Red Moon and Black Mountain

One of the finest fantasies I have ever read. Hugely evocative and eerily compelling. I always want to learn more about Vandarei, its history and its people. The book could be thrice as long and I would not want it to end. Give it a go!

this is a wonderful book, for kids and adults alike... loved it.. well worth the price

I first read this book when I was 15 years old and it absolutely captivated me. I read it again 25 years later, and it was just as magical. I have never forgotten the bittersweet ending, and just the other day, picked it up and read the last few pages again, and was filled with emotion. Highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy - this is as rich as Lord of the Rings, in a different fashion.

I am NOT a big fantasy fan, and found the "children in the woods" start a little offputting, but after the first chapter...I was hooked. The "eagles" chapter is one of the best pieces of writing of this kind ever, including Tolkien. This entire book is worth reading and keeping, because you'll read it over and over, for the pure pleasure of it.

This is a jewel. When I first read it thirty years ago, more than a decade after I'd discovered Tolkien and fantasy fiction, it did not particularly touch me. While it remained in my bookcase, I never revisited it as I have so many other books of that era. How fortunate, then, this rereading.What Red Moon/Black Mountain gives up to Tolkien in, say, scope and history, it recoups in anthropological richness. Ms Chant thoroughly understands the culture of her peoples and their day-to-day lives in the way that Tolkien knows their languages. At the same time, she gives up nothing at all to C. S. Lewis in the realm of religion and allegory. And she surpasses all fantasy writers I have read in character development. Oliver's journey from child to warrior to something beyond, though stilted at first, takes on the heartbreaking beauty of the best of Cormac McCarthy. I was puzzled when the great confrontation with the evil one came with 60 pages remaining. But it is those last 60 pages that takes this book from fine fantasy into the realm of fine literature.Not to be missed!

...you might well produce Joy Chant's RED MOON,BLACK MOUNTAIN. Oliver, Penelope and Nicholas arethree English children drawn by magical power intoanother universe, where they have a role to play in an upcoming war. I very much enjoyed thequasi-Celtic culture of the Horse People and Chant's honest picture of the tribalism. Althoughthe plot slows in places the sweet, strong languageand beautifully realized world she has invented easily distracted me from this (minor)flaw.I read this book first as a teen, then returned toit after nearly twenty years to find my positivememories of it justified: Recommended to anyintelligent young person or adult.