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The Speed of the Dark
 
 

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The Speed of the Dark (Hardcover)

by Alex Shearer (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books (4 April 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1405020423
  • ISBN-13: 978-1405020428
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.2 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,466,334 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

A breath-takingly clever novel about power and loss from the author of The Great Blue Yonder. Ernst Eckmann is an artist. He specialises in the art of the impossible - objects so tiny, so perfect, that they cannot be real. A tiny camel passes through the eye of a real needle; a pyramid is carved into a grain of sugar; a tiny polar bear, barely visible to the naked eye, sits on an iceberg of salt. Eckmann works in silence, carving between heartbeats. Christopher Malian loves Eckmann's sculptures. He visits the gallery often on his way home from school to marvel at the perfect miniatures beneath their glass domes. Until one day, the impossible happens - and Christopher sees a sculpture so real that it moves, dances, even seems to breathe...


About the Author

Alex Shearer lives with his family in Somerset. He has written more than a dozen books for both adults and children, as well as many successful television series, films, and stage and radio plays. He has had over thirty different jobs, and has never given up trying to play the guitar. His other books for Macmillan are The Great Blue Yonder and The Stolen

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting and Atmospheric Masterpiece, 5 Jul 2004
By Chrestomanci (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: The Speed of the Dark (Paperback)
'The Speed of the Dark' is a strangely haunting little book. Atmospheric ... sinister even. The style of writing is not unlike Roald Dhal's short stories; imagine one of his 'Tales of the Unexpected' expanded to a full novel, and you'll get the picture.

For the most part, the narrative takes the form of a letter/manuscript found after Christopher, a mysterious young scientist, goes missing - leaving nothing behind but a snowglobe screwed down to his desk. A snowglobe without snow.

His manuscript tells the story of his childhood, and the three adults his life revolves around: Robert, his father, a surly bohemian street artist; Poppea, a street performer who pretends to be a mechanical ballerina; and Mr Eckmann, the deformed owner of The Gallery of the Art of the Impossible - and sculptor extraordinaire. His sculptures are truly beyond belief: a polar bear carved from a single grain of salt, a camel tiny enough to be displayed in the eye of a needle, the Empire State Building carved on the tip of a pencil lead, and many more.

But Eckmann has a strange ambition: he wants to include in his Gallery microscopic figures that actually move. One day he invites Christopher to view his latest masterpiece: a fully articulated mechanical ballerina small enough to dance on the point of a needle. His new attraction coincides with the mysterious disappearance of Christopher's friend Poppea. Is this a coincidence ... or something far, far more sinister?

This book is charmingly written, and grips to the very end. It has been short-listed for the Guardian Children's Fiction Award - however, the style of story-telling may well suit early teens to young adults best. A true gem!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The images haunt you days after reading the book, 6 Oct 2008
This review is from: The Speed of the Dark (Paperback)
I don't want to give the content away. So I am simply going to say read this book, it is one of the most original ideas for a fantasy/horror book I have read in ages. Beautifully written the words tug at your soul and by the end I wanted to cry, because during the story I had come to care for the characters. I read this book in one night because I couldn't put it down it weaved it's spell and I was hooked.
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5.0 out of 5 stars This is in my Top Ten, 28 Oct 2009
This review is from: The Speed of the Dark (Paperback)
I love this book and thank you very much Chrestomanci for recommending it to me. I don't know why this book isn't well known. It is excellent - a fantastic story that leaves you thinking about it for a long time, and to me, that is the mark of a good book. I wouldn't call it a children's book, maybe mid-teens to adult. My husband read it after me and he thoroughly enjoyed it as well.
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