Book Review: Elidor, by Alan Garner

Title:  Elidor, by Alan Garner.  Paperback, 173 pages
Publisher: Magic Carpet Books (Original: William Collins Son & Co., 1965

Summary:  Siblings Nicholas, David, Helen and Roland (who all appear to be near the same unspecified age, probably stepping up from about 10 or 11 to 13 or 14) are having a good wander through Manchester when something very strange happens.  They find themselves in another land, a place of magic--and a place where forces of darkness and death seem to have won.  Back in England, the children try to pretend it didn't happen--all but Roland.  He knows that there will be more to do, and he is right.

Review:
This classic fantasy definitely is not your modern fantasy.  More reminiscent of the Narnia books than Harry Potter, it actually spends very little time in the fantasy realm of Elidor, and most of the time dealing with the spill-over from that world into 1965 Manchester.  At first I found that a little disappointing, but the story is gripping, and soon I found that the problem of dealing with magic leaking into a place so mundane was if anything greater than the mission they'd faced in Elidor (not surprisingly, when the kids found themselves in Elidor, I assumed we'd be there for the rest of the book.  Garner doesn't do things that obviously, though).

The story is tight and gripping, but I did find that the characters, aside from Roland, were a little thinly drawn (as noted above, I'm not even sure how old they are--they all feel the same age, and I'm pretty sure they aren't meant to be quadruplets).  And because we spend so little time in Elidor, we are less invested than we might be in the outcome--but that's part of the story. 

This is another take, as well, on the standing Middle Grade issue of what to do with the parents/responsible adults.  In this case, the children have hold of something so outrageous and unbelievable that they can't tell anyone--no one would believe them anyway.  They mostly don't really even believe it themselves.  It's up to Roland--whose name is probably not chosen by chance, and who is the only one who really believes it happened--to keep the faith and deal with the problems that their little adventure has caused.

A good read, but not I think as good as The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by the same author, due mainly to the lack of character development.

 Full disclosure: I borrowed a copy of  Elidor  from the library.  I received nothing from the author or publisher for my review, which is my honest opinion.  The opinions expressed therein are my own and those of no one else.

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Book Review: The Last Unicorn

   

I couldn't resist this, as there were so many different editions with different covers!  The one on the left is the very 70s-ish cover of the copy from my library which I actually read.

Title:   The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle, 218 pages
Publisher: The Viking Press, 1968

Summary:
The last unicorn lives alone in a forest, quite happily until an overheard conversation leads her to understand that she is the last unicorn.  Then she sets out on a quest to find her missing fellow unicorns.  Along the way she accumulates companions: Schmendrick the (failed) Magician, and Molly Grue, a person of the female persuasion.  Their way leads them to the devastated kingdom of King Haggard, and to an encounter with his protector, the Red Bull.  Though the quest goes to the very brink of failure (which would be success for King Haggard's son Prince Lir), in the end the rest of the unicorns are found and rescued, and the prince is left to mourn alone.

Review:
This book was not at all what I had expected, having read blurbs that put it in the company of The Lord of the Rings.  It does in fact share some stylistic elements with LOTR (though the impersonal narrative style--I don't know how to better describe it--is much more exaggerated).  But while Tolkien's work, however subject to parody, is not in itself at all parodic.  The Last Unicorn slides in and out of parody as easily as I slide in and out of my slippers.  Nor is the story full of the battles and noble sacrifices that mark high fantasy (including Tolkien).  The only hero-like actions are done in full-parodic mode.  And the sorcerer is largely a failure at magic.  Flashes of humor give the book some life, at the same time as they drain it of life.

For much of the book the style put me off, leaving me too distant from the characters to care that much.  I admit that, had this not been listed as one of the foundational works of fantasy I wouldn't have finished.  By the end, I did learn to care some for the characters, but I found, as I always do, that the mixing of parody with straight fantasy leaves me dissatisfied and uninterested.  I was glad the unicorns were returned to the world, but there is no one in here I would have cried over as I have been known to do over certain moments in other books.  Other than for historical interest in the development of the fantasy genre (and I'm not completely clear just where it falls there, either), I can't particularly recommend the book.  I suspect its time has passed.

Or maybe it's just me.  An awful lot of people have praised it, and who am I to say they are wrong?

I checked out this copy of The Last Unicorn from my library, and received nothing from the author or publisher in exchange for my review.  The opinions expressed herein are my own and only my own.