Moon of Gomrath: A compelling magical fantasy adventure, the sequel to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

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Pullman, Philip; Gaiman, Neil; Cooper, Susan; Nix, Garth; Almond, David; Faber, Michael (2010). "Praise for Garner". The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (50th Anniversaryed.). London: HarperCollins Children's Books. pp.1–2. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen was dramatised in 6 30-minute parts by Nan Macdonald for the BBC's Home Service broadcast in November 1963. [55] In August 2018, Garner published his only set of memoirs, Where Shall We Run To?, which describes his childhood during the Second World War. The Weirdstone was successful because of the brilliant way that Alan Garner blended the human world with the myths and legends. Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners". The Guardian 12 March 2001. Retrieved 2 August 2012.

Alan Garner OBE (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist who is best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. His work is firmly rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county of Cheshire, North West England, being set in the region and making use of the native Cheshire dialect. The book's introduction concerns the origin of the weirdstone. Following the defeat of Nastrond steps had been taken to prepare for his eventual return. This involved bringing together a small band of warriors of pure heart, each with a horse, and gathering them inside the old dwarf caves of Fundindelve, deep inside the hill of Alderley which were sealed by powerful white magic which would both defend Fundindelve from evil as the ages passed and prevent the warriors and their horses from ageing. When the time was ripe and the world once more in mortal peril it was prophesied that this small band of warriors would ride out from the hill, trusting in their purity of heart to defeat Nastrond forever. Fundindelve had a guardian, the ancient wizard Cadellin Silverbrow, and the heart of the white magic was sealed inside a jewel, the Weirdstone of Brisingamen, also known as Firefrost.

Wakeful the son of Dunarth, north-king, mound-king! Wakeful is Fiorn in his hill! Ride Einheriar of the Herlathing.’ Boneland imagines Colin as an adult, a troubled, brilliant astrophysicist who can remember every single thing that has happened to him since the age of 13, but nothing before. From his job at Jodrell Bank, he searches endlessly, fruitlessly, for his sister in the stars: where is Susan, and what happened to her? Bringing together elements of his novels Strandloper and Red Shift, twisting and twining through Colin's story is that of a man from an ancient time, The Watcher, whose lonely quest plays out in language redolent of myth. Although Weirdstone contains one of the most disturbing images in all of children's literature – Colin and Susan crawling through a tunnel deep beneath the earth – Garner says Boneland is the first of his novels genuinely to scare him. "I don't think I've ever frightened myself before when writing but there were areas where there was terror, as though I was looking into somewhere that I didn't know existed before, and it frightened me." Selina Place – A local woman, who is revealed to be a shape-shifting witch, indeed the leader of the morthbrood, a secret network of people involved in dark magic. Also known as The Morrigan, the ancient name of an Irish battle and death goddess, she is in league with powerful forces of darkness. And yet, and yet … "something's going on, and the shape it's taking is interesting in that it's complete at whatever stage I finish it. In other words, provided I get a few paragraphs down and then I just drop dead, it's still complete. It's intriguing me. It's making me think here we go again, perhaps, but in a quite different way," says Garner. "I cannot conceive of not writing. Because everything is so interesting. I've got lots of other things I could pretend to retire into, such as doing more on the academic side, doing more archaeology, doing more historical research, but there are other people who can do that. And I am actually quite haunted by this idea of having to do what only the individual can do." Where it's weaker than "Weirdstone" is that it all feels more contrived. Some of the dangers and solutions that face Colin and Susan - especially early on - are the result of unfortunately combining events. For example the Elves ask for something Susan has at the same time as something else happens, and Susan ends up in danger from event two only because she's given the thing in question to the Elves. In "Weirdstone" the coincidences felt like the hand of fate guiding things - in "Moon" it's less so - though by the end you wonder, because it does all wrap up well. It's cetainly not a deal breaker.

But it does, and it's a good ending and all the twists and turns are nicely resolved and the threads tied into a pretty bow. Nice. I've been eye-balling this book on my shelf, wondering if I actually want to read it, and since I've been having a hard time reading anything lately, I naturally thought it was the perfect time to try this. At the very least, I thought, it would be really easy to put the book down if I didn't like it, given my current mood. Except that this was so short and nostalgic, I ended up reading it in a single afternoon. A. I don't plan. Images appear, unbidden, which suggest areas of research. The research develops its own pattern, and when there's no more research to be done I "soak and wait", as Arthur Koestler expressed it. Then, subjectively, the story starts of its own accord, and I write as it unfolds. But it's probably complete in my unconscious, as a result of the soaking and the waiting, before I can be aware of what's happening. This could explain why I get the last sentence or paragraph of the book before I know what the story is. The history of creativity is littered with examples of the artist, or scientist, or mathematician "seeing" the answer and then having to spend years in discovering the question. The Old Magic yearns to be free, the High Magic tries to control it. The shapeshifting Morrigan thinks only of taking bloody revenge on the children. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) was named to the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education in 1970, denoting that it "belongs on the same shelf" with the 1865 classic Alice in Wonderland and its sequel.The novel Treacle Walker was published in October 2021 and nominated to the shortlist for the 2022 Booker Prize. [30] Personal life [ edit ] Colin and Susan are once again the stars of the book, but at the start they are quite frustrated. Having been part of the defeat of Grimnir and the Morrigan in the first book, they have been cut off from the world of magic. However this state of affairs does not last long. In the 2005 book Horror: Another 100 Best Books, edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman, Muriel Gray's article for The Weirdstone of Brisingamen described it with expressions such as "truly gripping," "beautifully crafted" and "a young person's introduction to horror." [ citation needed] Other fantasy writers [ edit ]