Customer Reviews

Daughter of the Bear King

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

 

 

Eleanor Arnason tells of a housewife in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., in a life that never fully holds her attention. She dreams of a strange world and one day finds herself in it. It's a world where magic works and where the people know her and hail her as a long-awaited hero. She is the Bear King's daughter, with great strength and unusual healing powers. And she has been called here to fight a creeping and shadowy evil. She returns to Mineeapolis but is followed by monsters. Being a true bear and a shape-changer, she's not a typical wife and mother. She hassome of the bear's personality: instead of worrying about her grown-up children she returns to the other world, which she can help to save. By doing so, she removes the monsters from our unsuspecting world and returns to the task for which she was born.

I love this book and keep coming back to it for its fresh approach to the old fantasy tropes. The battle between good and evil is re-conceived as a battle for Quality over Shoddiness, a wonderful parable of our times. The characters have humour and vigor.

Picked this up at a used book store with about 20 others. Finally got around to reading it. Big mistake.

Finally put the book down with about 50 pages left to go. I guess that shows you how much I cared about how it ended. Characters were indifferent and impersonal. Storeyline had some potential...but, if you don't care about anybody in the story, what's the point?

I hear her other books are good. Some I've heard are even exceptional. Everyone has a bad day (book) I guess :). Very poor character development. Not a fun read at all.

SF

Picked this up at a used book store with about 20 others. Finally got around to reading it. Big mistake.

Finally put the book down with about 50 pages left to go. I guess that shows you how much I cared about how it ended. Characters were indifferent and impersonal. Storeyline had some potential...but, if you don't care about anybody in the story, what's the point?

The heroine in this story was totally self absorbed. Couldn't care less about her husband, and just nominally showed some interest in her daughter. Didn't like her one little teensy bit.

I hear her other books are good. Some I've heard are even exceptional. Everyone has a bad day (book) I guess :). Very poor character development. Not a fun read at all.

SF