Prydain Series

During November I've also finally read the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. This series consists of The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King. These books were first recommended to me by my friend Wolf (yes, this is his real name & not some weird RenFaire thing gone awry) during the 3rd or 4th grade. I finally read them and really enjoyed them - even though they're obviously intended for younger readers.

This is a fantasy series with some relationship to Welsh mythology, but mostly focuses on growing up, maturing (not always the same as growing up), and finding one's way in the world. As I've said above, I really enjoyed this series! You won't find detailed settings or character descriptions, instead enough details are given so that the reader is able to make their own mental images of how the characters look and the settings of where they might be. What character descriptions exist are almost Homeric in nature and these descriptions are largely the same throughout the series. The characters grow and change and find both joy and grief in this satisfying series.

Very highly recommended for fantasy readers and fans of Harry Potter looking for another series to read. I am not a particularly fast reader and was able to finish each book in ax. 3 hours (some a little more, others a little less), so this is only a quick fix for readers more used to Potter-length books (e.g. it took me ax. 9-10 hours to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Very enjoyable nevertheless!!