The Wings of Merlin

The Wings of Merlin
by T.A. Barron

The evil warlord Rhita Gawr is preparing to wage war against the island of Fincayra. To halt this invasion, Merlin must perform his most difficult miracle yet. He must unite the bickering factions of the magical isle – dwarves, canyon eagles, walking trees, and more – to stand together against the dire threat.

But first Merlin must fight an even greater battle – one that rages within him – before he can unify the Fincayrans, and regain the long lost wings that will enable all his people to choose their true destiny…

I’m sure that no one will be surprised when I say I loved this book. I’ve loved the whole series so far. Why wouldn’t I love this one?

That being said, I was a little bit disappointed. While I loved the added lore of Fincayra and learning about the myth behind their lost wings, this is one of those books where I wish it wasn’t a book aimed at kids. I wanted so much more depth and exploration for so many parts of this book. I wanted to dig into Merlin’s feelings about what happened to Dinatius and I wanted to see Rhia’s journey as she searched for the walking trees and I wanted to see Hallia’s journey to find Gwynnia and the canyon eagles.

I don’t know. Maybe I wanted more of a Lord of the Rings type experience during this book than I did with the others. There were just so many things that had to come together at the end and you only get to see Merlin’s part in it. It’s important, of course, but not the whole picture.

But it was a really good book and I’m glad that everything wrapped up in a way that set the Arthur legends into motion.

Definitely pick up this one up if you’ve been considering it. It’s a lovely ending and worth reading to finish up the series.

The Seven Songs of Merlin

The Seven Songs of Merlin
by T.A. Barron

To save his ailing mother, Merlin must master the Seven Songs of Wisdom passed down from his grandfather, a legendary wizard. Only then can he journey to the spiritual Otherworld to obtain the elixir he needs. But the quest involves a task Merlin must perform – defeating a vile ogre whose merest glance means death. And eve more difficult for the young wizard, he must discover the secret of seeing not with his eyes but with his heart…

Book Two of the Lost Years of Merlin series!

Which, of course, naturally means that I loved this book. I love Merlin revisiting characters he first met in Book One and exploring more of Fincayra than he could have done before.

But this is one of those instances where I wished this book wasn’t intended for such a young audience. There are seven tasks he must complete in this story and, as a child, I had no trouble believing the difficulty of achieving these. However, after having spent many years away from this world and reading many other long quest books, the tasks seem quite simple and short now.

Also, I feel that this book lacks the sting of consequences that were so keenly felt in the first book. Perhaps I will see the consequences I expected to see in this book in another book later on, but it seemed like more terrible things should have happened as a result of Merlin’s arrogance.

But, to balance that all out, DRAGON. I love dragons. I love tasks involving dragons. I love the thought of Merlin with dragons. It simply makes everything better.

I stand by my initial recommendation. If you like Arthurian legend based stories or even just stories about Merlin or fantasy stories in general, you should pick up this series.

Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina

Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina



I have spent far too long reading books that are not set in the Star Wars mythos. Far. Too. Long. Picking up this book was like opening up the universe all over again.

I don’t believe I’ve reviewed the other two “Tales of” Star Wars books that I own, so I’ll give you folks a brief description of how these work. There are plenty of scenes and locations within the Star Wars universe that are occupied by many varied and interesting-looking folk. Each one of these books chooses one of these locations. As you will have guessed from the title, this book focuses on stories about the sordid characters seen in the Mos Eisley cantina from Star Wars: A New Hope.

Each author writes about one (or two, depending on if they are a team or not) character from the scene. This character is given a name if it doesn’t have one, a species, a home planet, and a back story that lead it to be in the cantina at that time. Some of these characters are immediately recognizable, like the bartender, Greedo, and the cantina band, but others aren’t noticed until repeated viewings of the scenes.

Like all short story compilations, there are good stories and stories that may not be exactly your cup of tea. However, because these stories are all tied together by this one moment in time, and because often times the characters are familiar with each other, you get an overall sense of community with these stories. So, even if you don’t particularly like a story, chances are there are elements within that story that you liked in another; it’s just from a different point of view.

For example, every character in the cantina witnesses Greedo’s death. It’s very interesting to see who pitied him, who didn’t care, who thought they might make a profit off of this turn of events, and whatever other reactions the patrons had. It’s an awesome read.

If you are a Star Wars fan, I would recommend picking this up. I would also recommend picking up the other two “Tales of” books: Tales of the Bounty Hunters and Tales from Jabba’s Palace. If you have read either of those books (especially Jabba’s Palace), you’ll like this one, too.

If you have ever wanted to read a Star Wars book but didn’t know where to start, start with this one. The characters are recognizable, the scenes are familiar, it’s not asking you to be well versed in any kind of science fiction technology, and it’s not going to cause any conflicting stories for the main characters.<sup>1






1</sup> Not all of the books agree on what happens before or after the original trilogy. Some have different stories taking place with the same characters at the same time. For example, Tales of the Bounty Hunters was written before the Prequels came out, so Boba Fett’s story doesn’t match up with what we’ve seen now. I have two or three different “origin stories” for Han and Chewie. It can be very confusing.