I think this gets better as I get older. ( )

Wonderful.
Lots of names, lots of local detail, particularly weird, but wonderful. Doesn't have a solid, exact, ending as most modern books, but doesn't suffer for it.

It is much better written than The Wierdstone of Brisingamen, Garners writing has matured significantly, but doesn't have that huge wash of nostalgia for me. ( )

Like the previous, a mad hodgepodge of Scandinavian and Celtic mythology. Constant, inexplicable action, and some new dwarfs. The elves in this book are far different from Tokien elves, they are not tall, handsome, loquacious, long-lived, and melancholy; instead they are small, somewhat murderous, and sick of human-induced lung diseases.

I think if I listened to it, I would enjoy it vastly more, as if it were a music video, full of nonsense and pleasing images.

The cover image on the version I read was probably the worst available: the children are wooden, and Alcenor has a very funny hat.

What would have been really nice, and what this book sadly lacks, is a glossary of the names, indicating what source they were derived from, what they might have referred to, and how to pronounce them. ( )

This is the sequel to the author's Weirdstone of Brisingamen, continuing the adventures of Colin and Susan in encountering magic creatures in the Alderley Edge area of Cheshire. Again, while well written, this just didn't grip me emotionally and I found the plot more rambling and unclear than Weirdstone. Not sure if I'll bother with Boneland, the third book in the series, written much more recently than the first two. ( )

It wasn't either of our faults, book. Really. It just didn't work out. Maybe it was the age difference, maybe our different cultures. But I'm sure you will meet lots of wonderful readers soon, and have long and happy relationships with them. ( )