Laura's Fantasy Corner 2015

[Signor Finzione]

My mojo seems to have gone a bit haywire lately: I went through a recent phase of reading almost two books per week, but now I can't seem to settle to anything. As such I'm in the middle of 4 books at once. I'm currently reading:

 

Hawkwood's Voyage by Paul Kearney

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (re-read)

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (re-read)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (partial re-read)

 

It's a nice diverse little collection of books I can switch between as the mood takes me.

 

(I hope I can manage to finish JS&MN this time around - my old bookmark tells me I abandoned it almost exactly two years ago at page 614. )

[Timstar]

My mojo seems to have gone a bit haywire lately: I went through a recent phase of reading almost two books per week, but now I can't seem to settle to anything. As such I'm in the middle of 4 books at once. I'm currently reading:

 

I wish I only had 4! I think I'm up to about 10 now 

 

Paul Kearney is an author I have been meaning to try out for a while, maybe one day 

[Signor Finzione]

I wish I only had 4! I think I'm up to about 10 now 

 

I don't know how you manage to keep track! I'm normally very book-monogamous, so all this skipping about, cheating on one book for another, is highly unusual for me.

[Athena]

I hope you enjoy all those 4 reads, Laura!

 

And Tim.. crikey 10?! That would be way too confusing for me .

[Timstar]

I don't know how you manage to keep track! 

 

That is what everyone else says but I don't struggle at all.

 

Though to be fair I do read in a lot of different formats which helps, including non-fiction, e-books, audio and graphic novels as well as short stories which I would never stop half-way through meaning I wouldn't need to keep remember what happened last.

[Signor Finzione]

Review: 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' by J.K. Rowling

 

 

 

 

The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockheart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny.

But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone--or something--starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects...Harry Potter himself?

 

 

I first read this book in 1999, when I was 10: it was a gift from my parents for having a good school report, since they knew I loved the first Harry Potter book to bits. In the years since then I read and re-read this book, along with its predecessor, too many times to count, and went to watch the film version at the cinema three times along with my equally Harry Potter-obsessed best friend. I pretty much view this entire series through a pair of unbreakable, bulletproof, rose-tinted glasses, and so, as with my review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, this review comes with a ‘Nostalgia Warning’ attached (and also a spoiler warning for those twelve people in the world who haven’t read the books or watched the films). 

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets follows Harry and his best friends Ron and Hermione through their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This second instalment in the Harry Potter series takes all the awesome ingredients of the first book –lessons in wizardry, broomstick sports, House rivalry, dangerous creatures, magic and mystery – and throws them into a cauldron (pewter, standard size), along with a whole bunch of newer, darker stuff, including anti-Mugglism (that’s a word, right?), blood feuds, mysterious attacks, and wizard politics, bubbling them up together to make a fun and exciting plot. We get to visit a few new settings at the start of the book – such as the dark and twisted Knockturn Alley, and of course the Weasleys’ delightfully hodge-podge home The Burrow – which is nice, and also some new characters, including Harry’s biggest fan Dobby the House-Elf, who is adorable.

 

In the tradition of the first book in the series, Chamber of Secrets continues to document Dumbledore’s astounding epic fails in the area of Child Protection. Something is loose in the corridors of Hogwarts: four students have been attacked and Petrified by this unknown terror, and rumours of the Chamber of Secrets abound. But it’s not the first time this has happened: fifty years ago someone else opened the Chamber of Secrets . . . and fifty years ago, a student actually died. But it’s business as usual at Hogwarts: both lessons and Quidditch continue as normal, and the faculty appear to make no attempt whatsoever to actually investigate the attacks. The one time that Harry, who has twice been found at the scene of an attack in its immediate aftermath, is hauled to the Headmaster’s office, he is subjected to Dumbledore’s version of a rigorous interrogation: that is, one question: “is there anything you wish to tell me?” If only Dumbledore had pressed Harry for more information – or if Dumbledore had only thought to interview the ghost of the girl who was killed fifty years ago, you know, the one that lives at Hogwarts, for Christ’s sake – then the whole thing might have been resolved much sooner and with less hassle. I’m not criticising so much as poking fun, but seriously – come on, Dumbledore!

 

On the upside, Chamber of Secrets is the first in the Harry Potter series to contain real elements of horror, and Rowling does an incredible job of balancing this with the novel’s light-hearted tone. For the first time we get a real sense of danger within the castle: the increasing frequency of attacks, the atmosphere of tension within the school, the palpable fear about the mysterious monster . . . not to mention the eerie disembodied voices, the bloody writing on the walls, and of course the sinister lair of murderous giant spiders. Needless to say, Chamber of Secrets is much darker than its predecessor. Of course it could be even darker; and of course the villains are somewhat cartoonish (Lockhart, the Dursleys, even Lucius Malfoy to some extent), but since it’s a children’s book with a twelve-year-old protagonist, I think I can forgive it.

 

I find it difficult to believe that this book used to be one of my least favourites of the Harry Potter series, along with Prisoner of Azkaban and The Half-Blood Prince. I’ll have to wait and see what I make of the others when I get to them; but re-reading Chamber of Secrets now, I think it’s superior to the first book in many ways, not to mention different, focusing as it does on horror rather than mystery. I love Rowling’s trademark dry humour, and as with the first book, this along with her light-hearted tone makes Chamber of Secrets a joy to read.

 

5/5

 

  Hee hee!

[Chrissy]

Great review! 

 

It's best not to ponder too hard on the bits that would have been so easily avoided through actual communication between the characters! 

 

Having just finished a re read of the series after many years, I hope that you enjoy them as much as I have. 

[Athena]

Awww I love that inscription!

 

Great review ! (btw, be careful with spoilers ). I really liked re-reading them when I did so over a year ago. Have fun with the rest of them .

[Signor Finzione]

Great review! 

 

It's best not to ponder too hard on the bits that would have been so easily avoided through actual communication between the characters! 

 

Having just finished a re read of the series after many years, I hope that you enjoy them as much as I have. 

 

Thanks Chrissy! Yeah, sometimes it's hard not to be sarcastic about some of the more obvious stuff.

 

Awww I love that inscription!

 

Great review ! (btw, be careful with spoilers ). I really liked re-reading them when I did so over a year ago. Have fun with the rest of them .

 

Thanks! Though I did put a spoiler warning in the first paragraph for a change.

[Chrissy]

Thanks Chrissy! Yeah, sometimes it's hard not to be sarcastic about some of the more obvious stuff.

 

What I find worse is when I didn't notice a something to begin with! The questions will suddenly hit me ;why didn't they ask/look/stop? How could they think that was the way to go? etc. I have to just remind myself that there would be no story if everyone did as they really (in my eyes) should. 

Edited May 7, 2015 by Chrissy

[Signor Finzione]

What I find worse is when I didn't notice a something to begin with! The questions will suddenly hit me ;why didn't they ask/look/stop? How could they think that was the way to go? etc. I have to just remind myself that there would be no story if everyone did as they really (in my eyes) should. 

 

I know, yeah. If it had been us instead of Harry we'd have just gone straight to an adult with everything, and it wouldn't have been very exciting at all.

[Signor Finzione]

Review: 'Prince of Thorns' by Mark Lawrence

 

 

 

 

 “The thorns taught me the game . . . You can only win the game when you understand that it is a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him lose them all.”

 

Jorg Ancrath has been transformed from privileged prince to dangerous rogue. He has been witness to terrible atrocities and become the perpetrator of worse. Now he has to overcome childhood horrors in order to begin his fight for dominance over the Broken Empire.

 

 

 

Prince of Thorns is the first instalment in dark fantasy trilogy The Broken Empire, and it’s not for the faint hearted: be prepared for dark humour and macabre violence from the start. In the first few pages we are introduced to our not-so-heroic protagonist and treated to a brief account of a typical day in his life and that of his band of unscrupulous ‘Brothers’. Since this involves the looting and burning of a village – as well as the rape and murder of its simple inhabitants – there are many readers who have not found this merry tale to their liking.

 

Personally, I loved it.

 

The striking beginning of Prince of Thorns is a daring attempt by the author to both shock and hook the reader, and it works perfectly. My expectations of what to expect from the protagonist were shattered almost immediately, and I was bursting with questions: Who exactly is Jorg? What happened to make him this way? How did he fall in with this group of men? Why are they burning villages? To some extent these questions were answered by the end of the book, although never quite in a way the reader expected. Being coerced into feeling both admiration and sympathy for Jorg is probably the most unexpected result of having these questions answered!

 

The character of Jorg is developed brilliantly through the first-person narrative. His voice is distinctive and captivating, but also conflicted: sometimes cold and hard, at other times sarcastic and humorous. He seems inhumanly detached from most emotions, and is able to observe tragedy without dwelling on it. However, I also got the sense that this is more of a persona than a personality. Lawrence writes this cleverly: while Jorg is clearly ignorant of what is happening to him, we as readers are able to recognise and appreciate the gradual emergence of compunction and sympathy. (It’s a subtle development, but one which helps explain the ‘personality change’ others have remarked upon in the sequel).

 

Prince of Thorns also uses flashbacks to good effect; the infrequent time jumps provide insights into events and characters at relevant moments in the plot. Gradually learning about Jorg’s childhood is a great way to develop the character and provoke conflicting responses amongst readers. The flashbacks can occasionally be disorienting, but on the whole they are used effectively to flesh out the story with details that illuminate how the present situation came into being. I also love the bits and pieces that hint about the world of the ‘broken empire’ and the ‘Builders’.

 

Much as I love this series, and much as I dislike applying the term ‘unrealistic’ to anything within the fantasy genre, I have found myself giving thought to questions such as: would battle-hardened criminals (such as Rike) really follow such a young boy so willingly? And, even taking into account his extensive royal education in history and tactical warfare, would he really be capable of accomplishing so much? I’ve decided that the latter can be explained by Jorg’s “guiding hand”, while the former may simply be a result of the Brothers’ brutal “wolf pack” mentality: Jorg becomes the leader by defeating the group’s existing alpha male.  But accomplishing all this between the age of ten and fourteen? Bit far-fetched . . . And one more minor gripe: I wish there had been a bit more backstory for some of the Brothers rather than just the occasional anecdote or one-liner between chapters, entertaining though these were. Jorg might not care much about his Brothers, but I wanted to know more about what makes them tick. 

 

Prince of Thorns is a dark novel, though not as dark as others would have you believe. The characters are entertaining, the world is fascinating, and much of the imagery is vivid and staggering. Many readers find themselves alienated by the beginning, but I read right to the very end and wanted more.

 

4/5

 

(I originally posted a review of this book some time in 2013, and have edited it only very slightly this time round. ).

 

Also: I love how this cover makes him look as though he's riding a pogo stick.

[Athena]

Thanks! Though I did put a spoiler warning in the first paragraph for a change.

 

Sorry, I must have skipped over that . I blame the fact that it was 7:59 AM at my time of posting .

 

I'm glad you enjoyed re-reading Prince of Thorns .

 

Also: I love how this cover makes him look as though he's riding a pogo stick.

[Signor Finzione]

 

Sorry, I must have skipped over that . I blame the fact that it was 7:59 AM at my time of posting .

 

I'm glad you enjoyed re-reading Prince of Thorns .

 

Thank you! And to be fair, I probably should have used spoiler tags as well, just in case.

[Signor Finzione]

Review: 'Hawkwood's Voyage' by Paul Kearney

 

 

 

 

THE WESTERN WORLD IS BURNING...

Even as cities and cathedrals are tumbling, their defenders crucified by the invading Merduks, the Faithful war among themselves, purging heretics and magical folk and adding to the flames.

For Richard Hawkwood and his crew, a desperate venture to carry refugees to the uncharted land across the Great Western Ocean offers the only chance of escape from the Inceptines' pyres. The King's cousin, Lord Murad, has an ancient log book telling of a free, unspoiled land...

 

 

 

Hawkwood’s Voyage is a book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. Kicking off Paul Kearney’s epic Monarchies of God series, it seems to have been both praised and criticised across the web solely on the strength of its parallels to historical events. I have to admit that my general knowledge in this area is pretty poor, however, so whilst reading it the only possible influences I was able to recognise were the Spanish Inquisition and the discovery of America. But since I picked up the book as a work of fantasy – and, admittedly, on the strength of the fact that Steven Erikson wrote the cover blurb – these historical allusions went mostly over my head, and I don’t believe that my ignorance in this regard affected my enjoyment of the book in any way.

 

Kearney sets the very beginning of Hawkwood’s Voyage in the aftermath of a besieged city’s destruction, throwing us into the midst of a dark, gritty, conflicted world. This totally captivated my interest, and also reminded me of the beginning of Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon, which also begins in the wake of a siege and gradually fills in previous events as it goes along. In Kearney’s novel, the kingdoms of Normannia are under attack from the Sultanates of the Eastern Merduks. The great city of Aekir has fallen, and it’s only a matter of time before the rest of Normannia’s defences are breached. However, the defence of the realm against the Merduks is hampered by the power games of the leaders of the Inceptine church, whose influence across Normannia has shackled its secular leaders and instigated brutal pogroms against all foreigners and users of magic. 

 

Meanwhile, in an attempt to resist the Inceptines’ edicts, the King of Hebrion has commissioned a secret voyage to the legendary Western Continent, and two ships filled with arcane refugees now flee a land on the edge of civil war and journey into the unknown. The eponymous voyage is just one storyline amongst several, though it was by far my favourite. Although I didn’t particularly like Hawkwood as a character, I did thoroughly enjoy the tale of his voyage, in particular the elements of horror that suffused it: the ancient ship’s log telling of a dread beast terrorising a previous voyage is brilliantly reminiscent of Dracula, and I wish more page time had been devoted to this storyline to create a better sense of the fear and tension on board the Osprey.

 

Hawkwood’s Voyage boasts a range of characters, some more interesting than others. There’s Corfe the soldier, a former deserter attempting to redeem himself to his new commander; Richard Hawkwood, a ship’s captain commissioned to undertake a dangerous voyage; Abeleyn, a King made powerless in his own realm by the strictures of the Church; and Bardolin, a powerful mage and scholar. There are also other, more minor POV characters, though the main storylines revolve around these four. Unfortunately I found it difficult to sympathise with some of them: there seemed to me to be a sense of distance from the characters, occasionally heightened by the changing of POV without warning. For instance, one moment we might be viewing a scene through Corfe’s eyes, and the next moment we’ve switched to minor character Genera Martellus without so much as a page break to mark the change of POV. I’m not sure whether this is deliberate or just careless, but for me it detracted somewhat from any attempt to form a sympathetic bond with certain characters.

 

Kearney’s writing style is for the most part engaging throughout. However, he does inflict quite a few infodumps on the reader in the form of lengthy descriptions of scenery and history, particularly at the beginning of chapters and upon arriving in a new setting. Although the detail clearly demonstrates the skill and extent of the author’s worldbuilding, the way it is conveyed does tend to slow the pace a bit too much. Similarly an occasional overdose of lengthy dialogue makes Hawkwood’s Voyage a bit dry in places. On the other hand, Kearney does a more than decent job of writing large-scale conflict. His battle scenes are vivid, gritty and well-described (if a touch long-winded at times), not least because he maintains a balance between characters who are in the thick of the fighting and those who have a bird’s-eye view of the conflict. Furthermore, the author’s frequent references to the horrors of war and religious fanaticism – burning people at the stake, attacking an eyeless priest on the roadside, crucifying an enemy general – convey a pervading atmosphere of threat and tension, but not to the extent that it dominates the novel; Kearney certainly doesn’t shy away from depictions of violence, but nor does he dwell on them too much. His writing is gritty without being grimdark, and it suits the tone of the novel perfectly.

 

It’s obvious that Hawkwood’s Voyage is the start of something huge. Each of its disparate storylines kicks off major events, and though some seem less relevant than others it’s clear that they are all destined to eventually become important parts of the whole. Kearney’s world is geographically detailed and politically complex, and is peopled by characters both heroic and unscrupulous. I can’t wait to read more.

 

4/5

[Athena]

Great review! I'm glad you enjoyed the book. Are you able to focus a bit more?

[Signor Finzione]

Great review! I'm glad you enjoyed the book. Are you able to focus a bit more?

 

Thanks Gaia. Yes, surprisingly reading several books at once has seemed to help, as I don't feel so 'trapped' by the book I'm reading if I run out of steam. I'll just put it down and pick up Harry Potter instead, and usually after a couple of chapters I'm ready to return to the other book.

 

Thanks for asking.  

 

Currently I'm reading:

 

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

 

I'm thinking of reading some of Erikson's Bauchelain & Korbal Broach short stories in between reads as well, since I have the first three as part of a collected volume.

 

Also, my pre-order of Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey arrived a few days ago, so I'll probably be reading the third Expanse novel quite soon.

[Athena]

I'm glad it helps you !

 

I hope you enjoy all those books . And enjoy your pre-order when it gets there!

[Signor Finzione]

Review: 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke

 

 

 

 

The year is 1806, England is beleaguered by the long war with Napoleon, and centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains, the reclusive Mr Norrell, whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French.

 

Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very antithesis of Norrel. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms that between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.

 

 

 

Gorgeous. Enthralling. Captivating. Mesmerising. These are all words I certainly didn’t use when I first attempted to read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell a couple of years ago, finally abandoning it in disgust around the 600-page mark. I remembered little about the book, except that I quite enjoyed it at first but found that it soon became dry and laborious. However, I recently came to realise that I might be the only person in existence who has a problem with the book, and so resigned myself to give it another go . . . and WOW am I glad I did. 

 

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is, ostensibly, a tale of two magicians named Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. But this is far too simplistic a description for what is actually a lengthy, beautiful, meandering tale of magic and ambition and rivalry and friendship, told over the span of a decade and often focusing on subplots and minor characters as much as on its two main protagonists. In Clarke’s alternative nineteenth-century England, magic is considered a lost art. Not since the disappearance of the Raven King – a legendary magician who once ruled the North – and his successors have there been any true magicians. That is, until Mr Norrell makes himself known as the only practical magician in England, and possibly the world. The fashionable people of London are delighted by such a novelty, while the government see in him an opportunity to gain advantage in the war against Napoleon. When a second magician presents himself to Mr Norrell as a pupil it seems everything is going splendidly . . . until their relationship becomes strained by professional disagreements, a series of tragedies, and the interference of a mysterious gentlemanly antagonist; and both Strange and Norrell begin to think twice about their ambition to restore magic to England.

 

Clarke’s story, and the alternative England in which it takes place, is incredibly detailed and ambitious, astonishingly so when considering that this is the work of a debut author. Although the plot itself is anything but focused, this is clearly an intentional quirk that only adds to the novel’s charm, and the sense of unexpectedness created by the winding series of events is just one of the things that kept me reading. Though meandering, the story is nonetheless coherent and engaging. Each chapter is titled with the month and year in which it takes place, which is particularly helpful in keeping track of events; and an abundance of footnotes alternately provides the reader with additional information, historical references and fascinating anecdotes, adding further charm and depth to an already rich and satisfying reading experience. Furthermore, the pages are filled with beautifully vivid and evocative descriptions: of magical forests and city streets in winter, of candlelit libraries and dark landscapes, of ruined castles and mysterious roads. The author doesn’t just set the scene; she dazzles the reader with striking imagery and envelops them in an atmosphere both hauntingly magical and poignantly melancholy.

 

Clarke bravely, and successfully, attempts to emulate nineteenth-century novelists in both subject and tone, and the result is a delightful hybrid of Austen’s droll social satire and ironic commentary, and Dickens’s comical caricatures and perceptive observations of city life. However, the dry humour suffusing the whole is, I suspect, entirely the author’s own, and it is this mocking, almost self-deprecating voice that provides entertainment at times when arguably nothing is happening plot-wise. I particularly enjoyed the satirical portrait of Mr Norrell that continues throughout the novel: Norrell is somewhat despicable what with his jealous hoarding of knowledge, rudeness to others and egotistical sense of his own superiority, not to mention his hypocrisy; and yet he is also clever and fascinating, and I found myself turning page after page just to see what he would do next. Of course both protagonists are both entertaining in their own way, but Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is further brought to life by their friends and acquaintances, a brilliantly varied cast of secondary characters: Drawlight is despicable yet strangely sympathetic; Lascelles is clever and manipulative; Stephen Black is noble yet naïve; Childermass is wry and enigmatic; and naturally none are quite as secondary as they first appear, least of all the spectacular villain known only as the gentleman with the thistle-down hair.

 

Despite Mr Norrell’s ongoing attempts to categorise it in lists and trap it in books, the magic of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is ephemeral, mutable and largely unexplained. In this day and age, where works of fantasy are too often judged by how fastidious and logical their magic rules and ‘systems’ are, I can’t stress how refreshing it is to read a work instead suffused with nebulous magic, myths and legends, where the limits and possibilities and, indeed, reasons for magic are largely unknown.

 

I’ll admit that I became a little disheartened not long after beginning the book, largely because it seemed to be taking so long to read. However I soon realised I was more than happy to linger over each page, to take the time to appreciate each word, and even to re-read lines and passages that particularly appealed. By the time I finally approached the end I deliberately slowed my pace even further, to savour the final moments of this extraordinary book that I once disliked but now utterly adore and admire. I’m running out of ways to express how much I loved this book, so I’ll end with an incoherent string of adjectives. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is gorgeous. It’s enthralling. It’s surprising. It’s captivating. It’s mesmerising. It’s hilarious. It’s heart-breaking.

 

It might even be one of the best books I’ve ever read.

 

5/5

[vodkafan]

I agree with everything you have written Laura. So glad you gave it a second chance and enjoyed it so much.

[willoyd]

Wow, that is some review! Makes for superb reading - thank you Laura.

 

I read this a few years ago, in hardback, and rated it highly, but it looks as if I need to revisit it. I'm definitely up for the TV series!

[Karsa Orlong]

That's the best review I've ever read on here I think, Laura   Must've taken you ages

 

 

 

In this day and age, where works of fantasy are too often judged by how fastidious and logical their magic rules and ‘systems’ are, I can’t stress how refreshing it is to read a work instead suffused with nebulous magic, myths and legends, where the limits and possibilities and, indeed, reasons for magic are largely unknown.

 

 

Yes!!!  I've always thought magic should be, well, magical.  Can't bear all these frelling magic 'systems'  

[Signor Finzione]

Aw thanks you guys!

 

I agree with everything you have written Laura. So glad you gave it a second chance and enjoyed it so much.

 

It's not often we agree on fantasy, is it? I'm glad too, but am a bit gutted that I've been missing out on it for so long!

 

Wow, that is some review! Makes for superb reading - thank you Laura.

I read this a few years ago, in hardback, and rated it highly, but it looks as if I need to revisit it. I'm definitely up for the TV series!

 

Cheers Willoyd. I look forward to re-reading it myself in a couple of years, and am SO excited for the TV series! Glad I finished the book just in time.

 

That's the best review I've ever read on here I think, Laura   Must've taken you ages

 

Thanks! Yes, it took me far too long to write.

 

Yes!!!  I've always thought magic should be, well, magical.  Can't bear all these frelling magic 'systems'  

 

I agree! Where's the fun in limitations and rules? I actually thought of you when I wrote that part. Well, you and your best mate Bob.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Signor Finzione

[Athena]

That is a great review, Laura, wow!! I'm glad you enjoyed the book. I shall get around to it eventually .

[Timstar]

Fab review! I read it last year and enjoyed it but felt it dragged on a little bit too much. I guess you re-read it in time for the series as well which aired last night?