Not only will I finish a book that I don’t like, but if I find anything redeeming in it at all, I’ll not infrequently pick up the sequel in the hopes that it gets better. That’s certainly the case with Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart and Inkspell stories. My encounter with the first book was an audio recording that I listened to while my son and I were taking a long road trip. The narration on it was fantastic and I can still hear many of the character’s voices and the lilting delivery of the actor. But the book itself, I was annoyed with. The highly intelligent characters often acted as stupidly as if they were in a horror movie. The delightfully drawn personalities were slave to the plot and acted outside of their own motivations way too often. Nonetheless, I saw the sequel, Inkspell, the other day and decided that maybe I was just being grumpy about the series. I had yet to encounter anyone else who had read the book that didn’t thoroughly enjoy it. In fact, Inkheart spent months on the high end of the children’s bestseller lists. Perhaps I was being too hard on it. So I bought Inkspell. Even though I’m still disappointed with the book’s execution, I know that I’ll pick up the third book just to find out what happens. See, the premise is a great one and the characters are really interesting. What is the premise? The premise is that there are some people in our world who are so good at reading books that when they read them aloud, they can read people into and out of the worlds of the book. Now, this can be done only with really good books. The books must be those books that seem to come alive off the page when you’re reading them. Inkheart and Inkspell makes that “seem to come alive” literal rather than metaphorical. In Inkheart, several villains from the world of a fictional book called Inkheart come into our world and start causing trouble. In Inkspell, we find the heroine of the previous novel, Meggie, longing to visit what she calls the Inkworld. It is the world in which her father Mo (also called Silvertongue) accidentally read her mother, Resa. There Resa was enslaved and unable to return home. This was where I had my first hang-up. Why would Meggie want to go to the place where her mother was taken as a slave? It is because of this world that she didn’t have a mother for most of her life. But there isn’t a story if Meggie doesn’t want to go there, so she pines away for the world of Inkheart. We also see Dustfinger, still stranded in our world, finally finding a way home. He gets Orpheus to read him and Farid, the boy from Arabian Nights who was read into the first story, back into the Inkworld. Orpheus tricks him, though, and leaves Farid behind. Farid finds Meggie, reveals Orpheus’ secret for writing people into stories, and the two of them are off to Inkworld. Others soon follow them and the story takes up there. Inkspell is far better than its predecessor. It shares the same cleverness and interesting characters. It is still infused with a love for literature and books. This time, though, the characters are more strongly motivated. The things that they do make far more sense and there is a deep connection between the characters that push them to take dangerous risks. It’s also a more enjoyable book because of the wonderfully drawn Inkworld. It isn’t a place that I’d personally want to visit (there may be a lot of fairies and mythical wonders, but the government stinks and the mortality rate is as high as any medieval society), but it is fascinating to read about. It is a complex society that is peopled with characters ranging from good to evil. Dustfinger the fire-eater is especially endearing. Like Mo, he is a devoted husband and father despite being frequently absent and not always quite up to the task. We see his devotion to Farid, a boy who has become his apprentice and whom he treats like a son. While he came across as cowardly in the first novel, in this one we see him having great depth of character. Another fascinating character is Fenoglio, the author of the book within a book. He was read into his world and he adores it. He’s taken on the role of a bard and views his creation with benevolence until it starts misbehaving. He grows increasingly frustrated with the world he created as it goes in directions that he never intended. He is also taken to task for being a little too fond of his villains before he had to live with them. The 635-page Inkspell ends on a cliffhanger with all of the characters still stranded in the Inkworld and facing decisions about what to do next. The next book in the trilogy, Inkdawn is due out in 2007. Meanwhile, New Line Cinema bought the movie rights to the first book and has begun casting. So far they’ve lined up Brendan Fraser to play Mo, Paul Bettany to play Dustfinger, Jim Boradbent to play Fenoglio, and Kathy Bates to play Elinor (who disappointingly had a rather small part in Inkspell). Given the wealth of interesting characters and the multiple plot lines, Funke spends a lot of time switching perspectives and giving intricate descriptions of people and the world. There are times when this causes the book to drag. It’s a heavy tome that is filled with delightful nuggets that sometimes have to be dug out of oft-repeated themes and emotions. It is written for ages 12 and up, though it will help if the young people are good readers because the text can sometimes be challenging (which could be considered a point in its favor). There is also a fair amount of violence and distressing scenes. This is not necessarily a bad thing—books are a pretty safe way to expose children to violence and its consequences—but it is something for parents to be aware of. They may wish to read the book for themselves before giving it to a child. At any rate, I’ll read Inkdawn when it is finished and translated into English from its original German, but I can’t say that I’m eagerly looking forward to it. It’s a story and a world that I like enough that I want it to be better than what it is.
I really wanted to give this book 4 stars. But my conscience got the better of me…so 3 stars it is. There were some things in this book that genuinely disturbed me, and I’m going to point them out..Before I do, though, I have to tell you, I loved the book over all. But I’m probably not going to sound like it...Firstly, there are more language issues with this book. Farid uses the B word twice, and quite a few of the other characters use the D word a lot. The D word was in the first book a bit, but not nearly so much. And the B word is what really disturbed me. It was completely unnecessary, and brings the novel down a peg because of it. (I regard this as more of a children's book because of the age of the main character, this is why it affects my rating)Secondly, Meggie is only 13 and the entire romance between her and Farid is really annoying. Not so much that they "love" each other, but that they're so young! If Funke wanted it to be a “romance,” she ought to have made Meggie at least 16 in this book. Of course I think that’s still too young, but it’s better than just 13! I don’t care how grown up she looks. Also I don't think that just because the girls in the Inkworld get married when they’re Meggie’s age means that Meggie would want to get married at 13 or that she should get married at 13. I just really think the whole little romance thing was way overplayed... :/ But here’s a little on the up side…I liked the over all story in this one better than the last. The Wayless Wood makes me think of Sherwood Forest. Actually…the entire story kind of has a Robin Hood feel to it. The Bluejay is kind of a copy of Robin Hood. Different? Yes. But it even says that he “steals from the rich to give to the poor.” Now is that original? No. But it’s okay, because Funke manages to make the Bluejay seem less like a copout of Robin, and more intriguing to the story.
What do You think about Inkspell (2005)?
Meggi, Mo "et al" continue in the story taking place in two worlds. Not to give spoilers, but Mo is in a bad way Meggi is still "learning" as well as being in a bad way, mom is struggling and worrying and scared, and back to MO....he's binding a very special book.I liked this YA series, there are good ones and bad ones and (being sure the "youth" is mature enough for the themes) this is a good one.Again, an addition to my review here...I really like these books, I may even say love them and I'm astounded that so many give it/them negative reviews.A matter of taste I suppose.
—Mike (the Paladin)
I will admit up front that I have a bias that is making it difficult for me to give this book a "fair" shake. I read this after my 9 year old daughter completed it, but after we have both read Inkheart. Based on the first book and the marketing I was expecting this one to also be reasonable age-appropriate. It is not.While Inkheart did a moderately decent job of fleshing out a couple of the characters, Inkspell did not further that cause doing little to expand upon what you already knew about the characters and new characters were very two-dimensional. More importantly, this book has situations that are completely inappropriate for a child of my daughter's age (shame on me I guess for not exercising due diligence before she read the book). Specifically, a greater degree of explicit violence than the first as well as 14 year olds engaged in sexual relationships with married men.At best it would be a 3 star book, regardless of my bias, but given who t hey are targeting the book towards it's barely a 2.
—John
I will admit that this book was actually a chore for me to get through. However, I gave it two stars because I liked the idea of the story. While with Inkeart I was able to finish from the sheer novelty of the idea, that novelty had worn off a little by the time I got to Inkspell. The biggest let down with this series, and the reason that I had such a hard time finishing this book, was the characters. I know that it may be a personal bias, but I didn't feel a connection to any of the characters, which were weak at best, and I absolutely hated the main character. I don't even remember her name, or anything about her personality. Did she even have one? Did anyone? With such cardboard characters I guess I didn't feel compelled to keep reading because I didn't care about what happened to them. I didn't even know that there is a third book in this series, and I doubt that I'll bother to read it. It's been a long time since I read this book, but I don't feel compelled to read it again either.
—Magen
