The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain Book 1)

*The Chronicles of Prydain* is a five-book high fantasy children's series by Lloyd Alexander. Since it's initial release decades ago, it has become a classic of children's literature. A few years back, I decided to give the first novel in the series a try, as the series is well-loved by some of my friends. *The Book of Three* opens with a young man named Taran, who is an Assistant Pig-Keeper at Caer Dallben, in the fictional world of Prydain (based on Wales loosely). Young Taran thirsts for adventure, and wants desperately to be a hero, famous, *something* other than an “Assistant Pig-Keeper”. He gets his chance, but he may regret it. One day, literally out of the blue, the “oracular pig” Hen-Wen digs a hole and escapes her enclosure. A note that an "oracular pig" is exactly what it says on the tin, so to speak. It is an pig that is also an oracle that can prophesy information, so of course the bad guys want to get to her before she can be used against them. And there are bad guys, as we shall soon see. Despite Taran's best efforts, Hen-Wen flees, so the boy goes after her. That is when things go from bad to worse for him. He comes across an army led by the fearsome and evil Horned King. This malevolent and powerful warrior is the chief military commander of the forces of Annuvin, the realm governed by Arawn, an evil being based upon the god of death from Welsh mythology. Please note that much of the series is very loosely based on Welsh myths and epics. Emphasis on loosely as the author played around to make a good story. Anyways, Taran, while fleeing these forces, is discovered by Gwydion, Prince of Prydain, heir to the house of Don, which many years ago originally defeated Arawn. He seeks to warn his house at Caer Dathyl of the coming invasion. Taran ends up having to join Gwydion on his quest, but soon must take the quest upon himself when Gwydion appears to have perished. Our young hero is joined on this journey by Eilonwy, who can perform magic and is knowledgeable about many things. Unfortunately, she is also more than a tad stuck-up and an absolute motor mouth but Taran is a bit of an idiot at times and stubborn, so it balances out. Also joining Taran are the bard Fflewddur Fflam, who is not a real bard, but a one-time king who chose to be a bard and so travels the land attempting to act like one. He is brave, and wise, but tends to pepper his stories with exaggerations. They are rounded out by Gurgi, a strange half-man/half-beast creature who starts out very cowardly, but improves as Taran treats him with kindness and respect. Their quest is one of danger and a mix of really bad and really good choices on Taran's part. In the end, though Taran feels everyone else did well but him, he is told he is not correct. He lead the quest ably, kept everyone together, and did the right thing in a hard time. He did well, in other words. I can't really say much more about it from a critical standpoint when it comes to how the myths are handled. From what I've read, they appear to be handled well by Alexander in his reinterpretation of them, but my knowledge of Welsh folklore is much too small to judge the book on this area. I will say that the story and land being based upon Welsh folklore and Wales itself was quite neat. How often do you find tales from that region of the UK in stories anymore? That was a plus for the series by itself. As a character, Eilonwy fascinates me. I am only half-joking when I say that Lloyd Alexander must have had some Japanese fans who based their "tsundere" character type on her. She just so perfectly encapsulates this trope/character type. A tsundere is one who is harsh on the outside and loving on the inside to some target, be it friend, love interest, so on. They will badmouth someone while being absolutely fond of the in their hearts. This is Eilonwy's dynamic with Taran in a nutshell. The story also has a nice subplot of watching Taran grow up somewhat. He underwent (the first of several, I hear) a “hero's journey” to use a somewhat cliched term. The reader saw Taran go from someone who is impatient, sometimes rude, and blames others for his mistakes, to a boy who can still be headstrong and rude, but is much more kind and understanding, has developed leadership skills, and takes responsibility for his mistakes (and even for those mistakes that were not his). What made this so enjoyable is that Alexander did not hit you over the head with any of this. This “growing up” plot did not overtake the story, but progressed naturally and organically. He also realizes that simple living is what matters, not battles or adventures. As someone who sees a necessity to sometimes using force, but wants to avoid it and values peace and joy over a desire for war, I like this part a lot. *The Book of Three* is an excellent adventure that will keep you engaged and cheering for the good guys, as well as groaning and laughing at their faults, and enjoying their character development. It was well-worth my time to read. Highly Recommended. Rating: 5/5 Stars

This is a wonderful book. It reminds me of Tolkien's, "The Lord of the Ring" triology. The setting is the land of Prydain, which is loosely based on the area of Wales. Some of the characters are based on Welsh mythology, but many are creations just for the fictitious Land of Prydain. The main character is Taran, the Assistant Pig Keeper to Dallben, a mysterious wizard like figure, who owns and consults "The Book of Three." When Dallben reveals to Taran that his book is showing a disturbance coming to Caer Dallben, and to Prydain itself, the bees begin to swarm, the chickens fly away, and Hen Wen, the oracular pig runs away. Taran goes into the woods to find Hen Wen. There he meets the famed good King Gwydion, and encounters the Horned King that is sent by King Arawn, the Lord fo Annuvin, land of the dead. King Gwydion and Taran join together to discover what the Lord of the Dead is up to. They are captured and separated. Taran meets a tomboyish princess named Eilonwy, who leads him to safety, and reunites him with Gwydion, whom turns out to be the King's cousin, Fflewddur Fflam. They are joined by Gurgi, an hairy creature, who acts as spy for food. Believing King Gwydion to be dead, these four set out to go to Caer Dathyl, the kingdom of King Gwydion, to warn the Sons of Don that the Horned King is coming to destroy them. They are a cast of hilarious characters, who face many adventures and constant danger, as they try to outdistance themselves from the evil army raised by King Arawn. They journey to strange places in this fast paced adventure story. Sometimes in front of, sometimes behind the Horned King's army, you won't be able to put this book down until its conclusion. This book is a classic.

If I'd read this series back in 1970 when the final book was published and I was eleven, I probably would have loved it without reservation. But I've grown up a bit since then and so has the young adult fantasy genre, and, I think, the tastes of young readers. I think my daughter, who reads everything, will blaze through these books and quickly forget them, and my son, who reads only what is most rewarding, would find the first few books too dull and impenetrable to win his attention. The five books, together, plot the hero's journey of Taran, Assistant Pig Keeper. He's accompanied by a collection of companions, each defined by a few character and speech quirks that rather quickly grow dull. In the first three books they go on fairly conventional quests, which they succeed in by luck and happenstance rather than by any particular virtue of their own. Many curious elements are introduced, but nothing seem to come of them. The first book is titled "The Book of Three" and there is a "Book of Three" in it, but it plays no particularly important role in the story and you learn nothing about it. There's an oracular pig, who doesn't deliver much of anything in the way of oracles. There's a good wizard, who does no magic, but seems instead to spend all his time napping. An army of immortal evil warriors is introduced, but not confronted. It's all a bit perplexing, but it goes well enough with a hero who fails to be all that heroic. The plotting frequently seems rather clunky. You can see that the author needed something to happen, so he contrived some excuse for the characters to do it. Events don't really flow very naturally. It isn't until the fourth book, really, that the series begins to gain interest. In "Taran Wanderer" our hero seeks to find himself. He manages to shake off most of his annoying companions, and the book veers rather daringly into parable, generally the best possible way to be boring, but Alexander pulls it off. and the lessons Taran learns are deep and unusual. In the fifth book, "The High King" we finally get all the payoffs that were missing in the first three books. The oracular pig delivers an oracle, the wizard wakes up and does some magic, and so forth. The book is just payoff after payoff, and it is rather satisfying. So the long slog is rewarded in the end for the reader who persists. There is something of an issue with the female character, Eilonwy, who undergoes a backwards hero's quest. She starts as a half-trained sorceress and steadily loses power through the entire story, being trimmed more and more back to respectable femininity as the series progresses. Eilonwy's fading magic is partly standard 1960's sexism, but it's also reflective of the general distrust of magic in this series. You can find more magic on one page of Harry Potter than you'll find in this whole series. There's a lot more thumping people with swords going on than magic, and the magic is generally sternly disapproved of. It's a grim kind of fantasy that doesn't dare to have any fun with magic. That may have been the key attitude shift that led to the young adult fantasy explosion - celebrating magic instead disapprovingly stomping it down. So, it's a worthy series, but a touch dated, with many flaws, a slow start, and many dull and repetitive parts. It is not, by any means, going to be an automatic hit with most Harry Potter fans, but there are bits of it that are wonderful. I give "The Book of Three" four stars mainly because it is the start of a worthwhile journey. On it's own, I'd probably give it two.

This is a great first read for young readers; the characters grow with the readers over time. It’s a stepping stone to more advanced fantasy (Tolkien) and sci-fi. Don’t expect too much and just enjoy the story.

Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series is made up of some simply lovely stories, full of adventure and heart and timeless lessons. These were my fiancee's favorite books growing up, so I decided to read them myself. The characters are recognizable fantasy-trope types, but manage not to be cloying or insipid, which would have killed the magic for me as a child or an adult. More importantly, the books remain intent on demonstrating the importance of hard work, kindness and selflessness, and steadily impress upon their audience the dignity and beauty of every living thing. This first book in the series would probably be suitable for a smart eight or nine-year-old. I appreciated the fact that while the main characters are believable as children, the author manages not to portray them in an infantile or patronizing way; they are fully conscious and human from the beginning, just as real children are. Fiction, even childrens' fiction, seldom does child characters any justice, but these books are an exception. Alexander paints our first impressions of Prydain with a broad brush, but manages to convey the essence of each character and place in a way will be sustained and embellished throughout the series. Thus we get to watch Taran and Eilonwy engage in real heroics and exercise real wisdom, and in subsequent books we watch them grow up in a way that captures the moral trials of coming of age as few stories, fiction or nonfiction, have managed successfully.

I made the error of dismissing the fact that this book's target audience are "tweens." The series was recommended by a web sight touting the 30 best fantasy series of all time. As a book intended for 8-12 year olds I do not feel it is necessary to complain about the writing or insult anyone's intelligence for liking it. As a 45 year old I still enjoy the occasional re-reading of an old Hardy Boys book I first came to love in the 3rd or 4th grade. Nevertheless I still feel I should warn any adult (or adult level) readers with high expectations for this being the next LOTR saga. This is not it, nor is it trying to be, and neither does it claim to be. It should not be judged poorly against other books written for an older audience. Still, there were enjoyable moments in the book, and some of the characters were somewhat endearing after a while. In fact, there was a hidden gem of wisdom contained therein. Something to the effect of when looking for the truth, sometimes we don't find it, but in the process learn so much more than what we set out for. That really struck a chord for me, but I would like to add that from my own experience this is also true, however it is no less disappointing to not find the answers one seeks, no matter how much else was learned in the process. Finally, seeing that there is a lively (and rather amusing) militia of self-appointed guardians of Lloyd Alexander's canon in the responses to bad reviews, can anyone recommend a good fantasy series to me suitable for a well read adult? I have only read the obvious Hobbit & LOTR (once as a youth, three more times as an adult) all of CS Lewis (twice), and I was into Terry Brooks going up through my teen years, but outgrew his writing as I got older. I did read all the Harry Potter books (after a haughty refusal initially) and found them quite enjoyable and well written - absolutely nothing to be ashamed about for an adult who normally cuts his teeth on history books, biographies, and classic literature from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Aside from that I don't think I have done anything in the fantasy genre for decades, and I don't want to just keep re-reading Tolkein the rest of my life, although I feel like I am overdo for re-reading The Sword Of Shannara, just to see if it stands up to time.

Enjoyed it.

Excellent and interesting storyline with each character gaining insights & understanding as they progress. I'll certainly read the whole series

It's the first book in a classic series. Besides being entertaining for all ages, we learn a lot about valuing courage and loyalty in very difficult times.

Hacía tiempo que buscaba estos libros en español y al no encontrar casi nada, me decidí a leerlos en inglés. Ojalá esta serie de mucho que hablar. Opté por leerlos tras ver la película de Disney "Taron y el Caldero Mágico" (basada en trozos de estas novelas). Aunque está en tapa blanda, la calidad de la encuadernación y la portada me gustan.

英雄になりたくってしょうがない予言豚飼育係助手のTaran君。 逃がしてしまった予言豚Hen Wenを追いかていくうちに、思いがけず冒険の旅に出るはめに。 明るく楽しいアメリカ版「旅の仲間」は頼りないことこの上なし。 ハーブを探すことぐらいしか取り得のないTaran君筆頭に、生意気でお喋りなEilonwyは毒舌は大したものだけれど魔法のほうは役立たず。 一体どんな生き物なのか良く分からないGurgiはお調子者で臆病者。 無免許吟遊詩人のFflewddurはホラをふく癖が抜けず、嘘をつくと弦が切れるハープを修理してばかりいる。 そんな彼らの道案内をするDoliはドワーフ仲間の落ちこぼれ。 馬鹿な子ほどかわいいとは言ったもので、そんな彼らが可愛くて仕方ありません。 実際、みんなホントに良い奴なんです。 なけなしの勇気をかき集めて戦う彼らの姿には心打たれます。 エイゴは簡単かと思いきや、古めかしい単語や言い回しがところどころ出て来て、ちょっと読みづらいです。 あとは固有名詞が･･･。どう発音するのかさっぱり分かりません。

A great book and really good price I would definitely recommend you read it if you like fantasy and medieval books.

I loved this book, I enjoyed it so much from the beginning to the end. Nonetheless if you came here looking for "The black cauldron" Disney film, prepare to be a little bit confused at the beginning The movie grasps the idea, has Taron as the main character, Dolbyn etc, but everything else, it's different. Its a nice book, I really liked it, a nice story, whacky characters. Not the movie. 10/10