Pros: three dimensional characters, familiar yet not completely predictable
Cons: lessons not as integrated as in other fantasy tales
The Bottom Line: This introduction to the world of Prydain and the Assistant Pig Keeper who lives there is a short but good read no matter what your age.
quasar's Full Review: Lloyd Alexander - The Book of Three
Taran wanted to makes a sword; but Coll, charged with the practical side of his education, decided on horseshoes. And so it had been horseshoes all morning long. Taran's arms ached, soot blackened his face. At last he dropped the hammer and turned to Coll who was watching him critically. "Why," Taran cried, "why must it be horseshoes. As if we had any horses!"
Thus begins Lloyd Alexander's The Book of Three, the first book in the five part Prydain Chronicles. This short introduction effectively introduces us to Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper and mysterious foundling. Taran is stuck on a farm owned by an ancient wizard Dallben taking care of an oracular pig who communicates through letter sticks. He wants to live an exciting life of adventure rather than his mundane life on the farm. As expected, Taran gets his wish.
The Feel of the Story
On the surface The Book of Three is like many other stories - Boy dreams of adventure. Boy gets adventure and gets overwhelmed. Boy manages to recover and the good guys win. We've all read these stories, and for the most part they are all the same. What separatesThe Book of Three from many of the other stories of this ilk are the characters and the dimension to the story. The characters are unusual, even those pulled from common folklore. The evil are completely evil but they aren't two dimensional. The good all have flaws and idiosyncracies. There are also secrets throughout this story, secrets which for the most part are not revealed (at least in this book). Although our main story has closure, The Book of Three leaves much unanswered and to the imagination.
Based loosely on Celtic legends, the world of Prydain is somewhat familiar and yet completely different from anything I've read before. This pseudo-familiarity leads me to make erroneous assumptions about the story and the world it is set in. As I am led away from my assumptions to the slightly twisted world of Prydain, I have an enhanced sense of things not quite being as they should be, a theme that rings out through the book. This ties in with the secrets mentioned above, leaving almost a serial feel to the book (which, considering it is the first book in a five book series, isn't all that surprising).
There is a central theme throughout the story of yearning. Yearning for adventure, yearning for knowledge, yearning for food, yearning for home. Sometimes wishes do come true, but they don't always meet expectations. Taran gets his adventure, but he isn't really prepared for it. By the time it's finished, all he wants is to go home. But once home, home isn't the quite the same as it once was. There are many other reminders that expectations can be set incorrectly and looks can be deceiving. Taran is disapppointed when he realizes the ill-clad mud splattered man he meets near the beginning of the story is Prince Gwydion, a legendary man he looks up to and expected to look regal.
The Characters
My favorite character is Gurgi, not quite an animal but not really a man. Gurgi is sweet yet irritating, out for himself yet selflessly protective of his friends. He is at heart a coward, but shows the ultimate bravery when his friends need him most. Gurgi speaks in a sort of rhyming cant that is a bit hard on the ears, yet in its own way is quite poetic. These dichotomies are typical of Prydain.
Fflewddur Fflam has many of those same characteristics. A king who prefers to be a bard even though he isn't good enough to be accepted in that profession, Fflewddur is given to gross exaggeration. In what can only be assumed to be an attempt to make him give up his chosen life, the head of the bard association gifted Flewddur with a harp that breaks a string whenever he exagerates. From this trait we learn that Fflewddur isn't nearly as fearless as he pretends. And yet, when push comes to shove, Fflewddur too is loyal and brave.
In this day and age, Eilonwy seems more predictable than she did fifteen years ago. She is your typical wisecracking, tomboyish princess. These types of royals are now a dime a dozen, appearing in more stories than I'd care to read. Yet even though she no longer seems unique, Eilonwy is still appealing. In many ways she is what I strove to be as a teenager - witty but unwilling to take flack from anyone, loyal but brutally honest about the flaws in her friends. She also has some of my less pleasant characteristics including a defensiveness resulting in the need to reach out and insult others before they can insult or hurt her.
All of that said, at heart this is the story of Taran, the impulsive yearning overly brave boy who takes his mistakes and dwells on them, feeling an immense responsibility to make them right. He is at times overly hard on himself, feeling that he does nothing right. Yet it is his determination and instincts that guide our troupe through to the successful completion of the adventure. We watch him grow in this tale, and he becomes a man not a cardboard charactature of a hero. Unlike other stories of this ilk, our hero Taran doesn't magically overcome his mistakes by fixing everything and beating the bad guys in the end. No, he continues to make mistakes and he is not the one who ultimately defeats the bad guys, although he does confront them admirably.
Conclusions
When I was a youngster, I held four fantasy series above all others. Narnia, the worlds of Tolkien, Madeline L'Engle's time traveling tales, and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles. All four are still excellent appealing stories even now as an adult. Of the four, Prydain is the most geared toward children. The books are shorter, and some of the characters although interesting and well-developed do not seem quite as unusual or spectacular now. It is also easy to pick out the life lessons Alexander wants you to learn - they stick out a bit more here and are slightly less integrated than in the other series I mentioned. That said, the world of Prydain is still an excellent place to visit no matter your age, and The Book of Three is the best introduction to this land and the folks who inhabit it.
General Fiction - Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper to a famous oracular sow, sets out on a hazardous mission to save Prydain from the forces of evil. - The...More at Barnes and Noble
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