Monday, October 6, 2014

A book worth blogging about!

I love a good fairy tale, but good fairy tales are hard to come by in this modern, materialistic, and indifferent age.  I couldn't find a good story, so thought to write my own, which I find mildly amusing but are rather insignificant in the whole scope of Literary History.  But happily, my own pathetic scribblings are now in vain, for I have found a writer worth reading and dare I compare her to the likes of C.S. Lewis and Tolkien?  Yes, I do!  Which is somewhat akin to a devout catholic naming their own saints, but this heretic is quite decided that this author is worthy of such distinction, or at least of a thorough reading of her canon.  Anne Elisabeth Stengl is the author of the 'Tales of Goldstone Wood' series, which is well worth the read if you are a lover of Faerie.  I have been fortunate enough to receive a free preview copy of the seventh book, Golden Daughter and my review follows:

Golden Daughter is the seventh book in the Tales of Goldstone Wood series (this is a review of a free preview copy) and is a worthy addition to an excellent series.  Until I picked up these books, I was quite convinced that any fantasy writer worth reading had been dead for fifty years or more.  Happily I am quite mistaken; Ms. Stengl is a worthy heir to George Macdonald, Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis.  In this book particularly she combines the aching beauty of Macdonald, the whimsy and charm of Lewis, and the intricate world-building of Tolkien with her own quick wit, all too real characters, a complex and interconnected plot, superb writing, and shrewd humor, enwrapping it all in a mystique and intrigue that may well lead to lost sleep and neglected duties as the reader falls under her spell and desires nothing else in life but to know what happens next.  This book can be read as a stand alone, but I would recommend starting at the beginning as it fleshes out and explains some of the questions left from earlier in the series and you will get far more out of it if you already understand something of the world in which it happens. 

This book deepens and widens an already immense world, adds new characters that feel more real, more complex than some of the people you meet in real life, and only worsens the yearning to hear the Song of Spheres for yourself.  There is sorrow, pain, grief, despair, and darkness in this story as in life, but there is a hope beyond the doubt, a light beyond the darkness, life beyond death.  This book will stir the deep places of the soul and ask of you the same questions the characters themselves must face, which is exactly what a good book does, for a good story is not merely a well told tale but a mirror upon ourselves and the world at large, if only we have the courage to look therein.  I very much enjoyed this book and impatiently await the advent of the next addition to the series! 

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