The Alan Garner Omnibus: Elidor / The Weirdstone of Brisingamen / The Moon of Gomrath

Ok, I admit taht when I first read ELIDOR as probably an 11 year old I liked it the least of Garner's books to date. It was "ok" but the idea of a magical fantasy being set in the urban wasteland of post-war Manchester just didn't click. Maybe it is a comment on the last quarter century, maybe it is just a matter of growing up, but going back the book all these years later I found myself absolutely enthralled. Garner makes the transition from everyday life to the realm of Welsh mythology & back seamlessly and flawlessly. His characters are remarkably "real" -even those with "bit parts" like the parents of the protagonists. The language is lyrical, and there are scenes that will haunt you for years. My one complaint is that it is more a "novella" than a novel -at this re-reading I would gladly have kept going for another 200 pages, but what we get is great.

Alan Garner is an extremely underrated fantasy author. Elidor is a perfect example of the magic he can weave. The plot is simple enough - the four Watson children must save the world of Elidor, one step removed from our own. To do this, they are given four magical Treasures that guard Elidor from harm. But doing this may be more trouble than they think...Garner is a lyrical writer. Such sentences as "The blade was like ice, and the hilt all jewels and fire" would be impressive in even an adult's book. The books have lots of adventure in them for the younger set, and fine prose for adults. I recommend this to all readers, even those that don't like fantasy.

Okay, Garner lacks the modern sensibility of Rowlings, but this is great stuff. A bit darker than Narnia, easier to grasp than Middle Earth, this is thrilling stuff-- I can still remember tha chills I got during the climactic scenes of this book long ago. A great read from a terribly under-appreciated author...

I read this book 18 years ago, when I was 10 years old. It was one of the best books I ever read - as good as Mark Twain's 'Tom Sawyer' or Jules Verne's 'Mistery Island'. But in a way, it was better. The atmosphere of Elidor was magical, dim lit, eerie - something I found only in Marion Zimmer Bradley's 'The Mists of Avalon' or in Stephen King's work. This is definitely a great fantasy book.

Manchester in the 1960s. It seems like a pretty grim place to live; a world of rain, soot, demolition sites, British Rail. This was before the British woke up and decided it was OK to want to eat good food and generally enjoy life. The kids in the book are from a hyper-conventional family, where any sort of dishonest behaviour is out, and family nights in front of the TV are definitely in. But they get thrown into another world, which used to be a fairytale country, but has fallen from its state of grace. (A sort of post-war disillusionment world.) What makes this book one of the best of its kind ever written is the reality and grittiness of the problems the kids face in guarding the treasures which have been foisted upon them, and its absolute faith in the idea that magic is part of the stuff of everyday life; that the most precious things are to be found in the least likely places.