The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

[lightreads]

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Embarking on another childhood nostalgia quest. These are a bit more obscure than previous subjects, but I read them to tatters once upon a time. Literally tatters – I recall wearing out multiple cassette tapes.

Anyway, this is young fantasy inspired from Welsh legend (or appropriated, it depends on how you look at it). Taran, Assistant Pigkeeper, desperately wants to go on adventures, and then he gets some and discovers they are more difficult than assumed. Also, rescuing oracular pigs is complicated, yoe. I attempted not to think about this too hard, because if I did I would start asking awkward questions like "wait, is Taran thirteen or twenty?" (entirely impossible to say), or "wait, is this fantasy land roughly the size of a dozen football fields?" (entirely possible).

But the thing is, I had to think about this too hard because that's basically what I do, and also because the surface story here is incredibly young and it wouldn't otherwise hold my attention. So I thought about how this book plays with callowness. There's this great moment where Taran nearly drowns because he knows he can't swim, but he believes as soon as he gets in the water he'll figure it out. That's Taran all over. The quest of this book is about learning not to drown. It's not deep, but it is well meant, and it is flirting with more substantial questions of worth and the making of the self that I think? Based on dimly recalled spoilers, will be developed as we go.

Oh, and this is also patently Lord of the Rings transformative work for kids, if that interests anybody.




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Comments

[readerjane]

I remember being frustrated with the Taran books because they were enough like LOTR to make me homesick for Middle Earth, but not enough like to satisfy.

Also, I had the same issue (twelve or twenty?) with Eugenides. In the first book he could have been either, and I didn't know how to react to other characters' treatment of him. Was he an enemy combatant, or a mischievous waif?

[lightreads]

Interesting. I remember being quite sure of Eugenides as late teens at the very youngest, but don't know where I got that from. Possibly backwards casting from the later books.

[retrofit]

I remember trying to like Lloyd Alexander, and failing, as a kid. Which makes me really interested in your "this is LOTR transformative work" comment, because that's another thing I tried and failed to get into as a kid, despite regular encouragement. *ponders* Think I might re-look at Alexander. Re-looking at Tolkien as an adult proved worth my time.

[lightreads]

Ah-ha! I have at last found someone else who didn't much care for LoTR! Everyone said, "oh, it's fantasy, you'll love it," and I . . . just didn't care. I haven't decided whether to give it another shot now. I'm sure I would get so much more out of it, but still....