The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

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He pulls on his memories from his first trip to the United Kingdom in 1983 (among other things, he hiked the Old Man of Coniston, a famous mountain in the Lake District) and his past experience working as a bookseller. The story took off with lots of fantastical action right from the first chapter when she met Merlin St.

Jaques, who sweeps Susan out of Frank’s house, just ahead of a horse-sized louse and an eerie black fog hiding more dangers. Nah, the main characters trio is fun, the romantic attraction is an afterthought, and the plot, although silly, did not make want to run for the woods. This was a rough one for me to get through, which I am really upset to say because the concept is great. On top of that the main character, Susan, is treated like a 5-year-old who needs to be led around by the hand without being told anything.Between striking characters-from the heroic if not entirely competent young Abhorsen-in-Waiting, Belatiel, to the enigmatic, catlike Mogget-and Nix's brilliantly complex magic system, this superb tale is exactly the book fans of the series have been awaiting. Action, light romance and otherworldly machinations keep the tension flowing as Nix reveals a warm-hearted and clever fantasy. A complex ethical substrate that leaves the reader with relatively few fully bad or fully good characters (though there are some) and that poses open-ended questions.

Unfortunately, the magician–excuse me, Wizard–Merlin is generally vague on the big picture and tends to focus on the details. It is action oriented, often scant on description, but with enough structural complexity to feel like I needed to pay attention. I did get bogged down in too much of the world building and there are so many Aunts and Uncles related to the main character, Merlin who is the Left-handed bookseller. There were numerous times where something would happen and Susan would be confused (because falling into a magic world IS confusing) and those around her just push her questions aside with an “I’ll tell you later”. Although her mother could certainly provide details, she’s inexplicably vague (there’s a hand-wavy “drugs in the 60s” line, which is a surprising line to find).

Como me pasó con "Magia Angelical", creo que el mundo que ha creado da para más de una historia: ofrece una sensación amplia, como si temporalmente ya hubiera estado y estará en un futuro.

It has heroic booksellers who are the only ones who live in the modern world (1983) but can see and fight the paranormal beings of old. A very different type of fantasy (more of a British urban fantasy) from Garth Nix than the last one of his that I read, Angel Mage. This is the first Garth Nix novel I have read – well, listened to as I had borrowed the audiobook via BorrowBox from my local library. I love classic Garth Nix, in that I love Sabriel and the original Abhorsen trilogy, but I haven't been able to find as much joy in any of his other works. Is it purely to pander to the American audience, or does the Australian author prefer this to using English?The characters are excellent especially Merlin who is completely delightful, and Vivian who has some remarkable talents. A desperate rescue is attempted by his sister the right-handed bookseller Vivien and their friend, art student Susan Arkshaw, who is still struggling to deal with her own recently discovered magical heritage. But quite often they discover the key to raise some ancient myth, or release something that should have stayed imprisoned, and they share that knowledge via their writing. The left-handed booksellers are the physical fighters while the right-handed ones are more intellectual and wields magic.