The Sea of Trolls
The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer is book one of her Trilogy.
Hardcover: 459 pages
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (September 7, 2004)
ISBN-10: 0689867441
Amazon.com Review
Three time Newbery honor author Nancy Farmer's epic fantasy, The Sea of Trolls, is gigantic in every way. There are big Vikings and bigger trolls. There are big themes--hope, despair, life and death. At a substantial 450+ pages, the sheer size of this hefty tome is impressive. But, like all of Farmer's fine work, the large scale has room for enormous quantities of heart and humor. At the center of this massive adventure is a small Saxon boy named Jack, who's never been much good at anything until the Bard of his medieval village makes him an apprentice. Then, just as Jack is learning to tap into and control his power, he is kidnapped (along with his little sister, Lucy) and taken to the court of King Ivar the Boneless and his half troll queen Frith. When one of Jack's amateur spells causes the evil queen's beautiful hair to fall out, he is forced to undertake a dangerous quest across the Sea of Trolls to make things right, or suffer the consequences--the sacrifice of his beloved sister to Frith's patron goddess, Freya. Along the way Jack faces everything from giant golden troll-bears to man-eating spiders, yet each frightening encounter brings wisdom and understanding to the budding young Bard. No quester who enters these pages with Jack will go away unsatisfied.
After hearing Cath say how she enjoyed this book I decided to get to it myself since I have the entire trilogy sitting in my tbr pile!
So.. I read book one and did enjoy it very much! It did seem a touch out of the range of a 12 yr old now and then but still I did enjoy reading it.
There were many great evil characters like trolls (duh) and dragons and even Olaf, the head Viking that steals Jack and his sister to sell as slaves is evil ... and yet.. we find there is also something about him to make you "sorta" like him.
There's a part in the book where a giant spider has unknowingly taken Jack and I had a little feeling of the Hobbit and LOTR lol.. but probably only because it was a giant spider.
The story itself is a little different from most YA books I have read and I'm always glad when someone comes up with something really new to me.
The adventure was a good one and moved along at a good pace. I am glad I have the other books to continue the story!
I don't know if I will finish book II, The Land of Silver Apples before the new year, but I will give it a try!
posted by DesLily | 9:11 AM
6 Comments:
So pleased you liked this as much as me, Pat. It's not the best book ever but it was a cracking good yarn and 'different' somehow... probably due to the Norwegian setting - it's a country I've always fancied visiting. I have book 2 on my library pile so will try to read it soon so we can compare notes. Off to do my first review since the 4th. December.
This book is sitting on my Christmas pile - literally, i gave a bunch of books I bought two weeks ago to my husband to wrap up for me for Christmas! this was one of them...I went to read Cath's review too, and so between the two of you I'm so glad I get to read this book very very very soon!! I'm really curious about the Scandinavian influence too. Lovely review, Pat!
Sorry I missed your call. Glad you liked the cd. I got myself one as well. It has a nice mixture of different songs, from shows, to gospel, to blues and even a pop tune. I think you will like it. It also has I Dreamed a Dream with the appropriate orchestration behind her. I will try to give you a call soon Merry Christmas.
I did really enjoy Sea of Trolls and I also have been meaning to read the rest of the series, will hopefully get to Land of the Silver Apples soon.
This was a book I bought for the school library and our serious readers loved it, especially the boys, some of them went on to read the grahpic version of Beowulf.
Look forward to your review of Silver Apples.
I tend to enjoy fantasies based on Norse mythology, and I think Nancy Farmer's trilogy is wonderful. I'm so glad you've discovered it. I loved the first two books, and I'm going to use one of the Amazon Christmas gift cards I've received to order The Islands of the Blessed, which I have no doubt I'll enjoy just as much.
Another series I need to add to my TBR list huh?
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