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extrememochi's review against another edition
4.0
"So you understand. You asked the question."
"Yes."
"Do you understand the answer?"
"Yes, so I've stopped the hurt."
Well, I sure as hell don't understand. Putting this on my reread list so that one day I might understand. It was a lot more esoteric than the first two books, and until 60% through I was excited for this new narrative style and direction but it felt like there should have been more somehow. I'm not mad at it, but it does leave me feeling darker about the first two books.
I would have appreciated the return of the Wizard Cadellin as well.
"Yes."
"Do you understand the answer?"
"Yes, so I've stopped the hurt."
Well, I sure as hell don't understand. Putting this on my reread list so that one day I might understand. It was a lot more esoteric than the first two books, and until 60% through I was excited for this new narrative style and direction but it felt like there should have been more somehow. I'm not mad at it, but it does leave me feeling darker about the first two books.
I would have appreciated the return of the Wizard Cadellin as well.
cimorene1558's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent, although not exactly easy-to-read book, but then everything Alan Garner has written is. I would not say it in any way completes the Weirdstone books, more like makes everything more confusing and rather sad, but if you loved those books as a child, you will want to read this one as an adult, just because, like Everest, it's there. Stylistically, it's much more like [b:Red Shift|307220|Red Shift|Alan Garner|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411940931s/307220.jpg|298190] or [b:Thursbitch|925775|Thursbitch|Alan Garner|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320484654s/925775.jpg|910780] than the Weirdstone books, but it's well worth reading if you can manage the somewhat non-linear style.
cazinthehat's review against another edition
2.0
Well. Perhaps I didn't get it, but I'm really sad about this being the ending to two of my favourite books as a child.
eastofthesunwestofthemoon's review against another edition
3.0
3 stars. Boneland is not what I expected. It is a complex and tortuous book that has little in common with the first two in the Tales of Alderley series. Parts of it are really marvelously written and parts of it are just choppy and chaotic. I was hoping for at least some nostalgia and at least something in common with the wonder of the first two books, but that isn't where Garner chooses to take us in this tale. Ultimately, it just didn't speak to me the way the other two did, in years past and upon rereading them recently. I don't regret reading Boneland, but I doubt if I will revisit it.
storiwa's review against another edition
Can't rate this one - I think I liked it but it was also super difficult to get into. I'll have to reread it at some point.
mike_brough's review against another edition
4.0
This is going to take a lot of re-reading to get anywhere near its meaning. I suspect I'll have to go back to the first two books in the trilogy and trace things through. But that will be a pleasure.
richard_farley1976's review against another edition
2.0
Confusing, self indulgent and not an end to a trilogy. Very disappointing. Weird experimental writing.
paracyclops's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Boneland is the sequel to two children's fantasies, 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen', and 'The Moon of Gomrath', that were formative in my introduction to literature in general, and to the genre of fantasy in general. I was keen to see what Alan Garner would do with his setting in a book for adults, and I certainly enjoyed the echoes of that world that can be heard in this book—the sleeping warriors beneath the stone, the ineluctable contusion of past and present… One of the protagonists of those earlier books is the grown-up protagonist of this one, an autistic astronomer in his sixties, struggling to recover or avoid the memories of his youthful adventures. His journey is paralleled by that of an unnamed Mesolithic shaman, trying to mystically transmit his cultural inheritance to future generations. These two characters are linked by an ancient stone axe, buried and recovered at the axis of the radio telescope where the later one conducts his research. The denouement of these two stories is beautifully ambiguous, richly symbolic—a compelling poem of place and experience. However, almost every element of the contemporary narrative fails to convince. The main character's autism is represented in a heavy-handed and simplistic manner. His professional life is depicted in apparent ignorance of the procedures and conventions of scientific research—surprisingly, as Garner has said he prefers the company of scientists to that of writers. The dialogue is wooden, and curiously archaic, cleaving to idioms and social niceties that were sixty years out of date at the time the book is set (around 2010). The characters give little indication that they have any life or complexity beyond the surface that they show to the narrative. I've heard this book described as 'experimental', and it certainly doesn't hold the reader's hand, but all of those structural and creative elements are well-crafted—and much of the language is extremely beautiful. Where it falls down is in the basic technique of novel-writing. I'm afraid that Garner isn't that interested in the ways that other people think and talk, and as one of those other people, I felt as though he'd forgotten how to tell me a story.
lordenglishssbm's review against another edition
3.0
There's something intriguing and beautiful about this book, even at a conceptual level. Garner wrote the last book in the series back in the 60s, and returned to the world 50 years later for a follow-up. The last book was written for children, while this one is written for adults.
It's a book about growing up. About how childhood is lost to adulthood, and how our memories of the time are recontextualized by who we are. About coming to terms with a past we can't quite understand. It is what The Magicians aspires to be, and it does it all in a relatively small number of pages. It is a bit repetitive, but that can be forgiven since it follows a man unable to move on from a thing which may or may not have happened to him. It was an appropriate choice to make it repetitive, and the story never unfolds too slowly or too quickly.
Garner's prose has not lost its edge, but the pity is that even now his characters still hew too closely to archetypes for their own good. They develop and interact, but aside from some remarkable bits of dialogue are never truly surprising. It's remarkable that he can take these ideas as far as he has, but I wish he had strengthened his fundamentals a bit more.
It's a bit stunning to see an old middle-grade book series end like this one, and I would not have done it, but it's a testament to Garner's skill that this somehow it feels right.
It's a book about growing up. About how childhood is lost to adulthood, and how our memories of the time are recontextualized by who we are. About coming to terms with a past we can't quite understand. It is what The Magicians aspires to be, and it does it all in a relatively small number of pages. It is a bit repetitive, but that can be forgiven since it follows a man unable to move on from a thing which may or may not have happened to him. It was an appropriate choice to make it repetitive, and the story never unfolds too slowly or too quickly.
Garner's prose has not lost its edge, but the pity is that even now his characters still hew too closely to archetypes for their own good. They develop and interact, but aside from some remarkable bits of dialogue are never truly surprising. It's remarkable that he can take these ideas as far as he has, but I wish he had strengthened his fundamentals a bit more.
It's a bit stunning to see an old middle-grade book series end like this one, and I would not have done it, but it's a testament to Garner's skill that this somehow it feels right.