Powell Books

The novels of Dawn Powell (1896-1965)have an autobigraphical tone. Powell grew up in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, but left this small midwestern town to seek her career in New York City. She wrote "The Wicked City" in 1938, and the novel captures both the allure and the disappointment of fast-paced sophisticated New York. Although the satire is sharp and biting, Powell shows considerable ambivalence for both the small town she left and the cosmopolitanism she adopted.

"The Happy Island" opens with its protagonist, Jefferson Abbott, arriving in the New York City bus terminal from Silver City, Ohio to make his career as a budding playwright. Jefferson is serious, stodgy in character and is taken aback by what he sees as the frivolity and shallowness of the New York cultural and entertainment community on which he hopes to make his mark. In New York, he meets another transplant from Silver City and an old flame, Prudence Bly. Prudence has survived the and mastered New York show business to a degree. She is a successful nightclub singer with many contacts. As adolescents in Silver City, (16 years before the story begins) Jefferson and Prudence had a teenage romance. When the pair was caught necking behind the railroad, Prudence received the sobriquet "Tracks" from the mocking young men of Silver City. In New York, Jefferson remains attracted to Prudence but dismayed by the life she is leading as a nightclub singer and socialite.

The plot of "The Happy Island" centers around the relationship between Jefferson and Prudence and in the contrast between New York City, New York and Silver City, Ohio. But as elsewhere in Powell, the plot of the book is the least of its attractions. The value of the book lies in its depiction of the places and people of New York City, in Powell's writing style, and in her sharp, caustic one-liners. There is an underlying sense of morality lost.

The book features a plethora of characters from the New York entertainment and literary scene. In particular, this book is somewhat unusual because several of the characters in the book are gay or bisexual, and Powell presents these characters without any particular moralizing. The moral tone of the book, though, is sharp and critical. In general, the characters in the book exhibit the morals of the barnyard. Infidelity, promiscuity, and double-crossing are the rules of the day. Together with the sexual double and triple dealing, Powell emphasizes parties and alcohol. She is good at describing party scenes and even better at emphasizing the dependence of her characters on booze. One can sympathize with some of Jefferson Abbott's reaction to this environment.

With all its sharpness, irony and satire, New York City is presented with a certain magic and allure. It is the dream of a new life and of opportunity, for Powell and for many others. Inflated hopes and ideals too often lead to cynicism, as I think this book and other books by Powell suggest. In the introduction to this book, Tim Page concludes that "The Happy Island" is a relatively minor novel of Dawn Powell. That may be, but there is still much in the book to reward the reader.

Resoundingly fresh despite its age; this story of New York's fast set is less a tale of the era of Dawn Powell and her circle than of modernity. These characters are no more dated than Warhol, Jackie O or current cast of post modern successors. Powell includes with a frank and unapologetic intimacy characters and relationships that are straight, homosexual, freakishly over and under-sexed, effette, misers- that is desperate, complicated and flawed people in a mix of transplants and liars.There are no true heroes here, and the louts can become the worshipped with as much predictability as the inevitable pace to the grave. Prudence Bly is a self-made, hard drinking, no talent beauty whose last desperate plea for a soul becomes a renunciation of all her success and stature for a subordinated relationship with a brutally anti-New York playwright, an egoist himself, but of the country-is purer variety.
Prudence, like Powell, one suspects, was not blind to the limitations of her future and her own aged and unheralded part in it, but it is her humor and her going along for the fun, that renders her a well-developed, vulnerable and ob so modern, heroine. This book is one of my favorites in the Powell repetoire- I rate it more highly than other reviewers. Its real, informed and ageless.

This novel captures the time when CAfe Society ruled the Greenwich Village scene. Ms Powell captures the nuances and slang of that time marvelously. As always, her wit and style shine through every sentence.

For every person who comes to New York from a small town or suburb and makes it in their chosen profession, there are a thousand others who don't. What happens to them? What are they like? Dawn Powell describes them all. This book is a wonderful literary read and a fine corrective to the notion that every transplanted provincial is either interesting or deserving of sympathy. Powell's characters are wonderfully drawn and fleshed out with fine prose: here's the business wife "bragging in a dozen beds of her perhaps old-fashioned chastity." Here's the "new society reporter from the largest and worst newspaper in New York." Here's a young playwrite freshly arrived from the sticks mortifying a seedy arty-professional crowd and their "shrill insistence on fun" by exclaiming, "New York, eh? What a dump!" And her is the (not so) young kept woman who "with considerable care placed her head in her hands as if it were a very fine melon." Powell is a treat; there are memorable lines on every page. Her novels came out between the 30's and the 60's and all the New York books are very fine, literary reads. She is considerably more on the mark in terms of wit and irony and quality of prose than her well-meaning editor, Tim Page (actually a music reviwer by profession) seems to realize, and in satire can hold her own with Saul Bellow, Gore Vidal, Sinclair Lewis, Joan Didion, etc. Check out Vidal's essays on her (they're much better, less aenemic, than Page's comments, I felt, after reading her books). Angels On Toast, The Wicked Pavillion, The Golden Spur, The Locusts Have No King, And A Time to Be Born are all also very fine, sharp witty novels of New York; both its fascinating side and in all the balderdash of its aspiring provincials.

I found this to be one of Dawn Powell's most entertaining books, deliciously dark and vicious. If you liked the cult classic film "The Women" you should find this delightful. This book is of particular interest to Gay readers as many of the main characters are realistically drawn Gays, something very rare in a book from the 1930's.

A beautifully written account of a life dedicated to the making of films by a true Master of the medium. This book together with the other volume of his autobiography, Million Dollar Movie, gives the reader a wonderful insight into a very creative personality. Michael Powell recounts his life with charm, whimsy, wit and voluptuousness: a perfect picture of the man himself.

Meet Michael Powell! The great and iconoclastic film direcotr of such classics as 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp"; "The
49th Parallel"; "The Canterbury Tales: "Black Narcissus": "Peeping Tom" and countless others tells the story of his long,productive and adventurous life (1905-1990).
Powell grew up in bucolic middle class farm life in Canterbury, Kent. His father divorced his mother moving to France following World War I. It was while staying with his father that Powell became involved in moviemaking as he joined the company led by director Rex Ingram on the French Riveria.
Powell later became associated with Alfred Hitchcock, Arthur
Rank, Michael Balcon and J. Arthur Rank . He made his first hit with his eccentric view of life in the Orkney islands in "The
Edge of the World."
Powell knew many of the great actors, directors and technicians who made the movies the folk tales of the 20th
century.
Powell's closest associate was the Hungarian writer Pressburg with whom he organized Archer Film Studios.One classic from this association was "The Red Shoes" which is arguably the finest ballet movie ever made!
Among other things Powell was:
a. A womanizer who wed several times and romanced the likes of actresses Deborah Kerr and Pamela Brown.
b. A novelist and a director who actually read books! His writing style is anecdotal and very readable!
c. Powell's love for film is manifest Even though British film culture turned its back on him following his controversial "Peeping Tom" in 1960 he never gave up his love for film, storytelling and art.
Powell is sadly little known on our side of the pond. He deserves to be better celebrated as one of the best film directors of the 20th century.
With the TCM cable channel's recent festival of his best movies the hope is that Powell will become better known and his
imperishable films enjoyed by a new generation of film fans.
This was a fine book to spend several hours perusing in the company of a grand old man of British and world cinema.

No other biography i've read places the man himself before me, so evocative is it. In his films he chased and captured the wonder in all things, but his own writing does this more directly, a wonderful book. The life of the film maker from the 1920's onwards, and one who can fully express himself descriing the life, and equally great on his growing up towards film. The maker of wonders like A Canterbury Tale, Small Back Room, The Spy In Black and Peeping Tom achieved as much in this book.

Michael Powell, partnered by Emeric Pressburger, made some of the finest films of the forties. Films like The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, are startlingly original. These two men, known as the Archers, formed one of the great creative teams. His description of this partnership forms the heart of Powell's autobiography A Life in Movies.

Powell's book is long and takes a while to get going. He spends rather too long on his childhood in Kent. It is an interesting description of a long lost world and provides some insight into the development of Powell's character, but eventually one becomes rather impatient for him to get onto his film career. This he does with a brilliant description of his start in silent movies. Powell's story from this point onwards becomes gripping. He is a good writer, clear and readable. This book is full of interesting anecdotes and, on the whole, is very candid. There are times when he is circumspect and he sometimes withholds a name, but normally he is very open and honest. This is especially so in perhaps the most heartbreaking story of the whole book, his affair with Deborah Kerr. Powell's description of this is warm and loving and full of feeling. It is quite clear, even after more than forty years, that he never got over it. Thus Powell comes to resemble Roger Livesey's character in Colonel Blimp, and the film somehow seems all the more poignant.

In any long story there are dull bits. Powell's account of his struggles in the early thirties making obscure films which have been all but forgotten is not especially interesting, although it does contain some fine material regarding his interaction with the young Alfred Hitchcock. Furthermore, he dwells at times overly much on the politics of the British film industry. However, when he discusses his great films starting with The Edge of the World and finishing with The Red Shoes, this book is as good a description of making films as I have read. Fans of the Archers cannot fail to learn something new about their favourite films from this book.

This is a good read written by and about the life of one of the truly great movie directors. Along with Emeric Pressberger, Michael Powell created The Archers, whose movie productions were and are breathtaking in their daring cinematography and scoring. If you're not familiar with Powell's movies, you're in for a treat. I urge you to design your own Michael Powell film festival: Be sure to include The Thief of Baghdad, Stairway to Heaven (A Matter of Life and Death in Britain), The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and my personal favorite, I Know Where I'm Going. These are stunning works of art. Consider that they were filmed in cash-strapped postwar England, and you come away all the more amazed. Powell lost his career when he filmed Peeping Tom, a Hitchcockian thriller that upset critics with its psychosexual theme; his reputation was only rehabilitated by the intercession of such luminaries as Michael Scorcese during the 1980s. Powell lived a brash, full and vigorous life spiced with affairs with the likes of Deborah Kerr and the fascinating Pamela Brown. He dared the new, often endured hardship and even danger to catch what he wanted on film. He envisioned original and groundbreaking ideas, and then assembled teams that made them happen: A Himalayan garden in Kent for Black Narcissus, awesome outer space animation and the world's largest staircase for Stairway to Heaven, shooting I Know Where I'm Going without the leading man ever being on location. This book has been out of print for some time in hardcover. I've seen copies selling for hundreds of dollars. There is a reason! Now is your chance to enjoy the best words there are about Michael Powell--his own.

Julie Lindsey-Thomas and her husband Greg Thomas are making the biggest move of their lives-- into the twenty-eight-room mansion, that Julie has inherited from her eccentric great-aunt Elizabeth Samuels. They can't wait to turn it into a beautiful Bed and Breakfast. Unbeknownst to Julie, she wasn't the only potential heir: Great-Aunt Elizabeth had an illegitimate son, Jake, who was born mentally handicapped, and his true identity as Elizabeth's son was kept a secret. After Elizabeth's death Jake found refuge at the Keeler Institute, where those with marginal abilities were able to thrive...until now. The organization has no more resources for people like Jake, and Jake has no resources at all.

Julie's and Jake's lives are about to intersect- an intersection made more interesting because Julie and Jake are protected by the same guardian angel. The troubles that finally bring these two together, and the resolution of those troubles, make a fascinating tale.

As I normally tend to stick with authors I know, I was not expecting to be bowled over by a relatively new author, but I was very impressed! Vernon Powell has written a complex plot, spanning nearly a century, yet the story is not so complex as to be confusing. I could not wait to get to the end to see how he tied it all together. His characters are sharp and interesting. I especially liked his colorful descriptions. Can't wait to read more of his works.

After seeing good reviews for Angel Shared on several different sites I decided to check it out for myself and I am very glad that I did. I love a book that the characters stick with me. If they seem real enough that days later I think...wonder what Greg and Julie are doing or I hope Jake is making it ok....then I know the book is worth recommending to others. This is one of those books. Where are you V. Powell, we want to hear more. Great Book, keep up the good work.

My sister is interested in Angels and bought this book. She enjoyed it and passed it on to me. I was skeptical at first (thinking it was just another book about angels, etc.) I was wrong! It is a very good novel.

Angel Shared is a well written book with believable characters (some lovable and some not so lovable) and a plot that went in a direction that I did not expect.
It is a great read and I whole-heartedly recommend it.

I first read about northern frontiersman Jack Hornby in McKay Jenkins's excellent "Bloody Falls of the Coppermine." Hornby was a guide to two missionaries who would later be killed in the far north by two Inuits. Hornby had vast knowledge of survival in the far north and even spoke the native language of the Inuit people. Alas, he was unreliable, irresponsible, and had the tendency to go off on his own. "Cold Burial" covers Hornby's final adventure where many of his personality flaws that made him not the best of guides led to his death. The saddest part is that he took two young men with him--including his 19-year old cousin.

Hornby's cousin, Edgar Christian, had just recently finished schooling at Dover College with little distinction save for a swimming tournament (19). Edgar had a taste for adventure that was probably, in large part, inspired by tales of England's heroes like Robert Falcon Scott where tragedies created a "composite account of what made a man" and that "frozen lands [were] ideal theatres for trial and courage" (22). He worshiped his legendary cousin, Jack Hornby. Edgar having limited prospects, his parents consented in having Hornby take their son to the barren lands of the Northwest Territories.

Edgar had high expectations of Jack and of the trip. Jack prided himself on his self-sufficiency and his young cousin believed he would acquire the same independence and "never be in need of a job if I want one" (92). Jack, however, was self-sufficient to the extreme. He never believed in taking much on a trip save for the barest of essentials and survived his many treks not through planning and organization but through stamina, intuition, and luck. During his 1926-7 trip to the Thelon River--though he was warned many times along the way against taking two young, inexperienced men with him with such limited supplies (Hornby also invited 27-year old Harold Adlard who, sadly, is often forgotten in the Hornby/Edgar saga)--his luck ran out.

Clive Powell-Williams relies mostly on primary sources to tell this sad story: Harold's few letters home, Edgar's letters and diary entries, notes left on the trail, observations of those who met up with the three men on their way to the Barrens, and post-death writings of those who knew Hornby. He uses conjecture to fill in the gaps but he demonstrates plenty of knowledge on the types of conditions and animals they encountered and their techniques for survival.

The last several chapters are the most intriguing, as well as heart-rending, as the men had to survive largely on animal skin and bone marrow while they slowly died from starvation. Then there is the final diary entry and letters of Edgar--the last survivor--left all alone in the cold, empty land knowing his death was imminent. The book continues with the discovery of the bodies and aftermath and ends with the unfortunate fate of former Hornby traveling partner Capt. James Critchell-Bullock. Included is a section of photos, photo of Edgar's last letters, and maps. I didn't find the maps useful as they did not include places with which I was familiar (i.e. Canada) to give the areas mapped a point of reference.

In 1926, the Barren Lands of the Canadian Northwest Territories were rightly regarded as an inhospitable region of appalling weather coupled with the threat of starvation, accident, and loneliness, a place where men (meaning Europeans) would be tested to the limit. Jack Hornsby, a troubled veteran of WWI, drifter, and adventurer, had been there, and liked it. He put together an expedition with Harold Adler and Edgar Christian, two young and inexperienced friends, with the intention of wintering north of the Great Slave Lake. They would hunt and trap to support themselves and pay for the expedition, and Hornsby would collect scientific data. Hornsby was knowledgeable about the region, but apparently was unable to organize effectively and failed to make basic preparations despite warnings. After many hardships and colossal mistakes in judgment, all three died. Mounties found their bodies, letters to parents, and the detailed diary kept by Christian, two years later. The author has used the diary and a number of surviving letters to reconstruct the adventurers' trip in great detail. Counterpoint to stories of survival under harsh conditions, but rather depressing. An absorbing read for anyone interested in arctic exploration, and a thought-provoking sidelight on Canadian history

In recent months there have been several books written about polar exploration, and their success indicates that the reading public seems to have a continuing fascination with these expeditions. This spring, the A and E cable network produced "Shackleton", a cold-country-frontier saga. In this tradition, Clive Powell-Williams has written "Cold Burial."

This book is an engrossing page-turner and a quick read. You will be caught up in the tale of 18 year old Edgar Christian and his mother's double-cousin, Jack Hornby, an experienced Canadian-Northwest Territories outdoorsman. Experienced he may be, but seasoned he is not. Impulsive, improvident, and arrogant to boot, he takes his cousin on what will be their first and final adventure together. Having relied heavily upon luck and upon the help of natives, Jack finds his luck has run out. He does try to spare his young cousin, but events proceed inevitably
to a tragic end. Powell-Williams relies upon the diaries of young Edgar to put together a chilling story of their days in a climate hostile to human life. Female readers may be tempted to ask, "Why would they want to do that?" The only answer is the famous one, "Because it's there!" Apparently that insouciant reply makes sense to males; but to a mother, it rings hollow.

For anybody that has read and enjoyed some of the adventurer books released in the last few years (Into Thin Air, etc.), Cold Burial is a must.

75 years ago, 3 British men set out on a journey up the Thelon River (in Northern Alberta) and into the Canadian Arctic. None of them made it back alive. When their bodies were discovered by the RCMP, the investigators also found a diary. This diary, written by the youngest member of the party (Edgar Christian, age 18) chronicled the shift from courageous optimism in the early days of the voyage, into hopeless abandon as the 3 men starved and froze to death.

Clive Powell-Williams has taken this diary and researched the history behind the 3 adventurers. In Cold Burial, he tells the whole story; from their original meetings at school in Britain, to Edgar's last days, alone in the cabin.

Cold Burial is a tremendously well-written account that will certainy rank with the top adventure/disaster books of all time. An extremely good read. Highly recommended.

Vermont, another place I'd love to visit and the Compass 2nd addition Guide to Vermont took me there and certainly wet my appetite for a visit even more.

Compass Guides leap ahead of others through powerful photography and personal descriptions that compel the senses. Vermont comes alive through sumptuous color and spicy descriptions. I believe the book even helped me come to an understanding of the culture of this northern New England state.

Leveraging the experience and passion of local authors and photographers must be the secret to the quality of this series. You just won't find many guide books this rich and satisfying.

This book is only good for overall knowledge of small towns in Vermont; every little town gets a small paragraph's worth of description. It is not very helpful if you are looking to visit and need more practical information such as where to stay, where to eat, and things to do. While it does list some lodging and restaurants, it is by no means comprehensive and you're left to do most of the leg work yourself. This book, in my opinion, was a waste of my money - I had to buy two more Vermont books to get the information I was looking for. Even the town descriptions are too short to be really helpful. This is more of an "Overview of the Splendor of Vermont" book.

I'd lived in Vermont for ten years before buying this book (for my mom's visit). It is an impressive presentation of the character of our state. True, it's short on the often ephemeral details you'll need for a trip (the restaurants, the hotels). But in a day when most of that's available on the web anyway. What you get instead is a thoughtful description of how the reigonal differences emerged--a level of detail mostly ignored by the standard descriptions.

Well-written and full of wonderful photos. Also full of quirky little facts and insider info. If you are looking for a good book to educate you on the best state in the union (I hope to move there in the next couple of years), then this it. You won't be disappointed. It blew away every other guide I looked at (and there are quite a few out there). As far as I'm concerned, Compass American Guides sets a new standard.

This book is a very nice one among those on the same topic. It covers all theory that we should know about digital control in addition to a neat review of continuous control. Besides, it provides insight for understanding real systems along with Matlab examples and good problems. The way the authors wrote the book is clear and and in turn they offer the reader a pretty good and comprehensive approach. I recommend it!

This book excellent for anyone interested in the Digital Control of Dynamic Systems. This book is Reccomended as a tool for Matlab implementation of control Systems. Very good book!

I'am primarily a VLSI design engineer who is working on a product involving digital control. The book by Franklin and co. helped me get off to a quick start. It has a lot of practical examples which will be useful to engineers. It teaches the underlying theory , proposes a method to solve problems and also gives the appropriate MATLAB commands. However , personally I'am not able to get a solid grasp of the material by reading this book alone. For a more complete and rigorous coverage I recommend Discrete Control by Benjamin Kuo.

Generally an excellent book with many worked examples. Unfortunately there seem to be a few irritating errors. One error concerns section 13.3.1. The cost function in this example is set for a bandwidth of 1Hz. This is also indicated in Figure 13.70. However, the parameters a,b given in Figure 13.71 (and those found by the search algorithm) are correct for a bandwidth value of 10Hz. Incidentally, the third edition (student edition) of the book seems to be made of thinner paper than the second edition. I feel the book makes rather too much of quantisation effects and sample rate selection. It might be better to replace these chapters with a new chapter on model predictive control.

This is the first book I've read from cover to cover since I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Before Free Style I only read cancer books. This book is touching, funny and such a fun easy read that I had no choice but to breeze through it in a few days. (quite a feat for someone who still has chemobrain and a short attention span!)

You know you're reading a good, no not good, GREAT book when you can identify with married mothers even when you're not one your self!

I am officially a fan of Linda, and cannot wait until she writes her next great novel!

It's about time for a book about intelligent, real Latina women living their everyday lives. This book is so funny and nostalgic it will make you say, "Remember that?!" It's also honest and raw in the issues it raises, so you really connect with the characters, especially the main character, Idalis, because of this fresh honesty; you really feel like you've known her forever. As an avid reader I need to read different kinds of books in order to fill my creative and emotional well. Finally, Linda Nieves-Powell delivers something that's been missing in books: a fun, sassy, serious, and strong nostalgic story that satisfies my Latina soul.

Keep it up. You've got a big fan here!

Playwright now-turned author Linda Nieves-Powell, from Latino Flavored productions has a new, fun and fast-paced book about the not-so-fast paced lives of two 30-something year old moms.

Two best friends are worn-out, maybe a little fed up with the stress of their busy lives, juggling seemingly uncaring husbands, time-consuming children and their unrelenting desire to simply - kick back! They remember their 'freestyle' lives when they were free-style dancing at the clubs in the mid 90's.

A fun, easy-going, nostalgic read! A great book to kick-back and forget your own hurried lifestyle!

[...]
La Diva Latina Magazine

Free Style is AMAZING!!! You Will laugh and cry simultaneously while following Idalis and Selenis' journey to self dsicovery! Great Job!!!

The book is well written for a first time author. It builds characters well and breeds anticipation for the next volume.

this is a book that goes beyond the comic book genere of superman an x-men. it also shows the dark side when hero's fall.

Heroes are just like the rest of us, they have families and lives outside of the spandex. Mr. Powell's book gives us a peak at these hidden lives while at the same time giving us the action and adventure we come to expect from heroes.

GET READY TO DICH YOUR XMEN BOOKS AND MAGS. THIS IS BETTER THEN ANY XMEN COMIC. GENEIS OF CHTHON IS MORE ABOUT WHO AND WHAT THEY ARE PLUS THE WRITER ADDED IN ALL THE GOOD FIGHTS INBETWEEEN.
YOU KNOW WHAT, BUY IT AND YOU'LL SEE... TO MUCH TO LIST...HAVE FUN

The Greek News is a fun book which clarifies Ancient Greek history and makes it clearer. It is a great supplement to another more dense book on the history. I think reluctant readers would get more information from this book and I enjoyed it myself.

This book was truly helpful in the classroom. It is a great intoduction to the Greek world. It is an ancient times new paper filled with a lot of factful information about Greek life in today's modern langauge. Kids learn about what the Greeks ate, what they wore, who went to school and who did not, about their government, religion, every day customs and even every day utensils used back then. I found myself being fascinated by this book the first time I saw it because it is a great fountain of information in just one small book. I learned a lot too!! It is not a text book, but it has just what you need to introduce the Ancient Greeks to your students.

This book has been the greatest help for my greek projects. In this book you get an easy explanation of the greeek culture with out a lot of dry information. It's an easy read and something one can get the best info from. Especially culture and war though it does an article on both dsacrifices to the god and the oracles. Easy and fun IF YOU ARE A TEACHER PLEASE PICK THIS BOOK! Your students will enjoy it! :)

This was a great book. I used it along with my studying of Greek History in school. I would read out of my textbook and other books then find a section in this book to read about. It helped me understand Greece a lot better. I enjoy the little cartoons and fake advertisements put in. The articles are written in many different forms including: interviews, traveling reporters and submitted articles. It is a fun book to read and I really loved it. This book is great for anyone either studying Greece or just interested in the subject. Age 13

Perhaps the biggest problem with Alan Garner's Alderly tales is that there are only two. Like the book before it, "The Moon of Gomrath" takes the ingredients of stereotypical fantasy, and gives them a slight twist. The result is a moonlit, mythical adventure with a rare power.

While walking in the woods, Colin and Susan encounter an elf and a dwarf, near where Cadellin the wizard guards the sleeping knights. They learn that the lios-alfar (elves) are migrating to Alderly, because a mysterious force is causing some of them to vanish. Unfortunately, proximity to humans' pollution is causing the "smoke sickness" in the elves, and Uthecar asks that Susan lend him the bracelet that Angharad Goldenhand gave her.

But Susan is suddenly kidnapped by an evil force, and reappears quiet and strange. She has been taken over by the malevolent Brollachan. The dwarves and Cadellin are able to help Colin restore her to normality -- but evil is still stirring in the form of the Morrigan and her sinister cohorts. And when Susan and Colin light a fire to keep warm on a hill, they inadvertantly set off the band of magical horsemen, the Wild Hunt...

"The Moon of Gomrath" is less like a real sequel, and more like "Part Two" of prior novel "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen," with the same mythical storylines and quiet poetry of Garner's unique style. But this time around, warring wizards and goblins take a backseat to elves and ancient warriors straight out of old Celtic myth.

Garner's writing remains poignant and rather saddening -- the elves are sickening, Susan is forever changed by the golden bracelet and her possession, and the industrial world is slowly driving away past magic. Garner tells us that someone who uses a magical horn "may not know peace again, not in the sun's circle or in the darkling of the world."

Susan and Colin fulfil the archetype of plucky-British-kids-on-magical-vacation quite well. Although Susan slowly transcends that over the course of the book, Colin doesn't change much. Cadellin doesn't appear much, but his absence is made up for by the lios-alfar, an evil dwarf, and the malevolent witch Morrigan.

The mythical beauty of "The Moon of Gomrath" is only really comparable to "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen," its predecessor. Magical, mythical, and thoroughly entrancing.

"The Moon of Gomrath" is another great fantastical tale - perfect for young teens and adults alike! I agree with one of the other reviewers that the only problem with this series is that there are only 2 books in it - as I would glady devour several more!

This is only the second book of this genre that I've read - which I would categorize as "fantasy". I never thought I would enjoy such books, but after these 2 by Alan Garner, I realize that I was wrong.

"The Moon of Gomrath" continues the story of Susan & Colin's journeys through a paralell world of magic (their journeys begin in the first book titled "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen").

Once again they are inadvertantly pulled into a fight between good & evil - one that will have major consequences for both the magical world, and the one they actually live in.

The old-world language, coupled with the amazingly vivid details, work together to pull the reader in, and keep you turning pages to the end.

A nice addition to this book was a note at the end which explained where the author got his ideas from, and the fact that all of the geographical areas used in this book (with the exception of just one) actually exist.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys using their imagination - you won't get bored with this one!

I read The Moon of Gomrath when it first came out, and I was 9 or 10. It was the first fantasy novel I had ever read and I really enjoyed it. I decided 40 years later to give it another go, and I was disappointed. In the meantime I've read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and they are so much better than The Weirdstone and The Moon of Gomrath that the Garner
books suffer by comparison. Garner is using the same British and Celtic ancient legends that Tolkien did, and Garner's using the same Anglo Saxon naming conventions, so Garner's books come off sounding like ripoffs of Tolkien's books.

Garner's 2 books are probably good for 8-13 year olds, who may be too young yet for Tolkien's works, but as an adult, I found them disappointing. The most annoying part was that Garner uses a lot of pronouns in sentences where 2 characters are mentioned, so you never know who "he" or "they" refer to. The characters change their minds too often, and flipflop on what they are going to do. The children want into Fundindelve, and then when they're in, they want out. They leave the house on their own at all hours of the night and run around dangerous quarries and mines. The children can run miles in the night along unknown roads, and yet the same path might take adults days during good light. Susan doesn't wear a watch, but she has no problem with 2 bracelets. The maps are supposed to be of real places, but the same landmarks appear at different places on different maps, and the scale is unknown. The only character that rings true is Gowther, and at the end of "Moon" Garner mentions that he was copied from a real life person. The other characters don't seem to talk or act the way a real person would. I realize Turner was trying to make it seem as though they used older language, and that doesn't bother me. It's that what they say didn't make sense. The climax of both books is very abrupt. The stories just suddenly end. Turner never mentions how old the children are, or even which one is the oldest, but they don't seem to respect any authority and they do what they please. They try to find things without a clue as to where to even look. I just find this too unbelievable. I will not be reading any more of Garner's books.

'The Moon of Gomrath' is the wild magical sequel to 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen', set in Alderley Edge in Cheshire of the present day but harking back to the days of Middlearth. Both these stories have a very Tolkienish way about them, it is an interesting exercise to compare and contrast the characters as they are introduced. It is a pity that Garner's books, faring less well than 'The Hobbit', dropped off the literary radar in the 1980's, but with the benefit of Potter power they are now back in style with new artwork on the cover.

Garner's special art is to take a basic swords-and-sorcery story and elevate it into a poetry-and-powers myth with gritty heroes and terrifying villains who hard to defeat and not always easy to spot. This story of Colin and Susan's second adventure is aimed at a slightly older audience than the Weirdstone, has Susan in the lead role, and has more depth and menace along with some sly humour. The Morrigan is back, not yet at the height of her powers, but ready for revenge. The elves are suffering and dying from the pollution caused by Man: they must retreat to cleaner, remoter places. The battles in magic and swordplay are more deadly and more personal and more realistic. The havoc and hard pace of war are felt in the prose, which is breathless and a little wild itself. The wizard Cadellin takes more of a back seat in this adventure but he does explain (in chapter four) why the coming of the 'Age of Reason' and industrialism was more of a coming of the age of Materialism and a retreat from Reason. Hence the great rift between our Man's world of material values, and the worlds of magic and the life of the spiritual values.

Now as every parent knows, children's books have the power of forming the child's mind. (True even in the age of film and video, as books are both more personal and make mind-expanding demands on the imagination. Films just fill up whatever space is in your head, they do not create it. Books are not just good for you, they are more fun.) So with magical adventures being very much back in style now is a good time to get the various authors into some sort of order. So, without going back to the ancient Greeks, where does Alan Garner fit in? We can easily go back a century or so: F. Anstey (Vice Versa), George MacDonald (Princess and Curdie stories), and E. Nesbit (House of Arden, etc), Tolkien (Hobbit, Farmer Giles of Ham), C.S. Lewis (Narnia, the land of youth), Ursula K. LeGuin (Earthsea), and Alan Garner. And, as Rowling's ghost Peeves puts it, 'Wee Potty Potter', brings us up to date.

So there are two main routes to magic. Anstey, MacDonald, Nesbit, Garner, and Rowling write a story that exercises magic in this world, and the two things collide with exciting degrees of chaos and depth. The results are serious or hilarious, or both. Garner manages to interface the two worlds with superior art. But a higher priced ticket will take you to a whole new world. Tolkien, Lewis, and LeGuin create whole worlds of their own and people it with new peoples - a fully magical world. The magic is integrated, truly part of the fabric of that world, not just added to make it fizz. One you are in, you belong there for a while. You return and your own world is now a little more magical. The whole range of literary forms is now possible, even super-possible as we no longer rely on supposed 'realism' to make the effects. They go beyond just making a magical talisman or two (some brilliantly done, others less so), and seeing 'what happens'. They make new countries and skies, new kingdoms and peoples, new languages and rules. Ultimately they are the suns and the others are the moons.