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25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Marvelous Addition to the Fantasy Genre, March 17, 2005
Twelve-year-old Alexa Daley has always adored the summers that she spends in Bridewell with her loving father, as there is nothing more exciting than exploring the old lodge in which she stays year after year, for it contains a wonderful array of passages - which are much like a maze - and a cozy library where she spends hours poring over books. However, Alexa is a curious one, and she dreams of solving the mystery of what lies beyond the walls which keep out the evil that lurks among the forest and The Dark Hills. An evil which frightens all the townspeople, both young and old. With her inquisitiveness, Alexa begins to unravel the truth bit by bit about what lies beyond the walls, and with each new bit of information, she discovers an enchanting, yet strange world, where animals speak, and people are quite tiny. Soon she finds herself armed with a new power, and with it, Alexa uncovers a danger that could destroy everything in the beautiful Land of Elyon forever.
It's hard to find good fantasy books after you have read J.K. Rowling's HARRY POTTER series, but I will admit, THE LAND OF ELYON BOOK 1: THE DARK HILLS DIVIDE, is a wonderful addition to the fantasy genre. Patrick Carman has created an intriguing, yet fun new story that will have the reader on the edge of his/her seat from the first page to the last. His wonderful imagination brings the story, scenarios, and characters to life, and truly makes the reader feel as if he/she is right there alongside Alexa as she sets out on her journey. Overall, this is a wonderful new book that will be eaten up by fantasy lovers of all ages.
Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper
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26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
interesting premise but passive character and little spark, June 11, 2005
The Dark Hills Divide has a good if not all that original premise at its core--a kingdom of four cities completely walled in and a 12-yr-old heroine who longs to see what's beyond the walls. The walls were built a generation ago by Thomas Warvold, a well-traveled adventurer who came up with the idea to overcome people's fears of expansion into unknown and allegedly dangerous lands by building walled roads and towns using temporarily freed convicts as laborers. Decades later, Warvold's death sets into motion a slew of activity as the towns are threatened by those inside and out (internal kingdom strife, a possible high-level traitor, the supposedly re-imprisoned convicts) and previous assumptions are questioned (the dangers of the outside land, the effectiveness of the walls versus their societal cost, etc.)
At the center of all of this is young Alexa Daley, daughter to one of the town's mayors, friend and confidante of Warvold, frequenter of the kingdom's largest library, and all-around pest to the man in charge of the kingdom's safety--Pervis. When her dream of seeing what's beyond the walls comes true, Alexa uncovers a plot against her city and a possible traitor. She also discovers magical stones, talking animals, and a new perspective on the walls' consequences.
All of this could have been put to good use, but the book falls mostly flat. Part of the problem is that Alexa is, especially in the first half, far too passive a character. She is told what to do by adults or animals and then she goes ahead and does it. There's little sense of adventure or danger in what she does and simply declaring her adventurous or heroic or frightened doesn't make her so. The land outside the walls is covered pretty perfunctorily so it never really comes alive for us. The same is true of the land inside the walls, where we meet relatively few people (all of them seemingly old or middle-aged men--where are the women and children?) and get very little sense of culture.
The plot is also problematic. As mentioned above, there is little sense of danger or suspense for the first half of the book; the arduous journey/quest Alexa makes is mostly conveyed through telling us it's arduous and by describing her blisters. Again, there's little sense of substance to it. The puzzles in the story seem arbitrarily constructed and solved, adding little to the story and feeling therefore more of a gimmicky add-on because puzzle stories are "in" nowadays. And there are some plot points that don't seem to add up or don't flow very naturally from the story.
The second half of the book, as Alexa searches for the traitor among them, is better than the first, but not particularly strong itself, only in comparison to what comes before. In the end, the book as a whole is a disappointment, falling flat in most aspects of good fantasy--strong world creation, compelling plot, vivid characterization, imaginative spark. Not recommended.
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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Please do not offer my god a peanut, April 13, 2006
I was speaking to an editor of a large publishing house the other day, and I asked him whether or not he ever got any series books that weren't labeled "Book One" or "Part One In a Series" or "The First Adventure". He told me, no. There's just too much money in series these days. No one sees any point in writing stand-alone novels. So I wasn't surprised when I picked up "The Dark Hills Divide" and saw that it had the words "Book 1" on its cover. It's just the nature of things. Reading the book through, I found an interesting tale with likable characters and a strong plot. Unfortunately I also found sloppy details, editorial laziness, and a tendency towards not explaining things that needed to be explained. As fantasy series go I can tell you right here and now that "The Land of Elyon" is much better than "Pendragon" or "Eragon" and the like. It's just not the strongest thing out there today. Enjoyable but frustrating.
Every year it's the same. Alexa, the daughter of the mayor of Lathbury, travels with her father to the big city of Bridewell for some time in the summer. Alexa lives in the Land of Elyon where all the major cities have eighteen-foot tall walls around them to keep out unspecified dangers. Her entire life, Alexa has sought to find a way out of the walls. So when a silver key to a hidden door in the town's library falls into her possession, she wastes little time exploring what lies beyond the wall. What she finds is a power that allows her to speak to the animals of the woods and a deadly plot by outsiders to destroy her beloved Bridewell. It will require all her cunning and cleverness to seek out the spy amongst her friends and to figure out who to trust in the end.
The problem is, Carman keeps leaving out key details, or he delays them so long that you never quite figure out what's going on. We know that the walls around these cities were built for some vague unspecified reason. Eventually the reason may be that the guy who built them had his fortune told and the fortune said that monsters would attack the cities. Then the monsters, apparently, are just metaphors for how the walls themselves have created something monstrous in the people. With me so far? Good, because here's where it kind of breaks down. The biggest flaw to the walls, as far as I could see, was that it cut off animals from their family members on one side of the wall or another. Otherwise, the only real problem the people have with the walls is that it blocks their view of the pretty mountains and forests. The oddest thing of all happens at the end of the book. The big city of Bridewell is attacked, wins the battle in the end, and then proceeds to... tear down the wall?!?!? They were just attacked for the very first time! And when people are attacked they do not tear down walls. Now granted Bridewell itself doesn't tear down any walls. Just the walls that connect it to other cities. But why do they do it anyway? No reason is given aside from the idea that "walls are bad". I'm all for that idea. I just wish Carman had taken the time to elaborate on it a little.
Other reviewers have offered criticisms of this book that make some pretty good points. Alexa, some say, does not speak like a twelve-year-old girl but like a mature adult. This is very true. Also, she tends to figure out things far sooner than her readership and without any explanation. At one point she copies down a map that turns out to be a floorplan of her library. From this she some intuits for no particular reason that there must be a secret door in the room. This is not only peculiar, it's completely out of the blue. Just the same, I was happy to see a fantasy book with a narrative from a girl in the first-person. This doesn't happen very often in children's fantasies. Moreover, Carman actually gives his heroine a sense of humor. You may not think that's much to boast of, but name as many books starring funny women written by men that you can think of. Exactly. There are some, but it takes some scrounging of the brain to come up with them, doesn't it? Other criticisms include the big reveal of the villain. Without giving too much away (this is a spoiler warning) the villain is discovered because the clues lead Alexa to finding the name of a Hindu god. Now this book takes place in a mythical land of Elyon. It's a fantasy world with zippo ties to our real one. Yet for some reason Carman ties one of the book's big mysteries to a god that already exists. This is so out of step with the rest of the book, with the rest of Carman's entire WORLD, that you're left wondering why he even went along with it. I, for one, was baffled.
Oh, and let's talk Elyon as well. Talk about not giving your audience much in the way of information! At one point Alexa has a conversation with a bear in the forest and the bear says, completely out of the blue, "Elyon is on the move, his plans are unfolding in this very age, and we shall be witnesses to his triumphant return in the days to come". Who's Elyon? Carman never deigns to tell us. Actually, this is the first mention of "Elyon" in the book. Now can you think of any other fictional work for children where an animal says a mysterious vowel-happy someone is "on the move"? If you said "Aslan" from "The Chronicles of Narnia", you'd be on the right track. So does this mean that this series is a Christian metaphor at its heart? Only time will tell.
And then there's Carman's literary habit of constantly having Alexa follow adorable woodland creatures, ask where's she's going, and be told that she can't have any explanations at that moment. There's no reason for this aside from the fact that Carman likes to draw out his suspense. If anyone said to Alexa, "I can't tell you or you'd be too frightened to follow me" (as Carman eventually does in the second book in this series) that would be another matter altogether. Instead, it's just annoying and rather pointless.
The worst part of all this is that I still really kinda liked the book. I liked Carman's characters (he has a penchant for facial hair) and I liked the settings. I liked the library where Alexa spends much of her time and the cold feeling you get when you realize that your adorable pets are not what they seem. How can I dislike a book that has so much humor in it too? And I didn't find it slow in the least (unlike some people). All in all I found it very enjoyable. Just lazy. So on the one hand it's a great read. On the other hand, Carman just didn't put the work into it that he could have. Here's hoping that the second book in the series does make the same mistakes of its predecessor.
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The daughter of the mayor of Lathbury, Alexa is a curious, strong-willed, courageous twelve-year-old who acquires a stone of great power, and investigates and uncovers a terrible secret. 
The mysterious little man (not more than 2 feet tall) of the old mountain who befriends Alexa Daley on her journey outside the wall. Yipes introduces her to Darius, setting her on an amazing adventure. 
An enormous wolf with a mysterious past, Darius is tasked with escorting Alexa to a meeting in the forest, and taking her to the dark tunnel where a secret is revealed. 
Pervis, the crafty head of the guards in Bridewell, protects the city from the evil dangers he is convinced lurk outside the walls. He is a man with many secrets, great ambition, and a strong dislike for Alexa. 
Sam and Pepper live in the library, and curl up with Alexa while she reads and naps in her favorite chair. Alexa soon learns that these cuddly cats are not what they seem--they hide secrets of their own. 
The architect and founder of the walled cities, Warvold was an adventerous wanderer who traveled far and wide in the Land of Elyon. 
