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The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen (Tales of Alderley #1)

4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 · rating details · 2,008 ratings · 143 reviews

Readers who love E. Nesbit or Susan Cooper may discover a new favorite in Alan Garner, winner of many awards for literary excellence including the Carnegie Medal. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, first published in 1960, is the story of two children, Susan and Colin, who are sent to rural England to stay with Bess Mossock, their mother's childhood nurse. The Mossocks' farm i...more

Hardcover, 50th anniversary edition , 320 pages

Published 2010 by HarperCollins Children's Books (first published 1960)

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Mar 29, 2012 Robyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a book of my childhood. I remember the first few chapters of it being read to me during the library sessions at school when I was seven and it was the first fantasy book I ever checked out all by myself (I had to know what happened!).

Unlike a lot of fantasy books for children, I remember being quite genuinely frightened during parts of this which was thrilling. I still re-read this occasionally and each time am transported back to that sense of wonder and adventure I felt when I was a ve...more

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May 21, 2011 GaryandRuth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: celtic-myth

As a book for children it is fast-paced and full of adventure. The action centres upon Alderly Edge and introduces the legend of the Sleeping Warriors who await the call of the Once an Future King to rise and defend England once more.

As an adult reading a book written for children, I find myself enjoying the archetypal dwarves and being frustrated at the stereotypical children who are the heroes of the book.

All in all, the book had made me want to find out more about the legend of the Sleeping K...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Leah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, first-novel, kids, magical

An odd, simple children's book that meanders somewhere quite impressive.

There are a lot of things I'd love to know about this world, especially how the magical bits fit into the everyday bits - at one stage they're on their epic journey from the farmhouse to the hill, hiding from evil enemies in the skies and the dark, and they hear cars driving past on a normal road. What do these people think? Have any of them seen the weird things going on around them? Why doesn't Alan Garner tell me these th...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Bill Bridges rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of my treasured classics. I recently re-read it in the 50th anniversary edition. I was nervous about approaching it again, since I haven't read it in years and I was afraid it might not hold up as well to adult eyes. It performed miraculously.

I first read the book when I was, oh, 12? I was home sick and read it cover to cover. I couldn't put it down and was completely swept away. It was the first book I'd ever encountered where magic and myth were still alive in the contemporary wor...more This is one of my treasured classics. I recently re-read it in the 50th anniversary edition. I was nervous about approaching it again, since I haven't read it in years and I was afraid it might not hold up as well to adult eyes. It performed miraculously.

I first read the book when I was, oh, 12? I was home sick and read it cover to cover. I couldn't put it down and was completely swept away. It was the first book I'd ever encountered where magic and myth were still alive in the contemporary world. This genre has since been dubbed "urban fantasy", although there's nothing urban about Alderley Edge, the very real place in which this tale takes place.

Garner's writing is wonderfully concise and yet perfectly ample at the same time. He gives exactly the amount of description the reader needs and no more. This allows the reader to fill in the details on his own. It's actually a relief to read this style of writing these days. I'm rather tired of over-descriptive passages and infinite details about a character's facial features. While it's important to "appeal to the senses," it's also important to get out of the way and "appeal to the imagination" (i.e., let the reader do the work). Garner's story is so well grounded in its place (Alderley Edge) that he doesn't need to constantly describe his character's gestures or features. The dialogue communicates all it needs to for the reader to fill in the facial expressions and physical stances of the speakers.

Excuse me for dwelling on craft there, when the story is the star here, and an excellent, thrilling, wondrous story it is. I won't give spoilers -- just read it. Read it, however, with the soul of a child (or young adult, whichever publishing term you prefer). Don't bring the modernist's deconstructive mentality here, although I suspect it wouldn't long stand against the simple charm of a well-told tale.

I can't wait to re-read its sequel, The Moon of Gomrath, and then the new, final book in what has become a trilogy, Boneland.(less)

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Nov 08, 2011 Sandy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Purportedly written for children but with a strong appeal for adults as well, Alan Garner's first novel, "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen," is a swashbuckling heroic fantasy set in the present day, and one that conflates elements of Welsh, Nordic and English mythology into one very effective brew. Though now deemed a classic of sorts, I probably would never have heard of this work, had it not been for Scottish author Muriel Gray's article about it in the excellent overview volume "Horror: Another...more Purportedly written for children but with a strong appeal for adults as well, Alan Garner's first novel, "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen," is a swashbuckling heroic fantasy set in the present day, and one that conflates elements of Welsh, Nordic and English mythology into one very effective brew. Though now deemed a classic of sorts, I probably would never have heard of this work, had it not been for Scottish author Muriel Gray's article about it in the excellent overview volume "Horror: Another 100 Best Books." In her article, Gray describes the book with expressions such as "truly gripping," "beautifully crafted" and "a young person's introduction to horror." And now that I have finally read the book, I can heartily concur.

In the novel, we meet a brother and sister named Colin and Susan (their last name is never given, nor are their ages), who, when we first encounter them, are going to stay with their mother's old nurse and her husband, Bess and Gowther Mossock, while the kids' parents are abroad for six months. The Mossocks' farm in (real-life) Alderley, in Cheshire, seems initially idyllic, but trouble soon looms. As it turns out, the heirloom pendant that Susan wears on her wrist is nothing less than the titular Weirdstone, essential for protecting the sleeping warriors in underground Fundindelve from the depredations of Nastrond, the Spirit of Darkness. Delivering the Weirdstone safely to the good wizard Cadellin Silverbrow, however, aided by Gowther and by two Viking-like dwarves, Fenodyree and Durathror, embroils the two children in the adventure of their young lives.

At this point, you may be wondering why a seemingly adolescent fantasy novel was chosen for inclusion in a listing of some of the best adult horror books, but trust me, those horror elements are present in abundance. Besides featuring witches, warlocks, the svart-alfar (goblins), the mara (a sort of monstrous, 20-foot-high, walking female statue of green stone), the Fenris wolf, giant eyeless dogs, malevolent scarecrow creatures et al., the book also throws in horrors of a more subtle variety. All the birds in the county seem to be in league with the forces of evil, and are used as both aerial spies in the story and as beaked and taloned fighters; indeed, the scene in which Durathror goes up against a swarm of these birds cannot help but bring to mind the famed Hitchcock film of three years later. No one in Garner's book is to be trusted, either; even a neighbor who one has known for decades may turn out to be a warlock or abettor of evil. An aura of real paranoia is thus engendered by the author, similar almost to the one encountered in the 1956 film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Garner's story also features some extended bravura set pieces, including the children's exploration of sorceress Selina Place's abode, the 50-page sequence in which they explore the underground caverns of Cheshire (a sequence that will most assuredly prove disagreeable to anyone who suffers from claustrophobia), and the lengthy section in which our five heroes flee across a wintry countryside from all the forces of evil ranged against them. Garner writes very well, simply but movingly, although his powers of description regarding geography and terrain can be a bit shaky; young (and old) readers might have to exercise their gift of imagination fully to envision some of these sections (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

Though supposedly a children's book, I wonder how many ADULTS out there will be familiar with such words as "shippon," "withy," "mithered" and "nesh," not to mention the heaps of mythical references and names that Garner casually dishes out! Having said that, I will admit that the book offers some nice words of wisdom to the youngsters, such as when Fenodyree tells the children, "The deed is nothing. It is the thought that breeds fear; and we achieve little by lingering," or when Gowther shows us all the perfect way to apologize: "Ay. I spoke out of turn. You're reet, and I'm wrong. I'm sorry." Another plus for this chilling fantasy novel: the inclusion of a pair of charming maps, drawn by one Charles Green, that greatly aid in visualizing the odyssey that the children and their allies make. Bottom line: "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen" should NOT be ignored by adult readers, especially if they happen to be horror buffs. The book was followed by a direct sequel, 1963's "The Moon of Gomrath," and I cannot imagine any reader of the first volume not curious to find out what happens next to Colin and Susan.... (less)

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Aug 04, 2010 Solo rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book very much teeters in the middle, having both negative and positive aspects.

Negative: There seemed to be much scope for development in so far as there were several elements that were introduced over the course of the narrative that were not fully realised. The result of this was one in which the plot came across as somewhat haphazard. Ultimately the book ran out of steam very quickly and in my opinion, the ending occurred prematurely.
The characters also came across as flat and 2 dimensi...more

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Aug 11, 2009 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, children-s-and-ya, based-on-myth-saga-etc

I remember reading some of Alan Garner's books when I was much younger. I found them creepy as hell then, and he certainly does know what kinds of images to evoke to have that feeling of danger and creepiness. There's a lot of claustrophobia in this book -- tunnels and water-filled passages and being packed in tight. There are parts of the description that are just brilliant.

The mythology aspects are pretty cool, too. The references to Ragnarok, etc. I don't know whether it's that whole 'younger...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Brazilliant Laura

Shelves: published-1960, fradio, autumn-2011, play-dramatisation, radio-4, witches-and-wizards, fantasy, adventure, kiddlewinks, britain-england, magicians, mythology

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Saturday play r4

blurb - Say 'Alderley Edge' to a lot of people and they'll think of footballers with their wives, living in grand mansions. But for a great many the words will conjure up wizards and a hundred knights sleeping in a cave for thousands of years. Alan Garner used a local legend as the starting point to his book "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen" and the story is firmly set in the part of Cheshire that he knows so well. The book has been cherished by readers of all ages for fifty years...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Kevin Futers rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s, fantasy

I just cannot grow out of this Children's/YA book. It is one of my own childhood favourites, and it has always been great to read to my own children. I started reading it to my nine year old on an occasional basis but I have raced ahead to read it on my own. As I am also reading the CHronicles of Narnia to my seven year old, some of my comments are comparisons to that.

Although the setting is something like the Fifties(?), the children in the book are very normal, very real. They are not of any o...more I just cannot grow out of this Children's/YA book. It is one of my own childhood favourites, and it has always been great to read to my own children. I started reading it to my nine year old on an occasional basis but I have raced ahead to read it on my own. As I am also reading the CHronicles of Narnia to my seven year old, some of my comments are comparisons to that.

Although the setting is something like the Fifties(?), the children in the book are very normal, very real. They are not of any obvious social class; they are not off to boarding school and they don't say "Gosh!" "Golly!" "I say!" or "Be a brick!" all the time. They are a brother and sister, again of indeterminate age, they walk and they cycle about, they get absolutely filthy, and they meet a wizard.

The fantasy sits alongside the reality in a way that is both easy and uncomfortable. A witch drives past in her car, and there is a scene that in modern terms would have evoked a VERY different response from old Mr Mossock as the children's guardian - I think the police would have been called out, and Selina Place in jail, hounds or no. Instead all we get is Bess Mossock saying "Happen you'd best have a word with yon." Different times, of course.

I digress. Goblins (called svarts or svart alfar - black elves from Norse mythology) come pouring out of old mines and caves. Dwarves knock on doors and ask for odd jobs. Elves (lios alfar - elves of light) flit unseen as they struggle to exist in our polluted modern world. Witches and warlocks go out rambling and a wizard lives in a cave looking after King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.

The Mossocks ground it all beautifully.

"Theer's little use in saying pigs conner fly, when you see them catching swallows!" says Bess when confronted by the sight of two dwarves in armour and with swords. I have a bit of a problem with their voices when I read it, because I cannot think that I could place a Cheshire accent and so I plump for a sort of "Ambridge rural English sound" which is probably a bit too southern for Cheshire.

Alan Garner happily mixes up Brythonic and Norse elements in his story telling, together with folk lore from later times. I said King Arthur earlier, but in fact the king under the hill is never named, I have simply filled in the gap. His story-telling is rich, intense, evocative. I have only ever seen Alderley Edge from a distance when travelling by car, but through his books I feel that I could visit at any time and I would be walking in a familiar landscape.

Best of all, there is no condescending tone at any time. I know in my own book, The Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff I have used a narrator's voice to explain things from time to time, but Alan Garner does it effortlessly - if the children learn about something, then we do. If the children are not told, neither are we. This makes a lot of sense, and means that we are closer to the characters in our view of events.

The only exceptions are brief accounts seen from other POV's, usually that of one of the two identifiable villains, otherwise of other minor characters.

All in all, a "best in class" book for Children's /YA Fantasy. Not even Tolkein does better.(less)

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Feb 20, 2013 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-young-me-adored, allllll-mine, 2013-yo

Another reading of a book I loved when I was younger.

This book has haunted me for years. I read it the first time when I was 9 or 10. I loved it. the Britishness! Normal children participating in great, magical things! Wizards and dwarves and evil lurking creatures all around if you just know where to look. But then I managed to forget about it. Then about 5 or so years ago something reminded me of it......and I couldn't for the life of me remember the name! Seriously, I Googled that shit to no...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Natasha Hurley-Walker rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Enjoyed the start, as I used to work at Jodrell Bank so know the area pretty well! But it's all so very predictable. Heirloom passed down through generations turns out to be magical artifact? Check. Wet and personality-free children essential to facing down evil and fulfilling ancient prophecy? Check. Heroic dwarven sidekicks? Check. Annoying written regional accents? Check. Evil-but-never-explained-why baddies with unpronounceable Norse-ish and Welsh-ish names? Check.

As for the actual content,...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Beth Bonini rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The word "breathless" comes to mind.
This is an old-fashioned quest novel, with two human children joining forces with two dwarfs, in order to re-capture and then protect Firefrost (an ancient spellstone). If they fail, all the evil of the world will be unleashed in the form of Nastrond, the Great Spirit of Darkness. They have all sorts of treacherous creatures ranged against them, including witches, goblins, savage birds and a dark shrouded man called the Grimnir (similar to the Dementors in Har...more

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May 11, 2012 A.E. Shaw rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

A hugely formative novel from my childhood. I adore, adore Alan Garner's writing style. I hadn't read this for a good twenty years, and I'm amazed by how much I remembered, not even in a literal sense, but in a hugely visceral sense, I remember the way things in this made me feel when I was young.

It's such a change - or such an original, perhaps - compared with so much of the fantasy and myth I've read since I started out in the genre with books like this. The story is constant, lots of movemen...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Marita rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A much loved book from my youth, it was always going to be a risk to reread this one. Published in 1960, it was Garner's first book and one which he measured harshly in later years. Although a sequel was published - The Moon of Gomrath - which was also well received, Garner did not follow up with the planned third book. Until now - it is due for release later this year.

The memory of my first experience of reading The Weirdstone of Brisingamen remains strong and positive. I especially remember be...more

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Sep 28, 2010 Jesse Owen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-review

I’m not really sure where to start with this review, I mean from the description from Amazon it sounded interesting and the mention of the word Wizard made me think – yay! And after seeing many good reviews for the book on Amazon (mostly five star) I thought I would enjoy it. But it left me slightly dissapointed. :(

For a start the story reminded me of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (one of the only books (I only tried to read the first one) I wasn’t able to finish) – the map at the start only rei...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Veronica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This was one of the talismanic books of my childhood -- I still have my three-and-sixpenny Puffin edition, judging by which, I must have read it for the first time when I was about nine. It doesn't stand the test of time quite as well as I'd hoped, but I still vividly remember how engrossing and terrifying Alan Garner's books were then. I loved the mythical element too. What struck me this time, which probably didn't when I originally read it, was how Susan is implicitly linked to the old (femal...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I re-read this after talking to someone about what I remembered as being my favourite novels as a child. My Dad read this book to me when I was ill and it was the first of a very limited number of books that I read more than once. Reading it again now I can see that it is very much Tolkein for children and I mean that as a compliment, it is very well written compared to a lot of popular children's fiction, it is a simple fantasy tale but it's not dumbed down in style so it's not patronising at a...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Rebecca Douglass rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens, sf-fantasy

Alan Garner's exciting--and somewhat dark--tale of a magical threat to the world blends magical and real worlds in a manner reminiscent of Narnia. However, unlike Lewis's books, where the characters travel distinctly between the worlds, in Garner's novel the worlds interact continually and the boundaries are indistinct.

Set in Cheshire (England), The Weirdstone of Brisingamen tells of Colin and Susan, brother and sister, who stumble into the magical world that exists under and around the everyda...more Alan Garner's exciting--and somewhat dark--tale of a magical threat to the world blends magical and real worlds in a manner reminiscent of Narnia. However, unlike Lewis's books, where the characters travel distinctly between the worlds, in Garner's novel the worlds interact continually and the boundaries are indistinct.

Set in Cheshire (England), The Weirdstone of Brisingamen tells of Colin and Susan, brother and sister, who stumble into the magical world that exists under and around the everyday world they know. Susan wears a curious stone on a bracelet inherited from her mother, and the local corps of witches, wizards and evil beings recognize it as a magical artifact essential to a plan to protect the world from the forces evil (them). They are as determined to get it as the far weaker forces of good are to protect it, and the children, and their powers are twisted and terrifying. Garner paints them vividly enough to frighten those prone to nightmares.

Through the early chapters, the children stumble in and out of mysteries and dangers with no understanding of what they have (the stone) or what is at stake. Gradually, they learn the truth, and the action shifts more and more to the magical world, where they are repeatedly attacked and pursued by the evil beings. Or rather, the magical beings more and more take over what we thought was the everyday, magicless world. By the second section of the book, the children have gained a pretty good idea what is at stake, and set out to put things right. They have courage enough, but still lack understanding and the skills they need to survive the adventure. At the point when all seems lost, they pick up a couple of dwarfish protectors and magic has firmly taken over Cheshire.

In an unusual move for juvenile fiction of this nature, Gowther, the older farmer who is the children's guardian, not only comes to a quick understanding of the issues and acceptance of the magic world, but accompanies the children and the dwarves on their wildly exciting escape. Gowther proves invaluable to the escape and a stalwart fighter in the battles they have along the way. Garner manages to do something I think is very difficult in this kind of story, which is to allow children to be autonomous agents who face situations with courage, and also to allow them to interact somewhat realistically with adults. It seems like in most such stories, the adults in the lives of the child heroes are an obstruction at best. Here, while the adults wish to protect Colin and Susan, they also recognize that they have an important role to play, and allow them to take the necessary risks to play it (I only regret that Bess, the mother-figure, is packed off and not part of the party). You might say that is the lesson of the book for all us parents who read it: trust the kids but be prepared to fight alongside them when necessary.

Garner does not do anywhere near the world-building that, for example, Tolkien does. He doesn't need to. His story takes place in our world--and yet not. As a result we feel very much as Colin and Susan must--disturbed by a growing sense of danger, and frightened by vague or unimaginable threats and a growing sense that things are not what we have always assumed them to be. We also learn as they do, in bits and pieces, of the world that exists in and around them, and which they might have gone through their lives never knowing existed (as most of their neighbors do, apart from the ones who are in fact evil witches and warlocks). I kept expecting them to make that one, definitive "through the wardrobe" move that would take them out of our world until the adventure ended. The fact that, instead, the other world invades ours, is part of what makes the stakes so high and kept me from putting the book down.

Now, I have to admit that despite leaping fairly quickly into adventures and great dangers, the story did not initially grab me. Looking back at the opening chapters, I frankly can't see what my problem was (perhaps that it faced too much competition from the half dozen other books I was reading?). Certainly by the time I reached the midpoint, the book had acquired "don't put me down" status, and I read the last hundred and a quarter pages more or less in one sitting (leaving all the other books to sit around whining that it was their turn).

The writing is smooth, editing is professional (as one would expect), and the book does not read particularly as a "children's book," even while it is clearly accessible to at least the more advanced middle grade readers. A pair of maps at the beginning help set the scene and make a good reference as our heroes were being chased about the countryside. Looked at in one way, it could be said that Brisingamen is stereotypical (though I would argue that there are elements that I have seldom seen elsewhere), but it is well to remember that in 1960 there was very little yet written in the fantasy genre, and Alan Garner was one of the writers who developed the genre. More than 50 years and thousands of fantasies later, the story continues to pull us in and carry us ever-faster to the all-too-sudden ending. That seems worth 5 stars.

(less)

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Aug 26, 2012 Timo rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is a major disappointment for me. I remember liking the same author's ELIDOR when I read it over 30 years ago, but this book seems hurried, rushed, ill thought out. Too much fantasy and adventure, not enough character. There is a kitchen sink approach to this novel, with fantasy elements being thrown into the mix in a prodigal fashion, without much sense of purpose — and no sense of an ending. The story just stops after the magic has happened and the goal has been reached. There is not...more

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May 03, 2012 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1960s-1970s, british, childrens, contemporary-fantasy

Garner writes like a book of legends. The names are strange and sonorous, the story one of danger, and honour, of old magic and new friends. There is much chasing, and hiding, and monsters to send any child scurrying under the covers.

Although you could make comparisons to Lewis or Cooper, Garner's stories read very differently. The children, Susan and Colin, are not strongly characterised. They are good and brave and there's little more told about them. The creatures of legend they meet are the...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Dark-Draco rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-children-s

This is a really good little read - kind of a Lord of the Rings for children, as a lot of the themes and plot are the same. Colin and Susan are staying at a farm on Alderley Edge. One day, out exploring, they are attacked by strange, gnome like creatures and have to be saved by Cadellin Silverbow, wizard to the King under the hill. Cadellin has lost the Weirdstone, a powerful magic, which he fears has fallen into the forces of evil, but the children believe they have it instead. With two Dwarvi...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Ancestral Gael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, children, fiction, england, reviewed, fantasy, myths, britain

Colin and Susan are sent to stay with their mother's nurse in Alderley Edge and while exploring the landscape, as children are wont to do, they become embroiled in an age-old conflict and the adventure begins.

Alan Garner weaves together myth, folkore and landscape in a wonderful children's tale. Although Garner takes great pains to describe landscape and the feeling it invokes in the characters, the characterisation of the various players in the tale is somewhat absent apart from what we learn...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Abigail Hilton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started this book because I knew it had a place in the history of children's fantasy literature. I got about 80 pages into the book, then gave up and skimmed the rest. I think that, as a child, I might have enjoyed it, but it's not the kind of children's literature that stands up to an adult read. Much of the plot seemed derivative, and the characters are utterly flat. Susan, the girl, was particularly annoying - always weaker and more squeamish than her brother, always first to run away or cr...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read these as a youngster, which is their intended audience, but did read them again later, and they will absolutely satisfy a (receptive) adult mind.

These (this is followed by the Moon of Gomrath, and actually a third sequel written decades later - which I haven't read) were my introduction to fantasy as a genre, and as such they hold a very personal pleasure for me.

It's hard to disentangle that for an objective opinion, but they're short reads, and their straightforward magical reality belie...more

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Nov 26, 2010 Suna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s, fantasy

This book suffered from my being so very familiar with Lord of the Rings, because the writing style is so similar as to teeter on the brink of rip-off.

I did really get into it though, some of the descriptions are excruciatingly vivid.
There is a whole section where our heroes have to worm themselves through narrow underground passageways with hardly any room to turn and it was unbelievably claustrophobic.

The writing does soar most in these descriptions and descriptions of nature: The writer was b...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Fuchsia Rascal rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, juvenile, sci-fi-fantasy

Really not impressed with this book. It dragged in a lot of places and overall, not much happened. It definitely feels like Alan Garner was trying to write Lord of the Rings but for children-- lots of traveling, but very little at stake. He would spend paragraphs building tension only to have an anticlimatic ending [this kept happening during the caves portion and it was so frustrating]. Overall, not much happened in the book, and the characters never developed past flat stereotypes [it really f...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Philip rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, reviewed, trad-fantasy

Well, Garner could certainly write, even in his twenties. The prose is bleakly, laconically poetic, the dialogue manages to be memorable rather than blandly archaic, and the book's full of images which have stayed with me in the 25 years between readings. The sequence of squirming through a tunnel deep underground may actually be responsible for my strong dislike of caves as an adult, and I found rereading those passages physically stressful, to the extent that I had to keep setting the book asi...more

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Jan 08, 2009 Martin Glen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Archetypal 'hidden world' fantasy from the 1960s, in which two children are drawn into a battle between magical forces of good and evil. It juxtaposes everyday settings with a hidden world of the wierd, as Susan and Colin are drawn inexorably into a battle to prevent Ragnarok.

Good stuff, drawing on a deep knowledge of Celtic, Norse and Anglo-Saxon myth, which it mish-mashes nicely. Some of the real-world descriptions have dated - in places it evokes the Famous Five, in its account of 1950s rural...more

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Apr 13, 2011 Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

I loved this book as a child and still re-read it regularly, but oh don't I wish I had ANY other edition than this cheesy Star Wars knock-off cover. I mean really, what were they thinking? Anything farther from Star Wars it would be hard to imagine. Hiss boo on the lemming art director at Ace Books who said, "Shoot yeah, why not make Cadellin's brother look like Darth Vader?" Because of course the space-age Sith have sooo much in common with the Yorkshire moors.

That aside, it's still an awesome...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Deborah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Good and evil, wizards and warlocks, and the powerful Firestone, all in the hands of Susan and Colin, two children come to live on a farm in northern England.

An enjoyable fantasy written in the 1960's - the author grew up on the legends that make up the foundation of the story - 100 knights and their steeds lie asleep in the hills, waiting to be called upon when the people need them. Protecting their safety, the "weirdstone" and, of course, the evil forces try to steal the stone.

Interesting tha...more

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About Alan Garner

Alan Garner OBE (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist who is best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. His work is firmly rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county of Cheshire, North West England, being set in the region and making use of the native Cheshire dialect.

Born into a working-class family in Conglet...more Alan Garner OBE (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist who is best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. His work is firmly rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county of Cheshire, North West England, being set in the region and making use of the native Cheshire dialect.

Born into a working-class family in Congleton, Cheshire, Garner grew up around the nearby town of Alderley Edge, and spent much of his youth in the wooded area known locally as 'The Edge', where he gained an early interest in the folklore of the region. Studying at Manchester Grammar School and then Oxford University, in 1957 he moved to the nearby village of Blackden, where he bought and renovated an Early Modern building known as Toad Hall. His first novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, was published in 1960. A children's fantasy novel set on the Edge, it incorporated elements of local folklore in its plot and characters. Garner completed a sequel, The Moon of Gomrath (1963), but left the third book of the trilogy he had envisioned. Instead he produced a string of further fantasy novels, Elidor (1965), The Owl Service (1967) and Red Shift (1973).

Turning away from fantasy as a genre, Garner produced The Stone Book Quartet (1979), a series of four short novellas detailing a day in the life of four generations of his family. He also published a series of British folk tales which he had rewritten in a series of books entitled Alan Garner's Fairy Tales of Gold (1979), Alan Garner's Book of British Fairy Tales (1984) and A Bag of Moonshine (1986). In his subsequent novels, Strandloper (1996) and Thursbitch (2003), he continued writing tales revolving around Cheshire, although without the fantasy elements which had characterised his earlier work. In 2012, he finally published a third book in the Weirdstone trilogy.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Garner

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.(less)

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avg rating	preview: The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen Goodreads rating: 4.00 (2008 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9141974-the-weirdstone-of-brisingamen?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327914794l/9141974.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9141974-the-weirdstone-of-brisingamen?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen by Alan Garner[/url]

The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen (Tales of Alderley #1)

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