| Chronicles of Prydain I: The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander, 219 pages A Bennett 05 March 2002 The first book in a series about Prydain. Alexander, like most fantasy authors gives readers names upon names that make you pause for too long wondering how they are supposed to be pronounced. | Chronicles of Prydain II: The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander, 220 pages A Bennett 08 March 2002 In book one Eilonwy (the best character) was said to have red-gold hair, in this book it's blonde. Magic, or poor continuity? You decide. |
Chronicles of Prydain III: The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander, 206 pages A Bennett 13 March 2002 Being a tertiary hero ain't so bad, as long as you get to hang out with Gwydion, Prince of Don. |
Chronicles of Prydain IV: Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander, 272 pages A Bennett 18 March 2002 Dear Taran, formerly "Assistant Pig-Keeper," now "Wanderer": Beware shepherds claiming your parentage. Signed, your friend, Oedipus P.S. Say 'hi' for me to Eilonwy when you see her in the next book. |
Chronicles of Prydain V: The High King by Lloyd Alexander, 286 pages A Bennett 29 April 2002 Series capper. Excellently paced denoument. You know you've grown to care about characters when you're sitting at the Wendy's shedding tears quietly into your fries over the death of Llonio the Lucky. Necessary Vocabulary: hummock, gulled. |
Westmark Trilogy I: Westmark by Lloyd Alexander, 184 pages A Bennett 13 May 2002 It is not everyday you have a revolutionary like Florian to rally 'round. Necessary Vocabulary: [printer's] devil, mountebank. |
Westmark Trilogy II: The Kestrel by Lloyd Alexander, 244 pages A Bennett 21 May 2002 Holy Revolution, Cabbarus lives! Hot-headed rebels demanding a writ of inalienable rights, queens commanding armies, ex-printer's devils ambushing enemy supply trains in the Domitian Mountains? And Florian? Aristocracy? ...will Westmark endure, or fall prey to Regian betrayal? Necessary vocabulary: curvetting, fieldpiece, limber, breech [cannon], saber, chivvied. |
Westmark Trilogy III: The Beggar Queen by Lloyd Alexander, 237 pages A Bennett 05 June 2002 Revolution breaks out in Marianstat, but who has time to worry very much about that when gephart has stabbed you in the back over vacation by pretending to need time to dress in her room--all the while reading like a madman? Necessary vocabulary: dicing dens, duckboard, midden heaps, abdicate. |
The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander, 283 pages A Bennett 19 December 2002 At this point, would I read Lloyd Alexander's laundry list? Yes, quite probably. For all that, this book doesn't have the spark that made The Chronicles of Prydain and Westmark great. |
Gypsy Rizka by Lloyd Alexander, 195 pages A Bennett 26 December 2002 As Alexander's books and writing go, this one is quite facile, and plays on familiar themes; the loss of parents, the orphaned child who finds substitute parents to fill such a void, and the role (of the outcast) such a child often is expected to play within society. |
Chronicles of Prydain: The Foundling and other Tales of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, 122 pages A Bennett 30 December 2002 A slight, though pleasant-enough collection of short stories elaborating on (and relaying the foundation of) the series of books I loved me so well. |
The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen by Lloyd Alexander, 273 pages A Bennett 15 January 2003 Once again, an excellent start to the New Year. Alexander understands sorrow and fear, and never fails me. Even when I think, for the first few chapters, the book's gonna stink. Necessary vocabulary: yaman, cangue |
The Arkadians by Lloyd Alexander, 273 pages A Bennett 12 April 2003 A slanted version of Greece--including familiar yet not-quite-right versions of myths such as the Trojan Horse, woven into the story. |
Vesper Holly Series I: The Illyrian Adventure (1986) by Lloyd Alexander, 132 pages A Bennett 16 March 2004 "The poor child was suffering a touch of nerves--the result, naturally, of being more or less confined to a cave, subsisting on cheese and firey hot sausages, and being surrounded by desperate characters; including the most dangerous man in Illyria. It was no kind of life for a Philadelphian. (p.80)" "Killing us was, in itself, criminal in the extreme; to do so with deliberate disregard for a noble monument to antiquity was nothing less than heartless vandalism. (p.105)" (Dear Mike Gadd--I see you--hot on my heels. Beware the wrath of the lacrosse stick!) |