Customer Reviews

The Guide to the Territories of Halla

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

 

 

This tiny guide was an interesting book that showed artwork on all of the major characters, objects, and territories and provided breif descriptions of their backgrounds, purposes, and functions from the very awesome Pendragon Series by D.J. Machale. Each territory had a page that provided interesting information that was not known before; such as their currency, goegraphy, population, etc. Each character had a brief overview and a portrait. It was very neat to see some of my favirite characters depicted on the page. Now on the negative side, MacHale has said that there are 10 territories, yet, the guide only covered the territories that the first five books center around! The title does say the book is the 'Guide to the Territories of Halla' and somehow I feel slightly cheated as I was promised from the synopsis a full ride into Halla and yet I got sent home early before the trip ended. On the plus side, we did learn the names of the mysterious last two territories! So overall, I would give this somewhat flawed guide 3 stars for the cool artwork, - 2 stars for false advertisement. :(

This "guide" is really more a collection of illustrations that might have gone into the first five Pendragon books (in this projected ten-book series) had the publisher given the series a bigger budget. The illustrations are capably done, but not as good as the cover work of the books (different illustrator). The book does not include illustrations of two of the major characters, Mark and Courtney, which is unfortunate, while it depicts innane items, such as a cube from Black Water or the trader's skull from Merchant of Death. There is only one revelation of any significance, that being the names of the remaining two "Territories," which are only mentioned on page 48. The accompanying text is brief and sure to disappoint the Pendragon fan who will already know this information. There is some trivia on the Territories already visited that readers do not know, nor will they probably care to (what is Denduron currency worth in U.S. dollars?). All in all, this book can be leafed through quickly at the local bookstore, and $8 saved.

this book brings to life everything i imagined when reading the first several books. i know many people complained about this book not covering all of the territories. i am kind of glad it hasn't covered the books that have not yet been written. i would prefer to use my own imagination first. i believe there will be a follow-up to this book when the rest of the series is written.

First of all, I want to point out that I am a HUGE fan of the Pendragon series. The series is written in an extremely imaginative, intriguing, and engaging style -- but that is the series itself. This book on the other hand was truly a letdown.

Even before the book came out I have to admit I was concerned about the size of the book, as listed on the Amazon website (48 pages). The illustrations are nice, but the development of the content looks like it was done in a day (with the help of an encyclopedia or an online search engine).

I wish the author would have taken a look at Robert Jordan's guide to his Wheel of Time series -- now that is truly a great guide to a body of work by the author himself. I understand the author not wanting to divulge too much information from the upcoming books -- but SOME teasers would have been nice.

I think "davke1006" was correct -- the only people who should bother buying this book are collectors (or others who simply want to buy everything connected with the series). As for me, this book was simply a waste of time (which fortunately wasn't much time and fortunately didn't cost me any money as it was so short I had time to read the whole book at the bookstore and quickly decided against a purchase).

I really like the Pendragon book series, and I thought this book would be equally good. However, I was very wrong. The illustrator of 'The Guide to the Territories of Halla' must be different from the book illustrator because these drawings aren't all that great. Bobby looks... terrible. And Spader looks enormous (across). Plus, the book does not include pictures of 2 of the main characters: Courtney and Mark.
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! It is short. 48 pages of not-that-great drawings. I am serious. If you buy this book, you will think: 'Why didn't I listen to that kid telling me not to buy this book? It's a RIP-OFF!!'.

The Pendragon series has been rediculous fun! I thought the guide would tell a little more about the territories and give depth to the whole of the story that is Pendragon. I, personally, could have done without the pictures. I prefered having the images in my head that I generated from reading the books.

Otherwise, it's a worthwhile purchase.

I am a huge fan of this series, and this really was disappointing. The writing bit was decent, but the illustrations didn't meet my standards whatsoever. i was thoroughly disappointed with a few of the drawings as they didn't even follow the author's descriptions. It was irritating reading a book in a series I enjoy immensly that was so dismal.

This book is 48 pages long. Some of them don't even have words. It is one of the poorest excuses for cashing in that I have ever seen. While I enjoy the Pendragon series and look forward to each installment, my respect for the author and the publisher is greatly diminished by being duped into buying this piece of trash. If anyone wants it, it's yours. Free.

I gave it one star because the site wouldn't allow me to rate it ZERO STARS.

I didn't like this book. A friend of mine got it from the library and she was grateful that she didn't buy it.
The #1 thing that just turned me off was the pictures. they were terrible. Bobby is Bobby so what can I say? He looked the same as always. But what about Loor? In the books it said she was a black person and it wouldn't have been to hard to make her because she was on the front of "The Rivers of Zadaa". So what is with the white skin and a white persons features and red lips?
What's with Spader? He looks like his IQ is about 7 and he has a big ego.
The only person I really liked in the pictures was Uncle Press. He looked like you would imagine him. He had grayish hair with a kind, handsome face and a leather jacket. Completely Uncle Press.
All in all I didn't like this book at all. This book isn't for you if you take what the books say about the characters literally.

Depending on whether you read every book or not this may be very unpleasent. If you have read every book, it just tells yiu everything that you allready know, yet if you have not read them all it gives away the rest of the series. Either way it very hard to enjoy this book. Don't Buy It, It Stinks