Thoroughly enjoying this book, a great example of how fantasy should be done, and the author is only 15!!! Marvellous!

Much better than the god awful Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd. I tried to read it, but I just found it gruelling. So so boring, but that's just my taste. I like books where something actually happens.

I've also ordered some Garth Nix as I hear that's good fantasy too. I'm trying to update my knowledge of the contemporary genre. After Phillip Pullman, I've redisovered my love for these kind of stories.

JB

I have Eragon in my mountainous pile of books to read so maybe I'll shift it up a bit. I loved loved loved Sabriel etc. I think it's a wonderful trilogy! I've just bought Ragwitch by him which is more of a horror thing. That's in my pile too!

BTW, meant to say that I've just finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. What a great book! Thanks for recommending him (somewhere in these forums!).

S
x

Yeah, I just finished Neverwhere too. A lovely book, though it started a bit slow. Someone pointed out similarities between that and my TA story, and I hadn't read it. After reading it, I feel the two are pretty different really. Anyway, the myth of London isn't Gaiman's anyway. It belongs to the times.

Hated Sabriel. All description. Short of dialogue and action. Boring as hell. Gave up around page 133. I was gutted because so many people told me they love it.

Try Eragon. I'm loving it.

JB

If you love fantasy, you must read this. For a fifteen year old, it is a stunni ng achievement.

JB

JB, I had to giggle just then, reading this. You may recall we were very much on opposite sides of the Harry Potter debate recently....and I loved Hawksmoor!!
Shall we make a pact? We'll never EVER recommend a book to each other?

I'd do a wink here, if I knew how!!!

Oh, I have completely changed my mind on this book. For once, I believed the hype. By the middle of it, I found it tedious, cliche ridden, and rather dull. I also discovered, from the acknowledgements, that Mr Paolini's 'achievement' isn't so great after all - his parents own a publishing company.

Disappointed, I finished it anyway (I hate not finishing books), and went on to the altogether more satisfying Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell . I've wolfed it down in two weeks, and honestly think it is one of the best fantastical books I have ever read.

JB

<Added>

Hawksmoor is no doubt excellent. I will give it another try at some point. I think I was partly distracted by about five new books on my shelf begging to be read, and for some reason I just couldn't concentrate on it.

I really loved Jonathan Strange as well, JB. It's terribly readable and also very memorable. Perhaps I won't even try Eragon.

Frances

Like waxlyrical, I was intrigued by the hype around this book. But just check out the reviews on Amazon! There are a large number of very, very bad reviews, some from disappointed young people who say their parents bought them the book.

This proves two things.

1. Hype CAN sell a poorly written book.
2. Children are not the most important consumers of children's literature.

Before anyone is tempted to comment on those popular bestsellers, the reviews on Amazon for HP and DVC are almost universally terrific, and there are thouands of them. They are in a different league, in terms of reader approval on Amazon.

<Added>

(On point 2, I mean that in the business of publishing. The people who usually buy the books are the parents, so presumably publishers are targeting them rather than the young 'uns.)