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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Finally got thru it. Not my favorite, but I'm glad I did.
What can I say? This is the umpteenth time we've completed our annual Face in the Frost read-aloud. Between the summer fade and winter chill, this classic fantasy offers a comforting retreat and wondrous adventure. Two friends and fellow wizards Prospero and Roger Bacon embark on a quest to defeat a sinister evil spreading across their world. If you have the "Magic Mirrors: The High Fantasy and Low Parody of John Bellairs" edition, you'll also find the beginnings of a sequel, drafted and never to be completed.
Funny and inventive book--it's somewhat unlike the John Bellairs most of us are familiar with (this was his first book), but none the less good for that. Slightly insane fantasy with ghostly overtones is the best description I can think of--much more fantasy (wizards, alternate world--although one that earthlings can travel to) than [b:The House with a Clock in its Walls|295801|The House With a Clock in Its Walls|John Bellairs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173479580s/295801.jpg|1098801] and so on. Much funnier than most of his other books, too.
What an odd, dissatisfying book. It's recognizably by the author of The House With A Clock In Its Walls in prose style and overall character oddness, but it's more colorful and abstract, with less of a sense of narrative focus. There's a plot here, about an evil wizard who wants to kill the protagonist for a rather vaguely expressed reason, and a great deal of journeying to face that wizard, with a lot of odd and interesting adventures along the way. But the protagonist never comes into focus as a character—one minute, he's scared of his own shadow, and the next, he's standing up to a small army. He's a wizard whose powers vary greatly from scene to scene, and whose abilities literally seem based on whatever he makes up—which would work fine for a humor book, but this is meant to be fairly gothic fantasy. The lack of rules or focus make for a very unpredictable book, but not a particularly cogent one, especially when the resolution comes down to three unexplained deus ex machinas in a row. A quick read, for an adult novel, but not at all a gratifying one, as colorful and strange and intermittently funny as it is.
A delightful tale, full of danger, humor and all the good stuff that epic fantasy tales should have.
Meh
Instantely forgetable. Sometimes I forgot what happened 10 minutes ago inside the book and was confused.
Might also be because I was listening to the audio book.
Towards the end I was barely paying attention so the cliffhanger ending confused me.
If it wasn’t for the fact that this is an Appendix N book I would never have picked this up, nor will I ever again.
i read this for class and really enjoyed it! the narrative tone was so fun and the magic was very spunky
I am sure The Face in the Frost is quite a few peoples childhood favourite. It is a relatively short fantasy/horror story, published originally in 1969. It rather shamelessly borrows from Tolkien and the style is very what we would nowadays call "traditional" or "classic".
None of this is to say that it's bad, I just don't believe it really holds up in the modern day.
Whilst the story on the whole is somewhat frail - reminding me more of a well made D&D campaign, there are certainly a handful of standout scenes that have stuck with me since I finished this book. These scenes are, for the majority, the ones that are scary by nature, and I have to say that there was genuine horror felt whilst reading these sections, which I truthfully wasn't expecting. None of it relying on gruesome scenes of violence or torture either. The fear, both bodily and psychologically, was really well written.
The world building had a very small part to play within the story, but what there was was rather unique and I think worth mentioning.
At least from what I could gather, the unnamed(?) continent from which Prospero hails, despite its fictionality, is located somewhere in Europe.
After a prologue of history on the Kingdom divided between a classic North and South, the North being peaceful and the South being riddled with civil wars and constant land grabs, our protagonist's best friend and fellow sorcerer, Roger, mentions sailing to England.
This merging of a fantasy land and our real world is something I don't see very often, and despite this not being done incredibly well here, I like the idea and hope I get to read more hybrids in future.
So yes, despite this review not being glowing by any means, I am glad I read The Face in the Frost.
I would certainly recommend it to people looking for an interesting magical protagonist; Prospero having difficulties remembering certain spells and having to constantly reread his spell books, as well as his relationship with Roger, makes him a pretty special character in my eyes.
Also, to those looking for a good combination of classic fantasy and something more spooky will like what is to be found here.
But if you are after a sprawling world and an epic quest, a well written cast of diverse side characters and a few well crafted tangential side stories, this one won't tick any of those boxes and that's OK.
3 stars. Simply put; a good book if you know what you want from it going in.
______________________
Thank you for reading my review!
This review was accidentally left half written for a few months, quickly being swept away by the hectic work and reading schedules. I'm back on top of it now though thankfully.
If anyone reading this has any suggestions of any other fantasy/horror stories, feel free to comment them below. I'd love to give them a look!
Ciao
None of this is to say that it's bad, I just don't believe it really holds up in the modern day.
Whilst the story on the whole is somewhat frail - reminding me more of a well made D&D campaign, there are certainly a handful of standout scenes that have stuck with me since I finished this book. These scenes are, for the majority, the ones that are scary by nature, and I have to say that there was genuine horror felt whilst reading these sections, which I truthfully wasn't expecting. None of it relying on gruesome scenes of violence or torture either. The fear, both bodily and psychologically, was really well written.
The world building had a very small part to play within the story, but what there was was rather unique and I think worth mentioning.
At least from what I could gather, the unnamed(?) continent from which Prospero hails, despite its fictionality, is located somewhere in Europe.
After a prologue of history on the Kingdom divided between a classic North and South, the North being peaceful and the South being riddled with civil wars and constant land grabs, our protagonist's best friend and fellow sorcerer, Roger, mentions sailing to England.
This merging of a fantasy land and our real world is something I don't see very often, and despite this not being done incredibly well here, I like the idea and hope I get to read more hybrids in future.
So yes, despite this review not being glowing by any means, I am glad I read The Face in the Frost.
I would certainly recommend it to people looking for an interesting magical protagonist; Prospero having difficulties remembering certain spells and having to constantly reread his spell books, as well as his relationship with Roger, makes him a pretty special character in my eyes.
Also, to those looking for a good combination of classic fantasy and something more spooky will like what is to be found here.
But if you are after a sprawling world and an epic quest, a well written cast of diverse side characters and a few well crafted tangential side stories, this one won't tick any of those boxes and that's OK.
3 stars. Simply put; a good book if you know what you want from it going in.
______________________
Thank you for reading my review!
This review was accidentally left half written for a few months, quickly being swept away by the hectic work and reading schedules. I'm back on top of it now though thankfully.
If anyone reading this has any suggestions of any other fantasy/horror stories, feel free to comment them below. I'd love to give them a look!
Ciao
The book description seems to put a strange emphasis on mirrors, and how they affect the personality (??) of the wizards. Hmm, seems almost like a deliberate misdirection...
This story reads like a children's story a la The Once and Future King--childlike on the surface, but genuinely scary and creepy in parts and not childlike at all. I enjoyed it very much, especially the deep friendship and companionship between Roger and Prospero, the interesting conception of wizardry, the atmospheric creepiness. A funny little detail: the moon in their world has a woebegone face.
The plot, as others have mentioned, meanders in the beginning, then rushes into a wizard-ex-machina. However, it didn't really affect my enjoyment of this story. The coincidental absurdity of it fit in with the general vibe quite well.
Highly recommended, a little gem.
This story reads like a children's story a la The Once and Future King--childlike on the surface, but genuinely scary and creepy in parts and not childlike at all. I enjoyed it very much, especially the deep friendship and companionship between Roger and Prospero, the interesting conception of wizardry, the atmospheric creepiness. A funny little detail: the moon in their world has a woebegone face.
The plot, as others have mentioned, meanders in the beginning, then rushes into a wizard-ex-machina. However, it didn't really affect my enjoyment of this story. The coincidental absurdity of it fit in with the general vibe quite well.
Highly recommended, a little gem.