By T.A. Barron
This story is about Merlin's childhood. It's called the lost years because the only stories of Merlin are the tales of when he was with King Arthur, so the stories of his childhood are "lost". There are three books in this series each dealing with an aspect of Merlin's magical and personal growth. I can't summarize all three books because that would spoil you reading of the first book. So i will just summarize the first book.
"Spat out by the sea, the boy lay on the rocks as still as death. Even if he survived the day, he had no home, No memory. And no name."
So begins the tale of a strange young boy who, washing up on the shores of an ancient Wales, is determined to find his real home and his true name. One Day he will become the greatest wizard of all time, but he knows nothing of this.
At the knee of the mysterious Branwen, who claims to be his mother, the boy learns lore of the ancient Celts, Driuds, snd people even more ancient. Yet the secret of his identity seems to always escape him, To discover the truth, and the secret of his own powers, he runs away, voyaging to the mist-shrouded isle of fincayra, an enchanted land between earth and sky that is being destroyed by blight. It is there he meets the forest girl Rhia, the brave little giant Shim, and the wicked Rhita Gawr. He discovers that the fate of the land and his quest are strangely entwined.....If only he can solve the riddle of the dance of the giants.
-Excerpt from the inside cover
What famous author Madeleine L'Engle says about this book:
"How wonderful! An extraordinary journey of mind, body and spirit-for both Meril and ourselves. The first book of the Lost Years of Merlin trilogy lead all of us to eagerly look forward to the rest"
-Madeleine L'Engle
I loved this book! It's definetly a great fairytale and it was about a wellknown(er well a mythological atleast)charater. Obviously this book is fiction, and the author had to make up some things but he did a wonderful job. Since Arthur is always the main character in stories it was nice to see one about Merlin and how he learned to use his powers. Merlin goes through a real struggle in the book but of course in the end he finally igures out what to do. It's also funny because Merlin(aka Emrys) will say things like "when i'm older i want to grow a really long white beard" or "one day i will wear a cape with the sky on it" and obviously he does.
This book is the first in the series of merlin books:
+The Seven Songs of merlin (book 2)
+ The Fires of Merlin (book 3)
+ The Mirrors of Merlin (book 4)
+ The WIngs of Merlin (book 5)
Talking trees and walking stones
Giants are the island bones
While this land our dance still knows,
Varigal crowns Fincayra
Live long, live long Fincayra