Rating: 
Summary: This book is great!
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read! The writing is fantastic. The writer creates a very realistic and detailed setting, with a wonderful plot and characters to match. I couldn't put it down! I thouroghly enjoyed it, and I would recomend it to anyone!
Rating: 
Summary: Read it
Review: I am not usually a sci-fi/ fantasy reader, but this series surprised me. I read Carmody's short story collection, "Green Monkey Dreams," which prompted me to give this series a go. I'm so glad I did! I think the most engaging aspect of these books is the characterisation, each book developing the main characters, introducing new ones, and intertwining their relationships with one another. Each book builds more and more towards an inevitable climax, which I keep hoping will begin in the next book, which has the working title "Sending." The climax, we know, has to do with the main character, Elspeth, (also known in beast-legend as The Seeker), facing her enemies and attempting to destroy the nuclear weapons that have already once devestated the Earth. From the current situation, I can't guess at all how the author intends to resolve the story; but from the calibre of writing displayed by this most productive of authors, you can guarantee it will be spectacular!
Rating:
Summary: Original, imaginative and thought-provoking
Review: "Obernewtyn" is a suspenseful, imaginative and wholly absorbing post-nuclear-holocaust fantasy, narrated by Elspeth, a girl who has been declared a Misfit because of her genetic-mutation-enhanced telepathic abilities. One of her talents is communication with beasts, a gift that proves crucial to her escape from those who would do her harm. Characters are portrayed with depth and complexity. Her friends, both human and animal, are likable. Two of the most interesting are the mysterious Rushton and the cat Maruman. Her enemies, especially Ariel, are chilling. Readers who like Mercedes Lackey or Tamora Pierce will probably enjoy this original, thought-provoking tale.
Rating:
Summary: Obernewtyn
Review: You will love this book. 10 years ago I got this book to read from my hostmother in Australia, where I stayed as an exchange student. I couldn't stop reading it, at the moment I am reading part 4 and I can't wait for the next one.But about this one: It is the first of the Obernewtyn Chronicles and it sets the basis for more to come. You get to know Elspeth Gordie, born with enhanced mental abilities.She has to find her place in a world struggling back from the brink of apocalypse. For her it is a dangerous world, nobody likes people who are different. Ordered to Obernewtyn she learns there are others like her....
Rating:
Summary: Splendid initiation into the Obernewtyn Chronicals
Review: Australia has had a number of excellent young writers publishing genre work for young adults recently and Isobelle Carmody is one of the brightest stars in this group. I was disappointed to see that Carmody's more recent work for adults (the 'LEGENDSONG' trilogy) does not appear to be available yet outside Australia; this is also the case for Carmody's literary contemporary Catherine Jinks, whose 'PAGAN' series is deservedly one of the most lauded young adult works in recent years. However, the fact that even some of Carmody's works are available overseas is excellent. The Obernewtyn chronicals are set on a post-apocalyptic island ruled by the tyrannous council and more ominously by the Herders, prists of Lud. Once a mechanism for survival, the Council hunts down misfits (any person or animal born physically or mentally deformed)for purely political reasons in the era of Elspeth Innle. This awesome heroine is a misfit of a new kind - she, and others like her, have developed mind powers which take various guises (farspeaking, coercion, beastspeaking etc). Sent to the mountain fastness of Obernewtyn on suspicion of possessing just such powers, Elspeth meets a number of fascinating characters who become her comrades in the struggle to build a haven from persecution for all misfits. This is the story told in the first two novels of the series; however, running underneath the action and development of the haven is the development of Elspeth's unique destiny: to save the world from a re-occurence of the Great White nuclear holocaust that has devastated the world once already. As the legendary Seeker, she must locate and destroy the machines which created the Great White before her nemesis, the Destroyer, can find them and use them. This is the thread of this sophisticated, morally complex series which continues to improve. Though this book is complete enough an adventure and engrossing enough a story to be read on its own, I can guarantee that readers of "OBERNEWTYN' will find themselves hooked on the rest of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fabulous!
Review: While OBERNEWTYN is unbelievable, the ones that follow (with the exception of the overly long, dream filled, Rushton-less, and anti-climatical THE KEEPING PLACE) are even better. What make these books so different from the other fantasy/sci-fis is that even though Elspeth and the gang live in a time so different from us (and who can relate to a girl with the telepath, sorry, farseeking powers?) we still identify with her, feel like she's a real person instead of an object sacrificed to a neat setting. And it's not just Elspeth that's great. Matthew, Maruman, Dameon, Rushton (! ), Dragon, Brydda, Daffyd...they're all great! If anyone has any info on the fifth one, let me know!
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant
Review: I read this book when I was ten after my friend recommended it. I was a bit reluctant but then I couldn't put it down. The structure, the characters, the places and even the smell(of my book) is great. The whole series, in order, is Obernewtyn, The Farseekers, Ashling, The Keeping Place and then The Sending. Well worth the time it takes to read it, and the sequels are even better.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanthing
Review: Carmody's Obernewtyn is a magnificent read. It's a "young adult" book that can be enjoyed be people of all ages. I loved it. In fact, after reading the copy I checked out from the library, I had to buy a copy for myself. I'll be eagerly awaiting Tor's release of the second book later this year.
Rating:
Summary: Obernewtyn-a readers views
Review: I believe obernewtyn was very well written! It is one of Isobelle Carmody's best work and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the cronicles. It gives a real insight into the mind of the writer and I believe this is always like it in any book.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: This book is one of the best I have ever read. It is fantasy cross romance cross adventure cross mystery (there are many genres this book fits into), a dash of each in this book. Most series follow up with a book that is not so good right? Well, this is the one exception. The plot is typical of most fantasy/ sci fi books I've read - it's after the holocaust, and there are a group of misfits being 'hunted down' by the other 'normal' humans. But what makes this book so different is that it has much more content in it than the other books. Things actually happen, they don't follow the same old stereotype. And this is actually quite believable, compared to portals and what not in Gemmel or other fantasy writer's books. Anyhow, it is fantastic, and I would recommend it to teens.
|
