William Nicholson: The Wind on Fire trilogy
This extraordinary imaginative work of fantasy consists (in order) of: The Wind Singer, Slaves of the Mastery and Firesong. So far I've only read the first two books, though I'm aiming to get the third one as soon as possible.
I find it difficult to know how to begin describing these books. At a time when there are so many works of fantasy 'out there', influenced very much by each other, Nicholson is unusual in producing a story which is very much in its own style — not like anything else I can think of offhand. He describes the opening setting at the start of The Wind Singer quite simply, and yet the characters, the setting and the events are far from ordinary.
I found that as I read on, the events and the ideas got a grip on my imagination. There's a strange, haunting beauty about the writing. It has a sort of allegorical feel to it, while not being (as far as I could see) a deliberate allegory of anything in paticular. Somehow I got the sense that it's something more than an allegory about anything specific, which resonates (so to speak) at a deeper level of the imagination.
In one sense, if you had to talk about an overall meaning, it's true that certain qualities shine through as admirable (or otherwise, as the case may be). Still, it seems to me that the author does not impose a particular interpretation or application of the story. It reminds me of what Tolkien said in the foreword to Lord of the Rings:
I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.
I found that the stories made a great impression on me, partly because the imagery has such a very symbolic feel about it (so to speak) but at the same time each reader is free to see whatever parallels there may be in his own experience and view of life. In that sense I suspect that Nicholson would have a very wide appeal, to anyone who is in any way drawn to fantasy in general.