The Floating Island

This book is just downright fun. I picked it up because Elizabeth Haydon writes an AMAZING adult fantasy series (Symphony of Ages, if you want to look into that), and I wanted to see how her middle grade stands up against that. The answer I found: The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme might actually be better than Symphony of Ages.

The Floating Island centers around a 50-year-old “Nain” (literally french for dwarf — very cool wordplay there) named Ven, who is just reaching his majority by his race’s standards. He is the son of a shipmaker and when he goes to inspect his father’s newest ship, he embarks on what seems to be a never-ending adventure full of twists, surprises, and magic. This feels like an old-fashioned, true show more adventure story to me, and it’s something I would have DEVOURED when I was twelve — mermaids, dwarves, pirates, kings, intrigue, revenants, magic — this book has everything I love about fantasy, and more. Even as an adult, I enjoyed it immensely. It’s well done in that it’s framed as a “true” story and these journals of Ven were recently discovered and gathered and published by the author. The narrative itself is interesting in that it switches between straight-up journal entries told from Ven’s perspective and regular narration. This definitely allowed the story to strike a balance between being fast-paced while also remaining true to the journal idea. The illustrations by Brett Helquist are great and add a lot to the story in terms of being able to imagine everything and giving credence to the journal idea.

My favorite part is how this story focuses on what it means to have a home, what friendship/family truly means, and how our lives are bettered by being surrounded by kind people. This is very much a coming of age story, and Ven is able to find his bravery in order to save his friends and stand up for what he thinks is right. He learns how to find out the truth and speak for himself, instead of just going along with whatever people tell him. It’s a great lesson for kids, especially as they find themselves growing up and also trying to figure out how to make their own decisions and be their own person. (And probably could help adults like myself be reminded of the important things in life.)

I can’t recommend this enough, I loved every second of reading this book and am very much looking forward to the sequel.

Also posted on Purple People Readers. show less

One of my favorite fantasy authors is Elizabeth Haydon, so when I saw she'd written a YA book (indeed the first in a series) I snapped it up. This book had a little bit of everything: adventure, fire pirates, travel, mystery. It was also a nice start to a series, because as it stands, the book itself is complete, without cliffhangers or loose ends, but with the promise of likable characters and lots of future adventures and puzzles.

The telling of the story might annoy some, as there is narrative interspersed with fragments of an ancient journal that belonged to the main character, Ven, but I kinda liked it. The story behind the story, so to speak.

I think that this will probably prove to be a good series for middle readers and introduce show more high fantasy to a new generation. show less

How does a book that includes fire pirates, mysterious islands, mermaids, restless ghosts, and evil spirits still manage to be so dull? For an adventure story, this was pretty plodding. It reads slowly, it's too long, and (frankly) it's not all that compelling. It's not bad, but I don't see myself pushing this one on unsuspecting middle-schoolers. I'm suddenly not surprised the copy at my library has such lackluster circulation.

And I have no idea why there's a dragon on the cover; I don't think there's a dragon anywhere in the whole book.

It took me more than halfway through the book before I really got interested, but overall it was a fun read. I think it would be good for middle schoolers who like adventure and fantasy.

Ven Polypheme is a "Nain" who is lost. Ven was stuck on a boat for inspection with his father and it got attacked by bad pirates. Ven blows the boat up and ends up in the middle of the sea where he meets a merrow (mermaid). He eventually gets picked up by another boat and taken care of. He then ends up on land of people and different races. He doesn't know what to do until he meets another friend who helps him and stay with him. Ven is put through many trial and challenges. He gets stuck but keeps on moving and in the end it all works out, in THE FLOATING ISLAND

My opinion about this book is "OK". The author really didn't have a climax to the story or a main idea either. This book has a lot of adventure and action. Not only does Ven get show more stuck in this book he moves on. This is what I like about the author and how she went deep into the details of how Ven was feeling and his emotions through his great challenges and trial he went through by himself and with his friends. The book showed great power and enthusiasm show less

The book written a simple uncomplicated language, temporarily typical youth language. Fast read. It presents a fantasy world without pomp information which enables easy to find yourself in this world. The book presents the adventure of a young Nain, who due to unfortunate incident has faced a completely new challenge. (diagram most fantasy books). Luckily, he meets companions who with him are facing the adversity.

Good book! People from different races work together. It is about following her personality and letting it lead you to do what you want to do and doing what is right.