Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Alan Garner, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Found this childrens' book and nicked it (back) from my father's the other day. Had completely forgotten about it - it might not even be mine actually. But it is now! Said she smugly.

I have a copy of Garner's Elidor in a Swedish translation somewhere. The story is similar in both books - ordinary children find/find out about another world, parallell to ours, peopled with goblins and wizards and where a battle of good vs evil is being fought.

This one uses a lot of old Norse mythology. Even though Garner writes very well - I can't fault his craftmanship really - the story itself is unsatisfactory and vaguely pointless. Maybe there is a part 2? Because the ending really isn't much good. The whole thing is just over. Meh.

Tack on a better ending and this could make an excellent film though.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The sequel is "Moon of Gomrath". I would strongly suggest visiting Alderley Edge and the Wizard's Well (yes, the places mentioned all exist other than Fundindelve - at least, as fas as we know...) as the books assume a better knowledge of local lore and geography than can really be justified.

bani said...

*makes note*

Thank you! I might look Moon of Gomrath up sometime, just to feel that I've finished the series. :-D