Thursday, December 06, 2007

Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke

(pb; 2003: first book in the Inkheart trilogy. Translated from the German by Anthea Bell)

From the back cover:

"One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from Inkheart, and an evil ruler named Capricorn escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Somehow, Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. Only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever."


Review:

The first book of the Inkheart trilogy is heartfelt, frisky (it has numerous lightly sarcastic moments), family friendly and near-impossible to put down. Funke never lets up on the action, and the characters (from plucky twelve-year old Meggie Folchart to the knife-wielding Basta). 

Inkheart's ending, like the rest of the book, is smart and fleet-footed, with a few predictable (but sequel-necessary) elements. Not quite a cliff-hanger, it made me want to read the next book, Inkspell.

This is a worthy read for fans of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.

#

Inkheart graced the silver screen on January 23, 2009. Iain Softley directed the film from a script by David Lindsay-Abaire.

Brendan Fraser played Mo "Silvertongue" Folchart. Andy Serkis played Capricorn. Eliza Bennett played Meggie Folchart. Paul Bettany played Dustfinger. Jim Broadbent played Fenoglio. Helen Mirren played Elinor Loredan.

Jamie Foreman played Basta. Leslie Sharp played Mortola (aka, "the Magpie"). Rafi Gavron played Farid. Marnix Van Den Broeke played The Shadow.

No comments: