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    The Islands of the Blessed
    The Islands of the Blessed
    The Islands of the Blessed
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Islands of the Blessed

    Written by Nancy Farmer

    Narrated by Gerard Doyle

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    “Jack, Thorgil, and the Bard are off on a new quest in this immensely satisfying conclusion of the trilogy that began with The Sea of Trolls and continued in The Land of the Silver Apples” in this “beautifully written tale” (Kirkus Reviews).

    It begins with a vicious tornado. (Odin on a Wild Hunt, as the young berserker Thorgil sees it.) The fields of Jack’s home village are devastated, the winter ahead looks bleak, and a monster—a draugr—has invaded the forest outside of town.

    Soon, Jack, Thorgil, and the Bard are off to right the wrong of a death caused by Father Severus. Their destination is Notland, realm of the fin folk, though they will face plenty of challenges and enemies before get they get there. Impeccably researched and blending the lore of Christian, Pagan, and Norse traditions, this expertly woven tale is beguilingly suspenseful and, ultimately, a testament to love.

    The concluding volume of the heroic Sea of Trolls trilogy from National Book Award winner Nancy Farmer finds Jack and his companions on a journey that may end up righting old wrongs—if they survive.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateOct 20, 2009
    ISBN9780743583695
    Author

    Nancy Farmer

    Nancy Farmer has written three Newbery Honor books: The Ear, the Eye and the Arm; A Girl Named Disaster; and The House of the Scorpion, which also won the National Book Award and the Printz Honor. Other books include The Lord of Opium, The Sea of Trolls, The Land of the Silver Apples, The Islands of the Blessed, Do You Know Me, The Warm Place, and three picture books for young children. She grew up on the Arizona-Mexico border and now lives with her family in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.

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    • 4/5
      Two years have passed since their journey to and escape from the land of the fairies, and Jack and his friend Thorgil are again confronted by supernatural perils. First the village is devastated as a terrible storm smashes through it and the crops in the surrounding fields. Thorgil, a Viking attempting to remain incognito among Jack’s Saxon neighbors, is emotionally devastated as well. She believes the storm was Odin leading the wild hunt, and although she had run into the midst of the storm and begged to be taken, she was left behind. Then the sound of an ancient bell awakens the malicious undead spirit begins to prowl the night. Lead by Jack’s master, the bard Dragon Tongue, Jack and Thorgil set out on another magical quest to bring peace to the village. Once again Farmer has masterfully concocted a fantasy adventure out of Norse and Germanic myth and folklore, this time adding some Celtic and Scots folklore into the brew particularly that of the northernmost Orkney Islands, islands originally settled by the Norse.
    • 3/5
      Summary: Jack, now 14, is attempting to settle back down village life after his most recent adventure. However, when his village is ravaged by Odin's Wild Hunt, and then threatened by a spirit from the deep that has been summoned by a magical bell, Jack, the former shield-maiden Thorgil, and the Bard must head out once again in order to avert disaster. In their travels, they must deal with half-trolls, vengeful spirits, human sacrifice, mermaids, and all manner of deceit and trickery, but hopefully they will be able to lay the past to rest in order to save their loved ones, and find a place for themselves.Review: I think one of the best things about this series is how well it handles religious conflict. Farmer has set her story at a really interesting intersection of Norse, Pagan, and Christian traditions, and her books deal with the positives and negatives of each religion with a degree of maturity and level-headedness that you wouldn't necessarily expect from a mid-grade/young adult fantasy adventure. Although, I've always thought that these books don't really feel exactly like fantasy. I mean, there are trolls and elves and gods and evil spirits and such, but to me it feels more like historical fiction - just historical fiction where the characters are moving through a world where all of their myths are real.So, although I'm really enamored of the world that Farmer has created, the disappointing truth is that the story in The Islands of the Blessed just didn't hold my attention as well as either of its two predecessors. It had the same problem as The Land of the Silver Apples, where there's just too much going on - too many characters both new and reintroduced, too many adventures, etc. - without enough of a central throughline on which to hang all of the rest of the stuff. If I were forced to pick a "main" story, it would probably be that of the mermaid's spirit and the bell, but even that was ignored for large swaths in the middle of the book, and when it was finally brought back up, it was dealt with too quickly, and very anticlimactically. There's not even really a character arc to grab onto as the central thread of the story, since while the characters do grow up a little bit over the course of the story, it was never real a focus. (Also, the Bard was inexplicably crabby about trivial stuff throughout the entire book, which sort of ruined his whole "mysterious and powerful" vibe.) Overall, it wasn't terrible, but it did feel like it lacked some focus, and that diffuse nature made it hard for me to find a hook that really made me want to keep listening. 3 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Younger readers who enjoy Jack and Thorgil's adventures for adventure's sake will probably really enjoy this one just as well as its predecessors. Otherwise, I think I'd recommend just reading the first book of the series, The Sea of Trolls; it's worth reading to get a feel for Farmer's world, and it manages to pack in a bunch of fun adventure without going off the story rails.
    • 4/5
      This book was good, the first book in the series was great. There was not enough development in the characters for my tastes. Too much responsibility was given to two young children that acted like children. The final line of the book was just bad, there was no need to go there. Thorgil had not been called Jill by him through the whole book so why start then. The adventure was interesting and kids who loved the first book should enjoy this one.
    • 4/5
      When an angry ghost arrives on the shores of Jack's village, he, Thorgill, and the Bard must go on a dangerous voyage to pacify her spirit before she hurts anyone. Like the first two books of this series, Islands of the Blessed is packed with adventure after adventure, a vast array of creatures from Celtic, Norse, and Christian mythologies, and an engaging historical background. Like the second book, The Land of the Silver Apples, Farmer may have tried a little too hard to pack in extra adventures and creatures...this makes the book fun and entertaining, but it has the disconnected-wandering-adventures feel of Homer's The Odyssey instead of the tight every-event-has-a-reason feel of Harry Potter. Overall, an excellent book for perhaps the 5th through 8th grades.