Earthsea
I have been slow in posting my answers.
( Narrative Voice )
I am the oddball here, but I hated the narrative. There was no description, no dialog .. I am left wondering what all those words were that I read. I felt the story was being told AT me. In addition to that, large chunks of time flew by in a matter of pages. It wasn't trying to draw me in at all. There was little or no insight into the characters. They just kind of existed, and I cared little about them. The story had the same even tone throughout, even "exciting" scenes were short, slow, and poorly described - no action or excitement at all. The end was rather obvious to me (but being a child's story, I will not take off points for that) and STILL highly anticlimactic and uninvolved, undescribed and unexciting.
( The Hero's Journey )
I found a lot of the foreshadowing and hints (for lack of a better word) to basically be like billboards. But again, it is a young person's book, so maybe it isn't so obvious to them. Some one else mentioned that the boat was called the Shadow, and even the shadow creature itself was called a shadow. There were other occassions, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.
( Boy Wizard )
As much as I agree with someone else that Roke is probably a better example of what a wizarding school would be, I am much more drawn to Hogwarts. Again, this is because of the storytelling involved. Roke just felt like a backdrop to me. He spent several years there, but other than a couple of scenes, we really weren't informed at all about the school, the classes, or the time spent there. Many years went by in a page or two. Hogwarts wins by default. There is so much description and information about the school, the classes, the teachers, the scenery ... even in the first book (to keep it fair) that I have a very clear idea of what life would be like there. That is not at all so for me with Roke.
( Diversity )
I was aware that most characters were dark skinned (even though the boy on the cover of my book does not look dark skinned) more because of how the pale people were described than that darker characters were talked about. I am unaware of a miniseries or casting conflicts involved beyond what people have said here, but I can see how an author could be upset that her characters aren't portrayed how she sees them, even if it isn't central to the story. Why must the default be white when race isn't the issue of the story? But no, I do not think that race was at all a focus of the story, though there did seem to be cusomary differences geographically, and some xenophobia.
I was also very aware of the lack of female characters, particularly at the school. Women in this book did feel very token to me (to fit the necessary roles). But again, they really weren't more necessary for the story. I didn't feel there were all that many important male characters, either.
( Narrative Voice )
I am the oddball here, but I hated the narrative. There was no description, no dialog .. I am left wondering what all those words were that I read. I felt the story was being told AT me. In addition to that, large chunks of time flew by in a matter of pages. It wasn't trying to draw me in at all. There was little or no insight into the characters. They just kind of existed, and I cared little about them. The story had the same even tone throughout, even "exciting" scenes were short, slow, and poorly described - no action or excitement at all. The end was rather obvious to me (but being a child's story, I will not take off points for that) and STILL highly anticlimactic and uninvolved, undescribed and unexciting.
( The Hero's Journey )
I found a lot of the foreshadowing and hints (for lack of a better word) to basically be like billboards. But again, it is a young person's book, so maybe it isn't so obvious to them. Some one else mentioned that the boat was called the Shadow, and even the shadow creature itself was called a shadow. There were other occassions, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.
( Boy Wizard )
As much as I agree with someone else that Roke is probably a better example of what a wizarding school would be, I am much more drawn to Hogwarts. Again, this is because of the storytelling involved. Roke just felt like a backdrop to me. He spent several years there, but other than a couple of scenes, we really weren't informed at all about the school, the classes, or the time spent there. Many years went by in a page or two. Hogwarts wins by default. There is so much description and information about the school, the classes, the teachers, the scenery ... even in the first book (to keep it fair) that I have a very clear idea of what life would be like there. That is not at all so for me with Roke.
( Diversity )
I was aware that most characters were dark skinned (even though the boy on the cover of my book does not look dark skinned) more because of how the pale people were described than that darker characters were talked about. I am unaware of a miniseries or casting conflicts involved beyond what people have said here, but I can see how an author could be upset that her characters aren't portrayed how she sees them, even if it isn't central to the story. Why must the default be white when race isn't the issue of the story? But no, I do not think that race was at all a focus of the story, though there did seem to be cusomary differences geographically, and some xenophobia.
I was also very aware of the lack of female characters, particularly at the school. Women in this book did feel very token to me (to fit the necessary roles). But again, they really weren't more necessary for the story. I didn't feel there were all that many important male characters, either.