Summary: After Jack returned from his adventures with the Northmen in The Sea of Trolls, life seemed to go back to normal... for a while. But ordinary village life isn't particularly satisfying for a young apprentice bard who has faced down trolls and dragons. Jack's little sister Lucy is behaving even worse than usual, but when she is kidnapped, Jack - along with a freed slave named Pega - must journey to Elfland and face creatures and dangers he's never dreamed of if he wants to restore his family.

Review: While I really enjoy the world that Nancy Farmer has created in these books, I didn't enjoy this one as much as I did The Sea of Trolls. It was still a fun adventure and historical fantasy, still well-written, still uses mythology in interesting ways, and still doesn't talk down to its intended audience or oversimplify complex issues. I particularly like how willing Farmer is to even-handedly deal with religious pluralism - pagan, Norse, Christian - without getting preachy. However, I felt like there was just *too much* going on in this book to make it a winner - it started to sprawl, and it got a little hard to track all of the pieces at the same time, and remember why I was supposed to care about each. Maybe with one fewer magical creature, one fewer adventure, one fewer plot thread, one fewer pairing with hints of romance, one fewer goal to the quest, and about five or ten fewer tertiary characters, it would have been much tighter and flowed much better. It was still a fun and enjoyable listen, and kids in the target demographic (maybe 10-14?) may have less of a problem with all of the disparate pieces than I did, but I feel like it needed some trimming to pare it down to just the really great parts. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Worth reading if you want to spend more time with Farmer's characters and in her world, but it's more scattered and thus not quite as good as the first book. ( )

After his adventures in The Sea of Trolls, Jack has been settling in to his considerably more boring life back at home. But this lack of adventure won't last for long. When the need-fire ceremony goes terribly wrong, and Lucy is once again in danger, Jack and young slave girl Pega set off through the Hollowlands to Elfland in order to save her. On the way, Jack must survive encounters with knuckers, Picts, heartless elves, yarthkins, hobgoblins and kelpies.

Like in the first novel, The Land of the Silver Apples contains a whole bestiary of mythology, and it is introduced in the best way possible with adventures and memorable encounters. I loved the introduction of Arthurian themes with Nimue and the story of Lancelot (I'm a sucker for anything Arthurian). And Jack's struggle with conflicting ideologies (the Bard's pagan wisdom, the Northmen's bloody fatalism, and Father Aiden's gentle Christianity) proves truly interesting without ever turning preachy one way or another.

It was good to meet Thorgil again, and even better to have Lucy off the reader's hands for most of the novel. Hang in there through the beginning where she is (I hadn't thought it possible, but there it is) even more nasty and self-centered than she was before. There is, however, an explanation for her behavior lurking in this book that certainly made me feel better. In addition to old favorites (Thorgil, Dragontongue) there is a host of new characters to enjoy (Pega, the Nemesis) and some to be both amused and annoyed by (Brutus, Ethne).

The high points are many: the adventure, Pega's practicality, not everything can be solved by magic, and Jack is NOT the best at everything he sets out to be. And although there isn't quite as much adventure as I remember in the first book, there is still plenty to go around. I just wish the final storm of Din Guardi had been a little more climactic.

Also posted at my blog ( )

In eighth-century Britain, Jack travels to the Land of the Silver Apples, where elves rule and time stands still. He and his companions are on a quest to rescue his kidnapped sister. They journey through enchanted lands and among astounding peoples. The vivid setting is richly imagined and the characters are memorable, such as the bloodthirsty shield-maiden Thorgil, Pega the slave girl, and Bugaboo, the hobgoblin king who is eager to marry her. The fast-paced creative story touches upon the themes of immortality and religious traditions. Recommended for fans of fantasy fiction. ( )

Farmer's humans shine;

magic characters, less so.

It needs more Vikings!

In this sequel to Sea of Trolls, Jack and Thorgil meet elves, hobgoblins, picts, evil monks and other people and beings on their way to try and reclaim Lucy from Elfland. ( )