Chronicles of Prydain/ Lloyd Alexander fans?

Hello!
I'm a big fan of Llyod Alexander and all of his writings. However, it seems that I'm the only person in the world who knows about his works. Whenever I talk to people about his writings, I either get a blank stare, or "oh yeah, I've heard of him...never read him."
So...someone out there, let me know I'm not alone in my Lloyd Alexander geekdom!
For anyone who isn't familiar with Llyod Alexander, he's a fantasy writer, author of the Chronicles of Prydain, The Iron Ring, The Westmark trilogy, and many other great books. He died in 2007 :(

My favorite Lloyd Alexander book right now is the Iron Ring. It's based of Indian mythology.

All that writers can do is keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts.
Lloyd Alexander

Ohhhhh I read the Prydain Chronicles, YEARS ago! I'd completely forgotten about them but now you've made me want to try and get hold of copies and read them again! I think it was the Prydain Chronicles, anyway... were they the ones about Taran?

I can't claim to be a diehard fan, obviously, but I have read some!

Moving to Fans and Critics.

YES!

VESPER HOLLY FTW!

My older sister read the Vesper Holly books outloud to me when I hated books in general--Lloyd Alexander is on of the reasons I actually started wanting to read books--VESPER HOLLY! Sometime I'm going to reread those books again...

The last one I read was the Rope Trick--it was okay but the ending seemed rushed.

I think my favorite is the Arkadians... I've read it twice.

The Chronicles of Prydain were the first books that I drew fanart for... and I hate the disney movie based on it and I'm waiting for Prydain to become a live action movie series like Narnia or LOTR... since I think Prydain is better and is stronger with its character developement usually.

I haven't read the Rope Trick yet, but I'm definately looking for a copy. I'm buying all of his books because I love them so much. Yesterday, I bought a copy of Gypsy Rizka and I'm going to read one chapter a day during NaNoWriMo...as a reward for doing my word count of the day.

I haven't read Vesper Holly, but I bought the Jedera Adventure when our library was having a used book sale(again, I haven't read them because I want to buy ALL of them :D)

I have spared myself from watching the disney movie based on Prydain. Part of me is dying for a live action movie, but the other part of me is like "No!! If they make a live action, they'll ruin it and it won't be very good! And then your mental picture of the characters will be ruined!" So I'm on the fence. If there is the right director and the right cast I might be more agreeable towards the idea. It just seems that Hollywood isn't very good at adapting books. (although LOTR was EPIC!!)

Have you read The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen?

I listened to Gypsy Rivka on CD--I loved it a lot.

The Illyrian Adventure is the first book of the Vesper Holly Series... they're kind of like Indian Jones with a main girl.

Love Lloyd Alexander, and have ever since I was a kid and someone gave me a couple Vesper Holly books. The Westmark books are my favourites, but everything is fantastic! I wish there were more fans of his stuff too!

I really like The Arkadians and the Prydain books (I only read the first two), but I hated The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha.

Yep, read Chronicles of Prydain when I was a kid. Loved it. I really wish someone would make live action versions of all five books. The Disney movie felt somewhat weird - didn't really make sense.

I *LOVE* Lloyd Alexander!!

I read The Arkkadians & The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen after Taran Wanderer and loved them to bits.

Years later I read the entire Chronicles of Prydain series about three times and have been completely in love ever since!

I have some ideas for fan art...need to get going on that.

I love Taran's journey from boyhood to becoming a man, and Eilonwy is fantastic. The ending made me cry!

The fantasy from that era was so EPIC.

Sorry for the fan 'splosion. ;)

A Lloyd Alexander thread! Yay! He was just such an amazing author! I plan to read all of his books . . . :)

I've read: All of the Westmark Trilogy, all of Prydain (including the Foundling), and all of Vesper. Also The Gawgon and the Boy, The Arkadians, The Rope Trick, Gypsy Rizka, The Cat Who Wished to be a Man, The Town Cats and Other Tales, Time Cat, The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio, and, most recently, The Iron Ring. I love them all! My favorites might be The Kestrel and The Book of Three :)

Has anyone here seen that interview video of him on youtube? It's in three parts, and is a lot of fun :) Here's the first part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jln9VPoP3Tw

Wow...you've read more of his books than I have. Congrats.
Did you think the Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio was a bit dark?
I HAVE to check out that YouTube video of him. I cant' wait!
I'm in the middle of Gypsy Rizka right now and I LOVE it!!!!

I've only read the Chronicles of Prydain and The Iron Ring. I really need to seek out more of his books. I'd like to see an animated adaption of Prydain, something anime or like Avatar in style. I don't think movies would really capture the epic feel well enough. And... let's not even speak of the Disney movie.

I think an animated version of Prydain would be awesome!
I finished Gypsy Rizka....hilarious! One of my favorite Lloyd Alexander books/.
I've never seen the Disney movie...I never plan to.

Yes, everyone who is fortunate enough to have not watched the Disney movie, please, do yourselves a favor and DON'T watch it! I saw it a looong time ago and in my opinion it is the worst movie adaption of a book ever. An animated one might be cool, though, if they kept to the stories, and especially if it was in as real a style as, say, Tangled or How to Train Your Dragon. :)

i love Lloyd Alexander and especially Westmark. About a year and a half before he died i was writing a fanfic about Zara the russet divinity and i had a question about one of the scenes in the first book. so i wrote to him and i received a letter back in less than 2 weeks and he had typed it... like on a typewriter and signed it. He said that he was so honored that I would be writing about his characters but it would be better to try to make up some of my own. he is such an inspiration and i still treasure that letter that is tucked inside my copy of the book Westmark. I cried when i found out that he had passed away.
I would still like to return to my Zara story one of these days though i may set it during the French revolution and change the names to protect the innocent. or maybe i'll just adapt Westmark for my Scriptfrenzy in April.

Has anyone read the Wizard in the Tree? I'm going to be reading that soon and I want to know how good it is compared to Alexander's other books.

Loved him! The Prydain chronicles and the Iron Ring were some of my favorite books when I was young. I admit, I cried when I found out he passed away, and it also happened only a few weeks after his beloved wife died. =[[

Something I really liked in The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio was a certain conversation that took place near the end. Throughout the story, Carlo read an old book full of fantasy stories, you know, basically fairy tales, and near the end he gives it to someone else to read, a younger boy. After that, they are talking about it, how the stories didn't really happen, and the other boy says "Are you saying these are lies?" And Carlo says, "Yes, but some lies are better than others." I just really liked that . . .

I just read The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha. liked the story but disliked the ending. I'm not sure what to think of the book overall; I guess it depends on whether a story should be judged by its ending. If so, I'd give it 2 stars. If not, I'd give it 4 stars. I really liked most of it, but the ending ruined it for me, even though I was expecting it. It's the first time I've been disappointed in one of Lloyd Alexander's endings. But the rest of it was very good! So I guess I'll just try to pretend it ended differently . . . I guess it gets 3 stars, "good". Lukas was very annoying for the first few chapters but after that he was a good hero and the the rest of the characters were enjoyable, as was the story! I just wish it had ended different . . .



Oh, and Lloyd Alexander's birthday is coming up soon! On January 30th! I think I'll start celebrating it :)