Customer Reviews
An Alan Garner novel 
2007-07-21
Forget Bartimaeus. This is not a Bartimaeus novel. This is England, its henges, mounds and burrows, with landmarks left from an earlier age, and the people that live there carry their secrets just as the landscape. This is, at its heart, an Alan Garner novel. In the confines of a small village, a drama is going to be played out, not for the first time, but it may be, with luck, the last time. A dragon sleeps in a mound near the village, sealed in its underneath cave by a 6th century saint. Its dreams change the villagers, in the past, but more rapidly now since the new vicar has unburied - and broken - a strange cross beneath the village church. Will the dragon awaken? Will two boys, with strange new powers inherited from the dragon's dreaming, play a role, either way? I loved the setting, the storyline, the distanced description. It was as if Alan Garner had written a new book, after Red Shift, the Moon of Gomrath or the Owl Service. Thank you, Jonathan Stroud.
Another Wonderful Book by Stroud 
2006-07-01
The Buried Fire teaches us a leason of arrogance and power. When Tom Aubrey digs up a Celctic Cross with one arm in the dirt on the Church Ground an evil is awakened. While on the same day Michael MacIntyre had been sleeping on the Wirrim Hill. When woken up everywhere hurts, mostly his eyes. At first he thinks it's Sunstroke and tries to hurry back home, but when he sees a man and woman with sheep heads he thinks he's going mad. Finally when he's in bed and has woken up on the next morning he hits the truth: Something had happened and he can see what people really are.(example: if someone is a tattletail and a rattter he'll see a rat with swirling colors)
His Brother Stephen thinks he is mad so Michael takes him to the exact place where it happened ,Wirrim Hill. So it is on the same day that someone stole the remaining arm of the Celctic cross that Stephen also has the sight. Then as the story goes on Michael and Stephen realize there are 4 powers, sight, fire, flight, and reading minds all of with belong to the dragon. There are also more people with the powers who's identities are revealed and they kidnap Michael.
Then Michael is stuck with a choice, help the others and realese the dragon to avoid the mind live death or help his family to destroy the dragon and all it's evil.
Stroud has again put an amazing plot into literature. It certainly helps with the book that Tom reads so that we understand what that folklorist thought. The others are very evil so it darkens the plot a bit. The end is very arupt. Maybe next time put a couple of more chapters to round it out Stroud.
Still all in all The Buried Fire is a spinning fantasy adventure in which Stroud has put an excelent plot and all fit charecters.
The beginning 2006-02-28
I can see portions of his later works in this earlier one. A good read for all that it's a bit rough. Enjoyed it immensely.
**A book I would also recommend is The Unsuspecting Mage by Brian S. Pratt. This, the first installment of The Morcyth Saga is a great beginning for a new author. Battles, magic, gods, secret passages and intrigue, all the elements of a classic epic fantasy! Any fantasy reader will enjoy it.
Ok read 
2006-01-30
Expected it to have a better ending but was disappointed with the sudden kill to the whole story.
Still prefer the Bartimaeus Trilogy.
ok 2006-01-03
This was one of a stack of books I read a few months ago, and it was a bit odd after reading all three Bartimaeus books.
It just wasn't a terribly interesting story. The characters took major calamity in the family with little more than a blink, and the fact that the little brother of the family began exhibiting "evil" tendencies warranted suspicion of drug use.
Decent read 2008-01-08
This book turned out to be about average. I found myself quite interested in the subject matter, and interested to learn about the mystery behind the "special powers" given to the main character. However, I felt like much of the story was never fully developed.
I like all of Stroud's original concepts and ideas, but the book falls short because there just isn't enough depth to it. It's 330 pages, and the text seems large. I am not a fast reader, yet I got through the book in a few days.
Overall, it was good enough to hold my interest and not make me feel like I had wasted the time or money. It's a decent read, but it doesn't come close to the Bartimaeus Trilogy. If you've just read that and your foaming at the mouth for more, unfortunately this isn't quite it, but it will at least keep you entertained for a little while.
Not Exactly, Stroud... 
2007-11-29
Before this book, I read the Bartimaeus trilogy, which was an AMAZING group of books. I was excited, and found this- another book by my currently favorite author! How bad could it be?!
Answer: AWFUL.
I'm a person who loves almost all books. But this one has hardly a redeeming quality... the plot is frivolous and unorgiginal, the writing doesn't have Stroud's normal spark of humor and excitement, and the characters are flat and stereotypical. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. Unless it's a gift for your least favorite uncle. If it is, make him suffer through it by all means. But don't wish this awful book on yourself or a loved one.
okay 2007-11-04
The premise for this book was pretty good. I had recently read the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Those three books were very good, but Buried Fire wasn't so good. Like I said, the premise was good, but the plot seemed to be rushed. He should have taken more time to develop the plot. He had some really great ideas, but they needed to be expounded upon. Also, the end was very abrupt. Overall, the book was pretty good. It held my attention until the end.
Dragon under the village 2007-10-16
Michael, Stephen and Sarah live in a small English village. Sarah is the responsible older sister and the other two are her younger teenage brothers. The story opens with Michael out in a beautiful summer day, on a hollow on a hilltop, when a power sweeps through him and envelops him, setting fire to the book beside him. He's not sure what it is, but as he comes down the hill he finds himself seeing strange things, so his first thought is sun-stroke.
But it isn't, it's the power of a trapped dragon bubbling up and trying to find a way to help him escape the trap he was put in. The Dragon is helped by the fact that a stone has been unearthed and broken, a stone with runes and an intertwining dragon on it.
It's not up to the level of his Bartimaeus trilogy, but it's not a bad story of the meeting of the ordinary and magic. The ending feels a bit rushed and there would be space for a sequel here. These boys have been touched by the extra-ordinary and I'm not sure that the ordinary will ever really satisfy them.
Not as good as Bartimaeus 2007-08-16
Overall the story was interesting, but it felt a bit rushed and was strictly a children's story. I had previously read the Bartimaeus Trilogy, and loved them, so my expectations were high. I found the end very disappointing. There was no mystery, everything seemed so final and back to normal.
