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The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

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Even though he also became interested in Susan, it was refreshingly not because of her looks or awesome abilities, but rather by her personality and ability to roll with the weird magical situations she was suddenly facing. Der Showdown konnte mich irgendwie nicht so ganz überzeugen, zum Beispiel blieb für mich die Frage offen, warum die "bösen" Personen so gehandelt haben. Admittedly, Merlin's good looks seemed tropish especially when Susan found herself attracted to him.

It's not Sabriel levels of awesome, but it was an enjoyable read with an interesting magic system (although the loophole ending is foreshadowed from a mile away). Less so for Merlin, though a lot of his character is quirk - he does get a chance to show a little more substance towards the end, which helped.

That said, there were enough tropes to still make it a bit formulaic, although not in an irritating way. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

Merlin wurde mir etwas zu exzentrisch dargestellt und Susan hat vieles einfach akzeptiert anstatt Fragen zu stellen. Being someone who normally loves to find an action packed adventure while reading I was surprised to find I didn’t end up enjoying this one more as it was one long adventure story. While I found the worldbuilding to be quite clever especially in part of the booksellers, the plot was fairly standard and predictable albeit adequately engaging to keep me entertained. All that potential just feels a bit untapped in favor of narrow focus on Susan and her “outsider” perspective. With their complementary personalities and easy affection, the four friends are an endearing, sibling-like group; Liliath makes a fascinating antagonist.Garth's many books include the Old Kingdom fantasy series, beginning with Sabriel and continuing to Goldenhand ; the sci-fi novels Shade's Children and A Confusion of Princes ; the Regency romance with magic Newt's Emerald ; and novels for children including The Ragwitch , the Seventh Tower series, the Keys to the Kingdom series, and Frogkisser! I think that for me if this one had a smoother start I would have been pulled in quicker but instead once the story flowed at a better rate I was just kind of so-so on the characters and adventure making this one just an ok read. The main character was a bit of a dud for me, she just sort of went along with everything as it happened. There are left-handed booksellers who are all brawn and speed and rawr, and the right-handed ones, who are the brains and magic and thinkers.

Fans will cheer this latest volumetightly paced with a satisfying resolution, capable and relatable female characters, plenty of action, and reappearances by beloved characters-and fervently hope for more to come. I loved that this book was inspired by Nix's own visits to the United Kingdom, the first time coincidentally being in 1983, and his gratitude to booksellers which came across in his Acknowledgement. Garth Nix's The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is one of those young adult novels that easily makes the crossing to adult reading. It doesn't have a lot of depth, but it's a delightful romp through British legend and folklore and I enjoyed it as a light but occasionally surprisingly violent and suspenseful adventure story.I was familiar with these because of the Chronicles of Prydain, so it was interesting to see them in another context.

However, the book seemed to get off to a very slow start, one in which it felt as if dropped right into the middle of something.

The main character, Susan, knows nothing about the magic system, so we find out about it at same time she does. I suppose I wasn't the intended audience for the story, but I believe a great book entertains all ages. There is a little bit of romance too but very little - just enough to enjoy without getting in the way of a thoroughly good adventure.

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