The Legend Of The Wandering King - Hardcover

Garcia, Laura Gallego

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0439585562 ISBN 13: 9780439585569

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2005

Synopsis

A prince with more power than heart ... a poet who may be mad ... and a carpet containing all of human history combine in this brilliant new fantasy by one of Spain's brightest young writers.

Walid was a model prince: handsome, intelligent, skilled in the arts of warfare and poetry. But the kingdom boasted one greater poet than he, and out of jealousy Walid cursed the man to create an impossible work of art: a carpet showing the history of the entire human race. The poet died weaving it. Men went mad seeing it. And when it is stolen, Walid discovers his life's quest: to recover the carpet and earn forgiveness for his mistakes. Inspired by the story of a real king of pre-Muslim Arabia, LEGEND is a magical fantasy, a meditation on destiny, and an utterly thrilling adventure.

About this title

About the Author:

Laura Gallego Garcia won the prestigious El Barco de Vapor Award for her novels Apocalypse and The Legend of the Wandering King. The author of fourteen books, she is currently studying medieval literature at the University of Valencia. She lives in Alboraya, Spain.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7-10–The author of several books in her native Spain, Gallego García has set this quasi-historical fable in pre-Islamic Arabia. Crown Prince Walid ibn Hujr, a fine prince, attentive, generous, and brave, has everything except for recognition as a poet. When for three consecutive years his perfect poems lose to an unknown at a competition, he devises an atrocious (and pointless) revenge. Alas, he is too flat a character to accommodate such a contradiction. Gallego García tells readers that her hero is courtly, open-minded, and friendly, but shows him as petty, vain, heartless, and deceitful. His sudden remorse is as unfounded as his initial cruelty, and his inaction and turnaround are equally inexplicable. There are fairy-tale elements here–a fantastic carpet, a wicked sidekick, a beautiful woman, a predictable narrative structure--but the central character is at once too good and too evil to believe in, and too clueless to care about. The setting is a sixth-century Arabian court, but readers don't experience its sounds, odors, or tastes. Walid learns not from his own experience, but via magic. The rival's winning poems succeed because they are real and have heart: unfortunately, this fiction doesn't. Its weighty pronouncements about art, fate, and responsibility are undercut by its thinness of character, texture, and morality.–Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George's School, Newport, RI
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About this edition

• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0439585562
• ISBN 13: 9780439585569
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224