My Favorite Books

I just finished reading the final book of a five-part series by Lloyd Alexander, a series that I first read ten years ago and hadn’t read again since.  These books belong to the "fantasy" genre, I think, but that is a vague descriptor.  I’ll not attempt to give any sort of summary, but the story involves themes of courage and honor and heroism and love, and is set in a time when battles were fought with swords.  Though fictional, the story gives a thoroughly real account of the the struggles between good and evil, among men at war with eachother, and in the heart of every man.  Across the five books, Taran’s character is developed in a way that shows his own struggle to learn what is right, and to do what is right, and to learn to reconcile that with the desires of his heart.

Having mentioned a character’s name, I suppose I should name the books, eh?  They are The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King.  Though each could be read separately, they form one series about a set of characters that you can’t fully understand without reading all five.  I was never really into reading these kinds of books (fantasy novels) as a kid, but most of my good friends were, and somehow they got me to read this series.  It’s still the only one I’ve ever read -- I never read the Tolkien series, though I was forced to read The Hobbit for school.

It turns out that ten years was a nearly ideal interval between readings of this story.  I had forgotten almost all of the major plot elements, along with the details that make the books so enjoyable.  I remembered some things, of course, but for most of this re-reading I had no idea what was going to happen next.  At times I had a sort of premonition of good or bad about to befall the characters, but rarely knew exactly what it would be until it happened.  I had thought I remembered one big thing, though -- the question of what would happen with Eilonwy -- until I got to the last ten pages of the final book.  I had totally forgotten about Taran’s final decision (and thus, his final destiny), and I was so incredibly sad when he announced it.  I almost never cry, but I did get a little misty at that point.

One thing that I didn’t forget was how much I loved this story, and I love it just as much now having read it again.  It’s classified as a children’s book, but I don’t think that’s accurate at all.  It’s easy to read, but it isn’t written in childish language, and the themes are certainly not childish.  Still, I thought that perhaps I only love it now as an adult because I’d read it as a boy.  But then I just read some reviews of it on amazon.com, and there are hundreds, and they are glowing.  And apparently the story is forty years old; I had no idea it was that old.  It’s also compared to the Tolkien series, and many people seem to think it’s right up there with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I think three things in particular make this story exceptional.  First, it deals with themes that every person relates to, and more than that, ideals that every person aspires to in some way.  It makes you identify strongly with the characters and get emotionally attached and want things to work out a certain way.  As I said, though the story is fictional, the main ideas are very real and very familiar to us.  Second is that there are endless plot twists that have you saying, "No, no NO!!" and then "Whew," and also ones that have you thinking things are just fine right before everything is suddenly dashed to bits in some way.  Many times I got extremely angry about events in the books, and equally often I was just completely elated, feeling as though it were me on the receiving end of whatever great thing just occurred.  The element of the story that’s either the main element or the "other" main element, depending on how you see the overall story, involved at least 3 giant twists for itself alone.  It was gut-wrenching waiting and wondering how it would turn out, and then just when you think it’s settled and over, it twists again, twice right in a row, right at the end!  Finally, the books are just plain hilarious at times.  Whether because of events, or the ways that the author often arranges spoken phrases in riddles, or just the sarcasm of the characters, I laughed out loud not a few times while completing the series.

So I highly recommend this series to anyone who has not read it, and anyone who has not read it since grade school.  I am anxious for the passage of time to make me forget the story again, so that I can read it anew in another ten years.