Hmm, well these books are quite unusual. They're also nice to read, and the stories engage the reader. They are quirky and rather amusing, but they are sinsiter at times.
-Zanthie ;)

I read this book quite a while ago, but I remember being absolutely enchanted by it! It tells the story of a young boy named Gwyn, who is descended from Magicians. When his Grandmother gives him five strange gifts, their uses are gradually revealed and he finds himself closer to tapping into his own magical powers, and solving the mystery of his sister's disappearance four years ago. It is a charmingly written book with an interesting story-line. Well worth a read.

On his ninth birthday Gwyn is given a brooch, a scarf, a piece of seaweed, a tin whistle and a small broken horse by his grandmother and told to give them to the wind. The first thing he gives to the wind is the brooch which comes back as the snow spider and suddenly magic is in his life, real and with consequences and responsibilities. The trilogy covers from his ninth to his thirteenth birthday and a variety of adventures all of whom require him to employ his wits and to embrace the magician within.

I liked it, originally published in the 80's it reminded me of my teenage years, and the possibility of there being magic around the next corner. There were pieces that stood out in capturing a moment and made the characters more rounded. Gwyn has issues and problems dealing with the magic and this comes across too.

Just *delightful!* Characters who grow, adults who don't abandon the children, complex threads of story tightly woven, magic which responds to prayer and intention. Beautiful ancient legends as the foundation. I recommend for ages 11+
I am particularly thrilled with the way that two different mental/emotional challenges were handled: respectfully and without sensationalism (post-partum depression and post-combat PTSD). Healing, forgiveness, magic, patience, time... these illnesses also weren't the center of the book - they were just real things in the lives of the child characters.

I read this a very long time ago... And remember nothing. In fact, I'm not sure I ever finished the last story. So, no real review will be given, along with no rating.

I really wanted to love this trilogy. There was a lot of wonderful storytelling and it was very engaging. I think the best from the three was probably the first book. But, even though I'm not the right target audience there was a lot lacking in the stories. Now that I've read all three books I couldn't understand the choices made by the adults. It's one thing when adults don't tell children the full story of events and people, because they don't think children understand. It's quite another when the adults don't try and get their daughter back or put a stop to an ill behaved adult. Why only when Gwyn is nine does Bethan/Eirlys send him the spider? Seems to me she was wanting help. It doesn't seem possible the child could be happy when she left behind her family. One would think that gave her unconditional love and yet there is no mention of love of the fairies. She's forever a child and yet there was no mention of what made her happy there. She went through a lot to say "Gwyn you're a magician". Her whole appearance changed and I can't see how that means a person is happy. To be really happy is to accept yourself as you are. Then, the whole episode of Gwyn and his cousin Emlyn doesn't seem believable or possible. Throughout it all Emlyn's father didn't seem to care about his wife or even his son. I don't quite believe the story around Evan would be sufficient for bad behaviour. Then again, Evan doesn't do anything that's evil. There was no clear connection between him and the horses. Now if he was seen near the areas or even looked angry at Glory it would have been easier to see an evil force around him or aura. All it seemed to happen was that he stayed out late and did some shouting at the children and made Nerys a bit tearful. The fact that all the other adults murmured he was in a battle, with no injuries, poor lamb he can definitely disgrace a teenager, his cousin, yes yes...Throughout the second and third books the women/girls were secondary at best. Nia having all those siblings was a problem because there were too many to develop into characters. The idea of having seven siblings seemed to be quite unnecessary and distracting. Although the one story starts out with Nia she never grows as a character. She seemed to have a crush on Emlyn and then it fell away to the adult Evans and that in itself is very problematic. But because no one seems to really develop into characters the read can relate to I couldn't understand why all the women fawned over Evan. Nothing about his personality stood him out from the fathers of these books and all the fathers seemed to be too similar to each other at times I forgot who was who. Gwyn himself seemed to almost mature and then went right back to being nine years old. Nain/Rhiannon, initially a very interesting strong character, gets pushed to one side for all the extra children, including Alun. The addition of the other children changed the excitement of the first book and it was an unfortunate choice. The way the first book ended it didn't seem necessary to have added another two books. There was also a need to have developed more of Gwyn interacting with his ancestors and why they were/are even relevant. I had rather hoped that the author could have woven in the importance of Nain/Rhiannon's mother being a witch and why Gwynedd, Gwydion and Gilfaethwy were powerful. At the end it felt like a lot was missing from these stories. All in all the three stars are for a compelling narrative even though the stories were very flawed.