Review: The Goblin Wood
May. 12th, 2006 11:07 amI didn't fall in love with this book. I do like fantasy and I really like Hilari Bell, but for some reason it did not grab me. Not because it was badly written, indeed she avoided one of the illogical tropes of fantasy with priests persecuting the wizards. That idea drawn from ripping off the persecution of scientists at times by the church in Europe doesn't really make sense if magic users can draw on the powers of the universe and it has frequently bothered me. In this book the magic users are the priests and that makes a lot of sense to me.
My problem probably was with being left feeling that the characters were a bit thin. Many of them changed over the course of the book, but they are very direct in their motivations. Though I did enjoy the goblin view of debt and equity in life, but they in particular seem somewhat two-dimensional. It has the feel of a children's book, not a bad thing, but I was in the mood for something meatier with characters I would fall in love with flaws and all.
My problem probably was with being left feeling that the characters were a bit thin. Many of them changed over the course of the book, but they are very direct in their motivations. Though I did enjoy the goblin view of debt and equity in life, but they in particular seem somewhat two-dimensional. It has the feel of a children's book, not a bad thing, but I was in the mood for something meatier with characters I would fall in love with flaws and all.