Elizabeth Haydon, The Floating Island Review

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★★★★★
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John Priestly's review of Elizabeth Haydon, The Floating Island

“The Floating island by Elizabeth Hayden is an utterly...”

★★★★★

written by John Priestly on 24/07/2006

Good Points
Everything.

Bad Points
None.

General Comments
The Floating island by Elizabeth Hayden is an utterly magical book! It has the same sense of desperate wonder that all the great classics of young literature have - a hero who is both brave and nervous, a world that is both magical and completely plausible, and some of the best writing I've ever read. The humor is terrific, the plot quick and ensnaring, and the characters priceless. I have been in despair contemplating the end of the Harry Potter series and the Series of Unfortunate Events. Now I am happy to have found a series every bit as good as those. I am not sure what the previous reviewer meant about it being sword and sorcery. There are no swords and no sorcery in this book. Instead, the magic of the world is in the people, places and things, as well as in the imagination of its very gifted author. One last but very important good point - there are strong family figures in this book. Ven is not a pathetic orphan or step child. He is not the most magical boy in all the world. He's just honest, humorous and curious, and possessed of a good heart, a strong family, good parents and an endless sense of adventure. He is impossible not to like.



Ven Polypheme is my favorite hero in literature. Period. There is something so winning about a young man who has been dumped on for being of a different race (the ancient Nain, a grumpy group of earth-dwellers reminiscent of dwarves), for being the youngest in his family, and for just being curious beyond control. Instead of moping or being melancholy, he rolls with the punches and lives through a stunning adventure that is never predictable. The characters are so real you could almost talk to them, and the pace is so fast that it astounds you how fast 360 pages can go by.



I highly recommend this book, not only to young adults, but to the young at heart who can still remember how magic a book can be. The lost journal motif is brilliant.

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