Wednesday 18 March 2009

The Conjuror's Game by Catherine Fisher


The Conjuror's Game by Catherine Fisher
Pages - 93
Challenges - 100+ books, New Authors, A to Z Authors.
This was a relatively short book, easy to read and very enjoyable. This was Catherine Fisher's first book to be published. She has published many more since then, including well known titles such as Corbenic and Incarceron. It was shortlisted in 1990 for the Smarties award.
The story begins with Alick, a rather curious teenager, who has been fishing in the mysterious Halcombe woods. He arrives home with a strange fungal infection, which can only be cured by the strange customer to his father's book shop, Luke, known locally as the conjuror and oddly having six fingers on each hand.
Luke warns Alick to stay away from the woods, as they are dangerous.
Alick is nervous about returning but after being egged on by his friend they return to the woods. Both boys end up having to be saved from drowning by Luke, who takes them back to his unusual dwellings in the woods. Whilst in the house, Alick comes across a gameboard with strange creatures on it and a tree in the middle which changes colour from black and gold. Alick becomes curious about Luke and what he gets up to, so one night he follows him into a hill, where the game is set up to play.
By mistake, Alick takes the tree and puts it in his pocket and inadvertently begins the game which causes destruction through the woods. The pieces on the board come alive and fight viciously through the woods, both sides desperate to retrieve the tree to win the game. Alick, with the help of Luke must find a way to return the tree to the game board to stop the game.
This book was very fast paced from the beginning, there is no let up in the action and the story moves very quickly. I was drawn in from the first page and couldn't put it down. The story crosses over from reality to fantasy with ease. I like books that make you feel that it is believable to have other worlds existing within ours It made me want to visit the woods, to see if anything strange actually existed in it.
Luke is mysterious, yet helpful and stands by Alick as he desperately tries to put his wrongdoings right. You are rooting for Alick and Luke right from the beginning of the story.
The plot is unusual and unique to me, I haven't read anything similar to it, but I am sure my buddy bloggers may have come across something similar. If you have, I would be interested to know what books they are for future reading.
This novel was in a book, made up of three books entitled The Glass Tower, but can be read and purchased separately. Each book within The Glass Tower deals with door ways from this world into other worlds and I shall review the other two books later this week.

More information about Catherine Fisher can be found here.
I am thinking how bad I am now, I have just discovered that I have Incarceron in my collection and I had not realised. Another good book to look forward to reading.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review! The story does sound good. I think I'm going to check it out. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It does sound good, I hadnt heard of this before.
    great reivew :)
    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

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