132,956
edits
Changes
Silent Mountain by Michelle Briscombe (view source)
Revision as of 16:47, 29 August 2020
, 16:47, 29 August 2020no edit summary
It’s got some fairly good ideas and competent storytelling, so I’ll get the only gripe out of the way: The ending. Turn away now if you don’t want it spoiled! There isn’t an ending. The whole book is leading up to the top of the mountain being heaven and the twist being that Jack died in the lake when the ice broke. While this is by no means the only satisfactory ending that could have happened, it really would have fit the book. What we actually get is a short lecture on The Environment, patted on the head and gently but firmly ushered back to real life. This is a real shame as it lets down an otherwise good book.
Okay, it’s safe to look back now. The adventure is dangerous, Jack is likable likeable and the whole book is suffused with that Hushabye Mountain melancholy – much like The Last Battle of the Chronicles of Narnia. Briscombe seems to have put a lot of thought into the other world and into the route that Jack must take and into the mysterious people and Alice (presumably not her name from birth as she is a waterbaby water baby from another plane of existence). All the signs are there for the big ending, it just seems a little like she changed her mind at the last minute, possibly in favour of a sequel.
There’s the feel of a series in the air and I’d be interested to see how that would work out based on what we know from the first book. Jack and Alice could certainly carry it and the villains are raring to go, having only had a cameo appearance so far.