Scan barcode
naturalistnatalie's review against another edition
4.0
This was an excellent read aloud. The sentences just rolled off the tongue and the chapters weren't too long. I was surprised how easy it was to read, considering it was written in the 1800s. I've noticed authors from that long ago tend toward very long, convoluted sentences. That was not the case here. Instead, the sentences were short and action-packed. It was in the dialogue that I could feel the age of the book. The dialogue tended toward the formal and the "canst thou"s.
The story moved along nicely without much excess. The one confusing part was when Baron Henry cut off Otto's hand. It was alluded to so vaguely I didn't even realize anything happened to him until he was sick recovering. Then, it was chapters later until we learned his hand was cut off. I thought for a while he was castrated and that was why the author was so vague in his descriptions. I should have remembered the title of the book. The kids didn't find it as interesting as I did, but you can't with them all. The book was quite descriptive of how people not at court lived in the Middle Ages. So often historical fiction focuses on the Kings and Queens and those around them. Here, we get a robber baron in the depths of Germany.
The story moved along nicely without much excess. The one confusing part was when Baron Henry cut off Otto's hand. It was alluded to so vaguely I didn't even realize anything happened to him until he was sick recovering. Then, it was chapters later until we learned his hand was cut off. I thought for a while he was castrated and that was why the author was so vague in his descriptions. I should have remembered the title of the book. The kids didn't find it as interesting as I did, but you can't with them all. The book was quite descriptive of how people not at court lived in the Middle Ages. So often historical fiction focuses on the Kings and Queens and those around them. Here, we get a robber baron in the depths of Germany.
lynn_pugh's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
imperfectcj's review against another edition
3.0
In the movie Rosemary's Baby (one of my favorite movies of all time), the character Hutch is described as being an author of "boys' adventure stories." I never knew what that meant, but it's possible that Otto of the Silver Hand might be a boys' adventure story.
There's honor and revenge and violence (thankfully without gore). It reminded me of the old movies made under the "Code" back in the day in its fairly simple presentation of good and evil. Even the dude who's finally trying to do right can't have a happy ending because he's done so much bad in the past. Not that I wanted things to be hunky-dory for him, but I would prefer a little more of a reward for having a nuanced emotional life and an evolving sense of morality. Good comes only to the unambiguously and consistently good, which doesn't give much hope to the rest of us. Of course, the good have some pretty nasty things happen to them, too, so there's not a lot of hope for anyone in this book, really. Which now that I think of it, is a little odd for a children's story. I might have to bump my rating up a star just for that.
There's honor and revenge and violence (thankfully without gore). It reminded me of the old movies made under the "Code" back in the day in its fairly simple presentation of good and evil. Even the dude who's finally trying to do right can't have a happy ending because he's done so much bad in the past. Not that I wanted things to be hunky-dory for him, but I would prefer a little more of a reward for having a nuanced emotional life and an evolving sense of morality. Good comes only to the unambiguously and consistently good, which doesn't give much hope to the rest of us. Of course, the good have some pretty nasty things happen to them, too, so there's not a lot of hope for anyone in this book, really. Which now that I think of it, is a little odd for a children's story. I might have to bump my rating up a star just for that.
jodilynclayton's review against another edition
3.0
Oh, these overly sentimental Victorians. Didn’t they ever find their perfect heroes a bit cloying???
More...