This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
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This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
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Buy this book! Although practically no one has heard of it, it is fantastic. Eddison was a student of Medieval literature and his story follows the style of the old Norse saga. After a hundred pages you will say, ?This is a mavelous adventure story.? After two hundred pages you will say, ?These characters are fantastic!? And they are ? especially the villains. King Gorice XII makes your flesh creep.
By the way, an ouroboros is the snake that bites its own tail and becomes the symbol for a never-ending situation. King Gorice wears an ouroboros signet ring and that's significant because when one king dies, another is instantly ready to take his place. But there is another significance to the ouroboros ? but you'll have to read the book to learn it.
The language is very formal: lots of thees, thous and methinks. But the characters are formal and the story is formal, so the language is appropriate. It is sort of in the style of Le Morte D'Arthur.
If you don't enjoy this book, you simply have no taste for fantasy literature.
kbaier
Jun 2, 2007
epic story
The story starts off by a man named Lessingham from earth who is taken to mercury. Strangely though he quickly drops out the the picture by the time the story gets under way, and is on mention one other time later in the story.
The real meat of the book is of the conquest of lands, uses of magic, and of adventurous journeys. I think Tolkien along with C.S. Lewis found this book to be quite good fantasy.
The book is filled with masterfully drawn characters and memorable lands. The author also makes good use of prose and poetry, and here and there uses an older english diction; which I found very beautiful.
