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Title: Shadowmancer by G. P. Taylor ISBN: 0-399-24256-2 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Juv Pub. Date: May, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.58 (12 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: ...an interesting response to the Potter phenomenon...
Comment: I was intrigued when reading the promotional material for this book that it was lauded as being on the same magnitude as the Potter saga. To be honest, when I read the first few pages, I thought "Here we go again...characters like the Death Eaters, teenage boy in magical capers.". It made me cynical from the start. I truly believe that had Harry Potter and his world not come along, this book would have stood up more on its own merits rather than appearing to be a Christian response to their unfounded fears that Rowling's books incite children to want to practice black magic and stray from the "path". The religious subtext becomes frankly too much for me, and although I can take a little of everything, this took the biscuit, as we say. There's a fine line between making a point and forcing a point. As a Christian kids book, it's fine, wonderful even, but as a piece of fiction, it reads more like an exaltation to God and a denunciation of the rest. For my money, there's a better book out there...go find it!
Rating: 4
Summary: Better than expected
Comment: Having reacently been on holiday in the States I borrowed this book from a friend and started to read it on the plan. I found the first two chapters hard going trying to understand the plot and know where I was going. By the time I had got to chapter 4/5 I was into the book and could not put it down, infact I am in my mid twenties and my cousin who's 13 had read half the book in 3 days and she's from the states and loved Harry Potter too.
I believe that a non-Christian reading it would enjoy this book too - it shows the powers of darkness and light and the extracts from the Bible are in the right place. I would give it to any member of my youth group to read
Rating: 1
Summary: Barely readable
Comment: Oh, dear. It's very rarely that I have to struggle to finish a book, but if I hadn't been stuck in a hotel room with nothing else to do this one would still be languishing, half-finished, on my bedroom floor. It's long since gone to Oxfam to bore some other poor soul rigid.
Creaking plot, cardboard characters, overt evangalism, overused Bible quotes and tired cliches in the place of dialogue - Shadowmancer has nothing to recommend it, unless you're looking for a cynical laugh at the author's heavy-handed attempt at fundamentalist anti-occult propaganda. ("KIDS! Magic is DANGEROUS! Don't try this at home!!!") The sound of one or two characters - the obligatory feisty girl sidekick/token female character, for example - struggling to develop personalities is drowned out by the clanking of the plot and the chorus of hallelujahs.
If you're raising kids in the Christian faith and want good fantasy fiction for them, for goodness' sake stick to CS Lewis or Pullman, or even Pilgrim's Progress. Don't touch this book with a bargepole - it'll put them off for life, not to mention the dangers that the sloppy writing poses to their English grammar.
In all honesty: recommended only for punctuation-impaired fundamentalists.
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Title: Bartimaeus Trilogy Book One: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud ISBN: 078681859X Publisher: Miramax (Kids) Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, Anthea Bell ISBN: 0439531640 Publisher: Chicken House Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Lionboy by Zizou Corder ISBN: 0803729820 Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: December, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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Title: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss ISBN: 1592400876 Publisher: Gotham Books Pub. Date: 12 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: The Wish List by Eoin Colfer ISBN: 0786818638 Publisher: Miramax (Kids) Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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