[.ca] Lost Years of Merlin (ISBN 0613230132)

just so shallow...:
Spoiler Warning. There are few books that I can find that I could personally find a better way to write it - this is one of them. It was painfully predictable - and get this. The dude is practically blind, and plainly says it's hard to see - then lists a million details. Is it just me, or is that wrong? In addition, I didn't like the writing style. At all. Randomly, our of the blue, things happen. Two characters were chatting, and boom! Six heavily armed goblins appear! Me, here's what I would have done. I would have built up the suspense - let the reader know something's out there before I introduce them. Next, the mom of the guy - the author plainly stated she wasn't the mother. I mean, come on! Be reasonable! A scene that just killed me what when a whole sequence was about eating. God. It's food. Get over it. What else can I say? Oh yeah, when the main character finds out who his dad is, it's just so cliche. Is this Star Wars? The sad thing is, in Star Wars, it worked! In this... it just didn't fly. If you actually want depth, don't read this book. You won't get any.

This book is amazing!:
When I first saw this book I thought that it would be stupid because I don't like many fantasy stories (one exception is Harry Potter, but anyways...). When I had to read a book that I had never read before for a book report, I just thought that I might as well give it a try. Now I'm hooked on the Merlin series, with it's magic, monsters, and creative writing. This book is a classic, among the likes of Tolkien's series.

Runescape Crooker:
"This magical story is a great journey for the discryptive things young Emry's see's and does are extraordinary, "He goe's from small normal town with mean kids to a mystical island full of goblins and talking tree's. T A Barron does a great job of putting you in the driverseat, you can almost feel everything that happens. The technoligy is not advance in Emry's world and he as many difficulty's traveling. he has an accident that change's him forrever, now he walk's through woods,grasslands,mashlands,and more. I wood rate this book 10 out of 10 becaus of the challenge and conflicts of a (290) page story full of adventure.

Not the best fantasy series I've ever read:
I'm a big fan of Arthurian legends, so when I saw this book, I thought it would help to complement my knowledge--or, at the very least, my curiosity--about that wonderful, backwards-living wise man known as Merlin. I was, however, sorely disappointed. The story follows young Emrys, a boy with no recollection of his past save for the past five years, when he was washed onto the shores of Britain. After discovering powers amazing and losing his sight in an incident, he undertakes a sea voyage to find Fincayra, the land of his origin, and the key to his past. The character seems to be completely at the mercy of plot twists, which occur quite randomly. Examples include, as mentioned below, the goblin attack, but also the complete unlikeliness of surviving a sea voyage at the age of twelve while on a shoddily constructed raft. Even more random are the not-so-subtle references to a future Merlin--Emrys has an odd desire to grow a beard every time he thinks about his scars, and contemplates turning future students into fish when he is Changed into one. Often throughout the series, the reader gets the impression that Merlin is particularly thick, and only succeeds by sheer luck or an omnipresent deus ex machina. Every single time he is issued a warning, he goes against it in the end despite his friends' wise advice. Many a time in the series did I long to slap the stubborn boy. And so, this definitely wasn't the best series I've ever read. It didn't particularly add to my knowledge of Merlin other than by blunt references you would have to be an idiot not to understand. I would much rather have preferred something a bit more subtle, something a bit more human--not a series where the protagonist does nothing and is battered about by the plot like a leaf in the wind. Less experienced fantasy fans may enjoy this series for its nearly witty secondary characters and blatant use of magic, but I didn't.

Good Read:
I picked this book up at my library because I had nothing else to read, thinking that it might be interesting. It was better then that, T.A. Barron did a wonderful job of bringing Emyrs (Merlin) to life. A young boys journey to discover the truth about himself, it was great and I couldn't put it down until I finished reading through it.