Elidor

Rating:
Summary: Elidor by Alan Garner
Review: This Fantastic book is about 4 children who are brought into elidor. they meet malebron who gives them the four treasures of Elidor But by taking them back into their world, they stir up more trouble than they think!
Thrilling adventure!

Rating:
Summary: A LITTLE TOO VAGUE
Review: While the four Watson children, Roland, Nicholas, David, and Helen are exploring a bombed out section of London, they are transported to the other dimensional world of Elidor. Upon arriving there, the kids are enlisted by Malebron the King to take back the Four Treasures: a spear, a sword, a stone, and a cauldron, to our world. It seems that the four cities of Elidor were constructed to guard these Treasures, but a darkness has come upon the land, and only one city still stands. The problem is that dark forces might come hunting for them, even in London.

While mildy entertaining and a trifle scary at the outset as the children have to deal with the unknown, the book gradually settles into an unsatisfying first draft of a tale. I say this because nothing is ever revealed. We never have an idea of who or what the darkness is that is threatening Elidor. We have no idea what the Four Treasures true power is. I mean, what was so important about them? We never find out who Malebron really is. I'm so sick of these storylines where the heroes are kept in the dark and some magical figure gives them a quest or task to complete but never tells them exactly how to do it or resorts to talking in riddles. I mean just say what you want these kids to do instead of babbling every time you talk to them! Oh yeah, and a unicorn shows up, having a power and significance that is never explained. There is just too much vagueness working against this novel for it to succeed. The parts in London when shadow figures start haunting the kid's house is pretty good, but that's about all there is here. Sorry book.