Child of an Ancient City [Import] [Hardcover]

Tad; Hoffman, Nina K. Williams (Author), Greg Hildebrandt (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum (1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0712654925
• ISBN-13: 978-0712654920
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,313,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Former singer, shoe-seller, radio show host, and inventor of interactive sci-fi television, Tad Williams is now a full-time writer. His 'Memory, Sorrow and Thorn' series established him as an internationally bestselling fantasy author. The series that followed, 'Otherland', is now a multi-million-dollar MMO launching in 2012 from dtp/realU/Gamigo. Tad is also the author of the fantasy series, the 'Shadowmarch' books; the stand-alone Faerie epic, 'The War of the Flowers'; two collections of short stories ('Rite' and 'A Stark and Wormy Knight'), the Shakespearian fantasy 'Caliban's Hour' and, with his partner & collaborator Deborah Beale, the childrens'/all-ages fantasy series, the 'Ordinary Farm' novels. Coming in September 2012 are the Bobby Dollar novels, fantasy thrillers set again the backdrop of the monstrously ancient cold war between Heaven and Hell: the first is 'The Dirty Streets of Heaven.'

Tad is also the author of 'Tailchaser's Song': his first novel spawned the subgenre of cats and fantasy that we see widely today. 'Tailchaser's Song' is currently in preproduction as an animated film from Animetropolis/IDA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Most Unique Volume!, December 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Child of An Ancient City (Mass Market Paperback)

I was first drawn to "Child of an Ancient City" while awaiting the last installment of Memory Sorrow and Thorn, and found myself intially apprehensive, but later enthralled. This book is indeed a worthwhile read. Set in a world that could very well have existed 200yrs or 2000yrs in the past, this tale begins with a raid on a merchants caracan, whereby a lucky few are thrown together, companions by necessity now more than choice. Then, as they make their way back to civilization, they are followed by a mysterious lurking presence. One by one they are lost, until they finally realise what they face, a creature of a nocturnal, blood craving nature, who is immortal, and invincible. Their only sure way of surviving is to sit around camp fires by night, each taking turns to tell tales to keep this creature entertained until the daylight hours. All goes well until they must compete against each other for their very lives. Overall the story is quite entertaining, and the addition of a whole series of smaller stories of mythos and legends, add to make a book with great depth of character. My favourite being of the Holy-man whose very ability to perform miracles depended on his impurity of spirit. Well worth a read.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Caution, March 6, 2001

By 

Eric A. Rioux (Windsor, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Child of An Ancient City (Mass Market Paperback)

Hi all,

I'm an absolutely _huge_ fan of Tad Williams. I've read everything out there from Talechaser's Song to Mountain of Black Glass (and read MST three times). I've read both of his shorter works: Child of an Ancient City and Caliban's Hour. In reading Child, I found the prose weaker than what I was accustomed to with Tad: perhaps this was due to the condensed nature or perhaps it was that much of the text was actually written by Nina? I'm undecided. On the whole I enjoyed it more than Caliban's Hour. I would recommend this book to fans of Tad but not to the uninitiated.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great little read, September 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Child of An Ancient City (Mass Market Paperback)

I am a big fan of Tad Williams Dragonbone chair series. This is different but still very good a nice variation on the traditional vampire story.