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the_dragon_starback's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Very slow with almost no emotional attachment to characters. My family read this aloud which certainly contributed to both those aspects, but still a very particular kind of children’s fantasy from a good 30-40 years ago.
jfuel's review against another edition
4.0
So these four English kids get whisked off to another world where they encounter strange magic and adventures. They meet a great, golden lion...wait, that’s not right, there’s no lion.
In fact they get whisked back to England rather quickly and spend the rest of the book there which was not anticipated. But it works quite well and there’s loads of fun British slang to keep things interesting.
(Read to the kids.)
In fact they get whisked back to England rather quickly and spend the rest of the book there which was not anticipated. But it works quite well and there’s loads of fun British slang to keep things interesting.
(Read to the kids.)
kailey_luminouslibro's review against another edition
4.0
This is the best work by the this author that I have read so far! For one thing, his story line is a bit clearer in this book, and there are fewer characters to keep track of. The story is laid out more simply and is easier to understand,; not like some of his books that are so ambiguous you have no clue what is going on. He has wonderful original ideas in this one, and I love the magical Treasures and the unicorn. Malebron is too distant and mysterious to be real; he's really one-dimensional. But the rivalry and careful balance of power between the siblings is perfectly done. Their family relationships are exactly as things really are in a family.
I like this one!
I like this one!
anna_hepworth's review against another edition
4.0
I don't know whether it is that the early parts of this book haven't stood the test of time, whether I've actually read too many books with similar enough underlying ideas, or if it is that the early sections so strongly imprinted on my memory that it just feels like a really obvious start to a story. But I found myself, while enjoying the writing, rolling my eyes at bits of the first third or so.
Which might also be my Gen X cynicism showing. Of course the adult in the alt world is making the kids do all the work. What else are we expecting of the Boomer generation. And no, I don't quite live my life that much in black and white, but it was some of what I was finding irritating here. Unlike other stories with the oblivious adults trope, this one was really hard to get through sections where adults could have stepped up, and there were sections where I had to walk away from the book for hours (or days) until I could deal with continuing reading.
Despite me having somewhat grown past it, this is still a strongly written powerful story. I love the ambiguity of the ending, and the cypher of the alternative world -- the viewpoint character(s) really don't have the sophistication/maturity to comprehend what is happening, and the narrative voice doesn't fill that in for the reader.
Which might also be my Gen X cynicism showing. Of course the adult in the alt world is making the kids do all the work. What else are we expecting of the Boomer generation. And no, I don't quite live my life that much in black and white, but it was some of what I was finding irritating here. Unlike other stories with the oblivious adults trope, this one was really hard to get through sections where adults could have stepped up, and there were sections where I had to walk away from the book for hours (or days) until I could deal with continuing reading.
Despite me having somewhat grown past it, this is still a strongly written powerful story. I love the ambiguity of the ending, and the cypher of the alternative world -- the viewpoint character(s) really don't have the sophistication/maturity to comprehend what is happening, and the narrative voice doesn't fill that in for the reader.
hayesstw's review against another edition
5.0
I've just finished reading [b:Elidor|292654|Elidor|Alan Garner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328875908s/292654.jpg|2987303] for the seventh time (or is it the eighth?), and was quite surprised to see that it was nearly 25 years since the last time I read it.
What prompted this reading was that someone wrote a rather nice review of my children's book [b:Of wheels and witches|23715217|Of Wheels and Witches|Stephen Hayes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1418051156s/23715217.jpg|43325109], and I began to wonder if it was worth trying to write a sequel, and I began to re-read Elidor to get me in to mood to think about it.
That's because [b:Elidor|292654|Elidor|Alan Garner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328875908s/292654.jpg|2987303] is, in my view at least, a kind of paradigm case of what a children's fantasy novel should be.
It's a bit like a combination of [a:C.S. Lewis|1069006|C.S. Lewis|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1367519078p2/1069006.jpg] and [a:Charles Williams|36289|Charles Williams|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217390107p2/36289.jpg]. Though Lewis wrote stories for children, Charles Williams never did, but I imagine that if he had he would have written something like Elidor. The first 50 pages are like Lewis -- some children are snatched away into another world, the devastated dying world of Elidor. But the rest of the book is like Williams -- the other world irrupts into this world.
The protagonist of [b:Elidor|292654|Elidor|Alan Garner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328875908s/292654.jpg|2987303] is Roland Watson, the youngest of four middle-class siblings who live in Greater Manchester. In various parts of the story [a:Alan Garner|47991|Alan Garner|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1363273417p2/47991.jpg] satirises bourgeois tastes and values and contrasts their tameness with the wildness of Elidor, which only Roland really appreciates until, in the end, the wildness of Elidor overwhelms them all.
What prompted this reading was that someone wrote a rather nice review of my children's book [b:Of wheels and witches|23715217|Of Wheels and Witches|Stephen Hayes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1418051156s/23715217.jpg|43325109], and I began to wonder if it was worth trying to write a sequel, and I began to re-read Elidor to get me in to mood to think about it.
That's because [b:Elidor|292654|Elidor|Alan Garner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328875908s/292654.jpg|2987303] is, in my view at least, a kind of paradigm case of what a children's fantasy novel should be.
It's a bit like a combination of [a:C.S. Lewis|1069006|C.S. Lewis|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1367519078p2/1069006.jpg] and [a:Charles Williams|36289|Charles Williams|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217390107p2/36289.jpg]. Though Lewis wrote stories for children, Charles Williams never did, but I imagine that if he had he would have written something like Elidor. The first 50 pages are like Lewis -- some children are snatched away into another world, the devastated dying world of Elidor. But the rest of the book is like Williams -- the other world irrupts into this world.
The protagonist of [b:Elidor|292654|Elidor|Alan Garner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328875908s/292654.jpg|2987303] is Roland Watson, the youngest of four middle-class siblings who live in Greater Manchester. In various parts of the story [a:Alan Garner|47991|Alan Garner|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1363273417p2/47991.jpg] satirises bourgeois tastes and values and contrasts their tameness with the wildness of Elidor, which only Roland really appreciates until, in the end, the wildness of Elidor overwhelms them all.
rainweaver13's review against another edition
3.0
A sweet and mildly scary children's fantasy story. If I'd read this when I was a child, back in the '60s, I'd have adored it. It has everything: spooky ruins, mysterious passages to other worlds, a dark and growing evil, castles in ruins, a golden prince who needs help from four ordinary British children, treasures, chases, otherworldly attacks on this world, excitement ... and a unicorn.
Hey, I read it at 61 and still enjoyed it, although it was literally nothing new and took less than a day to read. It's very British and dated in the "modern" part of the story (set not many years after the Blitz), which might prove a barrier to children today.
But about that "literally nothing new," Garner was among a small number of people who dared to write in a fantasy setting in the '60s. "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" had begun to enjoy a mild spurt of popularity among young people at that time. (I suspect it was due to mellow hobbits smoking weed and loving mushrooms, but hey, whatever it take to get people into a book. ;) ) Anyway, things that might be read by contemporary readers as trite and overdone were, in fact, part of a bold and new genre - modern fantasy. As unbelievable as it may seem now, in the beginning fantasy was dismissed and (sometimes, by some snoots) denigrated as nothing but fairy tales and not fit reading for adults. Writers like George MacDonald (widely considered the father of modern fantasy) had included "fantastical" elements in their writings as early as the 1800s. But as late as the publication of "The Hobbit" in the late 1930s, such writings were still largely dismissed as "fairy tales" and only for children or non-serious adults.
(Clearly these folks had never read any real fairy or folk tales, which can be harrowing and [do I dare?] grim.)
Anyway, to the contemporary reader, "Elidor" will probably seem simplistic and trite, but those of us who love modern fantasy owe a debt of gratitude to those early writers of the '50s and '60s who dared to enter this world of pure imagination and helped breathe life into the fantasy genre, which is now pretty much everywhere and widely accepted.
Hey, I read it at 61 and still enjoyed it, although it was literally nothing new and took less than a day to read. It's very British and dated in the "modern" part of the story (set not many years after the Blitz), which might prove a barrier to children today.
But about that "literally nothing new," Garner was among a small number of people who dared to write in a fantasy setting in the '60s. "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" had begun to enjoy a mild spurt of popularity among young people at that time. (I suspect it was due to mellow hobbits smoking weed and loving mushrooms, but hey, whatever it take to get people into a book. ;) ) Anyway, things that might be read by contemporary readers as trite and overdone were, in fact, part of a bold and new genre - modern fantasy. As unbelievable as it may seem now, in the beginning fantasy was dismissed and (sometimes, by some snoots) denigrated as nothing but fairy tales and not fit reading for adults. Writers like George MacDonald (widely considered the father of modern fantasy) had included "fantastical" elements in their writings as early as the 1800s. But as late as the publication of "The Hobbit" in the late 1930s, such writings were still largely dismissed as "fairy tales" and only for children or non-serious adults.
(Clearly these folks had never read any real fairy or folk tales, which can be harrowing and [do I dare?] grim.)
Anyway, to the contemporary reader, "Elidor" will probably seem simplistic and trite, but those of us who love modern fantasy owe a debt of gratitude to those early writers of the '50s and '60s who dared to enter this world of pure imagination and helped breathe life into the fantasy genre, which is now pretty much everywhere and widely accepted.
rachael_amber's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
emkoshka's review against another edition
4.0
I was given Elidor for Christmas when I was 12 and then it sat on my shelf for 17 years, unread. What a joy to read it now. Chilling, creepy, sinister. It's a fantasy novel, but is mostly set in Manchester, England, which provides more than enough in the way of otherworldliness. The deserted streets and half-demolished houses of the opening and closing chapters are evocative in that way that makes you look over your shoulder. The children are very 1960s conservative and the ending wraps up too quickly, but they're my only quibbles. I'll be hitting the library for more of Alan Garner's books. :)