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A review by missbookiverse
Der Windsänger by William Nicholson
2.0
At first I liked it. The colour system reminded me of "The War Between The Classes" but it was interesting nevertheless, just like the examinations and the structure of Aramanth.
When the kids started their journey it got boring though. There were cool ideas but they just bored me. It seemed obvious that none of them would get hurt seriously, the Baraka people annoyed me and so did the "old children" (they had 2 appearances too many). All these folks were creative but ... I don't know, I just neither found them interesting nor very likable. Just the Zars seemed interesting to me and also the emperor with his chocolate candy.
Unfortunately the story got so lame that I only skipped through the last 150 pages so I could finally finish it. I know this is supposed to be a children's book and therefore maybe not too complicated/challenging but (1) it's too cruel for children in some parts (the Zars singing "kill kill kill" in their blood-stained uniforms) and (2) some things are just too unrealistic. Seriously, how on earth do Bow and Kess know that they are supposed to walk into the fire? Whenever they're in trouble something happens out of the blue that saves them.
Two things I liked though were (1) that the misfit Mumpo is the actual hero at the end and (2) some parts, mostly dialogues, were really witty and amusing which might not even have been an intention of the author.
When the kids started their journey it got boring though. There were cool ideas but they just bored me. It seemed obvious that none of them would get hurt seriously, the Baraka people annoyed me and so did the "old children" (they had 2 appearances too many). All these folks were creative but ... I don't know, I just neither found them interesting nor very likable. Just the Zars seemed interesting to me and also the emperor with his chocolate candy.
Unfortunately the story got so lame that I only skipped through the last 150 pages so I could finally finish it. I know this is supposed to be a children's book and therefore maybe not too complicated/challenging but (1) it's too cruel for children in some parts (the Zars singing "kill kill kill" in their blood-stained uniforms) and (2) some things are just too unrealistic. Seriously, how on earth do Bow and Kess know that they are supposed to walk into the fire? Whenever they're in trouble something happens out of the blue that saves them.
Two things I liked though were (1) that the misfit Mumpo is the actual hero at the end and (2) some parts, mostly dialogues, were really witty and amusing which might not even have been an intention of the author.