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As a child, comic books are really what started me on my reading journey, but I remember seeing the covers to some of the books in the library. After that, I was hooked into the whole Fantasy genre.
This is the first real solid Fantasy work that I can remember reading as a child. I believe it was first published in the 60's, but I got my hands on it in the early 80's.
The Book of Three is the first title, and introduces you to the character of Taran, a young boy who dreams of being a hero like his idol, Prince Gwydion.
The only problem is that he is stuck living at a farm in the very un-glamorous position of assistant pig-keeper. He doesn't even rate full pig-keeper.
Oh yeah, even the PIG is more important than him, since she's an oracular pig. Hen Wen (the pig) can divine the future, and her owner, Dallben is a very wise old sort. Not exactly a wizard, but he knows his way around magic, and is consulted by the ruling powers of Prydain in times of trouble.
Eilonwy is Taran's companion. She's a princess, and yet she's not. She seems very flighty, but is kind of quick to cut Taran down with a burst of wit when he starts getting too big for his britches. The two of them came to my mind years later when I was reading dialogue between Rand and Egwene in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
Anyway, Eilonwy has a bit of power to her, a little magical mystery that is explained further along in the 5 book series in the third book, The Castle of Llyr.
Rounding out the immediate cast is Gurgi, some kind of fuzzy creature. Honestly I can't remember what the heck he is (hey, it's been a long time since I read these). All I know is he's constantly hungry and kind of annoying at first. Think of a smaller, less disgusting and non-dangerous version of Gollum from the Lord of the Rings.
Although I don't remember all the specifics, I do remember that I read the books out of order first, reading the second one, The Black Cauldron, before I went back and read The Book of Three.
What I do remember is that I was able to see Taran grow from an immature punk kid into the kind of hero he always wanted to be. The Taran from the fifth book, The High King, is absolutely nothing like Taran from the first book.
Much of this change is realized in the fourth book, Taran Wanderer, in which the young boy separates himself from his supporting cast and attempts to find himself out in the land of Prydain. He rights wrongs and tries to find out the truth about his own parentage, hoping he'll discover that he is of noble-enough blood to marry Eilonwy.
This is the book more than any other in which he grows into manhood. The moving speech that Taran makes at the end of The High King is a testament to just how much he has grown up since The Book of Three. This book had some really gripping stuff, and at my age I remember being really worried that Taran may not survive the book! It's funny now, but to my young mind then the outcome was really in doubt!
This series was the one that made me go out and look for more Fantasy. I always consciously or sub-consciously compared any future stories to this series. I still have those books somewhere. It always annoyed me that I was never able to find the same publishing format of the books, my copy of Taran Wanderer is about an inch wider than the rest, and has a different style of artwork on the cover that I liked less than the others.
I was so entranced by this series that I even tried my hand at making an adventure game based on it, using my Commodore 64, and a piece of software called "The Adventure Construction Set. I don't think I ever finished it, but I remember having a ton of fun making it, and believing that I really was continuing the adventures of Taran, Eilonwy and the whole bunch.
Other interesting bits - Disney made an animated movie, The Black Cauldron based on an amalgamation of the works, but it strayed a bit far from Lloyd's work and was not really well received.
I saw it like 3 times in the theater, and where I lived it didn't last longer than two weeks. Now that I think of it, I might pick up the DVD just for old time's sake.
In one of the Amazon reviews, someone mentioned that Gurgi was a main character in the Disney "Gummi Bears" series, and that Taran and Eilonwy showed up from time to time. I never watched it, so I wouldn't know but it sounds pretty cool.
Anyway, if you want a good light read where no one is brutally maimed or savaged sexually, and maybe a "starter" fantasy series for young kids, there's nothing better than this.
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