Thursday 18 August 2011

I have never enjoyed the company of wizards, and although I was initially charmed by Harry Potter, it was the world of Hogwarts and owls and Diagon Alley that I enjoyed, and I got more and more bored with him as he became increasingly embroiled with his arch-enemy Voldemort.
There is no way on earth that I would have read A Wizard of Earthsea had it been suggested by anybody else but Cornflower.
I tried, I hope I came to it with an open mind ... but, oh dear, this was a very tedious wizard. At least it was shorter than Lord of the Rings. And, if nothing else, it was interesting to see where JK Rowling has borrowed from Ursula Le Guin ... Hogwarts, I see, wasn't the first school for wizards even if its teachers are rather more fun. And the Wizard's evil nemesis bears more than a passing resemblance to He Who Must Not Be Named.
But I won't be sending a Howler to Cornflower as while I was (unusually for me) in the children's library, next to the Wizard in alphabetical order I found Madeleine L'Engle's SF fantasy book A Wrinkle in Time.
I hadn't come across it as a child and I've thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Mrs Who, Mrs Which and Mrs Whatsit (although I'd be fascinated to hear Cornflower's friend Dark Puss's take on the physics!).
So thanks to Cornflower ... in a roundabout way, you've scored another hit!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Total agreement here. I like the Harry Potter books as school stories and get bored by Harry's destiny. I do love Snape.
I can't bear Ursula le Guin or most fantasy but like you, I enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time, which I read first as an adult.

Mac n' Janet said...

I like fantasy, and the Harry Potter books were ok, but there are so many better ones out there. I read A Wrinkle in Time books when my daughter read them.

mary said...

Not the genre for me, Janet. But I did try! However, I did enjoy Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen as a child; partly, I suspect, because it was set close to where we lived. Tolkien would be my desert island book from hell and I'd be sending up smoke signals trying to swap it for Ulysses or the Complete Unexpurgated Works of Barbara Cartland, or anything!

Nan said...

I don't care for fantasy at all, and the reason I could read and enjoy A Wrinkle in Time is because of the parts that were set in the real house. Oh, how I love that house. I think I read somewhere it was based on L'Engle's own home. It was the same when I read my son the Susan Cooper series, The Dark is Rising. I only loved the books when they were in the 'real' life of the characters.

mary said...

I know what you mean, Nan. And it definitely has to be real people. I can't make myself care about fantasy characters.