is unwilling to help Poison past hiding her one night, and so it is with Bram’s help that Poison defeats the witch. Bram and Poison escape the house with Peppercorn and her highly intelligent cat Andersen. The quartet meet a fisherman named Myrrk who hints that all is not what it seems in the phaerie realm and sends them on their way to the Phaerie Lord’s castle. Once there Poison strikes a deal with Aelthar the Phaerie Lord that he will return Azalea to her if she obtains a dagger for him. This deal sends her and her companions into the castle of the spider woman Asinastra. She obtains the dagger and returns to Aelthar, where she learns that he had no intention of returning her sister. Angered by Aelthar’s deception, Poison and her companions journey to the meeting of the lords at the Hierophant’s castle where they reunite with Fleet. Fleet, we learn, is an Antiquarian; a human who seeks out stories of interest and value for the Hierophant to transcribe. Poison learns that her entire world has been written by the Hierophant, a fact that she is not particularly thrilled with. Suddenly, all hell breaks loose as the Hierophant is murdered with the dagger Poison acquired for Aelthar. The lords of the varying realms are in an uproar, as the death of the Hierophant means that a successor must take his place, and each realm wants the new Hierophant to be of their own world. Aelthar is particularly determined, and Poison discovers that he--by way of the Scarecrow, the phaerie creature who steals children from their beds and replaces them with changelings--has been breeding phaerie-human hybrids, as humans are the only species with imaginations and therefore best suited to become Hierophant. He shows Poison her own sister, now a teenager, who he had sent home after deeming her unsuitable. Poison realizes that the girl she sent back to Gull with word of her journey was, in fact, her rapidly aged sister. Deprived of her quest, Poison is furious and determined to get revenge. Aelthar sets the Scarecrow after her among the Hierophant's archives, and she kills it, upon which she is stabbed by Aelthar's assistant. The world starts to rapidly dissolve around her, and she grins through the blood, announcing that she has realized that she is the new Hierophant. Poison's life is saved, but her will to live is gone after realizing that her quest to regain her sister has been for naught. She refuses to eat, leaving the world drifting in a semi-solid unreality for weeks until Peppercorn's fury reminds her of her sister and she decides to begin work as Hierophant. The book ends with Poison furiously recording her own tale. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Poison (Wooding novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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