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Title: The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson ISBN: 0-385-72921-9 Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: 13 November, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.31 (13 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Enchanting Coming of Age Tale...
Comment: The Valley had always been a wonderful place to live, a peaceful place, but then the Empire came. Greedy tax collectors forced the farmers to pay back taxes for all the years that they didn't pay and the horse warriors on the plains raided, raped and murdered the people. Desperate, the Valley sent out a small group of people to seek aid from a powerful sorceress. Two of them found the sorceress, but she was dying and so sent them on to the great wizard Faheel. Faheel heard their plea and accepted the gift that they bore and set up protection for the people in the Valley. To the man, he gave a flask of crystal water and instructed him to empty it into the stream high in the mountains of the Valley and sing the song it told him. To the woman, he gave a loaf of barley and instructed her to plant a small field of barley every year and to feed the cedars in the forest of the Valley and sing the song that they told her. The man and the woman returned to the Valley and every generation there was an Ortahlson who sang to the stream and an Urlasdaughter who sang to the cedars. The Valley became impenetrable to the Empire's soldiers and tax collectors as there was a strange sickness in the forest that made men dizzy, ill, and knocked them out and then killed them. High in the mountains, there was a glacier that blocked the pass that the horse warriors used. As time passed, the people of the Valley told the story for entertainment for they knew it wasn't real, but the Ortahlsons and the Urlasdaughters kept singing...
Generation followed generation until twenty has passed since the original adventurers found the wizard Faheel. The unthinkable began to happen as the glacier started to melt and the trees stopped singing and producing their sickness. The people of the Valley knew it was only a matter of time until the Empire would come and enslave them again or they would be killed by the horse warriors. However, the people still refused to believe that the story was true, so it was up to the Ortahlsons and the Urlasdaughters to save their homes.
Tilja Urlasdaughter was still grieving over the loss of her beloved Woodbourne when she escorted her grandmother to the gathering. Tilja could not hear the song of the cedars, but her younger sister, Anja, could and so she would inherit the farm of the Urlasdaughters. Indeed, Tilja seemed to have no magic at all and so was stunned when the cedars told Anja that Tilja needed to go with her grandmother and two Ortahlsons to find the wizard Faheel and renew the spell on the Valley. Tilja didn't know what she could do to help, but she was determined to do her best to save her world. However, as the small party journeys slowly through the treacherous Empire, Tilja finds that she may be the only one was has the power to save the Valley simply because she doesn't have any magic...
The Ropemaker is an enchanting tale of a girl who is simply ordinary, but in an extraordinary way. Tilja was very likeable and I found myself identifying with her right away. The other characters are also fun to get to know, but Tilja is definitely the focus of the book. As far as the plot goes, this book is more a journey of self discovery than a story with a beginning and an end. If you enjoy journeys with exotic locales and interesting peoples then you will enjoy this tale. Not the most thrilling of books, but nonetheless entertaining and solidly written with little surprises around every corner. It is written simply enough for older children to enjoy, but there is enough detail and intrigue to entertain adults and older readers.
Rating: 3
Summary: Amazingly bad
Comment: I don't mean it is amazing how bad this book is - I mean its amzing this book is bad at all, coming from the usually brilliant Peter Dickenson.
It opened very promisingly, conjuring up Tilja's world, and hinting at fascinating elements. Then Peter went off on one for the rest of the (overlong) story writing an uninspired and pedestrian fantasy. I wasn't very interested in Tilja (she agnosises over the trauma of 'feeling left out' in the middle of life-and-death situations), and the none of the other characters really caught my imagination. Or even my attention. Especially Tahl (or whatever).
The valley Tilja lives in is in danger, and natually she (a girl of about twelve) is sent off to save it. It goes without saying there is a mystical wizard who might solve all her problems but - lo and hehold - it turns out that Tilja has to solve her problems for herself. But she doesn't. The infuriatingly boring 'Ropemaker' steps in and everything's just dandy.
If you want a good Peter Dickenson fantasy novel, read The Weathermonger.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant!
Comment: I read this in about four hours, it's so good! I really enjoyed it, its very well written and very different.
The story is exciting, and i certainly felt i could relate easily to the characters.
It's so refreshing to see such a new story, completely different to any other book I have read. Now, when is the sequel out?!
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Title: A Bone From a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson ISBN: 0440219280 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 01 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $5.50 |
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Title: Freewill by Chris Lynch ISBN: 0064472027 Publisher: HarperTempest Pub. Date: 17 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Postcards from No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers ISBN: 0525468633 Publisher: Dutton Books Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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Title: The Changes : A Trilogy by Peter Dickinson ISBN: 0440504139 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 03 November, 1991 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: The Kin by Peter Dickinson, Peter Dickson, Ian P. Andrew ISBN: 0142501204 Publisher: Firebird Books Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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