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#1 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 2,192
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Boneland - Alan Garner
Has anyone else read Boneland by Alan Garner? It's quite a thing! I posted a review on Goodreads, but I'd like to discuss it here as well. I'll put my review in spoilers below:
Boneland is the concluding book in the trilogy of Alderley's Edge, starting with the Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath written 50 years ago. It's a very different animal to those simple tales of adventure though |
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#2 |
Adult human female
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: NT 150 511
Posts: 50,286
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Eek, I didn't know the book had been written! Thank you for the spoiler tags.
Garner kind of lost me with Red Shift, but I'm still prepared to give him another go. Rolfe. |
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"The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012. |
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#3 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 2,192
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Well, it has been 50 years in the waiting! I'm not surprised it's dropped off your radar.
![]() Ah. I think you might find shades of Red Shift in Boneland too. I never actually finished Red Shift though where I read Boneland straight through. I think the references back to Weirdstone and Moon of Gomrath kept me going, if it hadn't had any connection to books I love I would have struggled with it. |
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#4 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 28,756
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I thought "Red Shift" was one of the most memorable books I ever read.
I read "The Wierdstone " when I was 11-12 , a bit before I read LOTR. Loved it. "Moon of Gomrath " and "The owl Service" I read later and found enjoyable, but I had maybe passed the perfect age. I shamelessly read a bit of "Boneland" in the HMV coffee shop the other day. I was put off from buying it by the price, which is high for a rather small book. I fear this is the Kindle Effect in action. ETA- A review of "Boneland" in the Guardian, by Ursula K LeGuin (!). http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012...-garner-review |
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#5 |
Adult human female
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: NT 150 511
Posts: 50,286
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I read Red Shift several times. I always thought in the end I would understand it, but it never really gelled.
I really, really liked Elidor and The Owl Service. I might ask Derek to order this new one for me. (Supporting the village book shop is playing merry hell with my book buying budget....) Rolfe. |
__________________
"The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012. |
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#6 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 6,293
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I thought Red Shift was a piece of crap. I could never understand how it got published.
A lot of Alan Garner's works, including The Owl Service, could have used a bit more length and exposition. In The Owl Service I could never figure out how old the young people were. They seemed to be nearly adults, then were under the thumbs of their parents. then there was the odd bit of the young heroine, IIRC, calling her mother an old cow. Another thing i couldn't understand is why the villagers, seeing things beginning to play out in an old tragic fashion, didn't intervene and say, "Enough of this crap!" The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, as I recall, held up quite well, but The Moon of Gomrath seemed rather chaotic. |
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#7 |
Adult human female
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: NT 150 511
Posts: 50,286
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The villagers are Welsh. Cue cheap stereotype where they aren't really living in the 20th century like normal folks.
The young people were sixth-formers, weren't they? I thought that transitional period was handled rather well. They're 17 or 18, but they're still "school children". Rolfe. |
__________________
"The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012. |
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#8 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 6,293
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Thanks for that clarification. It's been a while since I read The Owl Service, so I can't recall what time period it was set in I know it was meant to be twentieth century, but it always seemed to be not quite modern. Or am I just reading something into it from my native Californian perspective?
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#9 |
Adult human female
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: NT 150 511
Posts: 50,286
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It was published in 1967. At that time it was contemporary, and I can see no indication it wasn't intended to be contemporary.
The conceit of the protagonists tapping into or connecting with something ancient in the British landscape is one seen in a number of mid-20th-century young adult novels. Think Penda's Fen (OK, that was a play), and even Monica Edwards' pony stories did it once or twice. Rolfe. |
__________________
"The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012. |
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#10 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 2,192
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Boneland doesn't seem to be contemporary. I don't know if the author spent all of the time since the second book writing this one, but it certainly feels like it's not set in the 21st century.
Mind you if the main character had been constantly updating his status on Facebook it wouldn't have improved matters! Have people read it yet? I want to discuss the shamanistic imagery! ![]() |
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