For Welsh review, see language toggle switch.
(suggested) interest age: 11+
(suggested) reading age: 13+
Genre: #highfantasy #epic #adventure #fiction
Back to the Copa Coch [Red Summit]
If you enjoyed Yr Horwth (winner of The Book of the Year 2020: Children and Young People category) and the follow-up, Melltith yn y Mynydd, it stands to reason that you’ll be pleased with the third addition to the legends of the Copa Coch series, Oes yr Eira [age of snow]. The novel strikes a different tone to it’s predecessors, yet feels familiar.
Who’s it for?
If you are unfamiliar with the books, they are in epic fantasy/high fantasy genre. Elidir Jones is the author, and he teams up with the one and only Huw Aaron for the illustrations. I try not to compare Welsh books with English ones, but to give you an idea, the series has The Hobbit / The Lord of the Rings vibes, with several other influences to boot. (not a bad comparison though, to be fair) Despite there being some similarities to Tolkein's work, these books have a distinctly Welsh flavour.
Although Atebol’s website states that these books are suitable for audiences aged 11-14+, I think the '+' is of particular importance, because there’s no age limit for who will enjoy them really (I'm 31, and I like them). What I would say, however, is compared to many books for this age, is that language is quite challenging. Although it all flows quite naturally, I think it does call for a confident reader to tackle some of the words, let alone have the necessary stamina to read a ‘busy’ novel of this length.
Adventure no. 3
This time, we leave the Copa Coch as the band of heroes travel to the nearby kingdom of Bryn Hir. When they arrive at the city of Crug y Don, they soon come to realise that things aren’t quite right there. One of the Gods has reportedly gone insane and has turned against his own people.
Whilst investigating the mystery, our heroes realise that not everyone is telling the truth, and perhaps the people of Crug y Don are hiding something. In actual fact, they’ve never faced such a challenge - how exactly do you stop a God who’s out of control? If you want to know which dark secrets from the past are hiding in the shadows go grab yourself a copy.
By now, we’re more familiar with the characters and their mythical world, and it feels like the author is too, having got into the groove of writing about these characters. We even see some will they/won't they between Nad and Sara at last.
What next?
We still don’t really know what happened to the village of Copa Coch (now empty, by the way). Whilst we don’t get the answers in this book, I’ve got a feeling the next novel will start addressing this mystery. What went wrong? Where are our brave adventurers now?
According to Elidir, he’s got some big plans for the mythical universe he’s created in the novels. There’s no shortage of interesting characters and locations – certainly enough material for several more novels I’d say!
Publisher: Atebol
Released: 2022
Price: £7.99
HIGH PRAISE FOR THE SERIES...
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