minabix's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Classic rollicking adventure with an awesome cast of quirky characters, non-stop action, a dastardly villain, and a wonderfully satisfying ending.
ashleylm's review
3.0
I wanted to like this a little more than I did (doesn't everyone, while they're reading?) but there were too many characters, too many disparate plot elements, too many locations—it read like one of those Justice League comics where each hero runs off to do their own thing rather than staying together and battling epically as a unit.
If you like her, you won't hate it, it's her voice and her tone, but it's not her best. I think it's over-reaching—it's delightful when two or three separate pieces come together, aha!—but it's somewhat annoying when seven or eight do.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
If you like her, you won't hate it, it's her voice and her tone, but it's not her best. I think it's over-reaching—it's delightful when two or three separate pieces come together, aha!—but it's somewhat annoying when seven or eight do.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
hadaly's review
5.0
This was my favorite book when I was a kid and I hadn't read it in 25 years or so. It held up!
traceyvj's review against another edition
4.0
I'd forgotten how much I love Joan Aiken books! Definitely going to be going back for more.
hadaly's review against another edition
5.0
This was my favorite book when I was a kid and I hadn't read it in 25 years or so. It held up!
solarpunkwitch's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
pearlq19's review against another edition
5.0
"The Whispering Mountain" is a story that has been with me since I was about ten years old. My local library had an audio play version of it, and I borrowed it so many times I must have blocked many others from ever getting their hands on it. By the time I understood this was actually based on a book, I was three years older and went and bought the book right away (back then, in German; more recently, in English).
I have read and re-read it countless times in the 20+ years since, and it is still the same magical, adventurous, exciting, beautiful, otherwordly and at the same time historically intriguing book that I remember from the audio play.
"The Whispering Mountain" is all this and more. Set in 17th-century Wales, it has heroes and villains, thieves, traveling barbers and poets, foreign princes, village boys, a lost and forgotten race of little people, and of course the Whispering Mountain. The book has an atmosphere like almost none other, the characters are so full of life they seem to leap off the page, and the language is amazingly poetic and authentic at the same time. While not a native speaker of English, I should say I'm fairly fluent, but the slang and dialect in this book was sometimes quite a challenge. I still loved every single letter of it.
Read this book, and then read it to your children. You will not regret it!
I have read and re-read it countless times in the 20+ years since, and it is still the same magical, adventurous, exciting, beautiful, otherwordly and at the same time historically intriguing book that I remember from the audio play.
"The Whispering Mountain" is all this and more. Set in 17th-century Wales, it has heroes and villains, thieves, traveling barbers and poets, foreign princes, village boys, a lost and forgotten race of little people, and of course the Whispering Mountain. The book has an atmosphere like almost none other, the characters are so full of life they seem to leap off the page, and the language is amazingly poetic and authentic at the same time. While not a native speaker of English, I should say I'm fairly fluent, but the slang and dialect in this book was sometimes quite a challenge. I still loved every single letter of it.
Read this book, and then read it to your children. You will not regret it!
mat_tobin's review against another edition
4.0
It is our world and yet it is decidedly Aiken's world too described by her as ‘‘alternate-history fantasies’’ set within the early nineteenth century, this is a wonderful story whose plot, characters and language are as richly woven as the world.
A story about a wicked Marquess' desperate attempt to capture an ancient, golden harp and the town's museum ownership and his grandson's attempts to stop him, as with many of the Wolves Chronicles, we have here a story which respects the past and owes much to it. With the tale set deep in the heart of Wales, an amalgam of characters collide to either work against or together to unearth the harp of Teirtu and it is, in the end, up to the children to save the past from greed and nurture it.
Aiken states that whenever you create a world then, as a writer, you must ‘‘immerse yourself in its atmosphere and topography’’ and in this book she does so with great aplomb. For some readers, the language and rich writing may be a challenge but the rewards are many.
A story about a wicked Marquess' desperate attempt to capture an ancient, golden harp and the town's museum ownership and his grandson's attempts to stop him, as with many of the Wolves Chronicles, we have here a story which respects the past and owes much to it. With the tale set deep in the heart of Wales, an amalgam of characters collide to either work against or together to unearth the harp of Teirtu and it is, in the end, up to the children to save the past from greed and nurture it.
Aiken states that whenever you create a world then, as a writer, you must ‘‘immerse yourself in its atmosphere and topography’’ and in this book she does so with great aplomb. For some readers, the language and rich writing may be a challenge but the rewards are many.
nigellicus's review against another edition
5.0
This was the fourth book in Aiken's James III sequence, but chronologically, it's a prequel, self-contained and entirely satisfying all on its ownsome. Full of wonderful Welsh dialect and phrases, it's an adventure set in the valleys and mountains and caves around Fig Hat Ben, the Whispering Mountain of the title.
We join the action more or less in full swing. Our hero Owen Hughes is bracing himself for a confrontation with some bullies, but soon has a lot more on his mind as the local Marquess has taken a hankering to take possession of the battered old golden harp found by Owen's grandfather, the curator of the local museum. Two thieves hired for the task make off with the harp, kidnapping Owen and making it look as though he is responsible. Aided by his friend, the herbalist daughter of an itinerant poet and an old wandering monk, Owen must retrieve the harp, capture the thieves, defeat the evil nobleman, help the mysterious people who live in the caves, rescue the Prince Of Wales and persuade his crotchety grandfather that he's not himself a villain.
Pure joyful adventure and escapism, this is thrilling and exciting and adventurous and packed with characters and incidents and ideas and mystery and atmosphere and all manner of good things. Fantastic.
We join the action more or less in full swing. Our hero Owen Hughes is bracing himself for a confrontation with some bullies, but soon has a lot more on his mind as the local Marquess has taken a hankering to take possession of the battered old golden harp found by Owen's grandfather, the curator of the local museum. Two thieves hired for the task make off with the harp, kidnapping Owen and making it look as though he is responsible. Aided by his friend, the herbalist daughter of an itinerant poet and an old wandering monk, Owen must retrieve the harp, capture the thieves, defeat the evil nobleman, help the mysterious people who live in the caves, rescue the Prince Of Wales and persuade his crotchety grandfather that he's not himself a villain.
Pure joyful adventure and escapism, this is thrilling and exciting and adventurous and packed with characters and incidents and ideas and mystery and atmosphere and all manner of good things. Fantastic.
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