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Carrot Field
Enter a world of courageous Animals, uncommon heroes and epic battles! The young Rabbit, Sebastian Perriwinkle, is swept off on a quest - along with the enigmatic Badger, Professor Plotonicus and the mystical Fox, Brand Redtail, to find the legendary Human race! Together they unravel the mystery of an ancient war and confront the ultimate force of destruction - the Lord Ouroboros. "Rich with the details of an intricately conceived world, Carrot Field stands apart." Simon West Bulford ( The Beasts of Upton Puddle )
- GenresFantasy
428 pages, Paperback
First published May 31, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 12, 2013
The characters in this book were very well-crafted and clearly took a lot of effort to perfect, but the end result was worth the wait. Following Sebastian through his adventures was so exciting, and I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next. The effort put into every aspect of the book by Vincent is obvious; he even spent multiple years researching etymology in order to pick the best names for his characters...now that’s dedication!
July 29, 2013
This deeply imagined, fast paced and incredibly inventive novel is a great book for readers of all ages. I constantly found myself thinking of The Hobbit and Watership Down as I ripped through this book. It is charming and evocative, the characters are deeply realized, and when the tale finally ends you find yourself saddened because you want to stay inside this wonderful world. Hopefully Mr. Asaro has more books waiting in the wings.
Want to Read
June 17, 2013Sounds interesting. Supposedly, comparable to Watership Down (which I adore). Will add this to the reading tower.
Page count depends on the reading device you use. It is 150,000 words in length, which in print is about a 400 pg novel.
Page count depends on the reading device you use. It is 150,000 words in length, which in print is about a 400 pg novel.
March 13, 2015
Wonderful read!
Did you like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings? You'll like Carrot Field. Did you like Watership Down? How about something of an Orwellian nature? You'll like Carrot Field. This is a great story with well developed characters. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Did you like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings? You'll like Carrot Field. Did you like Watership Down? How about something of an Orwellian nature? You'll like Carrot Field. This is a great story with well developed characters. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
June 25, 2013
A wonderful blend of LOTR and Watership Down. I loved how the author developed this fantasy word down to every last detail. Carrot Field was an excellent read!
January 7, 2023
DNF at chapter 18
Carrot field: a hobbit wanna be minus the excitement
I gave up at chapter 18, almost 9 hours into the book.I don’t get why we are going on this journey. For the first 3 chapters nothing happens, we are just going around doing daily chores and talking to people. The rabbit protagonist doesn’t even have a goal. He’s sad he never got to meet his father but that’s it, he’s not doing anything about it. Then a badger shows up and proposes an expedition and the rabbit goes along because… he’s curious, I guess? He doesn’t have a goal, there’s no real reason for any of this to be happening.
Who is the target audience for this book? Kids won’t relate to the rabbit, he's too old, he already went to college and all. But the story is too simple to appeal to grown ups, so who is this for, really? I don’t get it.
The rabbit is useless, he has no backbone and no special abilities. He can’t fight, he’s clumsy, he has very little knowledge about the world he lives in, everything scares him, yet he is supposed to be some sort of prophesied Chosen One who will take down evil. Why him? The fox is much more interesting: competent, strong, knowledgeable, has psychic powers, has a fiance waiting for him at home, and,the bad guy is after him. Make him the main character instead! Although I didn’t like the nasal and slow voice the narrator gave him for the audible version, it didn’t fit his character at all.
The book repeats itself over and over, the same sequence plays out in every chapter: They are walking alone in the forest and get spooked by eyes in the dark, the eyes turn out to be an ally who has been following them and wants to help them, they go along with the new guy and he offers a feast in their honor and allows them to stay in his castle (they all have castles).They talk for a while, remind the rabbit of how special he is and get sent on their way to do the same thing over again.
Every time new characters are introduced they are cloaked with a hood hiding their faces.
The party never proactively gets new info or new tools, they stumble into them at every point. They encounter zero obstacles during their journey, they never struggle for anything. Everyone they meet is a friend or becomes one right away. They are handed whatever they need to carry on their journey for free, at some point they are given a magic wine that erases the need to eat. How convenient.
Everyone keeps talking about the bad guy as this threatening Evil force that spreads across the land but…the bad guy isn’t doing anything! He’s not attacking anyone, he’s not oppressing the people nor destroying the land or anything. The “good guys” lost a war to him a while ago and now they want revenge, but the so-called Evil guy isn’t doing anything to them. He only starts teasing them from a distance after they set out after him, not before. Not really an epic journey if the epic journey could have been avoided in the first place, just leave the guy alone chilling in his tower! He’s not bothering anyone.
Then, out of nowhere, in chapter 13 the whole story becomes an allegory for fascism? The village turns into a Big Brother type of dystopian town, we sit around hearing old people talk about taxes and food rations and fascism propaganda, I don’t get it. What was the point of this? Are you telling me the evil guy influenced the government to become a totalitarian regime? You don’t need an evil dark lord for that.
I will say, tho, the narration is nice and I do like the prose and the writing style. I just wish the rabbit had a better reason to do what he does other than he was bored and an old guy told him to.
Carrot field: a hobbit wanna be minus the excitement
I gave up at chapter 18, almost 9 hours into the book.I don’t get why we are going on this journey. For the first 3 chapters nothing happens, we are just going around doing daily chores and talking to people. The rabbit protagonist doesn’t even have a goal. He’s sad he never got to meet his father but that’s it, he’s not doing anything about it. Then a badger shows up and proposes an expedition and the rabbit goes along because… he’s curious, I guess? He doesn’t have a goal, there’s no real reason for any of this to be happening.
Who is the target audience for this book? Kids won’t relate to the rabbit, he's too old, he already went to college and all. But the story is too simple to appeal to grown ups, so who is this for, really? I don’t get it.
The rabbit is useless, he has no backbone and no special abilities. He can’t fight, he’s clumsy, he has very little knowledge about the world he lives in, everything scares him, yet he is supposed to be some sort of prophesied Chosen One who will take down evil. Why him? The fox is much more interesting: competent, strong, knowledgeable, has psychic powers, has a fiance waiting for him at home, and,the bad guy is after him. Make him the main character instead! Although I didn’t like the nasal and slow voice the narrator gave him for the audible version, it didn’t fit his character at all.
The book repeats itself over and over, the same sequence plays out in every chapter: They are walking alone in the forest and get spooked by eyes in the dark, the eyes turn out to be an ally who has been following them and wants to help them, they go along with the new guy and he offers a feast in their honor and allows them to stay in his castle (they all have castles).They talk for a while, remind the rabbit of how special he is and get sent on their way to do the same thing over again.
Every time new characters are introduced they are cloaked with a hood hiding their faces.
The party never proactively gets new info or new tools, they stumble into them at every point. They encounter zero obstacles during their journey, they never struggle for anything. Everyone they meet is a friend or becomes one right away. They are handed whatever they need to carry on their journey for free, at some point they are given a magic wine that erases the need to eat. How convenient.
Everyone keeps talking about the bad guy as this threatening Evil force that spreads across the land but…the bad guy isn’t doing anything! He’s not attacking anyone, he’s not oppressing the people nor destroying the land or anything. The “good guys” lost a war to him a while ago and now they want revenge, but the so-called Evil guy isn’t doing anything to them. He only starts teasing them from a distance after they set out after him, not before. Not really an epic journey if the epic journey could have been avoided in the first place, just leave the guy alone chilling in his tower! He’s not bothering anyone.
Then, out of nowhere, in chapter 13 the whole story becomes an allegory for fascism? The village turns into a Big Brother type of dystopian town, we sit around hearing old people talk about taxes and food rations and fascism propaganda, I don’t get it. What was the point of this? Are you telling me the evil guy influenced the government to become a totalitarian regime? You don’t need an evil dark lord for that.
I will say, tho, the narration is nice and I do like the prose and the writing style. I just wish the rabbit had a better reason to do what he does other than he was bored and an old guy told him to.
September 2, 2018
Another wanna-be Lord of the Rings without any of the things that made Tolkien's work a classic.
November 2, 2016
A Unique Writing Style
I think the best way to describe this book is if you mixed The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Redwall by Brian Jaques, and 1984 by George Orwell all together. You’d end up with something like Carrot Field.
This book starts off feeling like a classic epic fantasy , much like Lord of the Rings.
A small group of unlikely heroes travels great distances and changes the lives of those they meet on their way to defeat the great evil threatening their world. But the first difference you’ll notice is the expansion of races and species that come into play. The lead characters, Sebastian, Brand, and Plotonicus are a Rabbit, Fox, and Badger- respectively.
We start in a corner of the world filled with Animals that exist much like humans do. With buildings, trains and clothing. It’s quiet at first, but the shadow of a very recent and very brutal war still lingers. It is that looming shadow that sends our trio on their epic journey into the dangerous Outlands.
But where this story begins to stretch outside of the path of traditional fantasy is when we, the readers, flit away from the progress the trio are making and come back to the rabbit-hole. We get to see how the quite world of Carrot Field is begin torn apart by a terrifying upheaval in the political climate. It is incredibly reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984.
Rights are being torn away from the Animals living there and prison camps are popping up faster than books are being destroyed. This side of the story I found incredibly engrossing and I actually wish that a little more time had been spent experiencing that part of the world. But that probably has more to do with the fact that I gravitate more towards dystopian literature than I do to epic fantasy. That being said, the entire world was a bleak, desperate place, and it’s incredible the scope of story that Asaro was able to capture.
This book takes it’s time to fill in the details of the world’s history, landscape, peoples and their customs. While reading this book you are completely immersed in the experience and reality of the world of Carrot Field.
Now, I have to say, that style of writing is not what I tend to seek out and I actually feel that if I’d experienced this story as an audiobook, instead of reading it I would have enjoyed it more.
It just has that cadence where you feel like you’re listening to someone’s oral history. The story itself is expansive,and it does go on tangents often to fill you on on the cultural context of what you’re experiencing. In a lot of ways you have to slip into that meditative state that listening to a great story brings on in order to fully enjoy the experience.
However- I will say that this stylistic choice was expertly executed. So if you do enjoy immersing yourself in a vividly detailed world, then you’ll love the heck out of this.
Richness of Cultures and History
This story’s greatest strength is in the world’s variety of cultures and the richness of each one’s history. Not once are you introduced to a society of people without some cultural context (even this world’s version of Orcs). I could go on for days about just a few of the cultures, but really if you want to know why the Commander of Legions has teamed up with the insane/sadistic demi-god or how the Wolves of the Outlands split into two warring factions- you’ll have to just read the book
I think the best way to describe this book is if you mixed The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Redwall by Brian Jaques, and 1984 by George Orwell all together. You’d end up with something like Carrot Field.
This book starts off feeling like a classic epic fantasy , much like Lord of the Rings.
A small group of unlikely heroes travels great distances and changes the lives of those they meet on their way to defeat the great evil threatening their world. But the first difference you’ll notice is the expansion of races and species that come into play. The lead characters, Sebastian, Brand, and Plotonicus are a Rabbit, Fox, and Badger- respectively.
We start in a corner of the world filled with Animals that exist much like humans do. With buildings, trains and clothing. It’s quiet at first, but the shadow of a very recent and very brutal war still lingers. It is that looming shadow that sends our trio on their epic journey into the dangerous Outlands.
But where this story begins to stretch outside of the path of traditional fantasy is when we, the readers, flit away from the progress the trio are making and come back to the rabbit-hole. We get to see how the quite world of Carrot Field is begin torn apart by a terrifying upheaval in the political climate. It is incredibly reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984.
Rights are being torn away from the Animals living there and prison camps are popping up faster than books are being destroyed. This side of the story I found incredibly engrossing and I actually wish that a little more time had been spent experiencing that part of the world. But that probably has more to do with the fact that I gravitate more towards dystopian literature than I do to epic fantasy. That being said, the entire world was a bleak, desperate place, and it’s incredible the scope of story that Asaro was able to capture.
This book takes it’s time to fill in the details of the world’s history, landscape, peoples and their customs. While reading this book you are completely immersed in the experience and reality of the world of Carrot Field.
Now, I have to say, that style of writing is not what I tend to seek out and I actually feel that if I’d experienced this story as an audiobook, instead of reading it I would have enjoyed it more.
It just has that cadence where you feel like you’re listening to someone’s oral history. The story itself is expansive,and it does go on tangents often to fill you on on the cultural context of what you’re experiencing. In a lot of ways you have to slip into that meditative state that listening to a great story brings on in order to fully enjoy the experience.
However- I will say that this stylistic choice was expertly executed. So if you do enjoy immersing yourself in a vividly detailed world, then you’ll love the heck out of this.
Richness of Cultures and History
This story’s greatest strength is in the world’s variety of cultures and the richness of each one’s history. Not once are you introduced to a society of people without some cultural context (even this world’s version of Orcs). I could go on for days about just a few of the cultures, but really if you want to know why the Commander of Legions has teamed up with the insane/sadistic demi-god or how the Wolves of the Outlands split into two warring factions- you’ll have to just read the book
December 1, 2013
An epic clash between deities waged in a kind of middle-earth setting by creatures both familiar and new. There are talking rabbits, wolves, badgers, lions and foxes (C.S. Lewis style), and there are fascinating additions such as Mr. Mospholes – a giant that resembles a combination of tortoise and owl. What’s not to love?
The story follows Sebastian Perriwinkle, a simple but brave rabbit who finds himself swept up in prophecy and thrown quickly into danger. I loved the way this quest to find humans leads this small group of animals from place to place, discovering new characters and animals en-route, and with each new encounter, more is revealed about the great battle that is coming. And what a payoff! The battle itself truly is a treat to read, and the climactic epiphany that we see experienced by one of the central characters, takes you into yet more fantastical heights. A very memorable piece of work.
The story follows Sebastian Perriwinkle, a simple but brave rabbit who finds himself swept up in prophecy and thrown quickly into danger. I loved the way this quest to find humans leads this small group of animals from place to place, discovering new characters and animals en-route, and with each new encounter, more is revealed about the great battle that is coming. And what a payoff! The battle itself truly is a treat to read, and the climactic epiphany that we see experienced by one of the central characters, takes you into yet more fantastical heights. A very memorable piece of work.
February 3, 2015
I got Carrot Field this afternoon, and I have to say: It's just *beautiful*. I find myself reading it aloud. The book feels very much like an oral history, meant to be spoken and heard, passed from one generation to the next, from seasoned elders to young future heroes of their age. I can NOT put it down. Thank goodness for nights like this one, stormy and howling, made for reading an epic tale! Carrot Field is gorgeous, both the tale and the telling. I highly recommend it for readers of all ages.
June 14, 2013
Carrot Field does a great job of blending mythical elements and presenting them in a novel that had me hooked from the first page. I just couldn’t put it down! The characters were great and Asaro has done an amazing job of creating an entire world where they can interact with one another and have their adventures. The level of detail that was written into this novel was phenomenal, and allowed for it to really create a strong mental picture of what was going on as I followed the story line. This could very well be the next must-read epic.
July 3, 2013
Wasn't exactly sure if I'd enjoy this book—I was afraid the use of animals as characters would be a bit juvenile for my taste. It was far from it. Well written and surprisingly thought provoking, the book tackles some rather heavy themes without becoming preachy or pedantic, all neatly wrapped in a rather original and entertaining plot. That being said, it is accessible, so much so that I've already loaned my copy to my thirteen-year-old nephew.
Want to Read
October 25, 2014Couldn't get in to it. Loved Watership Down, thought I would this book too . . . . oh well, I will come back to it sometime and try again
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews