The Interior Life

by Katherine Blake

Too active a fantasy life can be a dangerous things. For Susan this is literally true. She's perfectly happy in her role as wife and mother in suburbia. Or perhaps not perfectly happy, because the fantasy world she slips into every so often is very different from her everyday life. . . .

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671720104
• ISBN13: 9780671720100
• Release Date: August 1990
• Publisher: Baen Books
• Length: 313 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An excellent fantasy

It has been a few years since I read this book, and I was only recently reminded of it. I thought I would try to find other books by this author and discovered that the author's name is a pseudonym for Dorothy J. Heydt, whose works I have read and enjoyed for years in Sword & Sorceress. I very much enjoyed the blending of fantasy and reality in this book. I liked the idea of the creeping darkness and the bioluminescent plants--heck the whole biology of the darkened part of the world fascinated me so much that I was inspired to work out the ecosystem for a vaguely similar world of my own. After fifteen years, I don't remember much of the plot of this book, but I do remember getting a great deal of enjoyment from reading it, and I remember being fascinated with the world and the characters the author created. Definitely do buy this book!

A true story

Every once in a while, you come across a story that just reads 'true'. Not true as in true crime story (which would be difficult in a fantasy, but 'true' in a way that touches deeply, and stays with you for a long time.This is one of those stories.Not one to miss.

A true story

Every once in a while, you come across a story that just reads 'true'. Not true as in true crime story (which would be difficult in a fantasy), but 'true' in a way that touches deeply, and stays with you for a long time.This is one of those stories.Not one to miss.

Nom de Plume?

Katherine Blake is also known as Dorothy J. Heydt (author of "A Point of Honor" and various short stories found in anthologies like Sword and Sworceress). I haven't actually read the book yet (just tracked down a used copy), but I thought fans of Dorothy's work would want to know.

An enjoyable book, mixing fantasy and contemporary elements.

The Interior Life is one of the strangest fantasy's I've read. The elements of a quest, of lost loves, and trials against unutterable evil, are all part of a backdrop to a modern house wife's metamorphosis. Beginning as a simple fantasy while Susan is trying to catch up on her house work, the characters of her otherworldly adventure become to her, and to the reader, as real as Susan's children, and the local PTA. It is through this interaction between Susan and the inhabitants of her fantasy world, that an odd communication begins to unfold. Without any breaching of the barriers between fantasy and reality, both Susan and her characters undergo a metamorphosis, taking strength, wisdom, and inspiration from each other. And acting as a catalyst for their otherwordly friends. It is this mixing of fantasy and reality I find most compelling about the book. I hope to find that Ms. Blake has other stories to tell.