Another book I didn’t really connect with. It’s a short fairy tale kind of thing, following young Halla as she travels a magical sort of Europe. Rescued by a magical bear-woman as the new Queen contemplates killing Halla because she is the daughter of the old Queen. The bear-woman raises her for a while, after which Halla passes into the care of dragons. After dragons, she falls under the protection of the All-Father who tells her to travel light. A large part of the story follows her adventures in Byzantium, where her ability to talk to animals comes in handy with the race horses, allowing her travel companions to make some money to petition the emperor.
The narration seems to take a very distanced a point of view with regard to Halla (and all the rest of the characters for that matter). It also meanders from adventure to adventure, with little clue as to where it’s going. What’s the goal in Halla’s endless questing? I need to see movement toward a goal so I can root for (or possibly against) her. I didn’t see or feel that. Her ostensible goal was to gain dragon treasure, but it didn’t feel like she cared about it that much. I know I certainly didn’t. Even so, I’m not sure any of this is why I didn’t engage with the character or story. Sometimes a book just isn’t right for someone and you can’t really identify why.
There’s some good things about the book. The heroine is a girl who doesn’t fall into any of the normal girl stereotypes, neither a tomboy nor a princess. By that I mean the princess stereotype, cause technically Halla is a princess. It also takes the side of dragons against heroes as well. Some of the funniest bits consist of dragon logic about the right way the world should work and how heroes are messing that up. I loved the dragons. And I really liked the Valkyrie that kept trying to recruit Halla. She had personality.
I wouldn’t call it bad. Lotsa people like it. It just didn’t resonate with me.
Some other blogged reviews:
Title: Travel Light
Author: Naomi Mitchison
Cover creator: Kevin Huizenga
Imprint / publisher: Peapod Classics / Small Beer Press
Format: Paperback
Length: 135 p.
Publication date: 2005 (originally 1952)
ISBN-10: 1-931520-14-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-931520-14-0
Subject: Human-animal relationships — Fiction
Subject: Abandoned children — Fiction
Subject: Feral children — Fiction
Subject: Princessess — Fiction
Subject: Girls — Fiction
LC classification: PR6025.I86T7 2005
