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The Moon of Gomrath (Collins Voyager)

By: Alan Garner
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: CollinsVoyager
ISBN: 0007127871
ISBN-13: 9780007127870
Released: 02 Sep 2002
RRP: £5.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Another Excellent book from a master - By: P. J. Tweedie, 28 Sep 2007
Excellent, extremely well written, for young & old a like, what else can I say.
Great book, not for 4-8 year olds - By: Batsheep, 14 Aug 2007
Amazon claims that this CD is for 4-8 year olds. It is not. The Moon of Gomrath, & its predecessor The Wierdstone of Brisinghamen, are probably best suited to 10-14 year olds. I first read them 30 years ago & the darkness of them still lurks in the corners of my memory. They are powerful, well-crafted books that hang in the mind but they are definitely not for 4 year olds even if they don't have to read it themselves.
The Suns and Moons of Gomrath - By: Michael JR Jose, 30 May 2003
'The Moon of Gomrath' is the wild magical sequel to 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen', set in Alderley Edge in Cheshire of the present day but harking back to the days of Middlearth. Both these stories have a very Tolkienish way about them, it is an interesting exercise to compare & contrast the characters as they are introduced. It is a pity that Garner's books, faring less well than 'The Hobbit', dropped off the literary radar in the 1980's, but with the benefit of Potter power they are now back in style with new artwork on the cover.

Garner's special art is to take a basic swords-and-sorcery story & elevate it into a poetry-and-powers myth with gritty heroes & terrifying villains who hard to defeat & not always easy to spot. This story of Colin & Susan's second adventure is aimed at a slightly older audience than the Weirdstone, has Susan in the lead role, & has more depth & menace along with some sly humour. The Morrigan is back, not yet at the height of her powers, but ready for revenge. The elves are suffering & dying from the pollution caused by Man: they must retreat to cleaner, remoter places. The battles in magic & swordplay are more deadly & more personal & more realistic. The havoc & hard pace of war are felt in the prose, which is breathless & a little wild itself. The wizard Cadellin takes more of a back seat in this adventure but he does explain why the coming of the 'Age of Reason' & industrialism was more of a coming of the age of Materialism & a retreat from Reason. Hence the great rift between our Man's world of material values, & the worlds of magic & the life of the spiritual values.

Now as every parent knows, children's books have the power of forming the child's mind. So with magical adventures being very much back in style now is a good time to get the various authors into some sort of order. So, without going back to the ancient Greeks, where does Alan Garner fit in? We can easily go back a century or so: F. Anstey (Vice Versa), George MacDonald (Princess & Curdie stories), & E. Nesbit (House of Arden, etc), Tolkien (Hobbit, Farmer Giles of Ham), C.S. Lewis (Narnia, the land of youth), Ursula K. LeGuin (Earthsea), & Alan Garner. And, as Rowling's ghost Peeves puts it, 'Wee Potty Potter', brings us up to date.

So there are two main routes to magic. Anstey, MacDonald, Nesbit, Garner, & Rowling write a story that exercises magic in this world, & the two things collide with exciting degrees of chaos & depth. The results are serious or hilarious, or both. Garner manages to interface the two worlds with superior art. But a higher priced ticket will take you to a whole new world. Tolkien, Lewis, & LeGuin create whole worlds of their own & people it with new peoples - a fully magical world. The magic is integrated, truly part of the fabric of that world, not just added to make it fizz. One you are in, you belong there for a while. You return & your own world is now a little more magical. The whole range of literary forms is now possible, even super-possible as we no longer rely on supposed 'realism' to make the effects. They go beyond just making a magical talisman or two (some brilliantly done, others less so), & seeing 'what happens'. They make new countries & skies, new kingdoms & peoples, new languages & rules. Ultimately they are the suns & the others are the moons.

Children's fantasy that adults will enjoy - By: , 26 May 2002
I was sixteen when I first read this book, which turned out to be the sequel to another - the Weirdstone of Brisingamen - which I later read to see what I had missed.

This is the most haunting, lyrical & beautiful of children's novels. The subject matter is deeply influenced by Celtic mythology, but by introducing it into a modern setting the story gains a resonance & power that is often missing from the 'strange tale in a strange land' fantasy commonplace.

One of the best children's novels ever written.

Excellent - By: , 04 Jan 2002
It is refreshing to remember that before television had assumed its current unassailable ascendancy, when children still had imaginations, there were great writers creating masterpieces of imagination. This is one of them. It & its older sibling, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, stand as outposts of true genius in a modern world filled with mediocrity. At 40 years old, it is as current as if it had been written yesterday.

Robert Powell doesn't do a bad job either!