Customer Reviews

The Fellowship Of The Talisman

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

 

 

I really believe this book was a wonderful beginner for me. It was the first of my ventures into the fantasy genre. I mean, there were all sorts of interesting characters and be it that they didn't have an immense background or personality to them, they all still fit in well to make the book enjoyable. I believe a lot of readers missed (including other reviewers) the underlying religious plot, that gave the book a bit of in-depth meaning. If Mr. Simak had made this into a trilogy or something similar, I'm sure there could have been a lot more done with character and plot. I thought it was quite impressive. I found myself even upset when the lady horse or donkey was killed. The book drew me in and that is what I like...and the character ideas were superb! I mean, a banshee, witch, and hermit! What great additives. Thanks Mr. Simak for an enjoyable adventure.

Simak's book is not for advanced readers, but it is great for kids in school. When teaching the fantasy genre, it has incredible applications. The simple characters are easy to understand, giving the book a logical progression, while generating ample discussion on their interractions. A previous reviewer mentioned that the characters have only one characteristic (An understatement), but for a critical thinking exercise students can identify and define characters by observing their actions and interractions. To teachers who struggle with fantasy books which students can not engage in due to alien ideas and complex plots, I readily reccomend this book!

Beautiful and imaginative incursion of Simak at the fantasy universe. Echoes of Lord of the Rings and other fantasy classics.
A poetic and well constructed text for a masterpiece in this literary genre.

This Simak's novel is one of the worst -if not the worst- he has ever written. The plot is about a group of people who trudge in search of a manuscript that if found would save humankind from the devil forces. But it's so simple and boringly written that it's very hard to advance in its reading. On the other hand there are too many and poorly developed characters that are included with no sense at all. Personally, I don't like goblins, ghosts, wizards and all that stuff. I prefer Simak's other characters as robots, dogs, plants and aliens. And I also like his other subjects as parallel words, time and space travelling and the disappearance of humankind. He came up with a very personal style in the science fiction field: a very humanistic one where understanding between humans and aliens is possible (most of the times), where technology based progress is questioned and the American mid-west farming life style is idealized. If you are interested in reading Clifford Donald Simak (1904-1988), you'd better try "City" (his 1953 International Fantasy Award master piece), "The big front yard" (1959 Hugo Award), "Way station" (1964 Hugo Award), "All flesh is grass" or "The werewolf principle". Don't think he's just capable of writting forgettable pieces as "The fellowship of the talisman". Give him another chance.

Gee, I wonder why I'm the only person to review this book... could it be because this book sucks? The characters are nothing more than names, although the author desperately tries to characterize people by giving them one --I repeat one!-- characteristic. The plot is thin and contrived, the basic lets-go-save-the-world-from-evil thing.

The only part I liked (and the only reason I liked it was because it's so stupid!) are the bees... there is a character who is a beekeeper under a (gasp) evil king. Will he leave his bees to escape the rule of the tyrant? "No, I love my bees. My bees need me!"

Yup. It's what we would all do, if we were one-dimensional characters created by Clifford D. Simak. There should be a law against this sort of book.