Wednesday 11 May 2016

A visit to Troll Mountain on the back of the Ice Dragon

After my introduction to Russian master storyteller Leo Tolstoy I have returned to a genre I know and enjoy, children's and teen fantasy... I have stumbled across two deep, interesting and truly amazing tales by master storyteller Matthew Reilly and genius of the epic fantasy tale George R. R. Martin.

Firstly Troll Mountain... Reilly has created a moralistic adventure where you root for the hero, he is truly and utterly the real deal and there are trolls!! The last time I got excited about a Troll in a book was when I read the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series by Tad Williams.

After I was wow by Reilly's effort I stumbled across this beautiful looking book with the name George R. R. Martin on the cover. I was unsure of what this book (The Ice Dragon) was going to be like but I am always willing to give anything a go. George has not let me down!!! The story is powerful, the characters real and the heroine perfectly written. The deep, moody story is perfectly paired with glorious pictures created by Luis Royo. Such a joyous book. Short but powerful, I could not put it down...

So I must say it was nice to find a couple of children's novels which had my complete and utter attention all the way through. Two masters of the art proving that high adventure is not for the older reader only...