Alan is a strong and intelligent fighter with clear eyes and a great heart. Hal, his true friend and blood brother, is a mystic as well as a fighter. Destiny spurs them to fight to free their land of the despotic rulers that have enslaved the people for seven generations, or die in the attempt. Their strength comes from their bond with each other, a partnership so strong that the One prophesied it ages ago. This is a must-read book, one whose characters and images will remain vivid for years. Springer is an excellent author, a storyteller with a knack for creating and describing new worlds, and she is at her best in The Silver Sun.

I read this book and its "sequel" (Sable Moon) as a teenager when they came out in the late '70's and early '80's, and I loved them passionately then. I still love them now, and reread them often, even as an old lady of 33. There is something in the Hal/Alan bond that never fails to move me. I only wish there was more (and I've always wished the Sable Moon actually reunited the two rather than merely hinting. I've thought of writing to the author, if I could find her!). Does anyone out there know if Ms. Springer has ever written anything else involving these characters (other than Golden Swan, and Chance and Other Gestures, which I must immediately find now that I know it includes is a Hal/Alan story)?

I read this book when I was fifteen, and still think it's one of the greatest works of literature I've ever read. This is the store of Alan, and his blood brother Hal, as they struggle to fight against an evil king, find the women they love, and fulfill their destinies.

This novel has some great characterization, and Springer does a great job of portraying the complexities of life in Isle. I only wish they could reprint this series. This is one of her best books!

A must read for fantasy lover and for readers who enjoy complex characterization.

Both riotously funny and sweetly touching, _Fair Peril_ is a fun and wonderful fantasy novel. It's set in modern times, in a sort of "Anytown, USA"--where the shopping mall is a portal into Fairyland, and anything can happen.

It all begins when Buffy Murphy discovers a talking frog who claims to be a prince. Buffy is a divorced and overweight woman, down on her luck, who holds down a practical job in a fake food factory and is a storyteller on the side. Hoping a gimmick will make her storytelling more sought-after, she takes the frog home...and has no plans to kiss it and turn it back into a prince. Enter her teenage daughter. When the frog prince and 16-year-old Emily run away together, Buffy has to find them and rescue Emily from the story she's been caught up in. Buffy finds herself in a world where a star-spangled nightgown renders you a wizard, where misspelling your spell can have disastrous results, and where the blue ogres lurking around the corner might be mundane cops, ready to haul you off to the local mental health center. I won't summarize the plot from here, because it would make no sense if I tried to recount it in this space. But it's a fun and wild ride. In the end, Buffy learns that no story is set in stone, and it's never too late to start all over with "once upon a time".

I'll be honest, I picked up this book at a used book store while waiting for a friend to finish shopping. I started the first paragraph in the store, bought the book cause I couldn't bear not reading more of it and ended up spending the rest of the day wrapped up in the pages. I loved this book.
The heroine is a women my age (you don't get many of those), and of my build (you never get those) and she ends up saving the day and herself. If you enjoy stories that are a little of the real world with an over-lap of the fantasy, you will love this.
This is the first book of Nancy Springers that I have read, but I can assure you that I will be searching for more of them. She is funny (laugh out loud funny) but also a little pensive and thought provoking. If you're looking for a fairy tale with a little nasty adult twist, don't miss this.

I had never read anything by this author, but I saw that Marion Zimmer Bradley highly recommended it, so I figured it would be worth a shot. This is an amazing novel. It takes you into a world that is disorderly and full of chaos, and shows you more about the nature of people than you would expect from a fantasy novel. Excellent, heart wrenching at times, and Springer's style of writing makes the whole episode very believeable.

Okay, so the story isn't really about witches as I had first thought, but it is full of other majic that just takes your breath away when combined masterfully with different characters and mini- adventures. I definitely recommend this book to lovers of the mysterious ways of magic.

The Hex Witch of Seldom is one of a handful of books that is my absolute favorite. The sparse family of the heroine and the created mystical family combined to form a story with emotional depth and continued to involve the reader in an ever evolving and exciting plot.

The book is about a young girl named Bobby who's father had passed away, mother placed in a mental institution and is to live with her grandfather who raises horses. She goes to get her own mustang on her 16th birthday and everything excells from there. This is one of the best books I have ever read. I had my father hunt it down and buy it for me.

A Horse To Love is a heart-warming story about the difference between dreams and reality. Erin is a 11-year-old girl who is a loner. All she wants is a horse to call her own, a horse that will love her, and become her best friend. But, when Erin finally does get a horse, she has no idea what she bargained for. Worst of all, Spindrift is a cranky, stubborn horse who doesn't seem to like Erin very much. Spindrift has actually made life worse for Erin, with the mean kids at school, and her parents always getting on to her case. But in the end, Spindrift is the one who helps Erin come out of her shell and face the real world.

It was relly good. I think it is a excellent book !!!

One reason I like Nancy Springer is she manages to weave so much more besides horses into her stories. Not On A White Horse is a perfect example. I read it so many times, when I had it. This book showcases one girl, Riannon, just before her teenage years, in a dead end town with a horrible family life. Then there is Angel, a hard headed white arabian who would rather be free wandering the hills than be captured. And then there are the people who own him, who give Ri a second home and her horse dreams. Very good! I wish it weren't out of print!

This book is so awesome!I fell in love with this book because it is so realistic.It shows real problems that real families in today's societies have to face.The events in it do not occur like fairy tales,but,instead,occur like many in my own life.It is a book that just about everyone can relate to at one time in their life.It let's people know that there is not a person in the world who doesn't have problems like they do.It made me realize how selfish I was to feel sorry for myself when there are other people out there with lives much worse than my own.I was mystified for weeks at how true and realistic this book was. It tuned me into the real world that lay beyond my thoughts that everyone's life was perfect but mine.

I purchased Plumage because it received a favorable review in an article on several books that addressed "women's issues" from different perspectives. To be honest, I wasn't all that interested in issue-oriented fiction, but it also sounded like it might be a good read. It hung around the house for quite a while before I picked it up one day and discovered that it is better than a good read - it's a great read.

Plumage is one of those novels that restores your faith in - indeed, rekindles your memory of - the pleasure of a wonderful story. You are quickly drawn into the plot, which is quite imaginative, and slowly but surely come to feel the world through Sassy's eyes. The author's choice of words is not self-consciously artsy; yet her descriptions of the natural world (and particularly its colors and textures) are very evocative and perfectly integrated into the story itself.

I won't reveal any of that story, as it should be experienced first-hand. But I will tell you that while reading it I found myself thinking of the child I once was, and how I experienced the world back then, and how all of us lose something as we make the transition to our adult selves, something that we can occasionally reclaim - at least in part.

The plot is compelling and the resolution completely satisfying, but the real pleasure is in the journey itself. I am not a big fan of fantasy - I'd rather read Dostoevsky than Tolkien - but Plumage appeals on multiple levels. It appeals to both your "sense of the sensible" and your sense of wonder. Highly recommended; a fine-feathered find.

It must have been while I was going to all those singles dances that I became fascinated by mating rituals, and decided to write about a woman getting back into fancy feathers after almost three decades of marriage. I knew how hard it was to do this, and how difficult to get back into courtship dances and billing and cooing... Stuck in a bird metaphor, I researched bowerbirds and budgies and hoatzins and such, becoming even more engrossed. Hey, all sorts of women's issues are incarnated in grackles and cassowaries and geese. I discovered that birds and humans have a lot more in common than just walking on two legs. Wow, do avian relationships parallel human ones! Birds of a feather share household chores together, but in species that glorify the male...watch out. Gender Inequality Alert. And how does my dowdy, dumped, middle-aged heroine, poor little Sassy, feel about that?

Hmmm...Of course, there are some important differences between birds and people:

1) In avian species in which the genders differ in appearance, the male gets to wear the fancy feathers. Of course, in humans, there are drag queens.... Enter Racquel, my other main character.

2) In birds, mating is done via cloaca. Only waterfowl have...um, to put it crudely, only ducks have ... . And how does Racquel feel about that?

3) Birds can fly. That's a real, real important difference. Does Sassy want to fly?

Don't we all?

I'm a funny little bird myself, I guess, to be thinking about these things. By the time I got finished writing PLUMAGE, I almost felt like I could eat pokeweed and crap purple. But there's a lot more to life -- and PLUMAGE -- than just fun and fancy feathers. Being able to fly has a lot to do with remembering how.

I found this book on my book shelf, I read just one page and I was enthroled to read more. This book is about a prince of honor, and goodness who finds his destiny and saves his kindom from the pariles of evel. When I was done reading this amazing story I just felt good inside. I hope to find all those books, for thay are what dreams are made of. Even though these glorious, wonderful, amazing books are out of print. If anyone ever finds, The Sable Moon or any other of these glorious books, dont pass them up thay are just good for the soul books.

This is my favorite book. I'm looking everywhere to find the rest of the series. On the book itself, I find incredibly stunning! It's the story of the son of a Sun King who finds his own destiny while discovering the way to true love and to have communion with his fellow man.

Two young men meet on the magical Isle, and grow to deep friendship, which is tested by love for a maiden, an evil king/wizard, and their own self-growth. An excellent tale that makes you yearn to help the heroes-to-be, and maybe just sit on the isle in hope to see the dragons or elves. Gives good descriptions of the isle and action, but also brings you into the young mens' minds -- you understand why they do what they do.

This is the enchanting story of three people, whose lives were interwoven by love, friendship, and desire for the destruction of evil. Set at the ancient times, when magic, nature, mortals and immortals exist together. The place itself, the Isle, gives readers the feel of the story--magical, lovely, nurturing, healing, but also foreboding and wicked. The presence of legendary creatures such as firedrakes, wyverns, the loyal red falcon and the pure white hart makes it more spell-binding. But what sets this story apart from other fantasy books is that the White Hart has successfully lifted the readers to a range of human emotions. Ellid's strength and faithfulness, Cuin's unselfishness and loyalty, and Bevan's courage, spirit, honor and despair. I have never seen nor heard of a man as lonely as Bevan. A mesmerizing tale that will leave you tearful, breathless, almost complete. I came across this book in 1991, and fell in love with the story and the characters. When it was accidentally lost by a friend, I searched for a copy but failed. Until 1998 when I learned of Amazon and finally found what I've been searching. The book is certainly worth the effort and the long wait.

A tale of love, honor and evil. Two lads meet in a land riddled with magic and the evil of a dishonest "king". The story has tinges of the magic of King Arthur - a lad looks within himself, with the help of his friend and a maiden, and finds power to fight evil. The characters are complete, and brings you into the story. You care what happens to each one. One of Springers' earlier works, it's not as polished as later works. The ending may not turn out as you thought, but it makes sense. This book ties in with later books (Silver Sun and Sable Moon), but you don't have to read it to understand the later stories. Regal and heartrending, absolutely worth a weekend to read.

I read the German version of the book about a year ago and I liked it because you are confronted with problems our society uses to ignoring, such as alcoholism, teenagers who have difficulty with their (step-)parents due to divorces or don't even know their fathers.
After his brother's death, Shawn (called Tuff) swears to take revenge on the murderer and is completely despaired for he has lost the most important person in his life. When he gets to know the man his mother regards as his biological father, that man convinces him that it would make no sense to lose control and Shawn realizes his life has to be continued without his brother Dillon.

Toughing it is a book about adolescent anger. Tuff is a teenage boy living in a poor neighborhood. His mother has many children with many fathers. Tuff does not recive any affection from her as she is busy with her boyfriends and children. Dillon, his brother, is his only source of affection. So everything is shattered when Dillon is senselessly murdered before his eyes. His drunk mother couldn't care less. So Tuff sets out to find Dillon's killer. Toughing It is about his struggle to accept his brother's death and his lust to track down the killer. Tuff finds that nothing is to be gained by killing the killer. This book is an action-packed exploration of teenage anger and coping with grief. Toughing It overflows with emotion. It deserves many more than five stars. I recomend this book for people 13+ because of severe language. Toughing It is an aweome book.

Toughing It is a book about adolescent anger and the feelings of betrayal. When his brother is senslessly murdured by an unknown killer in front of him, Tuff sets out to find his killer. This book explores the feelings of anger, and is a touching real fiction book. Five stars is a small tribute to this great book!

I read this book about 5 years ago, and I have still thought about it. I don't think I fully understood what was going on. But now I have!! I liked this book and you shoutl read it if you find these reviews intresting.

This book deals with very real issues, but has kind of a surreal, fairy-tale-ish quality to it, probably because of the presence of a vagabond gypsy family on a black horse. You can just imagine them, riding away in the gray mists of morning...
The characters are well-developed and thought out, and the plot is intense, but thoughtful and moody.

I read this book many times and I loved it more every time! I think that everyone should read this book because it is really good!