Lloyd Alexander, 1924-2007
May. 18th, 2007 11:03 amAnother giant gone.
Prydain, with the Assistant Pig-Keeper and Eilonwy of the red-gold hair. "Crunchings and munchings" and the truthful harp and the sound of bees in your ears when you turn invisible. "Taran of Caer Dallben, I'm not speaking to you!"
"Miss Vesper Holly has the digestive talents of a goat and the mind of a chess master. She is familiar with six languages and can swear fluently in all of them. She understands the use of the slide rule but prefers doing calculations in her head. She does not hesitate to risk life and limb-- mine as well as her own. No doubt she has other qualities as yet undiscovered. I hope not."
The Westmark trilogy are some of the harshest books I've ever read. _The Kestrel_ in particular. (Oh Justin, you mad, incandescent angel of destruction.) But they also gave us such lines as "You'll be a Trebizonian. Can you speak Trebizonian? No? Very well, you'll be a mute Trebizonian."
And despite all the brilliance in all those, it's "The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha" that really blew me away. In fifth grade it opened my eyes to what fantasy can do and how it can tell you things about the "real world" that you can't say in "real words."
And the light in the bauble finally winked out.
--_The High King_
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heptadecagram)
Prydain, with the Assistant Pig-Keeper and Eilonwy of the red-gold hair. "Crunchings and munchings" and the truthful harp and the sound of bees in your ears when you turn invisible. "Taran of Caer Dallben, I'm not speaking to you!"
"Miss Vesper Holly has the digestive talents of a goat and the mind of a chess master. She is familiar with six languages and can swear fluently in all of them. She understands the use of the slide rule but prefers doing calculations in her head. She does not hesitate to risk life and limb-- mine as well as her own. No doubt she has other qualities as yet undiscovered. I hope not."
The Westmark trilogy are some of the harshest books I've ever read. _The Kestrel_ in particular. (Oh Justin, you mad, incandescent angel of destruction.) But they also gave us such lines as "You'll be a Trebizonian. Can you speak Trebizonian? No? Very well, you'll be a mute Trebizonian."
And despite all the brilliance in all those, it's "The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha" that really blew me away. In fifth grade it opened my eyes to what fantasy can do and how it can tell you things about the "real world" that you can't say in "real words."
And the light in the bauble finally winked out.
--_The High King_
(h/t
heptadecagram)