The Books of Pellinor

Since I am almost done with Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves, I thought I'd talk a bit about one of my favorite "saga", the Books of Pellinor. Book 3, The Crow, is next on deck for me. I devoured the first two and I can't wait to finally start this one! So how about some background info on these books.

Written by Alison Croggon (http://www.alisoncroggon.com), this series consists of 4 books. The Naming, The Riddle, The Crow, and The Singing. As I said above, I've read 2 out of the 4. I love these books. And I'm actually a really picky book reader, especially when it comes to fantasy. I got into these books last year after I finished reading the last book in Cornelia Funke's Inkheart trilogy (which I'll talk about in a later post). Funke is my all-time favorite author and I was craving more fun fantasy novels like the Inkheart ones. At the bookstore, I was super disappointed to find so many teen vamp novels. I don't read much young adult stuff anymore, so it was a real shocker to see so much *excuse my "french"* crap on the shelves. Then I saw The Naming, book 1 in the Pellinor series, and with just a quick glance at the plot summary, I decided to take a leap of faith and buy it.

I was not disappointed! The beginning was a little bit confusing because the story takes place in another world, where bards, or people with special magical abilities, live in little townships alongside regular human beings. It gets less confusing if you read the part in the beginning with some background on the world (it's before the actual story starts). These 4 books tell the story of a young girl named Maerad and her quest to save the world she knows from the dark forces that want to take over. I know a lot of people might be like "a quest?? Isn't that a lot like Lord of the Rings??" Well, sort of. But in my opinion the story has more going on. I've never read the LOTR books, so I can't really compare those, but I wasn't a huge fan of the movies. Frodo annoyed me. While the Pellinor books do involve a quest all over the continent and lots of magic usage, they are quite unique, in my opinion. The character development is great! I felt myself connecting with all the main characters. Maerad and her Bard friend Cadvan are my two favorite characters, and I've loved seeing how the two of them started out as untrusting strangers and are now becoming really close friends. Croggon is so good at letting the readers get to know her characters that there were many parts in the first two books where I found myself bawling my eyes out! I read book 2 in France, and I must have looked really pathetic sitting all alone in my little french studio apartment crying hysterically and talking out loud to the book….

So there you have it. A little bit about the series so close to my heart! Hopefully a bit of background info on the story will help you all understand more when I right my review of The Crow in a few weeks!

Review of The Swan Thieves is coming soon!