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A review by sammy234
Draven's Light by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
3.0
The Tales of Goldstone Wood series is for me , a more relatable Narnia.
As a child who was in awe of the tales of Narnia but admittedly a bit alarmed and frightened by the alien strangeness of the whole thing , The Tales of Goldstone Wood would have captured me MUCH MORE.
When I read The Magician's Nephew and Polly decided to explore the attic , I was like ," NO. BUGS.SNAKES. YOU SHALL NOT PASS. Omigosh go bacccccccccccccccckkkkk."
( Yes , I was that type of child )
But would I follow a magical wood-thrush into a menacing but beautiful forest where time doesn't exist?
Um , yes !
Don't get me wrong. Anne Elizabeth Stengl's world is not all snuggly kittens and rainbows. But I connect to the characters , and I'd follow them anywhere.
( No matter how freaked out I am )
I'm not bashing C.S Lewis. Narnia as both an allegory and a beautiful tale is fantastic. NOBODY needs to say that.
But the reason why I love this book series MORE , is because while I know OF Edmund , Lucy , Susan, and Peter , I KNOW Anne Elizabeth Stengl's characters down to their very hearts.
Lionheart , Una ,Rosered, Eanrin , Dame Imraldera, Foxbrush ( My baby), Daylily,Felix , even the dragon in an angry fond sense ( because a good villain is a great thing! Kind of !) and ... Aethelbald , the Aslanish figure of this whole shindig ,are all so memorable.
They are human , they make mistakes , but they are so fun to read about. One day I'm binge reading the whole series , I'm telling you.
Plus , If I could point to the most creative of my favorite author's , Anne Elizabeth Stengl would win , hands down.
Her books become more rich in world building and character development with every new installment. It's astounding. She has an enormous amount of talent.
So I wasn't really worried that I wouldn't love Draven's light. It took me a longggggggg while to read , but only because I feel you have to be in the right mindset to read these dense , history rich novels.
I got more insight into the brothers Etanun and Akilun , which was great. These dudes have always been SUPER FREAKING VAGUE.
I loved that Draven's tale was told as a story WHILE the House of Light was being built. Like , yes. Thank you.
Did I think Anne Elisabeth Stengl couldn't do brother / sister relationships ? WELL, SHE CAN.
Honestly , the romance was a bit tacked on but I didn't care because the prince was a necessary character and Draven's relationship with his sister Ita overshadowed it all.
The end killed me. So that was nice.
The only reason I didn't give this book five stars was because my reading enjoyment was a little less than usual because I read the first half of this in 2015 and the rest this year.
Also , The King of the Farthestshore DID NOT SHOW UP TO THIS PARTY. WHY.
His bird singing does not count.
Yes , Farthestshore is heaven. The author's world building in this series is so good she even has the afterlife figured out.
So this isn't my favorite book of the series. That would be a tie between Shadow hand and Veiled Rose. But it was still really stellar writing and definitely enhanced my love of this world.
I do HAVE to stress that if you pick up this series , you read the series in order. And if you feel halfhearted about heartless , JUST KEEP GOING.
Heartless is the intro. It's great , but its just the icing on TOP of the cake. Veiled Rose is where everything gets good. Plus, Leo and Rosie. LEO AND ROSIE. GAH.
Plus , there is a talking cat. AND HE'S SASSY.
Okay. So basically this is the best allegorical series I have ever read , but it doesn't read like an allegory. Trust me , I am VERY PICKY about my christian fiction.
But this is really fantastic. Almost anybody can find something to love about. Unless you don't love magicalness and evil unicorns.
Then maybe back away slowly.
Content : clean
As a child who was in awe of the tales of Narnia but admittedly a bit alarmed and frightened by the alien strangeness of the whole thing , The Tales of Goldstone Wood would have captured me MUCH MORE.
When I read The Magician's Nephew and Polly decided to explore the attic , I was like ," NO. BUGS.SNAKES. YOU SHALL NOT PASS. Omigosh go bacccccccccccccccckkkkk."
( Yes , I was that type of child )
But would I follow a magical wood-thrush into a menacing but beautiful forest where time doesn't exist?
Um , yes !
Don't get me wrong. Anne Elizabeth Stengl's world is not all snuggly kittens and rainbows. But I connect to the characters , and I'd follow them anywhere.
( No matter how freaked out I am )
I'm not bashing C.S Lewis. Narnia as both an allegory and a beautiful tale is fantastic. NOBODY needs to say that.
But the reason why I love this book series MORE , is because while I know OF Edmund , Lucy , Susan, and Peter , I KNOW Anne Elizabeth Stengl's characters down to their very hearts.
Lionheart , Una ,Rosered, Eanrin , Dame Imraldera, Foxbrush ( My baby), Daylily,Felix , even the dragon in an angry fond sense ( because a good villain is a great thing! Kind of !) and ... Aethelbald , the Aslanish figure of this whole shindig ,are all so memorable.
They are human , they make mistakes , but they are so fun to read about. One day I'm binge reading the whole series , I'm telling you.
Plus , If I could point to the most creative of my favorite author's , Anne Elizabeth Stengl would win , hands down.
Her books become more rich in world building and character development with every new installment. It's astounding. She has an enormous amount of talent.
So I wasn't really worried that I wouldn't love Draven's light. It took me a longggggggg while to read , but only because I feel you have to be in the right mindset to read these dense , history rich novels.
I got more insight into the brothers Etanun and Akilun , which was great. These dudes have always been SUPER FREAKING VAGUE.
I loved that Draven's tale was told as a story WHILE the House of Light was being built. Like , yes. Thank you.
Did I think Anne Elisabeth Stengl couldn't do brother / sister relationships ? WELL, SHE CAN.
Honestly , the romance was a bit tacked on but I didn't care because the prince was a necessary character and Draven's relationship with his sister Ita overshadowed it all.
The end killed me. So that was nice.
The only reason I didn't give this book five stars was because my reading enjoyment was a little less than usual because I read the first half of this in 2015 and the rest this year.
Also , The King of the Farthestshore DID NOT SHOW UP TO THIS PARTY. WHY.
His bird singing does not count.
Yes , Farthestshore is heaven. The author's world building in this series is so good she even has the afterlife figured out.
So this isn't my favorite book of the series. That would be a tie between Shadow hand and Veiled Rose. But it was still really stellar writing and definitely enhanced my love of this world.
I do HAVE to stress that if you pick up this series , you read the series in order. And if you feel halfhearted about heartless , JUST KEEP GOING.
Heartless is the intro. It's great , but its just the icing on TOP of the cake. Veiled Rose is where everything gets good. Plus, Leo and Rosie. LEO AND ROSIE. GAH.
Plus , there is a talking cat. AND HE'S SASSY.
Okay. So basically this is the best allegorical series I have ever read , but it doesn't read like an allegory. Trust me , I am VERY PICKY about my christian fiction.
But this is really fantastic. Almost anybody can find something to love about. Unless you don't love magicalness and evil unicorns.
Then maybe back away slowly.
Content : clean