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Minerva Wakes
When their children are kidnapped, Minerva and Darryl Kiakra, two ordinary people, have no choice but to pursue the captors into an alternative universe
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
5 people are currently reading
198 people want to read
About the author
Holly Lisle
108 books448 followersHolly Lisle has been writing fiction professionally since 1991, when she sold FIRE IN THE MIST, the novel that won her the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. She has to date published more than thirty novels and several comprehensive writing courses. She has just published WARPAINT, the second stand-alone novel in her Cadence Drake series.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 23, 2019
Urban fantasy about a married couple who get sucked into the usual fantasy world.
Seemed rote to me.
Seemed rote to me.
August 3, 2008
Lisle is a writer I'd never read before; but, intrigued by the theme of a mother putting her life on the line to rescue her kidnapped kids, I bought this book at a flea market as a Mother's Day gift for my wife. When the type proved too small for her to read comfortably, I agreed to read it aloud to her. That proved to be fortunate; by common consent, I normally edit out the cussing in books I read out loud. Since this book is significantly flawed by bad language, including a number of uses of the f-word (most of this occurs in the two main character's unspoken reflections; they don't use it as much verbally unless they're stressed --though Lisle's plot is plenty stressful-- and not at all in front of their kids), my editing contributed greatly to her considerable enjoyment of the book. But since this review is of the written text, not the unauthorized "audio version" :-), the question is, does it have any merits that recommend it enough to compensate for the language problem?
IMO, it did; in fact, I would have given it four stars but for the language. True, Lisle's invented fantasy cosmology leaves plenty to be desired. In her literary vision, a multiverse of universes is threatened by the Unweaver, a malevolent personification of galactic entropy who aims to bring about the ultimate death of the cosmos, an event as inevitable as Ragnarok was thought to be in Viking myth (though, in this case, the mythology the author is working with is that of modern pseudo-scientific materialism). He is opposed by Weavers, a pair of artistic individuals who keep him at bay by their creativity, supernaturally enhanced by magic rings that give them nearly God-like powers. Minerva and Darryl, unknown to themselves, are the current Weavers, having picked up their rings of office years before at a Renaissance Fair as wedding rings --but the rings were meant for another couple. Not deeming them up to the job, a bevy of sorcerers from another dimension wants them dead so they can be replaced, and the Unweaver wants them dead, period.
Obviously, the fact that Lisle has no trouble envisioning a personal transcendent power of cosmic evil, but can't picture a personal transcendent power of cosmic good, speaks volumes about the limitations of her vision; recognizably, this is a cosmology for materialists who aren't happy with the limits of materialism, but feel stuck with them anyway. As ultimate values, human self-sufficiency and whistle-in-the-dark optimism is about the best the author can offer. But it may be more constructive here to view the glass as half-full, rather than carp that it's half empty. In the face of a bleak cosmology, Lisle's message is life-affirming and moral; and it does express a very real yearning for cosmic beauty and meaning (reminding this reader of Paul's address to the Athenians --"What you worship without knowing, we proclaim to you...."). She affirms that love, loyalty and courage do matter, and do make a difference; Minerva and Darryl here are part of a long tradition in literature of unlikely heroes who find resources in themselves that they didn't know they had. They also learn lessons; because while this novel will take them to another world, it is anything but "escapist" in its facing of the typical problems of typical real-world couples. They've forsaken their dreams in exchange for material things that don't satisfy; and they've both allowed their closeness and love for each other to erode, and drifted apart to the point that Darryl, at the beginning of the book, is on the cusp of infidelity. And to her credit, Lisle doesn't excuse or glamorize the infidelity; she portrays it as every bit as self-hurtful, shabby and emotionally damaging as it really is. Her message certainly does espouse "family values."
Apart from the bad language, there are a number of stylistic pluses here. Lisle's characterizations are original and sharp; Minerva in particular is genuinely likable. I read much of this book in the car on an over 200-mile-each-way trip to visit family; normally I have to fight sleep a lot of the time as I try to read in that setting. That I didn't even once on that trip says something about Lisle's prowess as a story-teller; her plot is absorbing and suspenseful, and leavened with humor that's often laugh-aloud funny --though I wouldn't characterize this as "humorous fantasy" (and still less with one critic's adjective, "breezy"); the emotional and physical trauma and fear the characters, especially the kidnapped kids, have to go through is too real, and too vividly-drawn, for that. This author deserves to be better known in the field of contemporary fantasy than she is!
IMO, it did; in fact, I would have given it four stars but for the language. True, Lisle's invented fantasy cosmology leaves plenty to be desired. In her literary vision, a multiverse of universes is threatened by the Unweaver, a malevolent personification of galactic entropy who aims to bring about the ultimate death of the cosmos, an event as inevitable as Ragnarok was thought to be in Viking myth (though, in this case, the mythology the author is working with is that of modern pseudo-scientific materialism). He is opposed by Weavers, a pair of artistic individuals who keep him at bay by their creativity, supernaturally enhanced by magic rings that give them nearly God-like powers. Minerva and Darryl, unknown to themselves, are the current Weavers, having picked up their rings of office years before at a Renaissance Fair as wedding rings --but the rings were meant for another couple. Not deeming them up to the job, a bevy of sorcerers from another dimension wants them dead so they can be replaced, and the Unweaver wants them dead, period.
Obviously, the fact that Lisle has no trouble envisioning a personal transcendent power of cosmic evil, but can't picture a personal transcendent power of cosmic good, speaks volumes about the limitations of her vision; recognizably, this is a cosmology for materialists who aren't happy with the limits of materialism, but feel stuck with them anyway. As ultimate values, human self-sufficiency and whistle-in-the-dark optimism is about the best the author can offer. But it may be more constructive here to view the glass as half-full, rather than carp that it's half empty. In the face of a bleak cosmology, Lisle's message is life-affirming and moral; and it does express a very real yearning for cosmic beauty and meaning (reminding this reader of Paul's address to the Athenians --"What you worship without knowing, we proclaim to you...."). She affirms that love, loyalty and courage do matter, and do make a difference; Minerva and Darryl here are part of a long tradition in literature of unlikely heroes who find resources in themselves that they didn't know they had. They also learn lessons; because while this novel will take them to another world, it is anything but "escapist" in its facing of the typical problems of typical real-world couples. They've forsaken their dreams in exchange for material things that don't satisfy; and they've both allowed their closeness and love for each other to erode, and drifted apart to the point that Darryl, at the beginning of the book, is on the cusp of infidelity. And to her credit, Lisle doesn't excuse or glamorize the infidelity; she portrays it as every bit as self-hurtful, shabby and emotionally damaging as it really is. Her message certainly does espouse "family values."
Apart from the bad language, there are a number of stylistic pluses here. Lisle's characterizations are original and sharp; Minerva in particular is genuinely likable. I read much of this book in the car on an over 200-mile-each-way trip to visit family; normally I have to fight sleep a lot of the time as I try to read in that setting. That I didn't even once on that trip says something about Lisle's prowess as a story-teller; her plot is absorbing and suspenseful, and leavened with humor that's often laugh-aloud funny --though I wouldn't characterize this as "humorous fantasy" (and still less with one critic's adjective, "breezy"); the emotional and physical trauma and fear the characters, especially the kidnapped kids, have to go through is too real, and too vividly-drawn, for that. This author deserves to be better known in the field of contemporary fantasy than she is!
June 17, 2007
If you've ever felt as if you were meant for so much more when going about your boring day to day routine. If you've ever had children of any kind you'd give your life to protect. If you've ever had dreams and a creative spirit. AND/OR if you love a good fantasy story with a unique twist...
Then this book is for you. Once again Holly Lisle creates a world that believably drags you in and keeps you there until the last page is turned. It's mostly fun and festive, with a little bit of the "remember to pursue and hold on to your dreams because you don't know when they might come in handy" flavor. Pure entertainment and a joy to read.
Then this book is for you. Once again Holly Lisle creates a world that believably drags you in and keeps you there until the last page is turned. It's mostly fun and festive, with a little bit of the "remember to pursue and hold on to your dreams because you don't know when they might come in handy" flavor. Pure entertainment and a joy to read.
March 24, 2025
DNF at 14%
Minerva Wakes is a simplistic Fantasy novel that is all about premise and cares very little about prose. Everything zips along with the childish quality of a story told by an amateur who has been forced to improvise a narrative. It's not necessarily a bad story, but it is delivered without guile, intrigue, or subtlety. Basically it reads like a Hallmark movie.
Minerva Wakes is a simplistic Fantasy novel that is all about premise and cares very little about prose. Everything zips along with the childish quality of a story told by an amateur who has been forced to improvise a narrative. It's not necessarily a bad story, but it is delivered without guile, intrigue, or subtlety. Basically it reads like a Hallmark movie.
September 6, 2019
A fun read, but then nearly everything Baen puts out is a fun read, I swear its a requirement for them.
Our heroine, Minerva, sees a dragon at the grocery store. Shortly thereafter, Minerva, husband Daryl, and their kids suddenly find themselves dropped into a cross-dimensional crisis where a creature has decided to destroy or "unweave" the world around him. Minerva and the kids' spirits are violently ripped from their bodies and transported to the world of the Unweaver while Daryl barely scrapes out of the kidnapping. How he does wins him the worst husband of the year award, but it serves the plot.
Now, he is stuck here with the corpses of his family while everyone thinks he is crazy, a killer, or both. Eventually the dragon Minerva saw joins him to try and help Minerva.
Meanwhile, Minerva is learning magic as a way to find and rescue her kids. Despite self-serving help from a satyr, she figures out how to get started. Most of the rest of the book centers around this. The kids have their own sub-plot, but it faded from my interest pretty quickly.
Eventually, the family reunites and expels the Unweaver from their world. A happy end all around, and the author provided a cringing, yet funny reason why they are still alive on Earth that keeps questions to a minimum and provides an excuse for the family to continue its adventures.
Not really in my preferred wheelhouse, but a good read, especially for lovers of the Baen fantasy series.
Find it. Buy it. Read it!
Our heroine, Minerva, sees a dragon at the grocery store. Shortly thereafter, Minerva, husband Daryl, and their kids suddenly find themselves dropped into a cross-dimensional crisis where a creature has decided to destroy or "unweave" the world around him. Minerva and the kids' spirits are violently ripped from their bodies and transported to the world of the Unweaver while Daryl barely scrapes out of the kidnapping. How he does wins him the worst husband of the year award, but it serves the plot.
Now, he is stuck here with the corpses of his family while everyone thinks he is crazy, a killer, or both. Eventually the dragon Minerva saw joins him to try and help Minerva.
Meanwhile, Minerva is learning magic as a way to find and rescue her kids. Despite self-serving help from a satyr, she figures out how to get started. Most of the rest of the book centers around this. The kids have their own sub-plot, but it faded from my interest pretty quickly.
Eventually, the family reunites and expels the Unweaver from their world. A happy end all around, and the author provided a cringing, yet funny reason why they are still alive on Earth that keeps questions to a minimum and provides an excuse for the family to continue its adventures.
Not really in my preferred wheelhouse, but a good read, especially for lovers of the Baen fantasy series.
Find it. Buy it. Read it!
May 28, 2009
This is a book I found in my grandma's box of books left behind after she moved out our house when I was in High School. Knowing where I found it, I am still amazed that I read this book (that tells you something about how bored I was that summer), but I am even more suprised that I actually enjoyed the book.
I don't remember a ton about the book, but I remember thinking it was original, a great idea, and done really well. I would probably give the book 3.5 stars if I could. There were a few parts that I thought were weird, or unnecessary. (I don't like reading about infidelity no matter what) Other than that, and a few minor weird scenes I actually enjoyed the book and was pleased that it felt original to me.
I don't remember a ton about the book, but I remember thinking it was original, a great idea, and done really well. I would probably give the book 3.5 stars if I could. There were a few parts that I thought were weird, or unnecessary. (I don't like reading about infidelity no matter what) Other than that, and a few minor weird scenes I actually enjoyed the book and was pleased that it felt original to me.
July 21, 2012
This book really appealed to my artistic/creative side. More than that, though, was the message that even the "wrong" person can be the right person if the situation required it. I love the travel between worlds, the rediscovery of passions and talents, and the message to never let go of your dreams. And I LOVE Minerva's view of the world. How many books are going to open with the main character imagining a machine gun on her shopping cart to mow down her hated boss while waiting in a super market aisle? This is a very witty book, in my opinion, and the author really shows her talent in being able to completely change the voice of the character who's perspective you are reading. It isn't easy to write in the perspective of a young child, then jump back to an adult.
February 11, 2018
This is a light, fluffy 80/90s type of fantasy (i.e. a bit old fashioned) but still enjoyable provided you aren't looking for anything serious or dark. This story has humour; some serious bits; a quest; a pissed off mommy; a Wheaties chomping, beer-swilling dragon; magic rings; someone called the Unweaver; a portal fantasy land; and a moral.
NOTE 1: The characters in this novel make use of some "colourful" language.
NOTE 2: This is a standalone novel!!! No never-ending, unending series here.
NOTE 3: I read the revised edition of the book published by the author in 2016.
NOTE 1: The characters in this novel make use of some "colourful" language.
NOTE 2: This is a standalone novel!!! No never-ending, unending series here.
NOTE 3: I read the revised edition of the book published by the author in 2016.
December 8, 2009
There are a lot of things that'll drive me nuts abotu a book. I'm a finicky reader, and I'll admit it. The buttons this one pushed was that the protagonist was whiny, which gets old very fast. Also, it portrayed people shopping at a grocery store as evil. I grocery shop all the time and the people there are just regular people, not evil. I guess it was supposed to be funny or make me care about the protagonist's situation, but I found it over the top in a dull sort of way.
November 11, 2013
Not as awing as some of Holly's other work, but still at her worst outdoes most other authors, in this not-so-humble reader's opinion.
At the center of this fantasy lies the moral that to create is man's highest calling, and therefore, every time we allow our dreams to be quashed, we by default yield to entropy that mission which God created us to accomplish.
At the center of this fantasy lies the moral that to create is man's highest calling, and therefore, every time we allow our dreams to be quashed, we by default yield to entropy that mission which God created us to accomplish.
August 28, 2013
I really liked this book. I wasn't sure at the beginning because the main character and her husband were unloving and bored with each other, but not doing anything about it. Or talking about it. Luckily, it picked up.
I liked it so much that I hope to read more by Holly Lisle. Any suggestions?
I liked it so much that I hope to read more by Holly Lisle. Any suggestions?
July 26, 2016
One of my earlier fantasy books I read and I liked it. I like how a "soccer" mom is suddenly thrown into a totally new world. I enjoy the struggle to survive and protect. My kind of book, even if I had no kids nor will ever be a mom.
January 26, 2011
Because sometimes grown-ups with three kids need Bildungsroman too. Especially hilarious ones.
July 20, 2021
I seriously love this book. I first read it as a young teenager, and I remember being really surprised by the main characters. Most fantasy books/series start out with young adults as their main characters. This book, though, begins with two parents in their 30s (?), with kids aged 10, 7 and 4. You get to see the story through three seperate points of view: mother, father, and youngest child. Most fantasy books are "coming of age" type stories often with a large story arc of falling in love. Not so with this book!
I love how this book takes a mother from an existance so much like most modern mothers, and brings her into an adventure to save her kids. Instead of a man saving a damsel in distress, it's a mother saving her kids, and renewing her relationship with her husband at the same time.
I've read this book at least three times, and enjoyed it each time. This last read was as a mother with two kids, and it was even more meaningful for me, as I could relate to the mother far more.
Note: if you don't like reading books with swear words, you might not like this one. I vividly remember this book as a kid, because it was the first book I'd read with lots of swear words in it!
I love how this book takes a mother from an existance so much like most modern mothers, and brings her into an adventure to save her kids. Instead of a man saving a damsel in distress, it's a mother saving her kids, and renewing her relationship with her husband at the same time.
I've read this book at least three times, and enjoyed it each time. This last read was as a mother with two kids, and it was even more meaningful for me, as I could relate to the mother far more.
Note: if you don't like reading books with swear words, you might not like this one. I vividly remember this book as a kid, because it was the first book I'd read with lots of swear words in it!
October 3, 2021
OK, 1994, but there was lots of good fantasy MUCH longer ago than that.
This might be fine as a beach read, a younger-teen read, or an introduction to fantasy.
I'm an old guy who has read a LOT of fantasy, and to me it just seemed a tad generic, more 1964 than 1994. So your mileage may vary.
The dragon was a tad TOO casual.
Give me some Fafhrd and the Mouser, some Avram Davidson, Jack Vance, LS DeCamp, Randall Garrett
but to be fair, I will look for some newer work from this author.
This might be fine as a beach read, a younger-teen read, or an introduction to fantasy.
I'm an old guy who has read a LOT of fantasy, and to me it just seemed a tad generic, more 1964 than 1994. So your mileage may vary.
The dragon was a tad TOO casual.
Give me some Fafhrd and the Mouser, some Avram Davidson, Jack Vance, LS DeCamp, Randall Garrett
but to be fair, I will look for some newer work from this author.
February 6, 2023
Ordinary couple Minerva and Darryl Kiakra must rescue their children from fantastical foes and must do so by using the artistic talents they have neglected for years. I always like a book where normal people get wrapped up in incredible events. I also like the message in the book about not giving up your dreams for short term material success.
October 17, 2021
This was a fun book. I liked that it had parents as the "heroes" of the story. I would recommend this to people who like Fantasy. If you like Mercedes Lackey, Tanya Huff, and Robin McKinley, you will probably like this book.
September 17, 2020
Fun!
Really enjoyed this book. So much fun! Laugh-out-loud funny in places. I hope to read more about Minerva and Darryl.
Really enjoyed this book. So much fun! Laugh-out-loud funny in places. I hope to read more about Minerva and Darryl.
June 18, 2021
Lots of Fun! A long-overdue re-read for me.
June 24, 2023
6/10 An odd sort of portal fantasy, involving parents trying to rescue their kids. Pretty sure I had read it before.
September 8, 2024
Follow Your Dreams
Do not give up on your dreams. Don't give up or let some one tell you that you are not good enough. Holly lived what she wrote.
Do not give up on your dreams. Don't give up or let some one tell you that you are not good enough. Holly lived what she wrote.
March 18, 2013
I chose this book because I read Holly Lisle's Talyn and I wanted to read more from this author. The ridiculous 90's costume on the main character was also irresistable. The back cover promised a confusing mix of intrigue and adventure, with no one knowing who to trust.
The only thing the back cover got right was the confusion. The premise was sloppy at best, the main characters started boring and transformed into unbelievable, and the plot is full of holes. The universe lacks consistency.
The book started out with the idea of mid-life crises in the midst of a good marriage gone stale. Without warning, you're thrust into this magical kingdom full of magical creatures and a generic bad guy that's holding your kids captive. The story never becomes more than mildly interesting, and you spend most of the time wondering what's going on.
Pass on this one.
The only thing the back cover got right was the confusion. The premise was sloppy at best, the main characters started boring and transformed into unbelievable, and the plot is full of holes. The universe lacks consistency.
The book started out with the idea of mid-life crises in the midst of a good marriage gone stale. Without warning, you're thrust into this magical kingdom full of magical creatures and a generic bad guy that's holding your kids captive. The story never becomes more than mildly interesting, and you spend most of the time wondering what's going on.
Pass on this one.
March 10, 2011
Some books are aimed squarely at me. This one is ... not. The protagonist is 31, married 11 years, 3 kids. All things which are not remotely connected to my life. Yet despite the utter lack of connection with the lifestyles, motives, and aspirations of the characters, (and the goofy Art Is King philosophy, beloved by devotees of Rent), this book was kind of fun. A mindless trifle, but one that was engaging enough for me to finish, as opposed to many, which I can't get through two chapters of. (Magic at the Gate, I'm looking at you. No, literally, it's a book I grabbed off the same shelf and couldn't finish.)
February 18, 2012
I read this a couple years ago, so my review is based on the lingering impressions this book left me. For starters, the husband was a wishy-washy, cheating jerk who never really owned up for his infidelity. In fact, I believe the wife never found out, which seemed like both a cop-out and a wasted opportunity for character development and needed closure. I felt sympathy for the harried and determined mom at times, but the kids were over-kiddie-fied to the point of being cutesy and annoying. The action seemed to drop off sharply and the book came to a sudden end, making me think that the author may have run out of time to turn this in or something. The story had a great hook, but I was ultimately disappointed and annoyed with it.
October 25, 2016
A very 80s/90s type of fantasy, with some serious and some funny elements. Minerva and Darryl are creative types whose life has gone astray in the pursuit of normalcy. Until their 3 children are stolen by monsters... because the couple was meant to combat the UnWeaver of worlds, and, well hasn't. Maybe they can't. They were chosen by mistake. But can they get their children back? Can they defeat the Unweaver? Can Minerva stop whining and Darryl stop feeling sorry for himself?
Ok, a good idea, competently executed and with a pretty cool side character. Also bonus points for good use of children's perspectives. (Barney's attempts at rescue, of himself and siblings, and of others, are amazing.) Best line: "It is not enough that you refrain from Unweaving; you must also weave."
Ok, a good idea, competently executed and with a pretty cool side character. Also bonus points for good use of children's perspectives. (Barney's attempts at rescue, of himself and siblings, and of others, are amazing.) Best line: "It is not enough that you refrain from Unweaving; you must also weave."
December 29, 2010
Minerva mother of three and stuck in boring marriage. Is beaten to the last bag of Wheaties by a dragon and before she knows it her Kids are being held in another universe so she sets of to rescue them. Familiar theme about the importance of creativity. in opposing entropy is rather spoilt by the fluffiness. You never feel anyone is in serious danger. The humour falls flat for me.
June 17, 2009
A fun and light read. You must like fantasy to enjoy it, she does a nice combination of the real world and an alternate with dragons :)
July 19, 2013
Oh, marriage.
Preserve your sense of magic to preserve your marriage.
Preserve your sense of magic to preserve your marriage.
January 28, 2011
Review to be added later.
December 1, 2020
Very forgettable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews