The Book of Three

This reads like an old story; the characters are simple, and there aren't many surprises. I read these as a tween and wondered if they held up. I say maybe, but really I think it's a tween book solidly. The main character wrestles with how to be an adult and man in the world, and everyone else around is a caricature of the people you meet. This set of stories got me interested in D&D, role-playing, and reading other fantasy stories, but I read them at the perfect moment in my life.

A lovely fantasy for both adults and children. This book is the meeting point between Lord of the rings and the Chronicles of Narnia, with interesting charcters and a classical kind of adventure. I really appreciated that even being part of a series of 5 books, the ending of this first book sounded like an actual ending, so if you don't want to read the next books you're not forced to and may enjoy it as a short stand-alone.

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned once or twice before here that The Chronicles of Prydain were the books that got me into fantasy. The Chronicles of Narnia made me a fan of Narnia, but really didn't carry over to anything outside of Narnia (at least until I got older and tried Mere Christianity). But Prydain got me appreciating the tropes, conventions and characters that'd get me into Brooks, Weis & Hickman, Eddings, etc., etc. Listening to the audiobooks seemed like a nice way to revisit the series.

Taran, the Assistant Pig Keeper to Hen Wen (an oracular pig), dreams of glory to be found with a sword on the battlefield. His charge is frightened by something and escapes from her pen – Taran chases after her, leaving the only part of Prydain he's ever known behind in the process. This hunt for the pig takes him to the far reaches of Prydain, where he encounters the son of the High King, Gwydion; Princess Eilonwy – about his age, and a fantastic foil and friend for Taran; Fflewddurr Fflam, an unofficial bard; Gurgi – some sort of simple-minded Sasquatch-like being; and others. Taran also encounters the forces of evil – the Horned King; Archen the enchantress; and other minions of the Dark Lord Arawn.

The themes of true nobility, heroism and what it means to be a man are prevalent (and Alexander maybe gets a little didactic here) – nothing I object to, just it seems a little thick by contemporary standards. Taran learns (for the first time) that there's as much honor to be found in doing your everyday work well as there is on the battlefield. It probably feels a little old-fashioned to many, but there's value here. Taran begins to mature here, but it takes (as I recall) all but the last 30 pages of the fifth book for it all to come together for him.

There's a little audio recording of Alexander before the book kicks off as an introduction – that was pretty cool. Langton's narration was okay – the narration was okay, maybe a little slow. His interpretation of Taran and Gwydion didn't do much for me (and actually made me realize how clunkily Alexander wrote their dialogue), but they slowly grew on me. I really couldn't find anything to like about Gurgi (one of my favorite characters ever). But I really liked everything else – his Eilonwy and Fflewddurr were perfect and a lot of fun. He deserves kudos for his Hen Wen alone, really.

This isn't the greatest writing you'll encounter – for the age group or genre. But it's effective, there's so much to appreciate here (and not just for nostalgia's sake). I remain a big fan of the series, and do appreciate the audiobook.

4 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews

Taran's been promoted - to Assistant Pig Keeper. It's not quite the heroic task he envisioned, even if Hen Wen is an oracular pig. But even assistant pig keeping turns out to be harder than expected, when Hen Wen escapes, Taran has a run-in with the Horned King, and things get even worse.

One of the classic stories of children's fantasy. I read it when I was young, and at WorldCon, this year, I was happy to hear a panelist refer to Assistant Pig Keepers, with no other explanation necessary. Everyone knows this story, and rightly so. If you don't, read it now.

There's no one thing that's particularly magical about The Book of Three. The writing is smooth and evocative, the setting is credible, the characters are human, and the humor is evident. Alexander has done a terrific job of balancing it all out, with a tone that's perfect for young readers. Taran is young, he sounds, young, and he acts young - all in very believable ways. The attitudes are a bit dated, and some of the scenes are a bit thin, but the story still works well.

If you're new to the book, you'll have seen all this done many times. In fact, when Alexander did it, the elements weren't particularly new. But few have done it so nicely. Recommended, especially for younger readers - nothing too frightening, and some good lessons.

This was probably the book/series that made me a huge fan of adventure and fantasy novels today; a great book from my youth, that when revisited some 15-20 years later did not have the same excitement. In this first book of Taran's adventure, I felt that the meagre 185 pages of story would have served as a mere prologue in other tales. Still, a must-read for those who can appreciate adventure/fantasy written for our younger selves.