Books of Pellinor - Alison Croggon

★★★★★★★★★★  9/10

Wow! Let's just start with that.

The Books of Pellinor - The Naming, The Riddle, The Crow, and The Singing, written by Australian author Alison Croggon, are a series of four novels all revolving around a young woman named Maerad. While the story follows the traditional fantasy format (where one person is destined to save her world from the evil clutches of a terrible villain), the characters that Croggon creates are so unbelievably detailed, that it's almost possible to put together each character's entire life story from birth up to the end of the series. This is probably the major highlight of each book.

Maerad herself is one of the most complicated and involving characters I've encountered in a very long time. She is both alluring and terrifying, but her struggle to simply be herself is what I found to be the most captivating part of the series. In The Naming, Croggon introduces Maerad as a slave girl destined for greatness, but Maerad is also a bundle of contradictions. She is only about sixteen, but she is experienced beyond her years due to the horrific life she has led under slavery. She is mentally strong, but lacks the friendship and love that is necessary to lead a sane life. It's slightly difficult to believe that such a girl could exist in such conditions without having gone mad or having given in to the horrors surrounding her daily life.

As the series goes on, she becomes more conflicted and develops a deepness of character that seems to mark Croggon's work in this series. Maerad is special even among those with whom she travels. She is destined to save her world, but with that destiny brings both damaging consequences and joyous triumphs. The conflict that dominates her fears and is one that follows her constantly is whether she is of the Light or of the Dark. This is common to most fiction: the fight between good and evil, but here, it's more difficult for Maerad and her companions to figure out. She wants the simple pleasures that she never had as a slave, such as good food, a nice place to live, kind and loving people around her, but part of her yearns for something else, something more like power. She battles within herself to be true to what she believes is right: to be a keeper of the Light, the Knowing, and to be good the people she loves.

Yet, she is so twisted in her upbringing that she does not understand almost anything that

comes easily to others, such as kindness, love, sharing, and charity.

The third book, The Crow, threw me the most.  Instead of Maerad being the absolute focus, as she had been for the last two books, this one is told in respect to Maerad's brother, Hem.  Croggon just leaves off with Maerad's portion of the story and delves into Hem's tale once the two of them part ways.  I did not understand why Croggon did this until more than halfway through The Crow.  She sends in a twist to the story that changes the every dynamic put forth through the first two books.  She changes the original prophecies, increases Hem's importance to Maerad's quest, and even makes me doubt Maerad as a heroine.  Originally, Maerad finding Hem seemed to be a way to boost Maerad's confidence in herself by giving her back something she had lost; Hem was a way to solidify her resolve in bringing an end to the troubles facing her world.  However, the third book changes that and adds more flavor to the whole tale. This book made me very sad, though, because it is always a little painful to think of children facing such horrors and demands as Hem does.  His entire world is torn apart for what seems to be the fourth time in his short life, and his woeful life does not seem like it will improve until Maerad cures the world of the evil that threatens them all.

The only drawbacks that I feel detract from these wonderful books are the similarities to other fantasy novels, both recent and classic. One of these similarities is the presence of "The Nameless One." On first reading about this character, I was struck with the thought of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. They are both evil people, men to be exact, who want nothing less than the total domination of the world at the expense of everyone and anyone but themselves. While they each have a real name in the books, the characters generally refuse to use that name, opting instead for a ridiculous pseudonym. There are definite differences between why the villains are named the way they are: Voldemort is "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" because characters are afraid that his name is cursed and will put them in danger; "The Nameless One" actually does refer to the fact that this person has given up one of his names in exchange for power, which is a dangerous thing to do in the Pellinor series. By the end of the books, this was an easy thing to overlook, but I believe that Croggon could have been a little more creative with her villain.

Another similarity is simply that Croggon followed the safe, easy, unwavering fantasy adventure format that has been around since Tolkien. One character is chosen, fated, or destined to be the salvation of life as they know it, and they have friends who help them along the way, but in the end, after much suffering, pain, and learning, they have to triumph alone. There were no new twists to the format, although the events in the book were highly unpredictable (Croggon never failed to keep you on your toes!), and I was just a little disappointed that yet another author could not let go of the safe way of writing.

All in all, this series is a complete winner in my mind. I will definitely treasure this series as one of the most provoking tales and one of the most captivating I have read. I look forward to reading more from Alison Croggon, should she decide to write other novels in the future.