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Feb 08, 2012

So, I'm going through my reviews right now to make some of them less trollish and whatnot, since when I was 15 I apparently didn't really know how to review books (or bother to capitalize, punctuate, etc.). Anyway ... sadly, I can't do a very good review for this book because I no longer remember it very well. I only remember that it just couldn't hold my interest very well. I really wanted to like it because one of my best friends loves the series ... but, well, she is into epic fantasy and I'm More...

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2011

Ryan rated it:

-- The Pellinor Series -- (5.5/10) The Naming (Book One)

I found Alison's writing to be rather obvious, full of clichés, and on the whole unsatisfying. When one of the main protagonists almost died, I found myself indifferent as the main characters were of a relatively uninteresting sort. Her analogies were overused (e.g., "eyes as wide as saucers"). The conversations seem contrived, and the emotional state of being of her protagonists are volatile and explicitly stated rat More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2008

Marya rated it:

The pace is not too slow, but not too quick. The characters are not too bland, but not too unique. The writing is good but not great. But instead of being the baby bear of fantasy novels, this one ended up being very run of the mill. I felt like I'd read the story before (the danger of reading too much in one genre), with nothing in this book making it really stand out. I eventually got bored with it and stopped reading about two thirds through.

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Nov 12, 2007

Alice rated it:

If it weren't so good, I would say this book is a mixture of every other fantasy book on the block. Test: can you match each plot line with another famous work?
...The "chosen one" is raised in a secluded farm, identity hidden...The girl was trained in musicianship by the local bard, and her prodigious talent allows her to be named as a bard when she finally arrives at the school...While travelling together, the neophyte receives instruction from a famous bard with a slightly sini More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2009

Mekerei rated it:

"Maerad is a slave in a desperate and unforgiving settlement, taken there as a child when her family is destroyed in ar. She is unaware that she possesses a powerful Gift, a Gift that marks her as a member of the School of Pellinor. It is only when she is discovered by Cadvan, one of the great Bards of Lirigon, that her true heritage and extraordinary destiny unfolds. Now, she and her teacher Cadvn must survive a perilous journey through a time and place where the dark forces they battle wi More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Becky rated it:

I truly loved reading this book, and I re-read it constantly. The plot is teased out through out the book in an expert manner with characters that are believable and loveable. With so many twists and revelations it would be easy for a lesser writer to waver, and yet The Naming (or The Gift as I know it in the UK) is an amazing work of fiction which captures my imagination and heart every time I read it.
A once slave is liberated from her morbid life and thrown head first into a battle betwe More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2008

Debbie rated it:

This book is very slow paced. Most of it is a travel log of the scenery, and the level of detail is much more than is needed. Any potential tension is completely lost in these sections.

I didn't feel like I knew or understood the world very well by the end. We're told a great deal about the landscape, a bunch of intricate but insignificant objects (furniture, etc.), and some ancient history, but very little about the current history and politics which are supposedly driving the charac More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2008

Beckett rated it:

The Naming has some great adventure and I like the characters, though they're not as developed as I'd like. It felt like this book was more of an introduction to the coming books, a setting of the scene introducing the many characters and the conflict. It's a sloooow-moving book, to be sure.
Nice vocabulary but an overuse of exclamation points! And you know how I am biased towards those who overuse exclamation points! This is a book for adolescents... I wonder how well it goes over with More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

Sheena rated it:

I found this book by chance at the university book store and cannot express how happy I am that I did! I have been craving a good series since the end of Harry Potter and this book definitely got me hooked.

This is a fantasy/adventure novel that reminds me in many ways of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. However in this series you have the young Bard, Maerad, as the heroine who follows the classic plot line of a "diamond in the rough" destined to save her world from the utte More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 11, 2008

Marie rated it:

This book borders on a 3 star and 4 star for me, so in truth, a 3.5.

The story is about Maerad, who we meet as a slave in Gilman's Cot. Maerad wasn't always a slave though. She was born in a place called Pellinor, but Pellinor was ransacked and lost, and she and her mother were taken as slaves. Maerad knows there is something special about her, and uses it to start stories about how she is a witch to keep potential trouble away. One day, a man comes into Gilman's Cot. A man no on More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2008

Ryan rated it:

The Naming is from the "coming of age" genre, but is more the "I've gotten through puberty and now am trying to figure out who I am and it would be easier if I were someone magical or famous or something other than I am now". I suppose it is a book of self-discovery, though that isn't quite right either.

The story is fairly straightforward and Potterian. Maerad is an orphan slave girl with some unusual qualities that have kept her from being victimized as most of More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2008

Hope rated it:

I really enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading the next book. It is a fairly standard fantasy story - orphan is rescued from a horrible life and is found to be the holder of great power and the possible savior of the nation/world. There are bad guys and treachery and so on. It is a bit uneven in places and there is a bit more repetition that I would like, but otherwise quite good.

My biggest quibble is not with the book but with the many reviewers, here and elsewhere, who More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2009

Katrina rated it:

I give 3 1/2 stars to this fun read for fantasy lovers. The story is engaging and well written, despite one scene where the characters are running downstairs and, strangely, have to take a breather!

I have to disagree with a review stating that it was another Lord of the Rings with a heroine instead of a hero. Both create a complicated and interesting world, which the main characters are forced to journey through. However, some details in The Naming are unnecessary, which wasn't the c More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Lauren rated it:

I've reread this a couple of times now. I love the premise of the series, set as a faux-historical translation of texts from an imaginary ancient civilization, complete with footnotes and references.

The story of The Naming (more so than the other two currently published in the series) is reminiscent of the Harry Potter series: a young girl possessing magical powers she doesn't know she has is prophesied to be the One who will defeat the Dark Lord (okay, okay, the Nameless One, Sha More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 25, 2008

Shaun rated it:

The Naming is the beginning of Alison Croggon's well received Books of the Pellinor, a young adult fantasy trilogy centered around the land of Edil-Amarandh. Reading through the appendices reveals that Edil-Amarandh precedes Atlantis as a mythical continent that simply disappeared (presumably, of course, this is all Croggon's creation, but at least it's an interesting way to bring the Books of the Pellinor to the real world). As the first book in a trilogy it does a fine job establishing the plo More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

Julia rated it:

As you can tell, I only rate books that I really like. What's the point of telling anyone about the million books that are worth taking a pass on? This book goes into very detailed descriptions of locations, characters. I read really, really fast so I thought that was fine. It took me an evening to read the whole book. I can see how if you read even a little slowly you could get impatient to get on with the story. I found the characters interesting and, unlike some of the other reviewers, l lik More...

1 comment like

Aug 01, 2011

Mlle. rated it:

THE NAMING begins as Maerad, a slave girl from a tiny northern village where even the local lord lives a hard-scrabble life, is plucked from a life of hopeless drudgery by a traveling Bard. The Bards are magicians, and also the ruling elite. They make the laws, collect the taxes, and in return use their abilities to help the land and its people flourish. The traveler, Carvan, realizes immediately that Maerad is also a Bard - and he realizes soon after that she may be much more than that. He is h More...

0 comments like

Jun 11, 2011

Andi rated it:

Four half-filled shelves. That’s all I had to choose from in our local public library’s holding of young adult audio books. I was craving something magical, something plot-driven, something easy for my jaunts around the county, and so here I was trying to choose from, sadly, slim pickings.

I grabbed the fattest case on the shelf (I like epic tomes) and was pleased to see the sketched profile of a young woman on the cover. She looked determined and majestic in the way all heroines should More...

0 comments like

May 30, 2011

Amy (Turn the Page) rated it:

Alison Croggon has crafted an extraordinarily detailed, unique novel. Those who are fans of Lord of The Rings and fantasy need only to look at the gorgeous cover to know they should definitely check this series out. Croggon is an extraordinary writer – The Gift (as it was released here in the UK)is a rich tale of complex characters, vast lands, struggles and journeys, betrayal, mysteries, magic, and, of course, an age old Prophecy.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Mainly because I More...

0 comments like

Jan 15, 2011

Rachael rated it:

Really beautifully written fantasy. It felt very familiar - in some ways it was disappointing to read essentially the same story as so many others. Mysterious bard with secrets he won't share, a prophecy of a chosen one that will do the impossible and bring down the gathering darkness. Even a magical kingdom that doesn't want to be discovered. Honestly, this is less an issue of originality and more a reflection of the archetypal qualities of fantasy in general. So this is a GREAT version of More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2011

ReaderM rated it:

You know the old saying, "you can never go back to the time that was before" Well this book to me was one big personal reminder of that. Set as a young adult fantasy fiction, the Naming is the first book chronicling the rise of a girl named Maerad from peasant slave girl to possible world savior after she is discovered by a passing Bard Cadavan and the beginning of their travels.Stop me if you have heard this before. While the premise does seem slightly generic, nonetheless the book s More...

0 comments like

Nov 13, 2010

Mikaela rated it:

This is a masterpiece. The Gift is a coming of age tale where death, life, dark, light, balance, predujice, nature and magic all play a part. The Gift reminds me of The Lord of the Rings; it is a book that you never forget, and it is a journey that you, the reader, are sad to end. Certainly the world Croggon has created is as well-crafted as Middle-Earth.

On one level, -a level that Croggon has tackled very well, The Gift is a story, a story that it is easy to spend hours at a time r More...

1 comment like

Nov 03, 2010

Adrienne rated it:

Maerad is a slave with a talent for music. Her main goals in life are to not get beaten and to get enough to eat. But everything changes when she finds Cadvan in her master's cow barn. Cadvan is a Bard - that is, a wizard - on a mysterious errand and he senses that Maerad is more than she appears to be. Cadvan offers to help Maerad escape her life as a slave and Maerad accepts - but she finds herself plunged into a dangerous world of intrigue and powerful magic as she and Cadvan journey to the f More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 03, 2010

Shannon rated it:

The Naming by Allison Croggan is a lovely fantasy fiction coming of age tale. Maerad of Pellinor begins the book as a slave in a remote corner of the kingdom and by the end of the book has a taste of who she really is and the power she possesses. Croggan weaves her tale with believable characters, a well-paced plot and a setting that is described well without overloading the reader with detail.

Croggan packs much wisdom in this first book of Pellinor. I always enjoy books that are More...

2 comments like

Jun 17, 2010

Cari rated it:

I did enjoy the book, although it's a bit of a slow pace. The idea is interesting and the plot line has its twists. The characters are interesting, and it's nice to see that the author didn't go straight for the romance between Maerad and Cadvan, as well as used Maerad's past to determine her reactions towards romantic advances.

My main problem with the book was the endless description and repetitive plot. (traveling.) It's nice to hear some of the scenery description, and the descrip More...

0 comments like

Oct 14, 2009

Cornerofmadness rated it:

This was a book that I have mixed feelings about. It was a good standard fantasy book. The characters are interesting. Maybe it’s my age but realizing it’s the first book in a series of four and looking at it’s oversized status and that it’s nearly 500 pages, I’m left thinking do I really want to read 2000 pages to get the whole story? And it got off to a bad start with me by faking ‘realism.’ The author proclaimed this story came from the Annaren Scripts uncovered in an earthquake in Moro More...

0 comments like

Aug 30, 2009

Daria rated it:

It was what many made it out to be. A very, very, very, very, detailed world with a very, very, very, very detailed history, sporting some very, very, very, very long appendices (which I hadn't bothered to read). What I enjoyed most were Croggon's poems; she is indeed talented in that area. Her characters were allright - stereotypical, but allright. Most of the time her long descriptions rolled off me like water, and my impatience would cause my eyes to jump to the bottom of the next page. (And More...

8 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 03, 2012

Marta rated it:

This book was... confusing. While the world created was quite impressive and could have been wildly interesting, the characters and writing pretty much ruined it for me. "The Naming" was very, very visibly inspired by Tolkien, but you have to have incredible skill to create believable characters that would be only white or only black, and Alison Croggon lacks this skill. Some dialogues were so pompous that I wanted to laugh out loud; the author clearly tried to write the whole story in More...

0 comments like

May 08, 2010

Heather rated it:

Best. Random. Find. At a used bookstore. Ever.

Seriously, I think I've said before, I'm not the kind of girl who will suffer through the sort of adventure fantasies that require maps, language guides, and 30 pages of introduction to the local produce. I'm looking for worlds that are introduced to us with a simple, crisp brevity. And yet, despite the fact that Croggon's novel starts with a nearly inscrutable map, and ends with pages of unnecessary Appendices on her invented world of An More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 20, 2012

Mark rated it:

Seeing as the final instalment of the Pellinor Quartet has now been published, I thought it would be a good time to pick up the first book, The Gift, which sent me on what at first appears to be a traditional coming-of-age story, but is actually a little bit more than that.

For as long as she can remember, Maerad has been a slave, trapped in the rundown citadel of Gilman’s Cot ruled by a cruel tyrant on the edges of civilised land. An orphan in a dangerous world, Maerad is apprehensive More...

0 comments like