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The Ropemaker #2
Angel Isle
'They are terrible. They are like the demons of old ...They must be stopped, and you are here to bring that about, where everyone else has failed. You must find the Ropemaker.' Despite his immense powers, the Ropemaker alone could not control the chaos raging through the Empire, so he chose twenty-four magicians to aid him in his task the Watchers. They pledged to use their magic only to protect the people but the promise that bound them has now corrupted them. They have become a single, terrible entity with a limitless desire for domination. The Ropemaker may be able to stop them, but he has not been seen for over two hundred years. Into this dangerous world come Saranja, Maja and Ribek. They are seeking the Ropemaker so that he might restore the ancient magic that protects their Valley. It is the task they were born to, but now it seems there is far more at stake should they fail...In "Angel Isle", Peter Dickinson takes readers on another spellbinding adventure, further into the enthralling fantasy world first encountered in his Carnegie Medal shortlisted novel, "The Ropemaker".
616 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
10 people are currently reading
488 people want to read
About the author
Peter Dickinson
142 books156 followersPeter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL was a prolific English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories.
Peter Dickinson lived in Hampshire with his second wife, author Robin McKinley. He wrote more than fifty novels for adults and young readers. He won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Award twice, and his novel The Blue Hawk won The Guardian Award in 1975.
Peter Dickinson lived in Hampshire with his second wife, author Robin McKinley. He wrote more than fifty novels for adults and young readers. He won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Award twice, and his novel The Blue Hawk won The Guardian Award in 1975.
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September 17, 2014
Angel Isle, by Peter Dickinson is a sequel of sorts to The Ropemaker, in the sense that it is the continuation of that story, if not the lives of those characters.
I picked up Dickinson because he married Robin McKinley, which I thought said a lot about the man. One of these days, I will devote a full post to McKinley and explain my love for her work, my grudging respect bordering on annoyance with her personality and my adoration of her dogs. For those in need of more details, her blog. Somewhere on there is the story of how they met, which I really enjoyed reading. So it made sense, as far as I was concerned, to read Dickinson's work because his wife wrote well. I do like being right about things.
Maja and Saranja come from a family in charge of "Singing to the Unicorns" who protect the Southern border of their valley, while Ribek speaks to water and, through his gift, protects the Northern border. For two hundred generations (ever since the events chronicled in The Ropemaker) these protections have stood strong. But the magic's time is up and now they have set forth, some rather reluctantly, to find the Ropemaker and ask him to renew the spell. The Empire into which they venture is a dangerous place, ruled by Watchers who zealously guard all magic and who are displeased, to say the least, when they catch anyone using it. Which means that, naturally, our heroes team up with a mage, Benayu, and his inter-dimensional lizard, Jex. To complicate matters, Maja discovers that she has a special sense for magic and, when too much of it is used around her, she blacks out. Between the five of them, they need to reach the Ropemaker without bringing destruction down on themselves and hope that he has the power to do something before the Watchers drag the world down into total chaos.
Dickinson, first of all, is a delightful author. Despite writing for children, he never talks down to his readers, nor does he ever do them the disservice of assuming they are too young for complex material. Like L'Engel, he merely searches for a way to present it so that his audience can understand his topic of choice. Angel Isle is a rare find, for it combines fantasy and science fiction in a way I have never run into before. Dickinson creates a typical fantasy world, but instead of throwing up his hands and saying "It's magic, suspend your disbelief", he takes the lawful relationships and equations that we use to understand our universe and applies it to his. I was eagerly awaiting his description of a Universe different than our own and he did not disappoint me.
Having finished the book, I'm still not entirely sure who the main character was. I think it was Maja, who certainly got the plurality of the spotlight and who grew the most, but I found myself equally drawn to everyone in the book...which is to say not very much. I enjoyed reading about them and the book kept me hooked from the first word to the last, but I never really identified with the characters. I felt as though I was exploring someone else's world and following along as they told me about it, but the adventure was never really mine. Still, that might just be a testament to Dickinson's ability to create very real characters, who are so well defined on their own that they don't need my input. Either way, I was more than happy to hear about what happens to them, even though they has to share the spotlight.
Dickinson's world building abilities are truly stunning - his Empire and the universe it inhabits is incredibly well delineated even for a young adult book (and certainly for an adult novel) and he manages to capture the long journey taken by the characters without adding in the tedium they, no doubt, felt. I have no problem with the characters feeling the effects of a long journey, but reading a book should not replicate the experience (which is one of several reasons why I no longer read Goodkind or Jordan). Dickinson strikes the right balance between realism and entertaining the reader and if they ate liver-kebab a few more times than I thought necessary...well, there are worse sins.
As noted earlier, this book is a wonderful specimen of genre-defying fantasy, both in its insertion of "real" science and in its ability to suprise me with the ending. Having slowly read my way through an appreciable amount of YA fantasy, I tend to assume that a certain number of events are possible as methods of resolution and so it's always nice to see an unexpected one handled well. Despite five hundred pages, Angel Isle never dragged, and my only regret, at the end, was that it did not continue. One can always hope for another sequel.
I picked up Dickinson because he married Robin McKinley, which I thought said a lot about the man. One of these days, I will devote a full post to McKinley and explain my love for her work, my grudging respect bordering on annoyance with her personality and my adoration of her dogs. For those in need of more details, her blog. Somewhere on there is the story of how they met, which I really enjoyed reading. So it made sense, as far as I was concerned, to read Dickinson's work because his wife wrote well. I do like being right about things.
Maja and Saranja come from a family in charge of "Singing to the Unicorns" who protect the Southern border of their valley, while Ribek speaks to water and, through his gift, protects the Northern border. For two hundred generations (ever since the events chronicled in The Ropemaker) these protections have stood strong. But the magic's time is up and now they have set forth, some rather reluctantly, to find the Ropemaker and ask him to renew the spell. The Empire into which they venture is a dangerous place, ruled by Watchers who zealously guard all magic and who are displeased, to say the least, when they catch anyone using it. Which means that, naturally, our heroes team up with a mage, Benayu, and his inter-dimensional lizard, Jex. To complicate matters, Maja discovers that she has a special sense for magic and, when too much of it is used around her, she blacks out. Between the five of them, they need to reach the Ropemaker without bringing destruction down on themselves and hope that he has the power to do something before the Watchers drag the world down into total chaos.
Dickinson, first of all, is a delightful author. Despite writing for children, he never talks down to his readers, nor does he ever do them the disservice of assuming they are too young for complex material. Like L'Engel, he merely searches for a way to present it so that his audience can understand his topic of choice. Angel Isle is a rare find, for it combines fantasy and science fiction in a way I have never run into before. Dickinson creates a typical fantasy world, but instead of throwing up his hands and saying "It's magic, suspend your disbelief", he takes the lawful relationships and equations that we use to understand our universe and applies it to his. I was eagerly awaiting his description of a Universe different than our own and he did not disappoint me.
Having finished the book, I'm still not entirely sure who the main character was. I think it was Maja, who certainly got the plurality of the spotlight and who grew the most, but I found myself equally drawn to everyone in the book...which is to say not very much. I enjoyed reading about them and the book kept me hooked from the first word to the last, but I never really identified with the characters. I felt as though I was exploring someone else's world and following along as they told me about it, but the adventure was never really mine. Still, that might just be a testament to Dickinson's ability to create very real characters, who are so well defined on their own that they don't need my input. Either way, I was more than happy to hear about what happens to them, even though they has to share the spotlight.
Dickinson's world building abilities are truly stunning - his Empire and the universe it inhabits is incredibly well delineated even for a young adult book (and certainly for an adult novel) and he manages to capture the long journey taken by the characters without adding in the tedium they, no doubt, felt. I have no problem with the characters feeling the effects of a long journey, but reading a book should not replicate the experience (which is one of several reasons why I no longer read Goodkind or Jordan). Dickinson strikes the right balance between realism and entertaining the reader and if they ate liver-kebab a few more times than I thought necessary...well, there are worse sins.
As noted earlier, this book is a wonderful specimen of genre-defying fantasy, both in its insertion of "real" science and in its ability to suprise me with the ending. Having slowly read my way through an appreciable amount of YA fantasy, I tend to assume that a certain number of events are possible as methods of resolution and so it's always nice to see an unexpected one handled well. Despite five hundred pages, Angel Isle never dragged, and my only regret, at the end, was that it did not continue. One can always hope for another sequel.
December 12, 2014
This is the second book in the Ropemaker series by Peter Dickinson. The first book is called "The Ropemaker." The books are set 20 generations apart in the same family, and the world has changed so much in the intervening years that it almost seems like a new world.
The way that Dickinson describes magic in this world is noteworthy- it is revealed to be mathematical in nature, and through mathematics new ways of working magic can be found. This is secondary to the plot, but fascinating.
I am also glad that 12 year old Maja is the main character and not Saranja- she is much easier to relate to. This is a surprise because Saranja and her history opens the book.
One of my favorite thing about this book is Maja's fantasy life. All of us have such a fantasy life, I think, but few of us are brave enough to acknowledge it, and few books do either. After all, a book is a sort of substitute for a fantasy life, and if a character in a book has a fantasy life, does it weaken the book as a fantasy substitute? It does not.
Ultimately though I think the book had a few too many plot twists and would have been stronger without them.
The way that Dickinson describes magic in this world is noteworthy- it is revealed to be mathematical in nature, and through mathematics new ways of working magic can be found. This is secondary to the plot, but fascinating.
I am also glad that 12 year old Maja is the main character and not Saranja- she is much easier to relate to. This is a surprise because Saranja and her history opens the book.
One of my favorite thing about this book is Maja's fantasy life. All of us have such a fantasy life, I think, but few of us are brave enough to acknowledge it, and few books do either. After all, a book is a sort of substitute for a fantasy life, and if a character in a book has a fantasy life, does it weaken the book as a fantasy substitute? It does not.
Ultimately though I think the book had a few too many plot twists and would have been stronger without them.
February 17, 2016
A strange and rather wonderful book, slightly reminiscent of Diana Wynne Jones's Cart and Cwidder. I haven't read the one which precedes it, The Ropemaker, something I shall now have to rectify, though I think Angel Isle works perfectly well on its own.
June 6, 2017
another enjoyable book I couldn't put it down now what shall I read
February 3, 2025
A disappointing sequel to The Ropemaker (2 stars)
This novel is a sequel to The Ropemaker, which is an independent story that describes how a group of four people go on a quest to find the two powerful magicians who can restore the magic that protects their forest. But the magic is once again failing now that another 20 generations have passed, and it’s up to a new group of adventurers to undertake the mission that will restore peace and protection. A girl named Maya joins forces with her older cousin Saranja and an older man named Ribek, and with the assistance of a flying horse they name Rocky, they go off in search of the Ropemaker. Can they find him on time to stop the threats such as those of the Pirates and their airships?
I didn’t even make it a quarter of the way in before giving up. At times I had to force myself to get to the end of previous book, The Ropemaker, but this was even worse. The backstory from the previous book is repeated, but as a result there’s no sense of discovery, because we already know it all. Furthermore, the main story plods along, with infrequent action, lengthy boring sections, resulting in a tedium that makes it hard for readers like me to maintain interest. At times there’s excessive and confusing amounts of dialogue. The one-sided romance between a girl and a man more than 20 years her senior is awkward at best.
Devoted fans of The Ropemaker might love this, but for those who found the first book somewhat average, there’s not enough here to make me want to finish the return journey to this world.
This novel is a sequel to The Ropemaker, which is an independent story that describes how a group of four people go on a quest to find the two powerful magicians who can restore the magic that protects their forest. But the magic is once again failing now that another 20 generations have passed, and it’s up to a new group of adventurers to undertake the mission that will restore peace and protection. A girl named Maya joins forces with her older cousin Saranja and an older man named Ribek, and with the assistance of a flying horse they name Rocky, they go off in search of the Ropemaker. Can they find him on time to stop the threats such as those of the Pirates and their airships?
I didn’t even make it a quarter of the way in before giving up. At times I had to force myself to get to the end of previous book, The Ropemaker, but this was even worse. The backstory from the previous book is repeated, but as a result there’s no sense of discovery, because we already know it all. Furthermore, the main story plods along, with infrequent action, lengthy boring sections, resulting in a tedium that makes it hard for readers like me to maintain interest. At times there’s excessive and confusing amounts of dialogue. The one-sided romance between a girl and a man more than 20 years her senior is awkward at best.
Devoted fans of The Ropemaker might love this, but for those who found the first book somewhat average, there’s not enough here to make me want to finish the return journey to this world.
October 14, 2013
In the story before the story before the story, four representatives from a peaceful, bucolic valley traveled into the Empire to the south in search of a magician who would build a magical barrier around their valley, protecting it from both northern marauders and the conscripting, taxing powers of the Empire. Eventually a magician named Faheel fixed things so that, as long as the male descendants of Ortahl the miller sang to the northern snows, an ice dragon would keep the pass closed to barbarian invasion; and as long as a female descendant of Urla the farmer fed barley to the unicorns and sang to the cedars, a sickness in the forest to the south of the valley would keep men from the Empire out as well. This protection held for twenty generations. Then, in the story before this story—see the companion book The Ropemaker—a second delegation of four proceeds southward in search of Faheel, and a renewing of the magic that has protected the valley so well. But now another twenty generations have passed, and the magical barriers have crumbled again. And so, for a third time, descendants of Ortahl and Urla must go aquesting.
After forty generations of Ortahlssons and Urlasdaughters being tied to the same mill and the same farm, all is not well in the valley. And after the previous book's heroes helped shake up the way the Empire polices magic, things have not developed there as well as expected, either. So the dangers the folks from the Valley face are the same—only more so. And the outcome of their adventure will be entirely different.
We first find Maja Urlasdaughter cowering in a crawlspace under the burnt ruin of her family's barn. Half of her family has been killed by raiders, and the other half have gone off to war, their fate unknown. What draws Maja out of her hiding place is the sight of her long-lost cousin Saranja arriving with a horse at her shoulder, and the figure of Ribek Ortahlsson limping up the road, and the stunning burst of magic that flows out when Saranja picks two long-cherished roc feathers out of the rubble of the farmhouse and uses them to give her horse wings. As the three of them fly over the valley on hippogriff-back, their mount is spooked by the sight of an airship—part of an invading force from a faraway land whose people Saranja, in her exile across the desert, has come to know as sheep-faces. As they travel southward, they learn that the sheep-faces, or pirates, are attacking the coast. And the new Watchers—worse than the old ones, who clamped down on the practice of magic in the Empire—are almost, but not quite, fully occupied with resisting the pirates with every power at their disposal, including (unfortunately) the unleashing of powerful demons. The Watchers themselves have become a kind of demon, absorbing powers and personalities into a single essence and using all of it in a quest for world domination.
These, then, are the dangers Maja, Saranja, and Ribek must face in their search for the Ropemaker, the great magician who gave the Valley its latest booster-shot against invading neighbors. But you still have no idea of the full seriousness of their situation. They won't find the Ropemaker without the aid of magic. But the Watchers will spot any magic going on outside their control, and rush to enslave it or absorb it into themself. (That last word is not a mistake. Trust me, and tremble.) Plus, once outside the Valley, Maja is so sensitive to magic that anything powerful going on near her could kill her. So no, this will not be an easy quest. With the aid of a talking lizard named Jex—an aspect of a being from another universe—and of a shepherd boy named Benayu whose natural talent for magic beats anything ever seen, they might just survive it. But only if Benayu grows into his powers fast enough to destroy the Watchers before they destroy him, and only if Maja can find the right balance between shielding herself from magic and being open enough to follow the spot the magical trail leading to the Ropemaker.
The quest of these four people (plus one lizard, three horses, and a dog) is anything but simple and straightforward. No one knows where the Ropemaker has gone to. The few great magicians who remain untained by the Watchers can do little to help them. They must face dragons, demons, a town where magic is prohibited, a difficult desert crossing, a risky and bizarre interlude in a seven-dimensional universe, time loops, magic that can take years off a person's life, the ultimate evil, and an airborne invasion from a steampunk country that (like some countries you and I might know of) seem to think the mission of making other countries do things their way is a good reason to go to war. They will have to become magical warriors, masters of disguise, diplomats, and interdimensional travelers, and all that mostly to save the Empire from which they mean to save their valley. A thankless task? You don't know the half of it. Along the way, some of these characters find love, and most of them find a future in store for them different from what they expected.
And what will you find? Another thrilling, immersing, world-building adventure, opening up an already huge and highly colored fantasy world to even wider vistas of familiar strangeness. With this book I wasn't struck by the beauty of the writing as much as in The Ropemaker. At times the overall shape of it eluded me. But the trade-off in this bargain was a wider scope of doings and a tendency to surprise. One of the surprises is a quantum-physical model of magic, on which Dickinson elaborates in an appendix where, among other things, the existence of other universes with a different number of dimensions suggests a possible "touching point" between science fiction and fantasy. But even if that goes over your head—and to me, some of the coolest bits are those that do so—there are still dragons and airships, winged horses (and one winged dog), horrible demons (one of them pink), a spy with a heart of gold, a magicians' death ritual (occult content advisory), and an act of impersonation so amazing that I don't dare describe it. In my books, that makes it a quest worth reading about, even if the original objectives are lost somewhere along the way. And the new destiny lined up for Ribek, Saranja, Maja, and their friends brings their story to a satisfying close.
After forty generations of Ortahlssons and Urlasdaughters being tied to the same mill and the same farm, all is not well in the valley. And after the previous book's heroes helped shake up the way the Empire polices magic, things have not developed there as well as expected, either. So the dangers the folks from the Valley face are the same—only more so. And the outcome of their adventure will be entirely different.
We first find Maja Urlasdaughter cowering in a crawlspace under the burnt ruin of her family's barn. Half of her family has been killed by raiders, and the other half have gone off to war, their fate unknown. What draws Maja out of her hiding place is the sight of her long-lost cousin Saranja arriving with a horse at her shoulder, and the figure of Ribek Ortahlsson limping up the road, and the stunning burst of magic that flows out when Saranja picks two long-cherished roc feathers out of the rubble of the farmhouse and uses them to give her horse wings. As the three of them fly over the valley on hippogriff-back, their mount is spooked by the sight of an airship—part of an invading force from a faraway land whose people Saranja, in her exile across the desert, has come to know as sheep-faces. As they travel southward, they learn that the sheep-faces, or pirates, are attacking the coast. And the new Watchers—worse than the old ones, who clamped down on the practice of magic in the Empire—are almost, but not quite, fully occupied with resisting the pirates with every power at their disposal, including (unfortunately) the unleashing of powerful demons. The Watchers themselves have become a kind of demon, absorbing powers and personalities into a single essence and using all of it in a quest for world domination.
These, then, are the dangers Maja, Saranja, and Ribek must face in their search for the Ropemaker, the great magician who gave the Valley its latest booster-shot against invading neighbors. But you still have no idea of the full seriousness of their situation. They won't find the Ropemaker without the aid of magic. But the Watchers will spot any magic going on outside their control, and rush to enslave it or absorb it into themself. (That last word is not a mistake. Trust me, and tremble.) Plus, once outside the Valley, Maja is so sensitive to magic that anything powerful going on near her could kill her. So no, this will not be an easy quest. With the aid of a talking lizard named Jex—an aspect of a being from another universe—and of a shepherd boy named Benayu whose natural talent for magic beats anything ever seen, they might just survive it. But only if Benayu grows into his powers fast enough to destroy the Watchers before they destroy him, and only if Maja can find the right balance between shielding herself from magic and being open enough to follow the spot the magical trail leading to the Ropemaker.
The quest of these four people (plus one lizard, three horses, and a dog) is anything but simple and straightforward. No one knows where the Ropemaker has gone to. The few great magicians who remain untained by the Watchers can do little to help them. They must face dragons, demons, a town where magic is prohibited, a difficult desert crossing, a risky and bizarre interlude in a seven-dimensional universe, time loops, magic that can take years off a person's life, the ultimate evil, and an airborne invasion from a steampunk country that (like some countries you and I might know of) seem to think the mission of making other countries do things their way is a good reason to go to war. They will have to become magical warriors, masters of disguise, diplomats, and interdimensional travelers, and all that mostly to save the Empire from which they mean to save their valley. A thankless task? You don't know the half of it. Along the way, some of these characters find love, and most of them find a future in store for them different from what they expected.
And what will you find? Another thrilling, immersing, world-building adventure, opening up an already huge and highly colored fantasy world to even wider vistas of familiar strangeness. With this book I wasn't struck by the beauty of the writing as much as in The Ropemaker. At times the overall shape of it eluded me. But the trade-off in this bargain was a wider scope of doings and a tendency to surprise. One of the surprises is a quantum-physical model of magic, on which Dickinson elaborates in an appendix where, among other things, the existence of other universes with a different number of dimensions suggests a possible "touching point" between science fiction and fantasy. But even if that goes over your head—and to me, some of the coolest bits are those that do so—there are still dragons and airships, winged horses (and one winged dog), horrible demons (one of them pink), a spy with a heart of gold, a magicians' death ritual (occult content advisory), and an act of impersonation so amazing that I don't dare describe it. In my books, that makes it a quest worth reading about, even if the original objectives are lost somewhere along the way. And the new destiny lined up for Ribek, Saranja, Maja, and their friends brings their story to a satisfying close.
December 9, 2021
What I liked about The Ropemaker was the complete lack of romance, the almost complete lack of coupling, and the fact that the story was never in any way about it. The story was about a 14 years old girl who had her entire life uprooted and had to find a way to save her home without having any powers whatsoever to do so. That's how it started, that's how it ended. None of the main characters ends up paired with anyone because that's not what the story is about.
All that is why I can't like Angel Isle ultimately. This book is about a 12 years old girl who falls in love with a 30 years old man and spends most of the time imagining a life with him while at the same time dealing with her newfound powers. Ultimately and from the start is about her love life while she deals with powers and tries to save the place she comes from... to have her love life there. Also every other character is given a main love life story. It's a Big NO for me. It reads like an excuse to just write about pedo trying to put it in a positive light. About a little girl's romantic fantasy with an older man. Written by a man. If you can't see what's wrong with that, don't comment.
All that is why I can't like Angel Isle ultimately. This book is about a 12 years old girl who falls in love with a 30 years old man and spends most of the time imagining a life with him while at the same time dealing with her newfound powers. Ultimately and from the start is about her love life while she deals with powers and tries to save the place she comes from... to have her love life there. Also every other character is given a main love life story. It's a Big NO for me. It reads like an excuse to just write about pedo trying to put it in a positive light. About a little girl's romantic fantasy with an older man. Written by a man. If you can't see what's wrong with that, don't comment.
November 9, 2021
2021 reading challenge category: The book that's been on your TBR the longest.
This is a perfect example of a sequel that did not need to be written. I really love The Ropemaker but this just flopped for me. I didn't find Maja to be a compelling protagonist, the whole Maja/Ribek thing is REALLY ick to me (despite the fact that Maja is the only one who is actually pushing for it, no impropriety on Ribek's part), and I felt like Dickinson was trying too much to be like "Magic? SCIENCE." Just let it be, man. There are some really cool scenes here, like Saranja binding a demon, but overall, just meh.
This is a perfect example of a sequel that did not need to be written. I really love The Ropemaker but this just flopped for me. I didn't find Maja to be a compelling protagonist, the whole Maja/Ribek thing is REALLY ick to me (despite the fact that Maja is the only one who is actually pushing for it, no impropriety on Ribek's part), and I felt like Dickinson was trying too much to be like "Magic? SCIENCE." Just let it be, man. There are some really cool scenes here, like Saranja binding a demon, but overall, just meh.
August 8, 2024
I persevered because I love The Ropemaker so much. Everything has a convenient explanation, the main character sleeps for probably 200 pages of this unnecessarily long book, and they explain The Plan about 6 times in different ways before executing it.
The last 100/150 pages were great though - much more like the original Ropemaker story.
Oh and there is an uncomfortable and completely unnecessary one-sided relationship a 12 year old girl has with a 40 year old man.
The last 100/150 pages were great though - much more like the original Ropemaker story.
Oh and there is an uncomfortable and completely unnecessary one-sided relationship a 12 year old girl has with a 40 year old man.
May 27, 2013
A lot of little things make this book less than great. The dialogue is oddly long and expository, with each character speaking paragraphs at a time without any interaction from the others. This leads into a few places where the long (often single sided) discussions need to be repeated and get a narrative hand wave. Oddly counter to this there are moments where characters "tell stories" by mentioning names and then the narrator steps in to say that the story was told.
Besides that stylistic point there is the unusual handling of dark and awkward elements in the characters' pasts. Saranja spent six years as a slave with the only consequence of hating men and having inner fury. Maja develops a somewhat plausible but very awkward and uncomfortable attachment to Ribeck, who is roughly 20 years older than her.
The world that the story takes place in, and the story itself, ultimately seems very episodic, with unrelated disaster or conflict being introduced, much too quickly approaching, and suddenly being resolved.
It has been a while since I read The Ropemaker, but I remember that being a much more cohesive and developed story in an original setting.
Besides that stylistic point there is the unusual handling of dark and awkward elements in the characters' pasts. Saranja spent six years as a slave with the only consequence of hating men and having inner fury. Maja develops a somewhat plausible but very awkward and uncomfortable attachment to Ribeck, who is roughly 20 years older than her.
The world that the story takes place in, and the story itself, ultimately seems very episodic, with unrelated disaster or conflict being introduced, much too quickly approaching, and suddenly being resolved.
It has been a while since I read The Ropemaker, but I remember that being a much more cohesive and developed story in an original setting.
January 21, 2008
A dense weighty tome about everything from love, death, the struggle of right and wrong, flying horses, magicians, and attacking pirates, Angel Isle is the latest from Peter Dickinson.
Not an easy read at the outset, but once you surrender to this world, the story of Maja is compelling. Young Maja's cruel step parents were killed by raiders, and she finds herself in a company of strangers who, with Maja's aid, begin to fulfill an ancient prophecy about restoring balance in the magical world. Maja and company undertake a journey to find the Ropemaker (picking up on events from Dickinson's book of the same title. This is an excellent continuation of that great story because it picks up the threads started in the first book but uses entirely new characters) who is the strongest magician, and the only one capable of rebelling against the Watchers.
Maja grows up and her into her own powers, and becomes a force unto herself. Yet this story is as much about love as it is about battling evil, and Maja is a welcome heroine.
Not an easy read at the outset, but once you surrender to this world, the story of Maja is compelling. Young Maja's cruel step parents were killed by raiders, and she finds herself in a company of strangers who, with Maja's aid, begin to fulfill an ancient prophecy about restoring balance in the magical world. Maja and company undertake a journey to find the Ropemaker (picking up on events from Dickinson's book of the same title. This is an excellent continuation of that great story because it picks up the threads started in the first book but uses entirely new characters) who is the strongest magician, and the only one capable of rebelling against the Watchers.
Maja grows up and her into her own powers, and becomes a force unto herself. Yet this story is as much about love as it is about battling evil, and Maja is a welcome heroine.
August 11, 2009
Philip Pullman described Peter Dickinson as 'the mmost surprising, the most original of children's writers at work today.' I'd go along with that.
Angel Isle is the sequel to The Ropemaker, which I read some time ago. Immediately afterwards, I started Angel Isle but couldn't get into it because it lacks some of the immediacy of The Ropemaker. This time I got to the end but I still had my reservations.
Dickinson is a strikingly original writer and the quality of his fantasy is never in doubt but structurally this book is a bit ramshackle and some of the writing struck me as careless. There was too much tell rather than show; there were pages of unmediated dialogue in which it was possible to lose track of who was speaking so that I had to go back and count out the paragraphs; and some of the characterisation was a bit heavy-handed.
Nevertheless, despite these rather trenchant criticisms, it's an exciting and entertaining read and there was always enough of Dickinson's unique vision to keep me reading to the very end.
Angel Isle is the sequel to The Ropemaker, which I read some time ago. Immediately afterwards, I started Angel Isle but couldn't get into it because it lacks some of the immediacy of The Ropemaker. This time I got to the end but I still had my reservations.
Dickinson is a strikingly original writer and the quality of his fantasy is never in doubt but structurally this book is a bit ramshackle and some of the writing struck me as careless. There was too much tell rather than show; there were pages of unmediated dialogue in which it was possible to lose track of who was speaking so that I had to go back and count out the paragraphs; and some of the characterisation was a bit heavy-handed.
Nevertheless, despite these rather trenchant criticisms, it's an exciting and entertaining read and there was always enough of Dickinson's unique vision to keep me reading to the very end.
August 5, 2011
Angel Isle,the sequel to Peter Dickinson's award-winning young adult fantasy novel The Ropemaker, takes place generations later, when the Valley's protections are failing and representatives of its only two magical families need to find the Ropemaker and ask for his help once again. The journey of three young people takes them into the major events and conflicts of the Empire that looms on the border of their homeland.
Angel Isle is a rich and complex story that doesn't 'dumb down' its writing or content for children at all. Sex and violence are only referred to with child-appropriate distance, but other hard topics, like abuse and death, are mentioned. This novel definitely requires a reader who enjoys slower, detailed stories. I read extremely fast and almost always finish books in one sitting, but this one took me several days to digest. Definitely not recommended for those who only enjoy girly fluff pieces or fast action only.
Angel Isle is a rich and complex story that doesn't 'dumb down' its writing or content for children at all. Sex and violence are only referred to with child-appropriate distance, but other hard topics, like abuse and death, are mentioned. This novel definitely requires a reader who enjoys slower, detailed stories. I read extremely fast and almost always finish books in one sitting, but this one took me several days to digest. Definitely not recommended for those who only enjoy girly fluff pieces or fast action only.
June 13, 2012
I really wanted to like this, because I love his wife Robin McKinley. I always think I'll like his work more than I do.
I actually loved the intro, and appreciated that it seemed to have a great deal of backstory that I figured would unweave itself as the story progressed. Turned out this was a sequel and the fascinating backstory was already written. That dropped my love hastily.
Also there isn't *story* as such, just constantly moving scenes of not much character development. Stuff happens, I guess? Just it all feels like infodumping, and not things actually happening. You have no investment in the characters, and the fact they're following some kind of inevitable quest means you know that they'll inevitably succeed.
From a third through I started skimming, then skipping chunks entirely. I didn't care. Did not finish.
I actually loved the intro, and appreciated that it seemed to have a great deal of backstory that I figured would unweave itself as the story progressed. Turned out this was a sequel and the fascinating backstory was already written. That dropped my love hastily.
Also there isn't *story* as such, just constantly moving scenes of not much character development. Stuff happens, I guess? Just it all feels like infodumping, and not things actually happening. You have no investment in the characters, and the fact they're following some kind of inevitable quest means you know that they'll inevitably succeed.
From a third through I started skimming, then skipping chunks entirely. I didn't care. Did not finish.
August 7, 2012
There seems to be some.... well, hesitation about this book. I first read it when I was about 14, and loved it. I've never read the first book, but fell in love with Angle Isle and have read it quite a few times. Probably the reason I empathised so much with it was because of the character of Marja. She had a lot of depth to her and maybe older people don't see that as much because they're not used to thinking teenagers or children have depth. Not going to say any more, but Marja shows passion, maturity and an incredible resilience.
If I can't immerse myself in the book, I don't read it. angel Isle definitely drew me in pretty much straight away :)
If I can't immerse myself in the book, I don't read it. angel Isle definitely drew me in pretty much straight away :)
August 21, 2011
As a follow up to The Ropemaker, this was a little disappointing. Dickinsen writes good descriptions, and sets scenes well, but also tends to get bogged down in details and explinations, which can get rather tedious. I didn't particularly warm to any of the characters, finding them generally rather shallow - I found Striclan, the non-Empire character to be the most interesting. Overall, a good idea, but I think most kids would find it rather boring, unless they were very good readers, able to skim through some of the tedious bits!
January 1, 2008
A fine sequel to The Ropemaker set 20 generations later when most of the characters of the original have entered the current world's mythology. The three protagonists are a diverse crew who must battle through a variety of difficult situations on their quest to save the world. Filled with quirky, engaging minor characters and amazingly original settings (including a universe with seven dimensions), the whole book is infused with wonder.
June 19, 2008
Outstanding International Books It has been more than two hundred years since the Ropemaker last saved the Empire from the magicians who are determined to seize power over it. He is needed again now. Maja, Saranja, and Ribek will have to travel across the empire, avoiding the magicians and their minions, into worlds beyond all understanding – seven-dimensional ones…-- This outstanding book does not require any knowledge of the prequel.
April 11, 2016
This was a very mixed bag for me. There were parts I felt dragged(thought I made it through them all) and parts that I couldn't put down, probably at least a 3 and a half.
I am very much a character and plot driven reader and any description of how things work tend to make me feel I am working too hard. I also felt that a bit too much was made of Maja's & Ribek's relationship, though I was fine with the way she leaves things.
I am very much a character and plot driven reader and any description of how things work tend to make me feel I am working too hard. I also felt that a bit too much was made of Maja's & Ribek's relationship, though I was fine with the way she leaves things.
February 21, 2008
A decent sequel to _The Ropemaker_, but it seemed to ramble a little at times. A few obvious repeated phrases/sentences had the unfortunate effect of jarring me out of the flow of the book. It's a pity, as the story itself isn't bad - if the editing had been a little more thorough, I would have enjoyed this a lot more.
February 7, 2010
I had a hard time getting into this book, but the alternating pace between quick fights and runs from the watchers, with the slow periods of planning and reflection helped. I do like how the oral history from the Ropemaker has survived mostly intact, but it didn't feel plausible. I would have liked to see more explanation of the magic - similar to the epilogue
May 10, 2013
Just. So. Boring.
I rarely do this, but this book is going back to the library unfinished. I was not a huge fan of the first book in the duo, but this one did not follow those characters, but was set generations later. No character felt real, and I cared about no one. I have too much tv to watch, er, books to read, to waste my time anymore, even though I did waste quite a bit of time.
I rarely do this, but this book is going back to the library unfinished. I was not a huge fan of the first book in the duo, but this one did not follow those characters, but was set generations later. No character felt real, and I cared about no one. I have too much tv to watch, er, books to read, to waste my time anymore, even though I did waste quite a bit of time.
Read
May 13, 2015An intriguing opening, that quickly became tedious as the author embarked on a longwinded recap of the preceding book, the Ropemaker. Sorry, but I just read the Ropemaker, and I don't need or want a blow by blow description of the plot. Unexpectedly lazy story telling. I only hope the book improves.
April 7, 2008
I have decided that this author this just not for me. I tried on book and then a second hoping he'd get better, especially b/c he was recommended. I would not recommend either book that I read by Peter Dickinson.
September 16, 2011
I had to give up on this book. It was too confusing, boring, and lacking of a story. The description on the back of the book makes it seem intresting, but as I got further into the book I got less and less intrested.
December 8, 2014
It took me a long time to read this book. It was interesting, so I kept going, but it wasn't interesting enough to have me reading it every day. The idea of different dimensions and universes was pretty neat, but I didn't like this book as much as the first.
February 22, 2008
Should I have read The Ropemaker first?
May 27, 2008
I liked the non-magic parts best....
Want to read
September 16, 2009This is the sequel to THE ROPEMAKER, which I loved. I tried to start this on vacation a couple of years ago, but wasn't in the mood for it for some reason.
December 9, 2008
Very dense fantasy book.
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