Customer Reviews

Beyond The Deepwoods (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Edge Chronicles)

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If this first book is any indication, The Edge Chronicles promises to be an enthralling series, possibly a young reader's warm up for Discworld.

The binding is similar to other popular series such as Lemony Snickett or The Spiderwick Chronicles, but the maps and illustrations are superior in this one. The fauna and flora are new creations, numerous, vividly described and many of them are awesomely evil to the point of being absolutely disgusting.

The places are also intriguing - The Deepwoods, the Edgelands, the Twilight Woods, the Mire, the Stone Gardens, Undertown, Sanctaphrax and the River Edgewater, each with different types of inhabitants and topography.

The main character is a youngster named Twig, who discovers that the Woodtrolls he lives with are not his true family. When he comes of age, he is forced to leave for his own protection, after being spotted by sky pirates.

Against all warnings, Twig leaves the safe path, and finds himself in predicament after predicament, meeting dangerous foes, but also making a few valuable friends.

This episode ends with Twig discovering who he really is, as he struggles towards his destiny "beyond the Deepwoods".

A great start to a promising series.

Amanda Richards, January 15, 2005

As an adult, I love this series, but I would caution parents to be sure their kids are old enough to be exposed to the dark content which is interspersed throughout each volume. For example, in one of the earlier books in this series, a villian ruthlessly murders anyone who ventures by, chopping off their toes and collecting a huge pile of mutilated remains. The scene in which the young hero finds this pile of severed body parts is truly horrifying in its detail, very frightening, and surprising -- definately not suitable for a young child. I would reserve these books for young adolescents, definately not for kids under 9-10, and probably best for older kids. (It's probably best for parents to read one of these books themselves, then decide if their kids are old enough for them)

*** The illustrations are very special-- really a wonderful achievement. The book design itself lends great appeal, too.

Beyond the Deepwoods is the start to a series which is already long-running in England and is just starting here in the states. This first book does what one would expect, introduces the world, the major characters, and the major conflicts, but it does so in such shallow fashion that one might be hard-pressed to consider reading on. I don't know how the rest of the series goes, but I can say that the second novel, Stormchaser, improves in many ways upon the first.
Deepwoods, aimed obviously at a younger audience, is highly episodic, following the breakneck adventures of Twig, a young boy brought up until now by a family of trolls, as he is sent out into the woods to avoid being picked up by Skypirates. As mentioned, the book moves at breakneck speed as Twig is rushed from one crisis to another, usually involving meeting up with a horrible deepwoods dweller-trolls, goblins, bloodoaks, etc. The problem is that each encounter is so brief, each creature so quickly met and dispatched or left behind that none of them ever really linger in the reader's mind; they fare only slightly better than if they had been listed in a glossary at the back. It reminded me of nothing so much as a group of dungeons and dragons guys sitting around trying to come up with odd monsters to add to their personal monster manual. Some of the creatures are highly inventive, others somewhat dull. Their names are consistently the best part of all, wonderfully Lewis Carrol-like and just begging to be read aloud. Older readers may tire of the "cuteness" by the end, but younger kids are sure to enjoy just repeating the names out loud to themselves again and again.
The end is pretty formulaic and anti-climatic and isn't really earned by what has come before. What saves the book somewhat are its brevity, the likeability of the main character, and the occasional flashes of inventiveness that showcase the series' potential. What saves it even more is the fact that the second book is much more focused, has much more of a sense of narrative, and delves more into Twig's character as well as others. Though it still suffers a bit from shallow side-characters and some moments of weak plotting, it is much better written, more compelling, and finally gives the reader a real reason to continue. I wouldn't recommend Deepwoods if it stood alone, but as the necessary entry into the better second novel, it's a required step that won't hurt too much. One final note, while the book will appeal on many levels to young readers, it can turn dark at times. Death does occur and much more frequently and gorily in the second book.

I can't believe anyone else hasn't reviewed these books. I picked up Beyond the Deepwoods as a birthday present for my 12 year old brother, but then flicked through it, decided I wanted it, and read it in one night. The writing is wonderful - elegantly creepy and terribly evocative. Chris Riddell's illustrations are amongst the best I've seen, whether in black and white or in colour. I cannot rave enough about this book or the next two that I've read in the Edge Chronicles. Am on the edge of my seat waiting for The Curse of the Gloamglozer to come out.

I tend to enjoy childrens' books almost as much (often more) as adults', and these books have pride of place on my favorite bookshelf. Go read them now!

I am twelve years old and a true bookworm. I love books and am always at a loose end for fun and exciting books to read. Having lived in england for two and a half years, I was always looking for stories that had to do with fantasy or completely made up worlds and to my sheer delight, The edge Chronicles came into my life. The first time i saw beyond the deepwoods in the local bookshop, i knew it would be great. And so I checked it out of the school library and finished it a day. it completely captivated me. I was drawn into a mythical world where there are red-bodied people, bulbous nosed goblins whose only food is pink honey from see-through cows. A world where trees were bloodthirsty and a horribly scarred creature lured the lost and lonely to their death. I loved the book, to me it was like nothing i had ever read and the pictures! I can not say how magnificent they were. Drawn with a fine ink pen, they truely captured the authors detailed description. After relishing the first book i went on to read all the rest and found them just as fantastic, with the same thrilling, heart-stopping intensity. Soon my time in England was over and i moved back to austin, texas, my home. Immeadiatly i rushed to the nearest bookstore to see if there were any new installments to the great series and was exceedingly disapointed to find that the books had not yet come out in the u.s. then more than half a year later i was at the bookstore again browsing for a story when I saw the first three edge chronicles, Beyond the deepwoods, Stormchaser and midnight over sanctaphrax, lined up on a shelf. I was so happy to see them that i took my babysitting money and bought them all( i only borrowed them from the school library remember). I highly reccomend these books to anyone who is a lover of the famous harry potter or just a bookworm. these books may also spark interest in those who do not like reading so much. in a way the edge chronicles are better than harry potter because harry always gets himself out of trouble using magic whereas in these books the unexpected always happens. And for those who are already hooked on the edge chronicles, i can say that i own all of them and that the latest one coming out in the u.s.(the curse of the gloamglozer) is by far the best one with quint and maris,twigs mother and father as children, and a bunch of new characters. I hope my review helped you to make the right choice, thank you.

I'd read a review somewhere that this children's book is painfully formulaic: Main character sets off on an adventure, meets a new character every chapter, gets into some kind of trouble every chapter, gets out of said trouble every chapter, ends up facing bad-guy and finding out some truth about himself. Well, yeah; that's a pretty accurate description of the book only, you'd be missing all the wonderful (and original) characters he comes into contact with. I really enjoyed this book and honestly couldn't put it down. The types of people, places and plants are really fun. The drawings are especially good. I will say [QUASI-SPOILER ALERT] a side character died and I wholly wasn't expecting it. In fact, it really made me upset that a lovable new character was introduced only to die five pages later. Not cool.

My nine year old son is devouring this series. He just finished the fourth book when we moved to Paris two months ago. My son was confused by book four since it did not follow the adventures of Twig but seemed to focus on completely different characters. It became all clear to me when I saw the books printed over here in Europe by an English publisher. It turns out that there are three series within the Edge Chronicles which have already been released in Europe:
1) Featuring Quint
The Curse of the Gloamglozer (released Sept 2002)
The Winter Nights (released Sept 2005)
2) The Twig sequence
Book one: Beyond the Deepwoods (released Oct 1999)
Book two: Stormchaser (released Oct 2000)
Book three: Midnight over Sanctaphrax (released Sept 2001)
3) The Rook Barkwater sequence
Book one: The Last of the Sky Pirates (released Sept 2002)
Book two: Vox (released Sept 2003)
Book three: Freeglader (released Sept 2004)

The author, Paul Steward, is British and met illustrator, Chris Riddell, when their sons attended the same school. In 1990, Paul gave up his teaching career to write full-time and to look after his son. You can see all these books on Amazon UK site.

I am a sucker for line drawings, having fell in love with Robert Lawson's books as a child and artists like Berni Wrightson in comics as I got older. The art in Beyond the Deepwoods is just amazing. The detail and expressions keep you looking at the pictures to pick out things you didn't see the first time.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the book is a bit episodic. Twig, the main character, is sent on a journey by his mother. He has never really fit in at home, and he hopes this will change during his travels. In each chapter, he meets a new race of people or a new creature. The inventiveness of Paul Stewart as it relates to these inhabitants of the Deepwoods is superlative. However, most of the encounters end abruptly and the characters are never seen again. On a journey, this would happen, but the transitions between chapters are a bit jolting.

My guess is that Mr. Stewart is trying to introduce us to the world that Twig will inhabit in future books, so the brief associations are there to give us background on this imaginary world. Look at it as a primer for the world of the Edge.

With this said, I still immensely enjoyed the book and look forward to starting the second book tonight. By the way, my 9-year old finshed all three books in a week and a half - a good indicator of how they held his attention.

The books seem to be The Lord of the Rings Light and are not as good at developing characters as the Harry Potter stories. They are more accessible for younger kids, however.

I'm not in the target audience, being 58 years old, but I LOVED this book! Re-discover your lost childhood with this scrumptious story.

A roller-coaster (hate that phrase!) ride that just gets better and better with each chapter - reminded me a bit of Terry Pratchett's books but without the inane humour. The chapters are just long/short enough to hold a child's attention (and mine!) at bedtime, without risking sleep/boredom. My grandchildren (girls aged 9&6) can't get enough of Twig's adventures.

The illustrations gel the picture in your mind's eye into what the authors would like you to imagine - and such illustrations! Deliciously dark and detailed pen&ink drawings... in the same vein as Aubrey Beardsley and Arthur Rackham, Chris Riddell deserves to have a book of larger illustrations to himself.

I can't wait for the next edition of Twig's adventures.

While living with a family of woodtrolls for 13 long years, young Twig suddenly discovers that he is not a woodtroll. Twig snatches a knapsack and sets of to find his true destiny. A terrifying monster watches his every move, the Gloamglozez,a vile trickster thirsty for blood stalks him. His only dream is to find the sky pirates and search the open skies for his destiny and that could only lead him to find his own family.

This book is jampacked with the bizzares, creatures beyond your wildest dreams like slaughters, trogs, and goblins. This great book is hard to throw down, and never let a good book go to waste