The War of the Flowers

You can always rely on Tad Williams to produce a well crafted story with good characters and a lively plot in a solidly built fantasy world - Faerie, in this case - just the other side of who knows what, from our own world. Theo is a likable, diffident, somewhat ineffectual hero with a great collection of wildly diverse friends and companions as he attempts to understand why he's been pursued into Faerie by an unspeakably horrible thing which seems to be out to get him. The Lords of the Flowers are a colourful and dangerous group of rulers and all the denizens of Faerie that you might ever have heard of make for a marvellously mixed group of subjects. There's a romance. Good stuff, and as always, a really enjoyable read.

A fantasy novel with a difference. Because although it's 750 pages long it's not the first of three such books. It's a story complete in one volume. And that's a rather uncommon thing in this genre.The differences dont stop there either. Because despite this being a tale of a human who finds his way to a magical world and a hidden destiny that awaits him, the magical world is not your typical feudal kingdom with possibly dragons or elves. It's fairyland, the place from all the human legends. And it has, in addition to fairy creatures, transport systems and things you wouldn't normall expect from such a setting in such a book.Our main character is theo, a thirty year old man feeling out of place and if there's more to life as he drifts though his, via breakup and other personal disasters. Most of the first hundred pages covers this. It could drag or be irritating but the writing does hook and does make him quite a believable character whom you can have some sympathy for.There are occasional glimpses into the other world during this section. a plethora of made up place names and character names means these bits - but there aren't too many of them - don't read quite as smoothly.Of course theo will eventually end up in fairyland, with a travelling companion from there to guide him. The next hundred pages once this happened were a bit slow and didnt quite grab, as the two have a long journey to get through.But stick with this because once theo is forced to make choices and act, and once the plot gradually gets revealed, and theo also gets involved in quite an appealing romance, it does start to grip and eventually gets better and better and more and more epic. The supporting cast are well drawn and you may find yourself caring about them and theo as the world tears itself apart and resolution comes at a price.Quite original and ultimately a decent read. Just one that took a little while to get to that point.

This is one of the best books he has written, such an imagination and such detail. I have read this book (in hardback) about eight times and every time I read it I enjoy it just as much as the first time. My hardback edition is getting a bit tatty now so I have purchased a Kindle addition, which my kindle can read to me. Looking forward to it.

I have to agree with the majority of other reviews for this book - it just isn't up to standard.It's boring (bar the last 100 pages finale), it's unengaging and it's massively predictable.In my opinion this seems like a lame effort to find a book that will appeal to the generation of young readers who might want to move on from Harry Potter and move on to Tolkien, Donaldson and even Williams himself!But it is nowhere near as good as any of these and the main character is so lame that I can't imagine a teenager lasting beyond the first hundred pages or so.So 2 stars for me (I'd have given it one but for a loyalty vote based on Williams' previous high standards)PSThe foreword apologises for some semblance to 9/11. I for one wouldn't have made the leap between the book and the tragic events of that day. But maybe that's because I wasn't directly affected by them.

I enjoyed War of the Flowers, but nowhere near as much as his Dragonbone Chair trilogy. Theo is a mildly intriguing hero, or as has already been stated, anti-hero. Applecore and Hellebore are far more interesting, whereas the Remover of Inconvenient Obstacles is quite simply put a let-down.TW is without doubt a good author and I would recommend him to anyone, but start with the Dragonbone series, not with this imaginative but ultimately rather stolidly written standalone.

A thrilling adventure, full of different takes on fantastical worlds and people. One of my absolute favourites. What a writer!

Very different to his normal work, but very good and well written, with plenty of twists and surprises, nice finish

Having recently read the Shadowmarch books I purchased this with high expectation but was left a little disapointed buit am not sure why. The concept is brilliant, the plot is good but for some reason the story just didn't grip me.