Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: "the Iron Ring" was an enchanting story of mystery, adventure, legend, courage and love. It had a wonderful story plot with enchanting characters. You'll love it sso much, you'll never want it to end. Every page has a new adventure!
Rating: 
Summary: The plot is highly unoriginal.
Review: All in all, The Iron Ring was an appealing, not to mention an out of the ordinary piece of literature. It is quite a change from his magical Prydain Chronicles, therefore I warn those avid readers whom have discovered this magic, and wish to discover a similar story, to keep their expectations down. Although this is an enthralling read, it presents a very different kind of story to the one presented in his hit series. This story has a lovely structure, and a plot that is atypical for quite a number of readers, however, I will say that this plot is highly unoriginal. Many snitches and snippets have seemed to be cut out from Indian mythology, and pasted into this story; in fact, the whole book is made up of odds and ends of various stories, just stapled together, with no originality. As Alexander seems to render, this is not a story of his imagination at all, and in fact, is only comprised of bits of incredibly ancient stories put together under his name. However, I urge you to read this book, but at the same time advise exploration into Indian mythology, to see for yourself how little of this book has really come from Alexander's own imagination. He did not add any of the uniqueness that I so highly expected of him. Alexander has failed at his weak attempt to make Indian mythology his own. For those of you who find, or have found his book magical, and thought-provoking, I recommend further investigation in Indian mythology, particularly to do with the epics of Ramayana, and Mahabharata which are incredible stories which have stood the test of time, over thousands of years. You will be sure to find many similarities between these epics and Alexander's book, and will be able to see where Alexander found many of his characters and situations...
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional mythic fantasy
Review: As he did with the Prydain Chronicles, "The Arkadians" and "The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen," in this book Lloyd Alexander takes a set of cultural myths and legends, and weaves them together into a remarkably seamless fantasy adventure. The strange king Jaya arrives in the kingdom of Sundari, and in an audience with young King Tamar, beats him in a game of dice. Tamar loses more than the game -- his life is now Jaya's. Then he wakes up, with no sign of Jaya, and an iron ring on his finger. Honor demands that he travel to Jaya and offer his life, and despite the wishes of the wise old Rajaswami, he sets out. Along the way, Tamar encounters first a thieving monkey who was once a man, a quirky wise-man. and a beautiful gopi (cowgirl) Mirri, with whom he falls in love. But soon Tamar's internal struggle becomes even more pronounced: He learns of a villainous noble who is threatening all of them. Many of Lloyd Alexander's books have a formula cast: a young hero with a lesson to learn, a smart heroine, a quirky older man, and usually a few lovable animal sidekicks. Here it works very well. Alexander also includes an unusual commentary on the Indian caste system, on how unfair it is. Tamar goes from horror at just looking at one of the chandala ("the lowest of the low") to calling one of them his friend; his true friends don't care about his supposedly contaminated state, because they care more about him than about castes. And Alexander's look at honor and the keeping of one's word is also amazing. The plotting is exceptionally intricate -- Alexander is adept at giving little twists and unexpected turns in his plots, but "Iron Ring" may be the most complex book he's yet written. His writing isn't quite as detailed as some of his other books, but the dialogue is still enjoyable and well-written. Perhaps my only quibble is that ALL the animals talked, not just the once-human ones, or the really unusual ones. Tamar is a classic Alexander hero -- he has a lot to learn, but he's enthusiastic, good-hearted and likable. His hesitation to stay with Mirri is also well-written, since his life belongs to Jaya. Mirri herself is a sharp, no-nonsense heroine that readers will like; Rajaswami is a sweet old guy who is completely loyal to Tamar. Then there is Hashkat, the thieving, lazy monkey who is surprisingly loyal, and Garuda, the ugliest and most annoying eagle imaginable. "The Iron Ring" is among Alexander's finest fantasy books, melding myth with his own storyline and likable characters. Fans of romantic, adventurous epic stories will love this one.
Rating:
Summary: Humor and wisdom combined to a high degree
Review: Combining the mythology of ancient India with the wisdom garnered over 70+ years, Lloyd Alexander has written an enthralling, fast-paced story filled with extraordinary depths of meaning.
Young King Tamar forfeits his life in a high-stakes dice game to King Jaya, a mysterious visitor who places an iron ring on
Tamar's finger to signify his servitude. He commands, "You will go to my palace in Mahapura and there make good on your debt,"
and disappears. Unsure whether Jaya is a
dream or not, Tamar nevertheless begins the
journey because his "dharma" or honor commands it. (The theological implications of this are profound as we are all journeying toward
our deaths at the hands of a king who may or may not be there.)
Filled with Alexander's inimitable humor and
layers of meaning which adults can grasp and
children sense, this epic adventure explores
universal issues of prejudice, warfare, love,
and friendship without being didactic. Masterful.
Rating:
Summary: A delectable read
Review: Even though the characters lack real depth (after all, what can you expect? It's only 256 pages), I enjoyed this book due to its fascinating plot. It had a very creative and gripping beginning and a fairly satisfying ending. At times this book had me laughing out loud (especially the monkey rashshasa scene) and at others I felt for the characters. If you're in for a quick, humorous, and thoughtful read, pick up this book. *Also recommended ~ The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander and books from the Redwall series by Brian Jacques
Rating: 
Summary: Not Alexander's best but still worth the read
Review: Granted, I am an adult reading books written primarily for children, but I believe a well written story can and should attract readers of all ages. The Iron Ring suffers a bit from too much going on. There are too many characters with little depth and the ending did not quite satisfy me the way say The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen did. All in all it's a good read and worth your time. I guess I was just expecting more from a writer of Alexander's caliber
Rating:
Summary: Another great book by Lloyd Alexander
Review: I have read the book, The Iron Ring, by Lloyd Alexander. It is one of his greatest books besides his earlier Prydain Chronicles. This book is for people ages 10-17. This is not a challenging book for older people. Lloyd has written this book in a special way that I find very interesting. He used characterization and all the characters in the book felt like I known them personally. I was able to determine what they would do in a certain situation after a while. The setting is very nice. The story takes place in early India, when it was rules by the kings, before the British invasion of India. Lloyd has depicted a very well setting for the time of this story and I was not able to find any glitches of the story's setting. I had felt very eager to read some parts, but all the fights the characters were in were short and very non-explanatory. I hated some parts when random things happen. I overall liked this book over the others. I would recommend to many people who have interest in fantasy stories.
The story starts of as Jaya visited Tamar, King of Sundari, King of Mahapura. Jaya challenges Tamar to a game, and Tamar lost his life to Jaya and Jaya disappeared. Tama finds a ring on his finger and he told others about it, but they were asleep when this happened. Therefore, Tamar began a journey to Mahapura. He finds many people on the way, they get in many minor conflicts, and some parts are funny. Tamar found Mirri on the way and falls in love with her. Tamar, Mirri and Rajaswami meet up with Adi Kavi, Ashwara, Ashwara's brothers and many animals. Tamar was asked to save Ranapura from an evil king that took over the control of Ashwara's kingdom. Tamar and the others fight them and looses the first battle, but they fight another time and wins. Tamar learns a very good lesson from the journey and when he reached Mahapura, he was a different person than when he left. Read the book to found out how he changed.
Rating:
Summary: the abnormal journey
Review: i know this book is really intresting really intresting.the main character has one adventure after another which makes it a non stop read book.it only gets complicated when you read about all the different characters and have to keep track of all them. Not only are the characters humans but most of them are royal.The wierd twist is that there is also animals that not only talk but some are royal and have their own kingdoms.It was really neat how the author lloyd alexander took you into another culture.the main character Tamar is a king and meets another king who visits his land and as courtesie tamar gambles with him. before he knows it tamar has gambled his life away. Now he must travel and meet up with this king who left a ring on his finger and vanished. along the way tamar meets wacky characters with problems of their own and he stops and helps them.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book!
Review: I love this book because it is full of great stuff! I got itout at my school library, just thinking I would try it. I was in for asuprise! I would recommend this book to anybody.
Rating:
Summary: Zzzzz....
Review: I read this book three years ago, and it still inspires an intense desire to throw it out a window. I found most of the characters to be extremely boring and/or too strange to be likable, such as the umbrella issue. Tamar's mentor spent what seemed to me to be a ridiculous amount of time talking about his umbrella. I did not care about his umbrella. I cared about the plot and the characters, and the amount of trivial dialouge included in the book bored me beyond compare. I suggest sticking to Lloyd Alexander's other books and skipping 'The Iron Ring.'
|
