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suannelaqueur's review
5.0
Oh my God. I can’t even… I have no words. I’ve never read anything like this in my life.
wafer's review
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This is an odd one. I’m usually a huge fan of Kilworth’s work, and his take on hares certainly isn’t a bad one, it just feels tonally off. I really wish he hadn’t felt the need to include such a bizarre antagonist as the harpy eagle (who you only know is a harpy eagle once you read the afterward - the narrative is intentionally vague on that). Very abrupt ending as well.
I liked it! Just not my favorite of his line-up.
I liked it! Just not my favorite of his line-up.
thistlechaser's review
4.0
While I had a number of issues with this book, all in all, I liked it quite a bit.
I love "talking animal" stories, and this was a perfect example of them -- I believed every animal in the book as an animal, not a human in animal shape. More than that, each of his animal species were so different -- it was just so enjoyable to see how he handled otter characters compared to hedgehogs. Their speech patterns and personalities were just so different.
The main character was a hare, born in the highlands of somewhere in Europe (Scotland I assumed, though it's never named). He's captured in a... hare beating? Bunch of men banging drums to herd hares into a small area where they can be captured or killed. The story tells of his life after he's caught in that.
The book's antagonist was fitting for the story. (And "antagonist" is the only word to describe what he was: "a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.") The book's antagonist was not a villain or a bad guy, it was a person bird who was made what he was by his environment. (Also, happily the greatest mystery of the book, just what kind of bird he was, was solved in the author's afterwards. I would have been highly frustrated if we had never learned what his species was.)
There were a number of things about the book that didn't work for me:
It was long. Very very long. My Kindle tells me how long it takes me to finish a book based on my reading speed. Most books take me about four hours to read. This one took me six and a half. The pages were not packed with story so much as lists. The author would do something like "And since it was spring, the hares ate... [three page list of all the plant that grow in the area]".
Somehow the writing was extremely dated. Before I had checked, I would have guessed that it had been published in the 30s-50s. It was published in 1992. I have no idea how one would even try to write in so dated a way...
It was in British English. Mostly this doesn't bother me in the least, but using single quotes for dialogue is distracting (and sometimes confusing -- what if there's a contraction or possessive in the middle of dialogue?). I had to use my Kindle's dictionary function on a number of words, and all of them turned out to be "chiefly British" or "archaic" words.
While it was about a hare's whole life, and it was an eventful life, it feels like the amount that happened in the plot no where matched how long it took me to read it. So all in all I enjoyed it, I just wish it had been a much, much shorter book. I'm very much ready to read something else now.
I love "talking animal" stories, and this was a perfect example of them -- I believed every animal in the book as an animal, not a human in animal shape. More than that, each of his animal species were so different -- it was just so enjoyable to see how he handled otter characters compared to hedgehogs. Their speech patterns and personalities were just so different.
The main character was a hare, born in the highlands of somewhere in Europe (Scotland I assumed, though it's never named). He's captured in a... hare beating? Bunch of men banging drums to herd hares into a small area where they can be captured or killed. The story tells of his life after he's caught in that.
The book's antagonist was fitting for the story. (And "antagonist" is the only word to describe what he was: "a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.") The book's antagonist was not a villain or a bad guy, it was a person bird who was made what he was by his environment. (Also, happily the greatest mystery of the book, just what kind of bird he was, was solved in the author's afterwards. I would have been highly frustrated if we had never learned what his species was.)
There were a number of things about the book that didn't work for me:
It was long. Very very long. My Kindle tells me how long it takes me to finish a book based on my reading speed. Most books take me about four hours to read. This one took me six and a half. The pages were not packed with story so much as lists. The author would do something like "And since it was spring, the hares ate... [three page list of all the plant that grow in the area]".
Somehow the writing was extremely dated. Before I had checked, I would have guessed that it had been published in the 30s-50s. It was published in 1992. I have no idea how one would even try to write in so dated a way...
It was in British English. Mostly this doesn't bother me in the least, but using single quotes for dialogue is distracting (and sometimes confusing -- what if there's a contraction or possessive in the middle of dialogue?). I had to use my Kindle's dictionary function on a number of words, and all of them turned out to be "chiefly British" or "archaic" words.
While it was about a hare's whole life, and it was an eventful life, it feels like the amount that happened in the plot no where matched how long it took me to read it. So all in all I enjoyed it, I just wish it had been a much, much shorter book. I'm very much ready to read something else now.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
4.0
A book about hares a la Watership Down. Not as good as Watership but not bad either.
abomine's review
4.0
REVIEW WIP
I seriously thought for a while that the title of this book was "Frost Dangers" because those damn hare ears cover up the important lower half of the letter 'C' in the title. So I kept trying to google "Frost Dangers" (and I thought to myself, 'What a dumb title for a book'), and until I finally got a closer look at the cover and realized it said "Frost Dancers". Apparently, I'm not alone in this confusion. Had my sister, dad, and mom fooled too. ._.
-------------------
Also, I'd like to thank this awesome documentary (narrated by David Attenborough, no less) for introducing me to the awesomeness of hares. ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQfXE8nwl28
-------------------
This is the first book I've ever read by Garry Kilworth, and I must say, he has left an excellent first impression. It's not necessarily a break-neck pace, stay-up-all-night-even-though-you-have-work-tomorrow-but-you-gotta-read-one-last-chapter kind of read (at least not until the second half, when the action REALLY picks up speed!), but it's immersing and engrossing, grand and sweeping.
Kind of like this music. ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XOV2L-eM38
It's rather like Tolkien's fiction, in that you're not reading it for the non-stop action, but for the inspiring journey.
Kilworth has captured the often-overlooked nobility and resilience of the hare beautifully in this book with his lagomorphic hero, Skelter. At first glance, he seems like any other likable, everyman sort of character (with his own share of faults, like stubbornness, obliviousness, and a touch of racism against rabbits), but as the story progresses, he becomes a creature of grit, courage, and cunning worthy of The Fabled Hare. He and his kind live on the very cutting edge of survival, whose only defense is in their incredible speed.
I also appreciated the fact that animals in this world all spoke different languages, and under normal circumstances could not speak to each other unless they were multilingual (a concept that author David Clement-Davies would later come to use in his xenofiction books [b:Fire Bringer|58087|Fire Bringer|David Clement-Davies|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309213343s/58087.jpg|2338065] and [b:The Sight|58085|The Sight (Sight, #1)|David Clement-Davies|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388297746s/58085.jpg|56563]). Nope, never mind. Garry Kilworth did not invent this concept. We owe this one to the always inspiring Richard Adams.
The heroics of The Fabled Hare must always be counterbalanced by a wicked adversary of equal mettle, and Bubba, the monstrous harpy eagle who thinks he's a human being, is definitely a worthy foe (and worthy of making my list of top favorite literary villains). He is a terrifying, badass, and hideously twisted serial killer, but also tragic, evil not by nature, but by nurture. It is in this way that he is reminiscent of Mary Shelley's nameless Creature, a monster cut off from all of animal society by the "parent" who created him and forced forge his own destructive path, being neither wholly beast nor man. The ultimate tragedy of Bubba is that his plight is firmly rooted in the hideous reality of the exotic pet trade. I'm looking at you, ass-hat YouTubers who like to show off videos of your servals and wolfdogs so you can brag about how "badass" you are for having a wild animal as a pet.
Garry Kilworth has so far proven himself a very worthy xenofiction author. While he may not quite reach the same level as the venerable Richard Adams, he certainly comes close. I'll be keeping an eye out for his earlier, and more popular novel, [b:Hunter's Moon|119816|Hunter's Moon|Garry Douglas Kilworth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1229669759s/119816.jpg|115358]. Because everybody loves foxes.
I seriously thought for a while that the title of this book was "Frost Dangers" because those damn hare ears cover up the important lower half of the letter 'C' in the title. So I kept trying to google "Frost Dangers" (and I thought to myself, 'What a dumb title for a book'), and until I finally got a closer look at the cover and realized it said "Frost Dancers". Apparently, I'm not alone in this confusion. Had my sister, dad, and mom fooled too. ._.
-------------------
Also, I'd like to thank this awesome documentary (narrated by David Attenborough, no less) for introducing me to the awesomeness of hares. ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQfXE8nwl28
-------------------
This is the first book I've ever read by Garry Kilworth, and I must say, he has left an excellent first impression. It's not necessarily a break-neck pace, stay-up-all-night-even-though-you-have-work-tomorrow-but-you-gotta-read-one-last-chapter kind of read (at least not until the second half, when the action REALLY picks up speed!), but it's immersing and engrossing, grand and sweeping.
Kind of like this music. ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XOV2L-eM38
It's rather like Tolkien's fiction, in that you're not reading it for the non-stop action, but for the inspiring journey.
Kilworth has captured the often-overlooked nobility and resilience of the hare beautifully in this book with his lagomorphic hero, Skelter. At first glance, he seems like any other likable, everyman sort of character (with his own share of faults, like stubbornness, obliviousness, and a touch of racism against rabbits), but as the story progresses, he becomes a creature of grit, courage, and cunning worthy of The Fabled Hare. He and his kind live on the very cutting edge of survival, whose only defense is in their incredible speed.
The heroics of The Fabled Hare must always be counterbalanced by a wicked adversary of equal mettle, and Bubba, the monstrous harpy eagle who thinks he's a human being, is definitely a worthy foe (and worthy of making my list of top favorite literary villains). He is a terrifying, badass, and hideously twisted serial killer, but also tragic, evil not by nature, but by nurture. It is in this way that he is reminiscent of Mary Shelley's nameless Creature, a monster cut off from all of animal society by the "parent" who created him and forced forge his own destructive path, being neither wholly beast nor man. The ultimate tragedy of Bubba is that his plight is firmly rooted in the hideous reality of the exotic pet trade. I'm looking at you, ass-hat YouTubers who like to show off videos of your servals and wolfdogs so you can brag about how "badass" you are for having a wild animal as a pet.
Garry Kilworth has so far proven himself a very worthy xenofiction author. While he may not quite reach the same level as the venerable Richard Adams, he certainly comes close. I'll be keeping an eye out for his earlier, and more popular novel, [b:Hunter's Moon|119816|Hunter's Moon|Garry Douglas Kilworth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1229669759s/119816.jpg|115358]. Because everybody loves foxes.
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