Kathryn Hughes of The Guardian left stunned by Stroud

Heroes of the Valley book cover image Kathryn Hughes writes for the Guardian and has recently reviewed Jonathan Stroud’s wonderful Heroes of the Valley. She was glowing in her praise for his latest work:

“Children’s fiction of the past 30 years has been laced with sub-Tolkienian whimsy – all those quest narratives set in northern European winterscapes, prefaced with elaborate maps and a long list of characters with Norse names. Heroes of the Valley has a map, and it’s certainly jolly cold, and the names could well be Norse, but there the similarities to cookie-cutter fantasy end. Written out of a deeply felt world, and with a taut, disciplined voice that knows its Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as well as its Harry Potter, Jonathan Stroud’s new book is, quite simply, stunning.”

Heroes of the Valley reviewed in the The Guardian

FantasyBookReview.co.uk reviewed Heroes of the Valley recently and was no less taken with this spell-binding fantasy tale:

“It has been quite a long time since I have enjoyed a book this much. The feelings of warmth and enjoyment experienced are similar to those felt when reading The Hobbit; that is how good this book is. Although this may be my first encounter of Stroud’s work it will certainly not be the last and if the Bartimaeus trilogy is anywhere near as good as this then I am in for an absolute treat. I would highly recommend this book to all, regardless of age, an enthralling tale told by a master storyteller.”

Heroes of the Valley – full book review on FantasyBookReview.co.uk

Since 2002 Kathryn Hughes has written regularly for the Guardian, contributing pieces on history and biography to the Review and opinion pieces to the Comment pages. She is a contributing editor to Prospect magazine and also writes for the Times Literary Supplement and the Economist. Her particular interests are Victorian history and contemporary popular culture.

Jonathan Stroud was born in Bedford and grew up in St Albans. He always had a burning desire to write a full-length work of fiction which he would have wanted to read when he was younger, and so after graduating from York University he embarked on a publishing and writing career in the game book and non-fiction department at Walker Books. He moved to Kingfisher Publications to edit children’s non-fiction, and for a time juggled working with writing; but Jonathan is now a full-time writer.

Posted: January 10th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Fantasy Book Review, Jonathan Stroud

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