Selected Product:
| The Ropemaker
Paperback
Author: Peter Dickinson
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release Date: 2003-10-14
Reading Level: Young Adult
ISBN-10: 0385730632
ISBN-13: 9780385730631
List Price: $7.95
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Tilja has grown up in the peaceful Valley, which is protected from the fearsome Empire by an enchanted forest. But the forest’s power has begun to fade and the Valley is in danger. Tilja is the youngest of four brave souls who venture into the Empire together to find the mysterious magician who can save the Valley. And much to her amazement, Tilja gradually learns that only she, an ordinary girl with no magical powers, has the ability to protect her group and their quest from the Empire’s sorcerers.
From the Hardcover edition.
Not very good read
| Customer Rating: | I disliked this book very much. The book has the potential for an interesting plot, but tends to be very boring and confusing. The author fails to use commas in a lot of places and sometimes loses your interest. I like to think that I am a good reader, and I read this book with two other people who also disliked this book. The author also over uses the words "throng" and "grope." The epilogue does not really end the book and left many untied "ropes."
If you expect correct basic sentence mechanics, such as commas, do not read this book. If you don't like it when seemingly random words are used more than once or twice on a page, or if you like good books in general (twilight for example), do not read this book. |
Encore! (Sequel!)
| Customer Rating: | | The Ropemaker will keep you involved and leave you wanting a sequel (which doesn't exist yet, unfortunately). Be prepared for the fact that there is a bit of a disconnect between the title and the actual main character. You won't meet the title character until well into the book (p. 142), and he turns out to be, although important to the outcome, tangential in terms of character development. The story line otherwise revolves around the main character, a teenage girl named Tilja, who is initially despondent about the fact that in a world of magic, where even her own little sister has the gift (horrors!), she is decidedly non-magical. Magic things lose their magic in her touch. But, wait, if there's bad magic out there, that's a good thing, right?! And there is the story. Tilja must risk everything in an attempt to protect her beloved home valley from military attack as well as from the forces of evil. The valley has been protected for 20 generations by a spell cast by a now-dead enchantress, and so Tilja and her companions must find a new magician to renew the spell. This quest in itself is an exciting story and well-written, with a lot of very creative and detailed development of this strange world and society. (For example, the emperor exercises the ultimate taxing authority by forcing people to pay in advance for permission to die of old age!) As Tilja and her companions pursue their life-or-death quest to save their homeland, we get a lot of build-up about how Tilja's "power" may elevate her to a position of prominence, but her potential is never reached or explored in this book. Likewise, the "good" magic of the Ropemaker is unique, with hints of power to come, which are not developed. I hope the cryptic Epilogue isn't a sign that no sequel is planned. This book is, nevertheless, a very good and engrossing read. My 12-year-old daughter loved it, too. |
The Ropemaker
| Customer Rating: | For 20 generations, magic has protected The Valley from the taxes and turmoil of The Empire. However, the great ice glacier that blocks the entrance to The Valley is beginning to melt, and the magic that makes men dizzy in the forests on the other end of The Valley is also fading.
Tilja Urlasdaughter has always felt a little left out. Her grandmother Meena, her mother, and her younger sister Anja all have the Urlasdaughter magic that lets them listen to the great cedar trees of the forest. But Tilja --- nothing! When the Winter Festival arrives, Tilja is very excited. Maybe she will get to see or do some magic there. At the festival, her family comes across the Ortahlsons, from the family that speaks with the great ice glacier. It is decided that the two families must journey to the one who can restore the Valley's magic. This man, however, has not been seen in many years, and no one dares utter his name.
During their exciting adventures, Tilja discovers that she has a magic all her own, unique and unlike any other known magic. She has the ability to channel and control the bad magic floating around The Empire and much more. You'll have to read ROPEMAKER to get the whole story!
Being a teenager, I have read many books geared towards teens --- and I would rate this book at the top of the list! It's an exciting, fantasy page-turner that will leave you wanting more. Dickinson writes the book in a way so that you feel like you're right there on the journey with Tilja, Tahl, Alnor, and Meena, experiencing all their problems and dangers. I leave you with this quote from the book that enticed me to read it, "Time is a great rope. Only as great a magic can unweave it."
--- Reviewed by Jenny, Fabulous Fiction Fan
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Ropemaker is a great story for all ages!
| Customer Rating: | | When I first started reading this book, I was a little disappointed. The beginning was slow. Even when the action picked up, I was still struggling through it. About one fourth of the way through I began to really enjoy the story and the characters. The book emphasized that even though you may feel rejected, the way Tilja did when she couldn't talk to the trees, you still have your own gifts. I liked the way this message was presented. The Ropemaker is a really great book! |
Enchanting Coming of Age Tale...
| Customer Rating: | | The Valley had always been a wonderful place to live, a peaceful place, but then the Empire came. Greedy tax collectors forced the farmers to pay back taxes for all the years that they didn't pay and the horse warriors on the plains raided, raped and murdered the people. Desperate, the Valley sent out a small group of people to seek aid from a powerful sorceress. Two of them found the sorceress, but she was dying and so sent them on to the great wizard Faheel. Faheel heard their plea and accepted the gift that they bore and set up protection for the people in the Valley. To the man, he gave a flask of crystal water and instructed him to empty it into the stream high in the mountains of the Valley and sing the song it told him. To the woman, he gave a loaf of barley and instructed her to plant a small field of barley every year and to feed the cedars in the forest of the Valley and sing the song that they told her. The man and the woman returned to the Valley and every generation there was an Ortahlson who sang to the stream and an Urlasdaughter who sang to the cedars. The Valley became impenetrable to the Empire's soldiers and tax collectors as there was a strange sickness in the forest that made men dizzy, ill, and knocked them out and then killed them. High in the mountains, there was a glacier that blocked the pass that the horse warriors used. As time passed, the people of the Valley told the story for entertainment for they knew it wasn't real, but the Ortahlsons and the Urlasdaughters kept singing... Generation followed generation until twenty has passed since the original adventurers found the wizard Faheel. The unthinkable began to happen as the glacier started to melt and the trees stopped singing and producing their sickness. The people of the Valley knew it was only a matter of time until the Empire would come and enslave them again or they would be killed by the horse warriors. However, the people still refused to believe that the story was true, so it was up to the Ortahlsons and the Urlasdaughters to save their homes. Tilja Urlasdaughter was still grieving over the loss of her beloved Woodbourne when she escorted her grandmother to the gathering. Tilja could not hear the song of the cedars, but her younger sister, Anja, could and so she would inherit the farm of the Urlasdaughters. Indeed, Tilja seemed to have no magic at all and so was stunned when the cedars told Anja that Tilja needed to go with her grandmother and two Ortahlsons to find the wizard Faheel and renew the spell on the Valley. Tilja didn't know what she could do to help, but she was determined to do her best to save her world. However, as the small party journeys slowly through the treacherous Empire, Tilja finds that she may be the only one was has the power to save the Valley simply because she doesn't have any magic... The Ropemaker is an enchanting tale of a girl who is simply ordinary, but in an extraordinary way. Tilja was very likeable and I found myself identifying with her right away. The other characters are also fun to get to know, but Tilja is definitely the focus of the book. As far as the plot goes, this book is more a journey of self discovery than a story with a beginning and an end. If you enjoy journeys with exotic locales and interesting peoples then you will enjoy this tale. Not the most thrilling of books, but nonetheless entertaining and solidly written with little surprises around every corner. It is written simply enough for older children to enjoy, but there is enough detail and intrigue to entertain adults and older readers. |
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