Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: hollow

  • The Calling of Jackdaw Hollow

    The Calling of Jackdaw Hollow

    For followers of the Direleafe Hall series they will be familiar with the wise old Crow Hollowbeak, who watches, and at times shares his timeless wisdom. But where did Hollowbeak gain all his wisdom has until now, been well kept within the Direleafe Halls many secrets.

    Jackdaw Hollow came into the world with a rush. A fractious child he never seemed to settle, no matter what his doting parents tried. Until one night, a beautiful storm was brewing on the horizon and his mother thought he may well enjoy watching the lightening as it danced with the thunder, as it moved across the skies.

    Except sadly, his parents were hit by the lightening; he was found by a man and taken to Direleafe Hall and offered to the headmistress Mrs Beekman, who agreed to bring him up as her son. The trouble was he grew up as a little boy, who was fine of feature, with black, featherlike hair and pale face, who did not make friends, but loved to read and learn.

    Nell, Florence and Lucy, the three ghost girls who have been a part of Direleafe Hall for a very, very long time, decided, at least Nell did, it is time they became known to Jack, and as always Nell, can’t help trying to help, even when she knows she should not.

    This leads Jack into some very strange adventures as he desperately tries to find his calling in life. He has always been told he was spared for something very special, but no matter what he tries, he really can’t find his calling. But maybe, he has made a friend in Angelique, a little girl who seems to have lived a very different life to his and also desperately wants to join a circus troupe to become famous.

    The Calling of Jackdaw Hollow, from Kate Gordon is a whimsical story that is carved around life’s many lessons, as well as world of wisdom. As Jackdaw Hollow learns what his calling really is, so too does the story of Direleafe Hall and the wonderful girls and ghosts who do live there, slowly come to a nice ghostly conclusion, in a gentle and calm manner.

    Should Kate Gordon feel there is another story to be told there is plenty of scope, but as Hollowbeak was getting rather old and weary in The Ballad of Melodie Rose, perhaps this is indeed a time to consider new adventures for one wise old Crow a may well be a thing of the past.

  • Hollow Earth

    Hollow Earth

    If you are a fan of John Kinsella’s you will love this convoluted and yet somehow addictive tale of Hollow Earth, written as a protest to the destruction caused as we, the so called learned, high IQ race of peoples, go about destroying what was once a far more pristine and beautiful place called earth.

    From a very young age Manfred has been fascinated by what he considers is another world that can be accessed by tunnels or through a sophisticated cave system, somewhere on the earth. Set initially in Western Australia, the story moves about the world where as an adult, Manfred finally discovers a Neolithic copper mine in Schull, Ireland which holds the key, the entrance, to a place he refers to as Hollow Earth, an almost nirvana like place that he has always believed truly existed.

    Granted entry to this world he is amazed at the acceptance of religious and cultural differences, a civilization where they have no war, where they treasure the land, but while not a perfect civilisation, is tolerant and accepting, Manfred begins to see that what is in Hollow Earth is far better, richer than anything in the world in which he lives, the surface world.

    He eventually encourages Ari and Zest, two of the androgynous Hollow Earthers to return to the surface with him and is not long before they too fall deeply into the temptations offered. At times funny, sad, reflective and scary with tones of times long past, the pages are vivid in their portrayal of what, or who, we as a race of peoples have become!

    As the work evolves it is not possible to ignore the parable that is unfolding, based on the wanton destruction and greed of modern-day life, and a very real crisis that is unfolding environmentally on a daily basis.

    Perhaps better known as a poet, Kinsella has in parts used a stark brevity of language to illustrate a point as at 127, when he looks annihilation and what it means: ‘Annihilation. No equivalent of that word exists in the human or animal languages of Hollow Earth.’ A point with which it is particularly hard to disagree.

    Fascinating, and as with Kinsella works, a book which needs to be taken in small doses, considering the energetic shifting of places, times, events, emotions and the slow destruction of Ari and Zest, as they are seduced further into the tragedy of modern life, Hollow Earth needs to be supped slowly to better understand Kinsella’s platform.

    Hollow Earth is a work that while abstract in form is compelling, a work which, in a subtle manner contains a wild beauty, a furious cry of rage, drawing to attention to the wanton destruction of earth and the very real, transparent greed that underlies society as they demand more and more riches.

    Billed as a science fiction work, it is also a very inciteful look at who we are as a human race, a race of people who accept what is told without question, that have become intolerant, greedy and uncaring of the richness of the earth on which we all live.