Sister Luke

A classic just as enchanting as in my boyhood

Reviewed: 10-01-2019

This is a childhood favourite of mine, and I am pleased beyond words to discover it holds up equally well know that I am grown up. Garth Nix writes a cracking, original narrative with enough in the way of mythic/religious allusion and more serious themes (particularly toward the end of the series) to give it a truly epic feel. The writing style is both profoundly simple, and very good--perfect for a book aimed at children. The narrator is excellent, with a masterly control of different voices/accents (his choice of a Welshman for a coalminer, for instance, is amusing and just right.)

Awful. Just awful.

Reviewed: 20-03-2018

An unforgivable mangling of a truly remarkable work. Agree with the reviewer below- the bit at the beginning, a completely inappropriate co-option of Renault's work to fit a contemporary 'Gay Rights' narrative, is insufferable and unnecessary, and contradicts completely the core messages of the book (I can only imagine they were too subtle for the writer of the foreword). The Charioteer is first and foremost a good novel, not even so much a Gay(!) novel, still less a didactic political screed.

The voices the narrator adopts for the different characters are stilted and overdone (not to mention badly done); bizarre, actually. They're like caricatures: the masculine voices are exaggeratedly deep and dense-sounding; the feminine (for which he adopts a falsetto), mean and shrill. It's excruciating to listen to. Laurie, Ralph and Andrew (who the narrator distinguishes by making him speak in a barely-audible whisper) deserve better. Mary Renault deserves better. Her peerless and singular style (of which the narrator has no discernible appreciation) deserves better. Renault's descriptions and especially dialogue perfectly and effortlessly evoke the period, but this narrator doesn't really seem to know how people in the first half of the 20th century talked. A more experienced reader would have been much better. My personal choice would be an older woman, perhaps a distinguished (theatre?) actress; someone literate enough to understand the beauty and power of what they are reading.

A must for any Tolkien fan

Reviewed: 18-03-2018

Tolkien's verse is simple and delightful and, at times, very beautiful. Derek Jacobi is, of course, inimitable.

Story and Narration both excellent

Reviewed: 18-03-2018

This is C.S. Lewis' best and most mature work (in his opinion as well as mine). The story is a must-read for fans of Lewis, Greek myth or literature with sensitive and moving explorations of profound spiritual, psychological and philosophical themes. Equally enjoyable by believers and non-believers, and I would imagine more palatable to the non-religious than Lewis' more blatantly didactic/allegorical works. Make no mistake, there is plenty of allegory here too, but it is first and foremost a good story. The narrator is excellent and does perfect justice to Lewis' simple, yet elegant and evocative style.

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