- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books (18 July 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0765310961
- ISBN-13: 978-0765310965
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,889,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for "Princess of Roumania":
"No one writes like Paul Park, and when he turns to magic, the results are magical. "A Princess of Roumania "is weirder and wilder than any fantasy you've read before and even those elements which might have been familiar -- a princess, a werewolf, a jewel, a gypsy, magic and murder -- are transformed into strangeness. Park's characters, incidents, and images will stay with you long after you've finished this book."-Karen Joy Fowler
""A Princess of Roumania" is at once a vastly ambitious and passionately realized work of art, and immediately appealing in all the ways that the heart-tugging matter of high fantasy ought to be. Park's Miranda is as brave and questing as a heroine of fantasy should be, and his Baroness Ceaucescu is a fascinating portrait of unstoppable evil that is never more or less than appallingly -- even appealingly -- human. Every page of this book holds something you couldn't have imagined and yet that strikes you as supreme
"No one writes like Paul Park, and when he turns to magic, the results are magical. "A Princess of Roumania "is weirder and wilder than any fantasy you've read before and even those elements which might have been familiar -- a princess, a werewolf, a jewel, a gypsy, magic and murder -- are transformed into strangeness. Park's characters, incidents, and images will stay with you long after you've finished this book."-Karen Joy Fowler
""A Princess of Roumania" is at once a vastly ambitious and passionately realized work of art, and immediately appealing in all the ways that the heart-tugging matter of high fantasy ought to be. Park's Miranda is as brave and questing as a heroine of fantasy should be, and his Baroness Ceaucescu is a fascinating portrait of unstoppable evil that is never more or less than appallingly -- even appealingly -- human. Every page of this book holds something you couldn't have imagined and yet that strikes you as supreme
Review
"Paul Park knows fairy tales, contemporary and classic fantasy, and literary science fiction, and he borrows tropes from all these genres. So readers will find, as they enjoy this long novel (the first volume of two or more), that it provides the pleasures of the familiar--indeed, the archetypal--without neglecting some twists and enigmatic variations all its own. At times, though, it's bound to remind you of the Harry Potter books, Phillip Pullman's novels about Lyra Belacqua and even Gene Wolfe's recent "The Knight "and "The Wizard," as well as such older classic as The Wizard of Oz, Joan Aiken's Dido Twite chronicles and even Philip K. Dick's classics as "The Man in the High Castle," But then all these works draw from the same well of fantasy, the same pool of dreams and nightmares."
--Michael Dirda, "The Washington Post Book World" on "A" "Princess of Roumania" "In less-capable hands, the plot of the missing princess would seem trite, but Paul Park makes "A Princess of Roumania" unique. . . .The result is a powerful novel that should appeal to adult and sophisticated young adult audiences. . . .the stage is set for a terrific series. I can't wait for the next installment." -"Rocky Mountain News," Grade A-
"Elegantly imagined and densely poetic novel . . . . we may be looking at one of the major fantasy works of the decade." Gary K. Wolfe, "Locus "on "A" "Princess of Roumania" "Could become one of the most engrossing fantasies ever written. . . .The opening pages have a sustained brilliance it is extremely difficult to convey; they comprise perhaps the most taxing and densely intricate exegesis yet put to paper. . . .The story so far of "A Princess of Roumania "is intense, contorted, distorting, hypnotic; it seems deeply though-and felt-through--as far as we are allowed to follow it. It is a book . . . to read in a deep silent room, so you don't miss a word." --"Interzone"
"It's a journey almost as gratifying as the magic trick pulled off by Park, who should be knighted for breathing life into an oft-tired genre." -"Entertainment Weekly" on "A Princess of Roumania"
"Complex, elusive, haunting, written in a transparent prose that slips you from one world to another with prestidigitous ease, "A Princess of Roumania" is a quietly and profoundly original novel. To compare Paul Park with Philip Pullman or John Crowley gives a hint of the kind of satisfaction his fiction provides."--Ursula K. Le Guin
"Many of those of enjoyed the works of Philip Pullman or Madeleine L'Engle will be thrilled to discover "A Princess Of Roumania,""--Kim Stanley Robinson
"Immediately appealing in all the ways that the heart-tugging matter of high fantasy ought to be. A huge achievement."--John Crowley on "A" "Princess of Roumania" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--Michael Dirda, "The Washington Post Book World" on "A" "Princess of Roumania" "In less-capable hands, the plot of the missing princess would seem trite, but Paul Park makes "A Princess of Roumania" unique. . . .The result is a powerful novel that should appeal to adult and sophisticated young adult audiences. . . .the stage is set for a terrific series. I can't wait for the next installment." -"Rocky Mountain News," Grade A-
"Elegantly imagined and densely poetic novel . . . . we may be looking at one of the major fantasy works of the decade." Gary K. Wolfe, "Locus "on "A" "Princess of Roumania" "Could become one of the most engrossing fantasies ever written. . . .The opening pages have a sustained brilliance it is extremely difficult to convey; they comprise perhaps the most taxing and densely intricate exegesis yet put to paper. . . .The story so far of "A Princess of Roumania "is intense, contorted, distorting, hypnotic; it seems deeply though-and felt-through--as far as we are allowed to follow it. It is a book . . . to read in a deep silent room, so you don't miss a word." --"Interzone"
"It's a journey almost as gratifying as the magic trick pulled off by Park, who should be knighted for breathing life into an oft-tired genre." -"Entertainment Weekly" on "A Princess of Roumania"
"Complex, elusive, haunting, written in a transparent prose that slips you from one world to another with prestidigitous ease, "A Princess of Roumania" is a quietly and profoundly original novel. To compare Paul Park with Philip Pullman or John Crowley gives a hint of the kind of satisfaction his fiction provides."--Ursula K. Le Guin
"Many of those of enjoyed the works of Philip Pullman or Madeleine L'Engle will be thrilled to discover "A Princess Of Roumania,""--Kim Stanley Robinson
"Immediately appealing in all the ways that the heart-tugging matter of high fantasy ought to be. A huge achievement."--John Crowley on "A" "Princess of Roumania" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is the first book in a series about Miranda Popescu, a teenager growing up in Massachusets in our world, knowing herself to have been adopted but not realising that she was born in a completely different reality. In the place where Miranda comes from the Roumanian Empire is a great power and she is a princess of Roumania.
The series currently comprises four books which are, in order
1) A Princess of Roumania
2) The Tourmaline
3) The White Tyger
4) The Hidden World
In Miranda's home reality, science and technology are far behind our own, but magic and sorcery, though illegal, are much more powerful. Some strange catastrophe, apparently a natural disaster though the details and date are not described in the book, has destroyed the British Isles at a point in history late enough that some of the settlements founded by British colonists in North America exist, including New York, but early enough that neither the USA nor Canada as we know them have come into existence and much of the North American continent is wilderness. The Roumanian Empire, which used to strech form the Black Sea to he Adriatic and from, Macedonia to Hungary, is under threat from the greatest power in the world, the German republic.
Miranda'a mother and aunt arranged to hide her in our world for her own safety during a period of political upheaval in which her father was killed. At least two evil magic users are searching for her, seeking to use her for their own ends. At the start of the book one of them, Baroness Nicola Ceaucescu, finds Miranda and sends her minions to Massachusets in an attempt to capture her.
People and creatures travelling between our world and Miranda's are often transformed when passing between the worlds and may change sex, or from human to animal and back. Miranda and her two best friends suddenly find themselves in her home reality, all tranformed in different ways and struggling to make their way through the wilderness where Massachusets would be in our world. They do not know which of the people they meet may be friends and which are enemies.
This is a very strange book and in places a little hard to read. However, it can be very exiting and is always interesting.
The series currently comprises four books which are, in order
1) A Princess of Roumania
2) The Tourmaline
3) The White Tyger
4) The Hidden World
In Miranda's home reality, science and technology are far behind our own, but magic and sorcery, though illegal, are much more powerful. Some strange catastrophe, apparently a natural disaster though the details and date are not described in the book, has destroyed the British Isles at a point in history late enough that some of the settlements founded by British colonists in North America exist, including New York, but early enough that neither the USA nor Canada as we know them have come into existence and much of the North American continent is wilderness. The Roumanian Empire, which used to strech form the Black Sea to he Adriatic and from, Macedonia to Hungary, is under threat from the greatest power in the world, the German republic.
Miranda'a mother and aunt arranged to hide her in our world for her own safety during a period of political upheaval in which her father was killed. At least two evil magic users are searching for her, seeking to use her for their own ends. At the start of the book one of them, Baroness Nicola Ceaucescu, finds Miranda and sends her minions to Massachusets in an attempt to capture her.
People and creatures travelling between our world and Miranda's are often transformed when passing between the worlds and may change sex, or from human to animal and back. Miranda and her two best friends suddenly find themselves in her home reality, all tranformed in different ways and struggling to make their way through the wilderness where Massachusets would be in our world. They do not know which of the people they meet may be friends and which are enemies.
This is a very strange book and in places a little hard to read. However, it can be very exiting and is always interesting.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book totally unseen and am pleasantly surprised. I found shades of 'Always Coming Home' by Le Guin at the start but it soon moves away from introspection. I don't know the author: I hope he's got more to say and will continue to develop.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A different type of parallel universe book and one that I feel a number of readers may have a hard time getting to grips with but what makes this tale is the way in which the principle protagonist interacts throughout the world and her relationships with her friends from our own timeline. Inventive to a certain degree the tale does get confused at certain points but has set itself up for subsequent novels although Im not sure how unique a tale this will be when transposed over a series or if it will become old hat very quickly. I hope that Paul does a spectacular job with the second novel to correct the problems that I had with this first installment.
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