Kiteman of Karanga by Alfred Reynolds (1985-09-12)

By Alfred Reynolds

Banished from his homeland for cowardice, Karl uses his kitewing glider to fly across the "endless" desert where he faces unkind odds against surviving, and ultimately reaches a new land which... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: B01FIX0CQK
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

One of my childhood favorites

I first read this book in 5th grade. It stuck with me ever since, and nearly 20 years later I wondered why. Reading it again at 29, now I know. The witting style is pretty basic, not overly engrossing like in a Rowling or King novel, however I noticed two positives to Reynolds' style. First, there is a TON of action in this book. There is no time to get bored, as there is always excitement, action and/or conflict. Second, the descriptions are sparse, but still very descriptive, if that makes sense. It's like Reynolds uses the bare minimum words to describe the scene, yet it still paints a clear picture. I like that. The underlying lessons are good for the kids too. Overcome your fears, friendship, forgiveness, trust. As an adult, I liked that the battle strategies still made sense to an adult, and the action was big, but believable, and that the world felt very developed. There are several areas of the world that could have led to sequels. Its too bad Reynolds never visited Karanga's world again.

imagination

I read this book when I was young, sometime around The Neverending Story, and sometime before Asimov and Heinlein. I still remember the title and story and am collecting now books I read in my youth for my children. My older children never liked this genre but I have hope for my very imaginative 3 year old. I am in my 30's and still imagine myself a writer of sci-fi, someday. Loved this book, even though I've never hang glided, my flying was in my dreams.

Kiteman a pretty good yarn

I picked this up, despite its 11+ age group, because it had ahang glider on the cover. I'm a hang glider pilot, and I figuredit would be worth a few yuks just to see how badly mangled thesport would turn out. It was obviously written by a hang glider pilot. Not only is ita good story of a young man conquering his fears, it's also aremarkably good description of how hang gliding really works.The technology is believable, and makes sense within the culturethat's depicted. This is not a book aimed at adults, but I read it through in onesitting and enjoyed it. I would have really enjoyed this backin late grade school, but hang gliding was just starting then.Some good points scored for the feminist viewpoint, as Our Herolearns that his female buddy not only can do the same things hecan, but does some of them even better.Now if only *I* could fly cross-country the way this guy does!And the mid-desert launch method is also not too far off base;we actually DO launch that way, though the tow vehicle usuallyburns gasoline instead of sheep.Worth a read, especially if you're a hang glider pilot.

as good as Shrek

I read this book to my children as a bed time story the problem with this book is that it is not a bed time story they enjoyed it so much that they didn't fall asleep. And neither did I it was hard to put down.