Shay Stephens

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Shay Stephens

Shay Stephens’s book reviews

A wonderful sequel to At the Earth's Core. A real page turner of a book (again), ever more exploration, adventure, and friendship. It was a perfect ending to the story for me.

Filled with monsters, animals, dinosaurs, and beasts of all types, a world is built that you could almost image is really there.
02/07/2007
Wonderful! It starts slow and placid, just like Mr. Fogg. But then things begin to pick up steam. The adventure and dangers never cease up to the very end when all explodes in a crescendo.

Along the way, a colorful portrait is painted of the world as it was back then. And at each point, Mr. Fogg's character is revealed by bits and pieces. His companions do much of the emoting for him, as he is a rock of placid confidence regardless of the danger to failure.

In the end, you can't help but to love Mr. Fogg, his loyal servant that sacrifices all, and other characters that enter the story along the way.

The book may take some patience at first, but you are soon rewarded, and the ending pays for all.
02/07/2007
The movies have not done this book justice. Now having read the book, I am amazed the movies (both live action and animated) have done so poorly in illustrating the characters and all the adventures they could have used instead of inventing their own.

The relationship between Robin and Little John in a way remind of that between Frodo and Sam in LOTR. And the innocent joy and merriment reminds me in a way of the book Peter Pan.

The story is marvelous, adventurous, and truly is merry. It made me laugh and want to keep reading about the funny and virtuous natures of the "naughty knaves" of Sherwood. The way they trip up the greedy and evil and cunningly get them to hand over their ill gotten gains as well as the generous nature of helping those that truly are in need is a wonderful example of seeing beyond appearances and showing compassion and generosity.

The book has two endings, one merry, and one that is more of a epilogue that follows Robin to his end. If you don't want to end the story that way, stop at the first ending and enjoy the wonderful story.
02/02/2007
A cute book and a quick read. Not as good as Peter Pan, but still enjoyable. More detail about fairies and their ways than I think Peter Pan had, so it's worth reading to fill in the corners of the story.
01/05/2007
It started a little slow, but once it gets going, it is very adventurous, and as mentioned, the characters are wonderful and play off one another in a very entertaining way. Up until they get to the moon, the scientific writing is wonderful. You can really see why this book was so inspirational. A great book with a great ending. I am very glad I read it.
01/05/2007
Wow, is this book ever exciting and adventurous! A real page turner. If you like monsters, and prehistoric creatures, adventure, escapes, chases, etc, this book is a must read in any form. It starts strong and stays strong to the end. Now I am off to read the sequel "Pellucidar".
11/16/2006
The story has been pretty well told in the movies. But the book did offer some additional details and insights into the characters . A good easy read that was enjoyable.
11/11/2006
A delightful book. The characters are lively and the interactions very cute. Much better than any of the movies I have seen. I am very glad I decided to read it.
11/07/2006
So many more details in this book. And I was surprised at all the things the movie differed from the book. Many surprises and unexpected details since I had only seen the movie up until now. I would agree that if you have only seen the movie, you owe it to yourself to read the book and learn more about the scarecrow, tin man, and lion.

11/07/2006