"[In The Riddle], Maerad's tale continues, luminous, desperate and bold....Croggon's world is rich and passionate, brimming with archetypal motifs but freshly splendorous in its own right. Supremely satisfying." - Starred review, Kirkus, US
"An epic fantasy in the Tolkien tradition, with a strong girl hero... I couldn't put it down!" - Tamora Pierce
"Croggon has created a world that is both authentic and exotic, welcoming and frightening." - Starred review, School Library Journal, US
"Compellingly readable, the story offers the reader both richly developed characters and descriptive prose that sparks the imagination. A plentitude of action and plot surprises ensure a riveting read. Unbelievably fine, this book represents fantasy storytelling at its best. This exemplary novel is sure to appeal to all fantasy fans." - VOYA, US
"... a magical
story that is
reminiscent
of Tolkien. This is a tale with passionate, inspiring characters, an
enchanting
protagonist and vividly described landscapes. The Gift is a
powerful
story and marks the beginning of a series of a great series of fantasy
novels." - The
Bookseller, UK
"By turns doom-ridden and
playful, Alison Croggon's
fantasy novel takes us into the imagined world of Annar and the Seven
Kingdoms. When the novel opens (it's the first of a promised trilogy)
the kingdoms are shaken by signs and rumours of a return of the Dark,
the Nameless One who seeks to exinguish the Light.
"Capital letters, strange names, portents and perils are the necessary
stuff of this fiction. Croggon handles them with relish and
aplomb, fashioning a world that is coherent and plausible on terms that
we ungrudgingly accept. We follow the slave girl Maerad on her
dangerous journey from captivity in a desolate settlement at the edge
of the Forsaken Lands to the city of Norloch, where treachery is
installed the heart of things. It's a narrative of beauties
and terrors, craftily and compellingly wrought." - The
Bulletin, Australia
"Alison Croggon has
crafted an elaborate and beguiling
world of legend. Densely and vividly patterned, the book leads us
across the varied and menacing landscapes of the seven kingdoms of
Annar. The terrain is peopled by Bards and slaves, by the monstrous
Kulag and the treacherous Hulls, by packs of wers whose howls are 'the
very sound of un-life ... neither dead nor alive, but caught in a
tormenting void between'.
"This is prose that shows not only how
well Croggon writes, but how effectively she holds her nerve. In such
fantastical imaginings as hers, the risk is always of the risible. In
fact, Croggon passes her work off as history, replete with bold and
detailed appendices on pronunciation, on history - especially the
tragic millennium of the Great Silence - on the composition of the
seven kingdoms and on the Speech - 'defining attribute of a Bard and
the central mystery of the Knowing'. ... While it is resolutely
Croggon's own invention, it is full of echoes and glimpses of other
fantasies of lost, past and future worlds. This is a quest narrative,
one of the most durable and enchanting kinds of story, as old as
Odysseus and Arthur. Croggon tells it fluently and confidently."
- Sydney Morning Herald, Australia