The Troll King

Rating:
Summary: A charming fantasy for young readers and adults too!
Review: An easy to read fantasy(the book is for young readers!) with an entertaining story and a likeable hero. My 8 year old daughter is interested in doing something other than playing a computer game or watching tv for a change! She wants to hear what's going to happen with Rollo! And as for me, and `old'fantasy fan- I loved the book too!

Rating:
Summary: Avid Reader and Mother of Three
Review: I enjoyed the book. The characters were interesting and not typical. The hero may have made the right choices in the end but getting there he was at best reluctant. It's a great read for kids starting out in chapter books and want more than the usual fare.

Rating:
Summary: Okay...
Review: I found this book to have an interesting plot, but the characters were very shallow. I agree with a previous reviewer in that the main character, Rollo, is VERY, VERY, GOOD. He is too good, in fact. The evil characters are VERY, VERY, EVIL. The characters don't have any personal conflict(at least any that I noticed). I'm glad that it helped someone to learn to read better, but if you can already read well, then you shouldn't waste money on this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Troll King.
Review: I have not personally read the book, however; my 12 year old son did. He has always been a slow reader, never really being up to grade level. He still insisted that I read to him at bedtime instead of reading to himself. We read other fantasy books together, but not until this one did he read any of them totally by himself. He picked it up at the beginning of spring break and I don't think I saw him do anything else but read this book. He would come in every night and tell me what had happened that day. I recommend this book to those who have kids that are interested in fantasy. It got my boy interested enough to break through a barrier in his reading skills, and just for that I kneel down in awe of Mr. Vornholt.

Rating:
Summary: The Troll King
Review: I have not personally read the book, however; my 12 year old son did. He has always been a slow reader, never really being up to grade level. He still insisted that I read to him at bedtime instead of reading to himself. We read other fantasy books together, but not until this one did he read any of them totally by himself. He picked it up at the beginning of spring break and I don't think I saw him do anything else but read this book. He would come in every night and tell me what had happened that day. I recommend this book to those who have kids that are interested in fantasy. It got my boy interested enough to break through a barrier in his reading skills, and just for that I kneel down in awe of Mr. Vornholt.

Rating:
Summary: The Troll King.
Review: I liked this book because it had mystical creatures like trolls, ogres, gnomes, fairys, elves,giant toads, and wizards. The Troll King is very adventurous and a real cool book.
This book is about a troll called Rollo who is 14 and is really bulked up. Rollo goes on many different adventures. It all started when Rollo and Crawfleece(sister)goes to skim the hole(round body of water in middle of the forest). Rollo falls in and gets caught by ogres. He escapes, but now they are looking for him. He also learns to fly and use magic. Rollo meets a fairy called Clipper. I don't want to tell the rest of the story so read The Troll King.
I recommend this book to my family and friends bacause if you like adventures and fantasy books then you will love The Troll King.

Rating:
Summary: REALLY shallow!
Review: I read this book because it was a free book that I got from school. Now, I am a total fantasy nut, and let me tell you, this book was horrible! The characters are shallow, there is no personal conflict, and you know who is GOOD, and who is EVIL. I think that it is great that it got someone's son to learn how to read, but other than that, I don't think this book is useful for anything. If you want to read some good fantasy, try Tamora Pierce (she is my all time fav author), Diane Duane, Phillip Pullman, Eoin Colfer, Diana Wynne Jones, Gail Carson Levine, William Corlett, Madeleine L'Engle, J.K. Rowling, or A College of Magics (I can't remember the author right now), but don't try John Vornholt.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable light fantasy fare for the 9-12 age group
Review: In a time of great need, a hero will rise above his humble origins to lead his people out of oppression...

Well, in this case, the hero's name is Rollo, and he's a troll. And if you think the plot sounds familiar, it is. However, it's not a bad reincarnation of this sort of story, particularly if something like a mix between Star Wars and Redwall (with trolls and ogres instead of mice and moles) appeals to you.

Actually, what I was most reminded of while reading The Troll King were those old adventure/fantasy computer games-- colorful, entertaining, quick paced, and even sort of inclusive of those inventories in which every item becomes necessary at some point in the game. And also, like those games, rather shallow. Characters are part of the problem. Rollo is young, strong, handsome (for a troll, anyway), clever, and also honest and firmly on the side of Good. For exactly those reasons, I never found him to be an interestingly three dimensional character. And likewise with the other characters, though the evil people aren't as badly stereotyped and flat as they could have been.

There are also instances in which the author makes it painfully clear to what age group he is writing, with really unnecessary inclusions such as: "Her gutteral voice sang a sweet lullaby about picking leeches off her thigh to make a pie." Eeeeew! There are also the ghouls, magically animated corpses, who are described in some detail. And yet, exactly the things I might have gotten a kick out of when I was nine. And though there are a few amusing sides about trolls coming 'out from under the bridge,' The Troll King isn't really suitable for an adult audience, as are really good children's and YA books.

Nonetheless, there are much worse ways to spend an hour, and I think that it's very well suited to its target audience-- the younger Harry Potter fans. It has some basic lessons about loyalty and prejudice without ever getting annoyingly preachy, and is very readable. The end leaves the door wide open for a sequel, and as it promises to deal with the Bonny Woods, by far the most interesting and least explored area of Vornholt's fantasy world, I just might read it.

Ailanna

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book for children and adults alike
Review: This is a splendid, hilarious, and fast-moving story, one that takes all you think you might have known about trolls and sets it right on it's ear. It is a tale of Rollo, a rather unprepossessing troll living in the town of Bonespittal in the Dismal Swamp, who along with many other trolls is pressganged by the ogres and gnomes, under the command of the evil sorcerer Stygius Rex, into building a bridge (trolls know a lot about bridges, you see) across the great chasm to the Bonny Woods where all those horrible elves and fairys and sprites and other such dreadful beings dwell.
I'll not say any more, for I do not wish to spoil the delightful surprises that lie waiting for you within this tale. All I will say is, get it now. You'll love it. This is a five-star book, and I would give it more, but the system only allows five altogether.
~ Dennis L. McKiernan (Author of _Once Upon a Winter's Night_)

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book for children and adults alike
Review: This is a splendid, hilarious, and fast-moving story, one that takes all you think you might have known about trolls and sets it right on it's ear. It is a tale of Rollo, a rather unprepossessing troll living in the town of Bonespittal in the Dismal Swamp, who along with many other trolls is pressganged by the ogres and gnomes, under the command of the evil sorcerer Stygius Rex, into building a bridge (trolls know a lot about bridges, you see) across the great chasm to the Bonny Woods where all those horrible elves and fairys and sprites and other such dreadful beings dwell.
I'll not say any more, for I do not wish to spoil the delightful surprises that lie waiting for you within this tale. All I will say is, get it now. You'll love it. This is a five-star book, and I would give it more, but the system only allows five altogether.
~ Dennis L. McKiernan (Author of _Once Upon a Winter's Night_)