The Lantern Bearers

Rating:
Summary: This book will make you cry
Review: Although the third book in the trilogy about the family with the dolphin ring, The Lantern Bearers is maybe for more mature readers.
(Notice I said more mature, NOT older.) One of the things I love most about this book is that, even though it is sad, the sadness is REAL, not Romeo-and-Juliet type, with a tragic ending. The ending is not exactly hopeful about the future of England, but Aquila has finally found inner peace. However, the middle, in which Aquila is a slave of the Jutes (not Saxons, that's just what the British called all the invaders), and when he- oops! Don't want to give away the story!- is very bitter, and that's why it's perhaps for MORE MATURE readers. This book is one of Rosemary Sutcliff's best.

Rating:
Summary: Just magic!
Review: How do I put this? Sublime, perhaps? Romemary Sutcliff wonthe Carnegie Medal for this book in 1959, and it well deserved it. I first read The Lantern Bearers as a school text, and was enthralled by the high adventure and the evocative story. I have read it three or four times in the six years since then, and each time I have read it differently. Do not be put off by the fact that The Lantern Bearers is a children's book; the language is simple, but the story is not. Sutcliffe has created a multi-layered masterpiece, at once an historical adventure, an exploration of the heights and depths of the human experience and - I believe - a searching social critique. It is easily my favourite novel. Read it!

Rating:
Summary: Great Adult Reading!!!
Review: I am an avid adult reader of Arthurian legends. I read this book after hearing it is a prequel to The Sword at Sunset, also by Rosemary Sutcliff, and I loved it. I am captivated by the romance and chivalry of this passionate era in our history - and also by the great battle scenes as described by the better authors of this legend (Bernard Cornwell in particular). This book kept my adult interest and made me more anxious than ever to get to The Sword of Sunset...a continuation of the story line in The Lantern Bearers where a young Artos is introduced to us - and by the end of the book can be recognized as the great King Arthur to come.

Rating:
Summary: Unmatched storytelling
Review: I cannot hope to match the eloquence of the previous reviews, but I agree with them completely. I first read The Lantern Bearers in my teens; I am now in my thirties and still find myself drawn to this book. I would add that all of Ms. Sutcliff's books written for juveniles make compelling reading for adults. In fact, for intelligence and beauty, they surpass most contemporary fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Very evocative but not that gripping for some reason...
Review: I feel strangely unsatisfied with this book. I liked the attention to detail and atmosphere as well as the historical context and references, especially to 'Artos' and his father 'Utha' - very subtly done. There were some moments of incredible bitter-sweetness, such as when Aquila watches the Romans leave without him at Rutupiae Light.The characters were well-drawn, a few lines of description necessary to give a good impression of each. There's nothing to really criticise; it was a very solid piece of work. However, I certainly wouldn't want to re-read it - I wonder why? I think perhaps the main character, Aquila, just didn't click with me. His bleakness and bitterness was understandable but it meant he never really interacted with any other characters as a friend - deliberately done, but it made for quite monotonous reading. We never saw closely into any other characters; there were brief, well-written encounters with people, but nothing very fulfilling. I find that I enjoy a book most if it has good characterisation, and while Aquila was sufficiently bitter for his role, I found him lifeless (perhaps I was meant to? I certainly didn't enjoy reading about him though...) and the other characters not well fleshed-out enough. Years and events flashed by, and before I knew it Aquila was getting old, and I still didn't really know him, or the people around him, even his wife. Events were sketched over and I never felt caught up in the story entirely because of the jumps forward in time. However, there was a lot of beautful imagery in this book, right down to the last sentence; that's what kept me reading.