#26 Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
Time has passed since the end of Inkheart. Meggie’s mother, Resa, has been returned to her, Eleanor has began restocking her 
shelves, and the chaos that plagued the characters lives during the last book has completely faded. Only, Meggie is having difficulty letting go of the Inkworld. Charmed by her mother’s stories of fairies and strolling players, Meggie secretly desires nothing more than to travel into the pages of book where so much magic exists. This desire does not go unnoticed by Mo, who doesn’t understand Meggie’s fascination with the book that has already caused their family so much pain. Then Farid shows up on their doorstep, advising them that a man named Orpheus has read Dustfinger back into the Inkworld, and that Basta is going to follow him into the book. He begs Meggie to read him into Inkheart so he can warn his friend, and she agrees. She only has one condition. She must enter the book with him.
Inkspell is a worthy follow up to Inkheart. The first book in the series was a highly original tale of subtle magic and intense peril, although it suffered form some pacing problems. Inkspell reads much smoother. It starts off a little slow in the beginning, but once our characters enter the Inkworld, things really begin to pick up. One thing I really liked about Inkheart was its study of how fantasy characters adjusted (or did not adjust) to life in our normal world. Inkspell is a similar fish out of water story, where the characters from our world must adjust to the fantasy setting of the Inkworld. Readers will be happy to see that all of the characters (that are still alive) from Inkheart have returned to these pages. Some characters, such as Eleanor, have smaller roles this time around, but characters like Fenoglio play larger roles. One of the things I enjoyed about Inkheart was the deliciously evil villain Capricorn, and let me tell you, he has nothing on the main villain of this novel, the Adderhead. As far as the story goes, much like JK Rowling, Cornelia Funke is not afraid to talk down to her young readers. The book touches on many dark themes, such as death and the danger of playing God, and it does so quite effectively.
While I read the print version of Inkheart, I chose to listen to the audiobook of Inkspell, narrated by actor Brendan Fraser. I found myself very impressed with the variety of voices and accents that the narrator was able to portray here. I had no idea that Brendan Fraser was such a talented voice actor! Admittedly, his accent choices sometimes seem a little strange (as is the case of Fenoglio’s New York accent), but for the most part they do quite well. My favorite portrayals would have to be Basta and Dustfinger.
The ending of Inkspell is incredibly powerful (don’t worry, I won’t spoil why). I am quite happy that I don’t have to wait for the next book to hit the shelves. I’ve loaded the next audiobook, Inkdeath, onto my mp3 player, and look forward to starting it tomorrow on my way to work.
Rating: four and a half out of five stars
Length: the print version has 635 pages
Source: theaudiolibrary
TBR Pile: 145 books
Similar Books: For books about normal people getting pulled into magical worlds try The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, The Secret Country by Pamela Dean, Mister Monday by Garth Nix, The Summer Country by James A. Hetley, and A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.
Other books I've read by this author: The Thief Lord, Inkheart ( my review)
xposted to bookish and temporaryworlds
shelves, and the chaos that plagued the characters lives during the last book has completely faded. Only, Meggie is having difficulty letting go of the Inkworld. Charmed by her mother’s stories of fairies and strolling players, Meggie secretly desires nothing more than to travel into the pages of book where so much magic exists. This desire does not go unnoticed by Mo, who doesn’t understand Meggie’s fascination with the book that has already caused their family so much pain. Then Farid shows up on their doorstep, advising them that a man named Orpheus has read Dustfinger back into the Inkworld, and that Basta is going to follow him into the book. He begs Meggie to read him into Inkheart so he can warn his friend, and she agrees. She only has one condition. She must enter the book with him.
Inkspell is a worthy follow up to Inkheart. The first book in the series was a highly original tale of subtle magic and intense peril, although it suffered form some pacing problems. Inkspell reads much smoother. It starts off a little slow in the beginning, but once our characters enter the Inkworld, things really begin to pick up. One thing I really liked about Inkheart was its study of how fantasy characters adjusted (or did not adjust) to life in our normal world. Inkspell is a similar fish out of water story, where the characters from our world must adjust to the fantasy setting of the Inkworld. Readers will be happy to see that all of the characters (that are still alive) from Inkheart have returned to these pages. Some characters, such as Eleanor, have smaller roles this time around, but characters like Fenoglio play larger roles. One of the things I enjoyed about Inkheart was the deliciously evil villain Capricorn, and let me tell you, he has nothing on the main villain of this novel, the Adderhead. As far as the story goes, much like JK Rowling, Cornelia Funke is not afraid to talk down to her young readers. The book touches on many dark themes, such as death and the danger of playing God, and it does so quite effectively.
While I read the print version of Inkheart, I chose to listen to the audiobook of Inkspell, narrated by actor Brendan Fraser. I found myself very impressed with the variety of voices and accents that the narrator was able to portray here. I had no idea that Brendan Fraser was such a talented voice actor! Admittedly, his accent choices sometimes seem a little strange (as is the case of Fenoglio’s New York accent), but for the most part they do quite well. My favorite portrayals would have to be Basta and Dustfinger.
The ending of Inkspell is incredibly powerful (don’t worry, I won’t spoil why). I am quite happy that I don’t have to wait for the next book to hit the shelves. I’ve loaded the next audiobook, Inkdeath, onto my mp3 player, and look forward to starting it tomorrow on my way to work.
Rating: four and a half out of five stars
Length: the print version has 635 pages
Source: theaudiolibrary
TBR Pile: 145 books
Similar Books: For books about normal people getting pulled into magical worlds try The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, The Secret Country by Pamela Dean, Mister Monday by Garth Nix, The Summer Country by James A. Hetley, and A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.
Other books I've read by this author: The Thief Lord, Inkheart ( my review)
xposted to bookish and temporaryworlds