Scan barcode
visethneak's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
timinbc's review against another edition
2.0
I must have been young and gullible when I read this many years ago. While it didn't make it onto my list of favourites, I'm sure I would have remembered what a clunker it is. If this won awards, the competition must have been borscht recipes presented as haiku.
OK, it was 1962. Kennedy was president of the USA. Castro was just getting started in Cuba. Hoover ran the FBI, and there were maybe a dozen computers, using paper tape. We used carbon paper and typewriters. Yet somehow good books got written. A Wizard of Earthsea was 1968. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Where the Wild Things Are. McCaffrey's dragons of Pern started in 1967.
Tesseracts? Well, Flatland was 1884, so nothing new.
What we have here is a book with wooden characters, a slapdash plot, no explanations, lots of Christian preaching, and a truly abysmal ending. It feels as if it had been made up on the fly, perhaps starting from only a couple of characters and an ending scene. I make up stuff like this for my granddaughter: Once upon the time there was a ..... goat, that lived on a farm in ... Ontario. One day the farm was visited by a ... traveling salesman, who offered a variety of strange products. One of them was a ... hmm, how about a ... no, maybe a banana ripener, and another was a ...
I've read plenty of bad children's fantasy books, and this is one of the worst.
211 pages, a quick read, and I still feel that I wasted some time.
I was going to watch the movie, but now ... meh.
OK, it was 1962. Kennedy was president of the USA. Castro was just getting started in Cuba. Hoover ran the FBI, and there were maybe a dozen computers, using paper tape. We used carbon paper and typewriters. Yet somehow good books got written. A Wizard of Earthsea was 1968. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Where the Wild Things Are. McCaffrey's dragons of Pern started in 1967.
Tesseracts? Well, Flatland was 1884, so nothing new.
What we have here is a book with wooden characters, a slapdash plot, no explanations, lots of Christian preaching, and a truly abysmal ending. It feels as if it had been made up on the fly, perhaps starting from only a couple of characters and an ending scene. I make up stuff like this for my granddaughter: Once upon the time there was a ..... goat, that lived on a farm in ... Ontario. One day the farm was visited by a ... traveling salesman, who offered a variety of strange products. One of them was a ... hmm, how about a ... no, maybe a banana ripener, and another was a ...
I've read plenty of bad children's fantasy books, and this is one of the worst.
211 pages, a quick read, and I still feel that I wasted some time.
I was going to watch the movie, but now ... meh.
sinttut's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
tregina's review against another edition
4.0
The first time I read this book was in 1981 or 1982; I don't remember the exact time but I was in grade one and my mom loved the book when she was a kid so we had a copy in the house. I didn't get as much out of it at 6 as I did later at 9, or at 12, or any of the many times I've read it since then, but I got enough that the book was permanently shelved with my books after that. And now as an adult, every once in a while I'll see the book on my bookshelves and feel—like tonight, with a series of thunderstorms raging outside—that the time is right for another reread.
I know the book is not perfect, but I find it impossible to be objective about it, even now; it's too much a part of me. I think, in a lot of surprisingly mundane ways, this book gave me hope for my own future.
I know the book is not perfect, but I find it impossible to be objective about it, even now; it's too much a part of me. I think, in a lot of surprisingly mundane ways, this book gave me hope for my own future.
lukemorganartist's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ehsan1358's review against another edition
2.0
Could be much better without so much references to god a religious which americans are so obsessed about.
theketchupmess's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
gracebirdly's review against another edition
2.0
I don’t think I can explain the level of confusion that I reached while reading this book. Every situation and every thing that happened was confusing and BOORING. It was just so messed up. It wasn’t fun to read because 1. It made no sense and 2. It was so boring that I almost fell asleep while I was reading it. So, not my favorite and I won’t read it again.
tnorthcu's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book (really the trilogy) when I was a kid. Would recommend reading it even as an adult.