Customer Reviews

The Eclipse of the Century (Scholastic Press)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I recently re-read this book, having first read it very shortly after it was published. When I first read it, I expected it to win all the awards going and I am amazed it hasn't. It is an extraordinary book. The mystery at its heart draws you in slowly, as does the haunting description of a war-torn and forgotten central Asian city inhabited by an odd assortment of people. After a few chapters you find you can't put the book down....There are some VERY unusual animals in it - in fact it is a book with some wholly original ideas and characters throughout. I fell in love with Kije. A darkly humourous book - not whimsical like many children's books now. I suspect it falls somewhere between being a book for much older children and for those adults who read children's books for reasons other than comfort- probably why it is less well known than it should be.

I have just re-read "Eclipse" after a gap or a couple of years and I am again bowled over by a totally superb novel - and novel indeed in every sense of the word. Yet it is overlooked by, well, practically everyone. Perhaps people see it as "out of date" - a millennium "tie-in", a book written to cash in on the 1999 eclipse. They could not be more wrong.

Some say it has a slow beginning - but that "slowness" is so necessary. Just like Keith - the central character - you are lured in to the life of this forgotten outpost in the depths of central Asia where things are indeed slow. Its at times whimsical, comical. Qantoum becomes a real place - so real you start looking at maps wondering where it is because the description is just so perfect. If towns like this do not exist in central Asia then they should!

Then - about half way in - you suddenly begin to get a little uneasy. This strange demi-paradise, this island surrounded by sand, does it have a dark side? Like Keith you could walk away at any time, but like Keith you are now hooked as like an snowball becomes an avalanche Keith's world starts to plummit out of control up to the tragic - but very open - ending.

It is another example, of course, of how "teenage" fiction surpasses anything the world of adult writing can produce. It is gripping. There are no answers. The people are real - not black and white hats, every hat is grey!

Don't hesitate - buy a copy of this today. And I'll see you "under a black sun at the end of 1,000 years"!

Jan Mark's book was something of a revelation to me - and it is also a book which deserves to cross over into adult readership. The author takes us on a surreal journey into a scaring and unsettled place - I've never travelled into the furthest reaches of the former Soviet Union - where Russia met Asia - but I was wholly convinced by the arid, semi-inhabited world of Qantoum. The events that unfold in this half-way place are apocalyptic and gripping. I'd give it to anyone over the age of 14 to read. Immediately.

This is well written, with many strange twists that are completely unexpected and gradually expose layer after layer of deceit, murder and prophecy in the Asian town of Qantoum. While seeming completely impossible it manages somehow to be believable in an unnerving way. The problems I found were with the beginning and the end. The beginning is too slow, and the ending while surprising is not as tragic as it would like to be. The only other problem is that I would have liked more depth to the characters, maybe seeing things from their point of view for a chapter or two. Overall, though, this is a great book.

It's a wonderful book; the start is a bit tedious, but it soon draws you in, if only to think, 'what's going on here?' While it's a long book, all of it is relevant and important in some way or another, and the ending, while resolving one major problem in the book, also has a sudden, shocking ending which was hard to expect, but also moving. A great book for teens and above, and I absolutely recommend it.

This book brings up many questions yet refuses to even hint at the answers. We are taken to what is almost a fantasy location but at the same time we realise that it is rooted firmly in real life and shows the devastation left by the crumbing of an empire (in this case the Soviet Union). Jan Mark is dealing with uncomfortable truths about ourselves. We see the patronising way in which the West views peoples other than our own and we also see that the ruthlessness that we associate with the primitive lies within all of us. The ending is ironically apocalyptic yet we know that the deaths which follow will not represent the destruction of the whole world and that they will be, for the rest of the world, unimportant. A stunning book.

This is an amazing story. I picked it up because it was about the millennium, but it has so much more to it. The thing that surprised me was that it was in the YA section of the library. This book will appeal to audiences of all ages. It is the story of Keith Chapman, who during a near death experience has a vision of a place called Qantoum where he is told that it is not his time yet, and that they will meet him again "under a black sun at the end of a thousand years." When he recovers he finds that the place is real, and sets off there. This book is simply breath-taking and extremely well-written. I adored it. It also has a lot of humor in it. And, since, it's nearly 500 pages long and it is one of two books I started AND finished today, it's kind of obvious that I enjoyed it immensely. I'd recomend it to everyone.

I first read this book as a teenager and was astounded by the depth of emotion and the sense of place Jan Marks' sparse prose could evoke. Though published for a teenage readership I would argue that this novel is over-looked as a piece of adult literature, with dark themes running throughout, it keeps you immersed with a disquieting sense of foreboding which grows until the dramatic conclusion. All this is delivered by a very real ensemble of lonely characters who, along with the part-abandoned desert town, wallow in their nostalgia until events bring the past back to face them all.
Once read you will keep this book and re-read it many times.

I found out about this book from a special section of the Guardian newspaper, sent to me by a friend in the U.K. who knows of my interest in books for young people. This book is one of the most engaging reads I have had in a long time. Jan Mark evokes a strange yet believable landscape, the mental image of which still lingers with me well over a year since I read the book. The description of the "leathers" was so good that I'd know one in a flash... Why the publishers have not considered an edition for the U.S. market stumps me! I'd love to be able to recommend this book -- without having to part with my own copy!

This book was absolutly fantastic!!! this book starts off a bit confusing at first but dont let that put you off. i found this book very hard to put down, once you have read this book you will want to read this style of book all the time.i am 14 years of age so it would cover a large age group so all that is left to say is buy this book and enjoy