- Paperback: 223 pages
- Publisher: Harpercollins; New edition edition (Nov 26 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0006754015
- ISBN-13: 978-0006754015
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 200 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #382,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
' 'Remarkable! a rare imaginative feat." The Observer
Book Description
The flowery owl pattern on the old dinner service, which Gwyn finds in a loft, obsesses Alison. Its discovery marks the start of an extraordinary chain of event that affect not only Gywn and Alison, but also her stepbrother, Roger. For there's a power stirring in the remote valley that dates from a sad and distant myth--a tragic Welsh legend that has begun to repeat itself. Gwyn tries to shake off his involvement by running away, but he cannot escape, and ,as the tension mounts, he is made to realise that only by facing up to the myth can it be resolved.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great,
By
This review is from: The Owl Service (School & Library Binding)
This was a bizarre little book. It is a retelling of an old Welsh legend - a legend of a curse that is relived in each generation, again and again, in the same Welsh Valley. The main characters are Allison and Roger who are Step Siblings and Gwen is the son of the flitch - the wise man of the valley.The book captivated and I could not put it down. Various kinds of discrimination and prejudice pervade the plot and the book is full of dark twisty turns in the plot and sub-plots, one of which is the condensation of the English to the Welsh and its corollary in the Welsh resentment of English wealth. The class divide is on many different levels: between a working class boy and richer children, between a land-owning family and a businessman's family and finally there is the divide between urban Welsh and the Welsh-speaking country people. It was a fantastic book and as I stated earlier I could not put it down. (First written as Journal Reading Notes in 1999.)
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fine Fantasy Novel,
By
This review is from: The Owl Service (Hardcover)
This is a very well written and unusual fantasy novel. In some respects, it is a horror novel with the traditional theme of an ancient curse working out its consequences in the modern world. Based on a story from the Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh myths, The Owl Service is set in a small Welsh valley in the contemporary world (or least contemporary when the book was published). The three principal characters, a teenage girl and two teenage boys, seemed doomed to repeat the tragic consequences of a love triangle described in the Mabinogion. Various aspects of the story involve combining mythological events with the actual geography of the valley, a method that Garner uses very well and used well in other books. The quality of writing is very good and Garner mixes the mythological aspects of the story with contemporary elements, in this case featuring the class consciousness of British life. As commented by other reviewers, this is not a book for younger children. Best enjoyed by adults and older, more intelligent teenagers.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
You have to read it twice,
By Kelly (Fantasy Literature) (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Owl Service (Paperback)
_The Owl Service_ is a book that has to be read twice to be understood--and a familiarity with the myth of Blodeuwedd doesn't hurt either. This novel takes place in the selfsame valley where Blodeuwedd, Lleu, and Gronw played out their tragic love-triangle in times long past, and the spirit of the conflict still haunts the valley. Every generation, the situation crops up again, with different people playing the parts, but always ending badly. One summer, it is three teenagers who enact the old story; a young girl and her stepbrother, visiting from the city, and a local boy. At first read, it isn't clear what Alison, Roger, and Gwyn have to do with the legend of Blodeuwedd, since their situation is different on the surface. If I'd only read the book once, I might give it two and a half stars. But upon re-reading, the resonances became more apparent, and I began to see the points in the story that correspond to events in the legend. I want to give it three and a half stars, but Amazon won't let me do that, and my grade school teachers drummed it into my head that something-and-a-half rounds up to the next whole number. *wink* So, four stars. I would have liked it better if the characters had been fleshed out more before the legend started controlling their lives; the spirit of the old conflict started turning them into unsympathetic jerks before I had a chance to develop a liking for the people they really were. Still, a decent piece of myth-based fiction.
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