40 thoughts on “Book plug! The Raven, the Elf, and Rachel”

    1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! To whichever one of you it belongs to… 🙂 And I bought both after Sarah put them on her blog this morning.

    1. I am the author’s husband, and I most certainly do not like girly books about kissing and stuff, or books that have emotion, humanity, feelings, or other matter too feminine for me.

      But I just loved these books, the world-building, the slow build up of the mystery, the solidity of the character development, and, yes, even the dark streak that is unlike the author’s other writings.

      I cannot expect to be considered an unbiased judge by those who do not know me, but any reader, even those who are not fans of the magical detective schoolgirl genre, can see the craftsmanship and polish in these works, the real humanity and depth, not to mention flourishes of pathos and touches of humor.

      1. John C. Wright wrote:

        “the craftsmanship and polish in these works, the real humanity and depth, not to mention flourishes of pathos and touches of humor”.

        Yes, but Ghod will punish her for the line: “Miss Himeropa Cyrene, … who had the most lovely singing voice Rachel had ever heard”

        1. The line is unexceptional. I fear your sense of humor eludes me, assuming, of course that your joke is intentional, where you are the jester, rather than unintentional, where you are the jest.

  1. I just ordered these both. Looking forward to them.

    BTW: I am in desperate search of a good fiction book for a very smart 6 year old girl. She is so smart you will only read the first 7 chapters of the “Tale of Despereaux” — somehow intuiting that the remaining chapters are dreck. Seriously.
    (I suspect Rachel Griffin will be in her future along with Narnia).

    1. Has she read the Book of Three? Or is that too advanced? (I read a ton of Nancy Drew at that age. )

    2. I read A Wrinkle in Time pretty close to then. Maybe seven? And I loved My Side of the Mountain, as a rare example of a non scifi/fantasy book I’d touch at that age.

    3. Some thoughts, with a caveat that I don’t remember what I read when and was a precocious reader to begin with, so I can recommend books as things some kids would enjoy but you’d really have to judge age-appropriate for yourself.

      – C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books
      – Enid Blyton (Famous Five and others)
      – Edger Eager (Half Magic in particular, but others are good too)
      – E. Nesbit
      – Susan Cooper’s _The Dark is Rising_ five-book series (I don’t speak ill of the rest of her fiction, I just don’t know it)
      – *some* of H.M. Hoover (_The Lost Star_ and _The Rains of Eridan_ are good and not too depressing; some others are imo too dark for a small child, and others have premises which make me want to throw the book at the wall and go *why* — this profits the villains *why*?)
      – Patricia Wrede’s _The Enchanted Forest_ four-book series
      – Madeleine L’Engle — everything; The Time Quinet is best known, but her Austin series might be better for a small child

    4. Horse books. You can’t go wrong with a girl and horse books. Walter Farley “The Black Stallion”
      Wild horses of the Rio Grande; by George Cory Franklin
      Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
      Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James

      1. Oo! I second this. Misty of Chincoteague was my favorite at that age. And is why we go to Chincoteague for vacation now. 😉

    5. I suspect she’d enjoy this book. I read the first one in ebook and promptly bought the paper copy for my kids. It’s Narnia meets Harry Potter, and a lot of fun. But it isn’t written down to the audience, which is probably what your daughter is picking up on. The sheer amount of twaddle that is written for kids these days is frustrating and annoying to those of us who have voracious readers for children.

    6. I was very much into Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series when I was young, along with Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series. Being as at the time I was close to that age, the only books we could get were from the US Base’s secondhand book shop / sale, I ended up with a rather random list of books.

      I also started reading Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsong, Dragonsinger and Dragondrums set of books, which were aimed at – to me, a somewhat younger audience set than the books set with Lessa and F’lar. They were also, I think the closest I could get to a younger YA set for a while, with the younger protagonists and ‘survive on your own’ plots that resonated rather strongly with a young girl who was very much into Swiss Family Robinson style stories. I personally wouldn’t mind giving those three to someone young, but of precocious mindset/maturity. And of course, the Time series by L’Engle.

    7. Oh, I second the Prydain Chronicles and The Dark is Rising Sequence! I still read those at least once a year, and the Dark is Rising remains one of the books/series I read that I can say definitely influenced my later creative life (and also introduced me to the truly awesome ancient folk mythology and customs of the British Isles)

      II also highly recommend and/or second (though I do recommend parental reading first of many of them, because you will know what she is ready to handle theme-wise):

      The Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett
      My Side of the Mountain (I’m with Josh Young there–it was one of the few non-fantasy books I’d touch at that point in time)
      Island of the Blue Dolphins
      Julie of the Wolves
      Misty of Chincoteague (I did not learn how to pronounce that until I was in my 30s, though! 😀 Also, if your little girl is horse mad–as many little girls inexplicably are–it’s perfect)
      Any of Lloyd Alexander’s non-Prydain books, but special mention to the Vesper Holly series for a really awesome girl adventurer, and also to his Westmark trilogy, because it was the first example of fantasy I’d ever encountered that had no magic, no non-human characters, but still worked incredibly well.
      Nancy Drew (though I strongly recommend you stick to the “original” run of books. Anything published in the 80s/90s was absolute drek)
      Martha Wells’ Emilie & The Hollow World (Haven’t read its sequels yet, but if they’re anything like the first one they’re awesome steampunk fantasy that’s appropriate for kids) Martha Wells does awesome world building.
      The Abhorsen Trilogy (depending on her maturity level, though–there’s nothing truly inappropriate in them, but there is some definitely dark stuff in there, and technically it *is* young adult)
      Earthseed by Pamela Sargent (great scifi for kids…but it might be a little bit old for a 6 year old)
      Lord of the Rings (Hey. I read it when I was 7, so it’s not impossible. And better to let her read it before the damn school system tries to ruin it for her in an English class!)
      Sherlock Holmes (never too early to introduce ’em to Holmes!)
      Pretty much anything by Diana Wynne Jones (that would be the lady who wrote Howl’s Moving Castle and its sequels)
      Most any of Pat Wrede’s fantasy (including the Enchanted Forest books)
      Patricia A. McKillip’s Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy (though I would venture that, if the child’s reading comprehension is high school to adult level, you could give her any of McKillip’s books. She’s…a bit wordy. Beautiful writing, but very dense.)
      Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall Trilogy (again, it does have some themes that might make it more 12+ appropriate, but that’s up to the parent. I was 6 or 7 when I read it, and loved them)
      David Eddings Belgariad (might have a few too many adult–but not explicit, except maybe for the blood–themes. On the other hand, I was 8 when I read them the first time, so…)

      If she likes scary stuff:
      House on Hackman’s Hill (the only book I *ever* read that I found legitimately frightening…but again, I was a strange child)
      Wait Til Helen Comes
      The Dollhouse Murders

    8. If you can find it, _The Man Who Was Magic_ by Paul Gallico (out of Print, unfortunately). I recommend caution with many of his other books, he also writes ghost detective stories that are definitely targeted at adults. I’ve heard he has some other stories along the Lines of The Man Who Was Magic, but I haven’t found them.

      The tone is that of a faerie tale, but it does not talk down to the audience (or at least I didn’t feel that way when I read it as a teen.)

      1. I LOVE that book. I’ve never found anyone else who has read it. I found it hidden behind other books in our old stone library. It made the whole experience of reading it seem so magical.

        In our library, The Man Who Was Magic (which I have misremembered all this time as The Boy Who Was Magic) was shelved in the adult section.

        1. Paul Gallico’s Too Many Ghosts was also a good read. [Smile]

          Now, I’m off to see if any of his books are available.

        2. It is one I recommend to everyone I can, unfortunately it’s getting harder and harder to find. I’ve been seriously tempted to do the work of typing it in and making it into an e-book myself. It’s too good a book to let just fade away into time.

  2. Thank you again, Mr. Corriea. First time any book of mine made a top 100 list!

    · Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,893 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) .

    #27 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children’s eBooks > Science Fiction, Fantasy & Scary Stories > Fantasy & Magic > Coming of Age

    #69 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children’s eBooks > Science Fiction, Fantasy & Scary Stories > Fantasy & Magic > Sword & Sorcery

  3. I’ve bought and read the first book in this series. I bought the second as soon as I found out it had been published (by reading this post). This has been a review.

  4. Finished book 2 in one sitting.
    How far into book 3 are you? (sits, waiting eagerly, begging bowl close at hand)

    1. I am about two thirds through Number 3, which is better than two, which was better than one…which was too cramped and full of stuff that had to be established to get to later, better stuff.

      Right now, I am on the scene where Rachel and Gaius crash the Dead Men’s Ball. Some kind fate arranged that I get to write this Halloween scene in late October instead of in, say, March. I am very grateful.

  5. Mr. Correria, a quick heads up, this particular page’s formatting appears to be borked on both chrome and firefox.

  6. I’m having a spot of bother getting the comments to refresh, so someone may have suggested these already for the literate six year old. These titles are a bit more obscure, but worth hunting out. remember: you don’t have to purchase hard~to~find books: Just use the magic words “inter~library loan” at the Reference desk (or when you call in to order). that said: the Jenny Linsky books (cat club) are lovely stories for younger readers, as are the Carbonel The King of Cats books. if you get a hold of them, you’ll find their shadows in the Rachel Griffin books (though the “3 laws” of bing a cat are mostly Paul Gallico) if you can find Grimbolds Other World by Nicholas Stewart Gray, you’ll thank me. FInally don’t miss the Moomin books by Tove Jansson. Happy reading.

  7. Bought the first book and read it, immediately bought the second and finished it and I’m eagerly awaiting the third. So a very well done to the author. I love the cover art.

    1. Thanks! And thanks for the compliment to my excellent cover artist. I will let him know. Hard at work on book three.lamla

    1. Excellent books. Loved them. Awaiting the third. Liked the Prospero series. And yah, don’t usually notice cover art, but these were striking. Always a good day when I add an author to my ‘read’ list. Honestly, possibly priced a bit low. Not sure whether or not my six year old will end up with nightmares. Admittedly, the biggest problems have been viruses and Venus flytraps…

      –Erwin

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