Review of The City of the Golden Sun

By Becky Alexander,Educator

In her email to me about The Fisherman's Son Trilogy, Becky wrote: "I read the first one last weekend and I was going to read the second one this weekend and the third next weekend but I got engrossed and oops, I finished them off."  I'm delighted to present Becky's review of The City of the Golden Sun here:

A compelling tale of time travel and life in other ages, The City of the Golden Sun is the second book in The Fisherman's Son trilogy by Marilyn Peake.

In the first book, The Fisherman's Son, Wiley O'Mara, 19th century Irish boy who is grieving for his mother and essentially abandoned by his alcoholic father, travels by the magical dolphin, Elden, to an ancient world and saves six trapped boys.

In The City of the Golden Sun, Wiley has to take care of the rescued boys while they are in his time and place. The boys have their doubts about Wiley but once they meet Lucinda, a fairy woman from the first book, they realize that he might be telling the truth. Lucinda gives the boys another goblet and reminds Wiley of his ultimate quest, to join two worlds. She also reminds them of the admonition, "Drink deeply by land or sea. Earth comes only once." They are to meet Elden again so they can return to the city of the past.

So by way of Elden and his friends, the boys travel underwater back to the ancient city in the days before the catastrophe which ended it. There they live their lives in the splendor of that world but witness a crime and injustice prior to the end.

Again, the incredible realism of the ocean scenes provides a bridge between the reality of life in 19th century Ireland and the near magical ancient city beneath the sea. This is a perfect choice for most children in grades 3 through 5, but The Fisherman's Son should be read first.

Copyright (c) 2008 Marilyn Peake