What other fantasy books do YOU read?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Galadriel

I thoroughly disliked Pullman's book. The writing was good but I felt the characters were flat and cliched. I don't think he's one to talk about anyone's book being 'fancy spun candy with no substance to it'. His own work, to me, seemed like utter drivel. It was incredibly childish, IMHO.

I found the characters quite rich and interesting - they don't stay in one state but change throughout in unexpected ways, and Lyra is pretty unusual for a female protagonist, in that she's certainly no Mary Sue. She's full of flaws, and comes across like a real child rather than a mere character. The daemons even had excellent characterisation - to the extent that I'm now a bit scared of little monkeys. And I've found HDM to be as good a source for 'digging' as Tolkien is, though it's in completely different directions. If Pullman didn't note the deeper substance behind Tolkien's work then it's probably that he didn't care for the source material.

Anyway, I've just finished one of Alan Garner's novels for adults, and it was a perfect lesson in how less is more. Thursbitch* comes in at well under 200 pages, and mostly dialogue, it's worlds apart to anything by Tolkien but I'm a bit stunned by it, it's subtle, quite frightening, and as rich in meaning (especially linguistically) as Tolkien. He was inspired by the name thursbitch itself (meaning 'demon valley' - sharing the same roots as how Grendel is named in Beowulf), which is an abandoned farm in a hidden Cheshire valley, and by a stone which records the mysterious death of a local packhorse man. The novel imagines who this man was and the story interweaves with the wanderings of a modern man and woman in the same valley, which is described as a sentient landscape and the story never leaves the locale, and is structured like a mobius strip.

As a warning - I don't think this one is a young persons' book whatsoever (unless they are broad minded and very capable readers) as it has lots of weird magic and is written in a northern dialect, but I can't recommend it enough for anyone interested in the weirder side of British history and language or who wants to see how a fantastical story can work so well when presented in a completely different form to the norm. Garner seems to have taken up the issue of landscape and language that Tolkien left and has wandered off with it.

I am so looking forwards to Bonelands, which is supposed to come out this year and promises to finish off the story he started back in 1960 with the Weirdstone of Brisingamen.

*Sorry if that needs editing here!