Customer Reviews

Pigs Don't Fly

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was 8 or so, my mother would go to the city every few months, (hmm..never ASKED her why, come to think of it), and she would always ask, "What do you want me to bring you back?"
And in those days before books became a disposable item purchasable by the metre at the supermarket, before bookshops became Old Curiosity Shops, my answer was always the same, "A BOOK!!"
And one post-war novel, Elizabeth Goudge's Little White Horse', conveyed back from Melbourne in this way was so entirely memorable that I can recall, vividly, to this day the feeling of cold legs and needing the toilet as I sat on the little front porch of our wintry house, but needing, more, to go further, to find out, to keep reading,to keep loving these beautiful, wonderful words!
And all the time I kept calling out to my mother, "OH MUM..It's a beaut book..Oh Mum....it's beaut!!", the 8 year old's vocabulary leaving much room for expansion and embellishment.

Well, my Mum isn't around to buy books for me now...in fact I only took a volume or two from her collection, my brother having more room in HIS house, my sister having even fewer empty shelves than I in her apartment.
And I don't buy books for myself any more..Oh..okay, books for our shop and computer books for me..but not novels, not REAL books..not for myself! For the grandkids, yes, and my bookstarved son in Malaysia, but that's not for ME is it? In Australia,the public libraries are still functioning, albeit feebly, a literary shadow of their former well-endowed glory days, but they are all online, of course, even the smallest, with multimedia and BIG PRINT sections.
Our own local suburban branch library is small, not opened as often as it was, and always dusty enough to bring on my asthma, and the books seem not to be re-covered as regularly as they once were, and the paperbacks, in revolving stands rather than shelves, become shabby very quickly.
I took, `Pigs Don't Fly,But Dragons Do..' from such a stand having noticed that it carried high praise from Marion Zimmer Bradley and Anne McCaffrey...high accolades for any work of fantasy.

And then I saw that the book dealt with Celtic customs, mentioned Samhain and runes and Stones of Power and Druidic rites, herbal lore and potions, a ring made from a unicorn's horn..even a dragon- and since so many of my geocities friends seem to be into this sort of thing..and with All Hallow's Eve close to hand, I thought I might find this book interesting.
Interesting? An understatement indeed. This book holds between its covers the same magic that chilled my bare legs on that long-ago front porch.
And it has a handsome knight in it, too, which is always a help!

It is the story of a journey that takes a full year,from one place to another and back, and then off, again...or from girlhood to womanhood, from innocence to wisdom,..or from ugliness to beauty, the trip proving truly an odyssey well worth the travelling. And you journey in comfort, the language having a glorious melodic lilt to it, the humour wickedly mediaeval in its vulgarity, the characters and background countryside so vividly recreated that you can almost sense the seasons changing. There are smells here,not always savoury, and deeds not always noble, and the feel of rough stones underfoot..the sensation of cold, of fear, of near-despair. And always, the pushing ahead,the foraging, the slow, on-foot slog we can only imagine from our rubber-tyred distance-is-no-problem decade.
And what an assortment of characters parade, Canterbury-Tales style, through the stops and stages, through the daily life and dramas of this journey..most of them, indeed, no better than they should be, but full of life and personality aplenty.
I mean, when did you read a better opening line than:
"... My mother was the village whore and I loved her very much....

And the travelling party the heroine acquires? Five animals she can talk to, courtesy of the magic ring, and a blind Knight who'd rather not listen...this has to be the whackiest party of pilgrims ever, making Chaucer's lot seem rather dull and uninteresting!
And the flying pig. Is he a pig? If you kiss a pig does it turn into a prince?
You have to read right to the second last chapter to find out!

I finished `Pigs Don't Fly' in the bright sunshine of a perfect Australian Spring day, in a garden, still beautiful despite my recent neglect. My legs stayed warm, too warm, really, and I had one ear tuned for my ICQ pager, the other alert for the beeping an an automatic washer. Times have changed greatly since I sat on that cold step to be transported to the chalk-cliffs and pebbly beaches of half-moon-shaped bays in Goudgean England. But all through THIS book, too, I've been thinking.."Hey Mum, this is a great book. Hey, Mum, this is a BEAUT book!!"
And it's nice to know that, in the end, some things never alter at all!

Robin Knight.

While not quite as good as her previous Book, The Unlikely Ones, this book is still a fun and entertaining book about the adventures of a group of misfits and ugly ducklings.
It features an overweight heroine, Summer, who inherits a magic ring from her unknown father when her mother, the village "kept woman", dies. She is given the choice of taking over her mother's job, or leaving, so she leaves to find her own way in the world.
The mysterious ring allows her to communicate with animals and she acquires an oddball entourage of a smart mouthed, know it all dog, a broken-down horse, a crippled pigeon, a battered tortoise, and a flying pig. She rescues a blind, amnesiac knight, whom she falls for. Everyone changes greatly over the course of the story--especially that flying pig, and the end is not quite what you expect it to be. I really enjoyed reading a book that features an overweight heroine--you don't see those too often!

This is the first of Mary Brown's books I've read. It was recommended to me by a friend who, knowing my taste in books, said I would like her. She was right. This was just a fun read. I love books that are silly and don't take themselves too seriously, and this is one of those. Although I was a bit disappointed in the ending (I won't give it away to you here) I would still recommend this book.

I got lucky with this find! This was the first book of Mary Brown's that I had ever read and it blew me away! I loved it and could not put it down. I went on to immediately read "Master of Many Treasures" and I'm about to read "Dragonne's Eg." Maybe it doesn't have foreshadowing and people think it may be a waste of time, but Mary Brown did an excellent job and I plan on reading more of her books. Summer was a heroine of her own sorts to survive after her mother died. Definitely my type of a heroine!

I'm sorry, but this book seemed like little more than a pale imitation of the author's earlier and far superior "The Unlikely Ones." Again we have an "ugly duckling" heroine, again we have a flawed nobleman/knight who learns to respect and appreciate women, AGAIN we have a collection of disparate animals (some of whom don't even contribute to the plot this time). Sudden plot twists are nice, but we need a little FORESHADOWING to make them acceptable; the sudden turn in male leads was disorienting. And, perhaps it was the length, but the examination of medieval society was too simplistic. Ms. Brown is a very good writer, but she fell short here; it is too soon for her to be imitating herself so blatantly.

I did enjoy reading this book. I found the story engaging, as well as the characters. However, I felt that at some point near the end of the story, the author must have hit a wall, and was floundering for ideas. I felt that the story took a turn for the worse, and once I finished the book, I was left unsatisfied, and feeling cheated, that perhaps she just wanted to finish the story and be done with it.

The style is a little wordy for me - long descriptive paragraphs with interminable lists are not that interesting.

I've always been a fan of fantasy novels with talking animals (Narnia, Atlanton Earth, Spellsinger, etc.) but, in this case, it wasn't enough to make me want to continue to read this series.

This is one of the best fantasy books that I have ever read. I almost wish that they would make a movie out of it, if only hollywood would not screw it up. This is a great read that you can read over and over again.

While not quite as good as her previous Book, The Unlikely Ones, this book is still a fun and entertaining book about the adventures of a group of misfits and ugly ducklings.
It features an overweight heroine, Summer, who inherits a magic ring from her unknown father when her mother, the village "kept woman", dies. She is given the choice of taking over her mother's job, or leaving, so she leaves to find her own way in the world.
The mysterious ring allows her to communicate with animals and she acquires an oddball entourage of a smart mouthed, know it all dog, a broken-down horse, a crippled pigeon, a battered tortoise, and a flying pig. She rescues a blind, amnesiac knight, whom she falls for. Everyone changes greatly over the course of the story--especially that flying pig, and the end is not quite what you expect it to be. I really enjoyed reading a book that features an overweight heroine--you don't see those too often!

I don't usually read books on a whole but my brother suggested this one so I thought I might as well try it out.
It was absolutely amazing; i couldn't put it down after. It was refreshing having a stong heroine that I could identify with as the main character. I also paused many times to read over and over certain phrases that stuck out in my mind. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, even a non reader like myself!