Chasing the Bard [Paperback]

Philippa Ballantine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005

Born into the human world with a gift; a gift that brings him to the attention of powers both dark and light from the World of the Fey, it is his burden to defend all the world. Sive, the goddess of battle, hopes that he may be able to change the fate of her people.The Fey are dying, killed by something beyond the boundaries of worlds, and Sive will do anything to save them. So she enlists the help of her trickster cousin Puck to guard the child, and watch him grow into his gift. But a dark power imprisoned by human and Fey, plots to destroy both worlds, and unmake all that they have created. Can one boy stop the destruction, even if he is William Shakespeare?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, I always had my head in a book, influenced no doubt by my father who thought Lord of the Rings was suitable material for bedtime reading for an eight year old.

One of my old schoolfriends remembers me trailing about with an green hardbacked journal which I was busy scratching my first 'novel' into. I had run out of stories to read, and found great enjoyment in writing my own. These early scribblings might not be publishable, and cause plenty of amusement now, but they were the stirrings of a need to express myself. But fantasy writing was not highly regarded in literary circles. My 'normal' writings earned me praise and a spot in the school magazine, but what I yearned for was magic. My writing spluttered out.

I studied English Literature and Politics at Victoria University, but soon found myself in the world of libraries. One day, after one of those painful life altering moments, I picked up the pen again, this time determined to enjoy writing for its sake, and not to worry if it bought me acclaim or not. Basically I had learned not to care about the goal- just to enjoy writing itself. I haven't stopped since. Oddly I never considered a career with books, even though they surrounded me from the beginning. Now it feels like I have found my place.

So now writing takes up large portions of my time, and the rest is taken up with various activities, like gardening, collecting dragons and ceramics, doing up our house, reading (of course) and walking around this great place I live. I'm particularly fascinated by renaissance and medieval history in Europe, and the history of my own country New Zealand and for a few years I was the New Zealand history editor at Suite101.

Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Dragon Moon Press (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896944175
• ISBN-13: 978-1896944173
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,032,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New Zealand author Philippa Ballantine, is a fantasy writer and podcaster.
Her novels Geist, Spectyr, Hunter and Fox and Phoenix Rising; a Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel (co-written with Tee Morris) span many speculative fiction genres.
Her works have won an Airship and a Sir Julius Vogel Award, and been in the Goodreads Top Science Fiction books of 2011.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful Midsummer Night's Dream..., November 14, 2006

By 

Tee Morris (Bristow, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasing the Bard (Paperback)

When my publisher told me about this book from New Zealand author Philippa Ballantine joining the Dragon Moon ranks, I was curious. Being a fan of Shakespeare (and having acting in several of his works) and a fan of the award-winning Sandman comic book "A Midsummer Night's Dream" from Neil Gaiman, I was very curious as to how this tale would pan out. This was her debut in print, and she was taking on "Wild Bill" and the Faerie Realms. Quite an undertaking.

Pip does not disappoint.

I will admit to suffering motion sickness in the Faerie Realm. It was obvious that Pip had done her research on more than just the Faerie culture of the Emerald Isles, but she pulled from many cultures. The jumps from Shakespeare's England to the Faerie kingdoms were tough for me to wrap my brain around, but once I got past that supernatural learning curve I embraced this book. Shakespeare's England I felt right at home in; and the characters introduced there were more than just famous names from history but real people with real personalities. This is a terrific trip across two worlds, across various legends and lore, and a sweet dream in print if ever there was one.

Pip has the distinction of being the only author making her debut amongst other (experienced) finalists for her country's Sir Julius Vogel Award. When you read Chasing the Bard (with an ending that will tear your heart out!), you will understand why her title is creating such a splash. Thank you, Pip, for this wonderful fight of fantastic history.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Self-Contained Fantasy Book, not a door-stopper, not a trilogy, September 30, 2005

By 

April (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasing the Bard (Paperback)

It is a fictional account of a real person, set on our Earth, in the real Elizabethan England era with a fantasy story interwoven into the real world. Highly recommended if you like this specific sub-genre. Still very good if you like fantasy as a whole. The fantasy element is about the Fey or the world of fairies.

This book just grabbed me from the first page and absorbed me into it. It is very elegantly paced. Not a word I'd normally use to describe a fantasy book but it is the correct word. A lot happens in it reading from page to page. This is very consistent throughout the whole book.

You do not need to be a Shakespeare fan or greatly read in the history of Elizabethan England to like this book. I admit to being a bit of both - but only just a bit, and that was the initial appeal of this book for me. Then this rather orginal, concisely written story just grabbed me.

The book focuses on the core story. There is no padding. There is relatively little in the way of detailed descriptions. The reader is given enough background and enough of the side stories to get a solid idea of what has been going on. Despite this relative "lack" of detail, the story works well as you picture it in your mind as you are reading. The Fey world feels very beautiful and Elizabethan England feels very dirty.

It is a perfectly self-contained story. There is scope for a prequel and sequel but these would be clearly separate to this book. The cover is atypical of this genre but it is very appropriate for this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent book...but awkwardly jumpy in time, January 16, 2012

By 

Kerry Sullivan (Malone, NY, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chasing the Bard (The Fey With Us) (Kindle Edition)

I read this story primarily because the student I've been 1:1 with for 6 years graduates soon. I didn't particularly care for it, personally. I can tell why he enjoyed it, the female lead character, Sive, is powerful, dark, and devoted. I'm not sure if the book itself has typos but the Amazon.com version definitely has some severe grammatical errors. (I'm sure I used a few here as well) He listened to the book read by the author, so I doubt he noticed the errors in print.

Several paragraphs ended suddenly and the phrases that would complete them began the next paragraph, for example. Certain phrases are used such as "a flickering of her fingers" which doesn't make sense, considering flickering has to do with light or illumination. Had it said "flicking", it would've made more sense. There were several examples of this throughout the book.

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*Possible Spoiler in review below*

I felt a little queasy at the idea of a certain historical figure being 'involved' in certain ways with the female lead. Something about imagining Einstein for example sexually involved with a created character would also weird me out.

I also didn't much care for the way her time frame randomly jumped around. They began when W. was younger...he decided he wasn't up to dealing with Sive...then they randomly jump to the future with the queen... It just doesn't flow quite right.

W. is also a very ...weak... character for lack of a better phrase. It's as if he has no cajones.(sp) He was too indecisive.

It's clear that Philipa did her research to pen this novel but my favorite creation is certainly the Fae realm and her descriptions of how everything looks, including the characters (court, Auberon, etc.)

Puck is lively as he should be, I enjoyed his quirky ways.

It was ok. I know my student is a bit disappointed to know that I'm not raving about it, but as I said, he loves all that is Sive, and I knew it the moment I read about her beauty, power, and dark demeanor.