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A review by nicktomjoe
The Giant Under The Snow by John Gordon
4.0
There are some great insights into landscape here, both rural and urban, and the eponymous Giant gradually emerging sets the pace for an exploration of how myth, legend and landscape impact on three different young people. The menace is tangible; the magic believable.
Images and episodes that stay with me would have to include the children’s flying - a brilliant device to move the action on that culminates in wonderfully described aerial battling - and almost casually thrown away descriptions such as “the city lay beneath them like a crumpled carpet” or “the grass bowed as though it would die.” There has been a lot of thought put into this book.
The final chapter therefore came as a bit of a disappointment. The author understandably wants to return to some sense of legend having tangible presence in the everyday, and an archaeological dig provides the context. However (and I feel churlish saying it) the adult characters and occasional loose ends seemed to lack the joy and care of earlier sections, and the final sentence was an unexpected downbeat when the ideas in it could have been a highlight.
But this is a minor distraction from what was otherwise well paced, full of clever description and genuine dread.
There: and I didn’t mention Alan Garner...
Images and episodes that stay with me would have to include the children’s flying - a brilliant device to move the action on that culminates in wonderfully described aerial battling - and almost casually thrown away descriptions such as “the city lay beneath them like a crumpled carpet” or “the grass bowed as though it would die.” There has been a lot of thought put into this book.
The final chapter therefore came as a bit of a disappointment. The author understandably wants to return to some sense of legend having tangible presence in the everyday, and an archaeological dig provides the context. However (and I feel churlish saying it) the adult characters and occasional loose ends seemed to lack the joy and care of earlier sections, and the final sentence was an unexpected downbeat when the ideas in it could have been a highlight.
But this is a minor distraction from what was otherwise well paced, full of clever description and genuine dread.
There: and I didn’t mention Alan Garner...