Kirjailijakuva

Pat O'Shea (1931–2007)

Teoksen The Hounds of the Morrigan tekijä

Pat O'Shea on Pat O'Shea (1). Katso täsmennyssivulta muut tekijät, joiden nimi on Pat O'Shea.

7 teosta 1,144 jäsentä 26 arvostelua

Tekijän teokset

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Virallinen nimi
O'Shea, Patricia Mary Shiels
Muut nimet
Shiels, Patricia Mary
Syntymäaika
1931-01-22
Kuolinaika
2007-05-03
Sukupuoli
female
Kansalaisuus
Ireland
Syntymäpaikka
Galway, Ireland
Kuolinpaikka
Manchester, England, UK
Asuinpaikat
Manchester, England, UK
Palkinnot ja kunnianosoitukset
Horn Book Fanfare Best books of the year award (1988)

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

A perfectly charming re-telling of a tale I can not remember or may never have encountered. The cartoon-like illustrations fit the text well.

I have to wonder what happened to this really talented author who wrote two, very different, highly regarded works of fiction and then fell off the face of the earth, apparently. A bad agent?
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
themulhern | 1 muu arvostelu | Dec 10, 2023 |
Lots to like in this tale of brother and younger sister in rural Ireland, caught up in the conflict between the Dagda (the good God) and the triple goddess, the Morrigan. She wants to regain her full power over death and war, by retrieving a lost pebble, splashed long ago with a drop of her blood, and absorb the poisonous power of a serpent, Oc Glas. The story starts when Pidge is given the writings of (Saint) Patrick in a bookshop and two aspects of the Morrigan come after him, and eventually turns into a quest to find the stone, on which he and his sister Bridget, are trailed by the Morrigan's Hounds, and meet a lot of interesting characters on the way, many of them insects and other animals, or else famous figures from Irish mythology.


I liked the portrayal of the insects and spiders and the elements of comedy around those, though the brogue used by the frogs is a bit tricky to make out at times. I also loved Cooroo, the fox who joined them about halfway through the quest and helped them thwart their pursuers. However, the book does drag in places, with some of the incidents coming across as padding, and there is rather an obsession with the details of what everyone eats. The book is well written, with vivid descriptions of nature, and some of the characters are well developed, though I found quite a lot of the adults rather unsatisfactory.

The main aspect which falls down for me is the lack of tension: for example, the Morrigan imprisons the children at one point, but you know they will soon escape because she needs to follow them to the pebble. Also, due to magical rules, the Hounds can only trail the children rather than hunt them, as long as the children don't run in their sight. It does pick up towards the end, with a terrible battle and the children in real danger from a giant who doesn't work for the Morrigan, but the status quo is soon reinstated and they are off again, trying to take the pebble to where Oc Glas is imprisoned, to destroy it with the blood on the pebble.

I also don't like the ending where a) despite the carnage of the battle, everyone comes to say goodbye, so somehow none of them actually died, and b) Pidge and Brigit are made to forget their adventures. This means that when Cooroo keeps turning up, they are puzzled by the tameness of this fox that will even eat out of their hands, and of course, being back in the real world rather than Tir na Og, where the quest happened, can no longer understand what he might be trying to communicate. This is almost the "it was all a dream" ending of John Masefield's Box of Delights, which I totally rejected as a child, having loved the book, so l'm sure I would've found the ending of Hounds just as much of a letdown if I had read this book as a child.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
kitsune_reader | 23 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Nov 23, 2023 |
Inmerso en el mundo de las hadas y los mitos de irlanda, Los perros de la Mórrígan nos cuentan la llegada de la Gran Reina: La Mórrígan, Desde el remoto oeste para liberar a la serpiente Olc Glas y desencadenar la destrucción del mundo. Dos niños son los elegidos para luchar contra la Mórrígan y contra sus perros, que siguen su rastro. Esperando el momento para cazarlos... muchos críticos han comprado esta obra de Pat O'Shea con El señor de los anillos o La historia interminable. Otros la consideran un nuevo eslabón de la tradición céltica o La aventura del Grial. En cualquier caso, Los perros de la Mórrígan, fruto de diez años de trabajo, es el nacimiento inesperado de un nuevo autor que nos ofrece uno de los más brillantes ejemplos de la fantasía contemporánea.… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
Daniel464 | 23 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Aug 29, 2022 |
There are many books I read as a child that I've thought to pass on to my own children, but only rarely have I discovered the same sort of books as an adult. The Hounds of the Morrigan absolutely fits into this category. It's longer than many of those favorite childhood books, but it contains just the right amounts of adventure, humor, and sweetness. And if it proves too long for the children in my life to read themselves, I think it'd be tremendous fun to read aloud. If you enjoy fond memories of Lloyd Alexander, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Roald Dahl, J.R.R. Tolkien, or C.S. Lewis, give Pat O'Shea a read.… (lisätietoja)
1 ääni
Merkitty asiattomaksi
slimikin | 23 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Mar 27, 2022 |

Listat

Palkinnot

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Stephen Lavis Illustrator
Kinuko Craft Cover artist

Tilastot

Teokset
7
Jäseniä
1,144
Suosituimmuussija
#22,445
Arvio (tähdet)
4.1
Kirja-arvosteluja
26
ISBN:t
37
Kielet
5

Taulukot ja kaaviot