The King of the Trees - William D. Burt

Title: The King of the Trees
Author: William D. Burt
Genre: Christian fiction, fantasy
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 213
Date read: February, 2010

What do an old wooden box, a jeweled pendant and some mysterious, green-garbed strangers share in common? When Rolin, son of Gannon, sets out to solve this riddle, his adventures take him worlds beyond the walls of his little log cabin. With the help of some grumpy griffins and a long-lost prophecy, Rolin and his newfound friends battle a sorcerer and his underworld army; deadly snake-trees; batwolves, dragons and other mythical creatures. On their perilous quest for the blessed Isle of Luralin, they must trust the King with their very lives.

Christian fantasy. The first half of the book was really good - great writing and I really got to care about the characters. Unfortunately the writing lost some of its tightness in the second half, resulting in stilted conversations and awkward jumps from scene to scene. Really a shame, because I enjoyed the plot and found it very interesting.

I think the author would have benefitted from not having the King of the Trees reference the Bible quite as much though. The same effect could have been achieved without the direct quotes, as the allegory was sufficiently obvious, so they seemed unnecessary and threw me out of the story, as he started sounding like he was in fact quoting, rather than talking himself.

Had those two points been handled better in editing, I would have considered this a great book, because the story itself really drew me in, and made me want to learn more about the universe and the characters. Seeing as this is the author's debut novel, I think it's reasonable to hope that these weaknesses will disappear in later books in the series.

The Thief - Megan Whalen Turner

Title: The Thief
Author: Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 280
Date read: February, 2010

The king's scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king's prison. The magus is interested only in the thief's abilities.

What Gen is interested in is anyone's guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses.

A charming YA fantasy. I had it recommended to me as a pleasant comfort read, and it definitely fit the bill. It entertained me, and while it was perhaps not particularly thought-provoking, it managed to be straight-forward without being predictable. At one point I was afraid that too much of the book would be taken up by retelling the stories of the old Gods, but fortunately that turned out not to be the case. I still don't quite see the purpose of them, but it may have been to help set the stage for later books.

Small spoiler below:
I liked most of the twists and turns the story took, but have to admit that one of them I found somewhat unbelievable. Since the entire book was written in the first person, it seemed odd that he would keep a secret from the reader. Looking back, I don't think he ever directly lied to the reader - things were just left to be assumed, and I - as planned - made the wrong assumption. I do think it was a cheap trick to play, but as I was very satisfied by the result of the twist, I'll forgive the author for that one.