"The Owl Service" by Alan Garner.
First read: 04-2008 (finished trying to read in November)
Notes: I'm so fed up with this book, I read about it in David Pringle's 100 best fantasy novels years ago, read and re-read the review with fascination and it's so dense and descriptive and has such uninteresting characters I can't believe any child ever finished it, much less enjoyed it. Garner is like an old day star of children literature, though. I think it's the pure unadultered fantasy that doesn't work for me (i.e. Tolkien). Whatever, there are 20 pages to go and I can't make myself read a single sentence more.
Notes: I'm so fed up with this book, I read about it in David Pringle's 100 best fantasy novels years ago, read and re-read the review with fascination and it's so dense and descriptive and has such uninteresting characters I can't believe any child ever finished it, much less enjoyed it. Garner is like an old day star of children literature, though. I think it's the pure unadultered fantasy that doesn't work for me (i.e. Tolkien). Whatever, there are 20 pages to go and I can't make myself read a single sentence more.