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Jan. 14th, 2011 03:32 pmA few days ago, Cecilia and I started reading Deltora Quest, by Emily Rodda. It was a first for her, but I had loved the books in elementary school and continued to love the story even as I grew older and the books became too easy for me. We were reading it aloud, so our progress was slow, and we didn't even finish the prologue before Cecilia left.
The books, a series of eight with two three-book sequels, were written for children, and that fact comes out in the simplistic writing style and the riddles that stump the characters but can be easily solved by the readers. But the story is excellent, thrilling, and full of twists and turns, especially at the end. It's one of those stories that lie to you, almost from the very beginning, so that when you hit the last book and everything is revealed, it's fucking amazing.
I bring this up because my desire to reread the books and my hesitation to do so without Cecilia reminded me that some years back, an anime was made of the series. ( more on the anime )
I probably won't keep watching, though. It's pretty much the same thing as the books but necessarily worse. I want to reread all the books, plus the second sequel, Dragons of Deltora, which I never did read. My childhood! Oh, how I love thee. If you love fantasy adventures and don't mind reading children's books, I recommend them. (Especially the last two—fucking fuck whyyyyy can't they just be happy—but you have to read the first six to gain the emotional attachment that causes them to rip you apart.)
While I'm at it, I may as well recommend:
( The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Havemercy, Sh*t My Dad Says )
I also reread The Castle in the Attic, by Elizabeth Winthrop, recently, but I don't recommend it. It's a decent children's book, but I think so grand an adventure story ought to have been longer. Everything was too easy to be believable, and I felt at the end like all this trouble was taken to teach a ten year old boy 1) how to have self-confidence and 2) not to make people do things that they don't want to do or else he'll have to go on a quest to defeat and evil wizard in order to fix his mistakes and make those people not disappointed in him anymore.
The books, a series of eight with two three-book sequels, were written for children, and that fact comes out in the simplistic writing style and the riddles that stump the characters but can be easily solved by the readers. But the story is excellent, thrilling, and full of twists and turns, especially at the end. It's one of those stories that lie to you, almost from the very beginning, so that when you hit the last book and everything is revealed, it's fucking amazing.
I bring this up because my desire to reread the books and my hesitation to do so without Cecilia reminded me that some years back, an anime was made of the series. ( more on the anime )
I probably won't keep watching, though. It's pretty much the same thing as the books but necessarily worse. I want to reread all the books, plus the second sequel, Dragons of Deltora, which I never did read. My childhood! Oh, how I love thee. If you love fantasy adventures and don't mind reading children's books, I recommend them. (Especially the last two—fucking fuck whyyyyy can't they just be happy—but you have to read the first six to gain the emotional attachment that causes them to rip you apart.)
While I'm at it, I may as well recommend:
( The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Havemercy, Sh*t My Dad Says )
I also reread The Castle in the Attic, by Elizabeth Winthrop, recently, but I don't recommend it. It's a decent children's book, but I think so grand an adventure story ought to have been longer. Everything was too easy to be believable, and I felt at the end like all this trouble was taken to teach a ten year old boy 1) how to have self-confidence and 2) not to make people do things that they don't want to do or else he'll have to go on a quest to defeat and evil wizard in order to fix his mistakes and make those people not disappointed in him anymore.
