The Princess and the Thorn

Ash Staff Trilogy #3

by Paul R. Fisher

Two evil sorcerers who tried to conquer the lands of the High King were defeated by a ragtag band of orphans, with the help of a wizard's staff and an opinionated talking sword. Now Mole and his friends are growing up and want to pursue their own interests, their own destinies, but bad luck comes in threes in the North. A third sorcerer has appeared on the island of Dragonshead, and once again only Mole and the others can keep his evil plans from becoming reality.

This edition was published as #10 in the MagicQuest series by Ace Books, a reissuing of classic young adult fantasy novels.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

177 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Ruby Hollyberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a wonderful fantasy series, easily read but not easily forgotten. Some elements remind one strongly of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and The Hobbit, but there is originality there as well. Recommended for children, parents, fantasy lovers. This is a true offspring of the old tales of Northern Europe.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this series and this one in particular always brought tears to my eyes. Young love.

[Lari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad, but the plots were pretty obvious. Maybe they were less obvious in the eighties.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun conclusion to these books. While not nearly as complex or developed as some fantasy worlds (e.g. Middle Earth or Shannara) the world of Mole and his friends is quite rich in its own right and Gwarthen proves in his cameos that there is a lot of unexplored magic and the line of kings suggests a lot of untold stories that Fisher hasn’t shared. Still, I rather enjoyed his ability to tell a satisfying story in relatively few pages.

[Nighteye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book and series. Every book have three parts thet build on each other. They are a fast read, short and intresting stories and with a good development thrue the book-series both of the characters (whom are belivable as are their reactions) and the settings.
The front cover shows bits from the book. The three book-series is intresting and one year apart and have all very various displays of settings and characters around the main characters. Donät know what do to with the ending of the series but great books and to sad they seams to have been forgotten.

a little to fast endings and without climaxes is a bit of a flaw.