Customer Reviews

Across the Far Mountain: Wilderness of Four, No. 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently purchased the Wilderness of Four Series, and found them to be delightful. If you like fantasy stories that involve a full range of charaters and creatures, with a mix of magic and lost history, then you love the books by Niel Hancock. I hope to soon see the new book "The Brandigore Gate", in bookstores soon!

This is a wonderful book about a little bear who must come of age and eventually lead a group to victory against the bad guy. This is the first book in a series of four books which are all equally as wonderfully.

Honestly, a trend I've noticed in this series is that the very best writing often happens in the beginning. Hancock first describes a locale where the main character lives in his childhood, then something happens that makes him leave, which is when the adventure really starts.

This book is no different. It's about a bear cub born in an idyllic valley, and the first part of the book details his journey to find his mysterious father. I found this section to be fascinating and extremely well-written, with dense and beautiful language. I was particularly moved by his journey up into the snowy, forbidding mountains.

After the first part of the book, Borim the bear is cut off from the place where he started, and never returns to it. In fact, it almost seems like the location of the first part of the book is entirely inaccessible from the wider world. The world which Borim enters is suddenly filled with war and conflict, and the story is, in essence, about making a strategic retreat from enemies that seem almost unbeatable. In the process, they travel through strange lands and meet unexpected allies.

There's also a "traitor" on the inside of the team, but thankfully Hancock doesn't go the frustrating route of having Borim unaware of what the reader knows (at least, not after the first little while). Still... the beginning was the most memorable part of the book for me.

The overall story arc in this book is average, but it's not why I like the book - really, I like it because the writing (on a page-by-page basis) can be excellent. It's the little things that make it shine.