A fantastic feature
by Feathers
OK, so this time Ptolemy asked me to write about fantasy. Great, I thought. I’ve got some awesome fantasies – like the one where a giant tidal wave hits Puffin Island and washes all of Sandy’s bags and shoes out to sea, or the one where I get crowned computer game champ and Talan has to hand over the prize… and that’s just for starters!
Unfortunately, what Ptolemy meant was ‘fantasy books’ – books set in magical lands with dragons and wizards and stuff. Not quite what I was thinking, so I picked up A Wizard of Earthsea in a right old bad mood. Even seeing that Christopher Paolini, who wrote the cool Eragon when he was just a teenager, had written “Earthsea is one of the great creations in fantasy… I cannot recommend it highly enough” wasn’t going to persuade me that I wanted to read this.
“I reckon
Sea, is a land famous for wizards. From the towns in its high valleys and the ports on its dark narrow bays many a Gontishman has gone forth to serve the Lords of the Archipelago in their cities as wizard or mage, or, looking for adventure, to wander working magic from isle to isle of all Earthsea.”
Ursula’s books have got just
about everything a fantasy reader likes...”
But then I took the book down to the beach and sat on my favourite rock which looks over the crashing waves and turned the first page. Talk about hooking you in straightaway! This Ursula Le Guin dude (Actually, she’s a lady – Ptolemy) opens her book with a description of the Isle of Gont and I couldn’t help but picture all the action happening on Puffin Island!
“The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast
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Well, you have to agree that’s a fantastic beginning. Don’t you just want to wander that land like a wizard and get into all sorts of amazing adventures? It got me thinking of the imaginary lands I’d most want to visit. Want to know what they are? Thought you did!
Earthsea: A land of islands scattered in a wild sea, Earthsea is home to a wizard known as
Sparrowhawk who lets an evil shadow-beast loose and has to journey to the farthest corner of the land to destroy it. I would tell you more but why don’t you choose this as your free book and find out what happens for yourself?
Narnia: Since I read C.S. Lewis’s books which feature a talking lion, kindly beavers, centaurs, ogres and the most evil witch ever, I keep checking my wardrobe to see if it’ll lead me to Narnia. Don’t you?
Middle Earth: In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins has to go on a quest which leads him to fight a dragon, steal a magic ring and get lost in an enchanted forest. That’s what I call an adventure!
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