Yes, how DARE Howard write of racial and national xenophobia and the secondary status of women taking place in a fictional pre-industrial society, when he should quite clearly be writing of an unrealistic egalitarian wonderland where women are anachronistically equal and there is no conflict on the basis of nationality or ethnicity, going against just about every preindustrial society in history.  The nerve of the guy.

Of course, the caveat to this review was, as I said, my son thought the book was brilliant. Since he’s in the target age group, kids should probably listen to him instead of me. But as someone who has read every Gaiman story there is, and is offering this review on an SF site for adults where adults are the ones reading my words, the simply fact is this isn’t his best work.

That said, while the price didn’t affect the rating, it does factor in when I suggest which edition of the book people purchase.

The author has no control of how his book is marketed or priced. Shouldn’t your review be judge of the work alone and not also a critque of the price as well. I can’t help but feel you marked this book done atleast one half to one full star over your feelings on the price. Why hold that against the author. When the book comes out one day in a cheaper paperback format will you then think about changing your review?

I’d give a 4 out of 5 stars based on the story alone.

Have you tried the “Adventure” series by Willard Price for your 5 year old son?  They’re not SF & F (so sorry if that offends anyone here – I would have mailed you off-site but I don’t see a contact on your page), but they are great adventure books.  They might be a little bit dated now, but they are being re-released as of about 2005 I think.  I loved them as a kid.

The primary stumbling block for me in reading YA fiction is the overwhelming dominance of the coming-of-age theme. When I was a kid I mostly read books about adult characters.

There’s a belief among the authors and publishers that kids only want to read stories with characters they can “relate” to. What’s wrong with reading books with adult characters that kids can look up to and aspire to be like?

The problem with much fantasy aimed at young listerners/readers is that it’s either tongue in cheek, with stupid names for the characters, and/or about yet another dis-empowered young person. Sometimes boys want to enjoy the tropes without playing them for laughs, and hear/read about men doing manly things, like wading through a battle, sword in hand.

He’s already hooked on the WWI Biggles stories, but was yearning for something like the Hobbit but with more fighting. Out of desperation, I started reading Conan stories, expurgating as I went (skipping racial rants and references to woman stealingh and brothels, mostly). It worked, but really most of them hinge on very age inappropriate themes, so I can’t take that further.

I asked around, and somebody pointed me to the Dragonlance Young Chronicles. The first one is going down very well, though I had to bowlderise the origins of the half elf character, who’s mum was raped by a human soldier; 5 is a bit early to come to terms with sexual violence.

I just wish somebody would write good simple non-ironic adventure stories for boys, but about adutl characters.