The Telling Pool

by David Clement-Davies

Book Overview

A thrilling new fantasy from the author of the cult favorites Fire Bringer and The Sight. From the author known for his popular, intricately crafted novels, as praised by The Boston Globe, comes a new... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810992574
• ISBN13: 9780810992573
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 12 to 15 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 10

Customer Reviews

Great and Unique Read

It makes me sick to hear of all these people who didn't like this book.. I thought it was a very unique read and action set. I couldn't put the book down. It tells the story of Rhodri Falcon, a boy living long ago. His father is sent to war, and young Rhodri creates a friendship with a strange old man who tells him of dark secrets and magical swords and pools. Rhodri grows up to be a young man when his father returns, an angry, bitter man who is nothing like who Rhodri remembers. Rhodri sets out to save his father's heart, and keep his mother's from breaking. Great read, I highly recommend it.

Bert's Book Review

The book The Telling Pool by David Clemet-Daives, is a great medieval themed book for young adults. The book starts off with a boy named Rhodri speaking to a fortune teller who tells him his fortune; that he is to undergo a quest to save the kingdom. Rhodri's father tells him to get away from the teller and stay with him. Rhodri, of course, wanders off and finds a blind black smith who tells him the true tale behind Excalibur the Sword of a Thousand Tears. The smith then tells Rhodri of a wondrous telling pool where only to special people the pool reveal its secrets. Rhodri's father gets called off to the Holy Wars and is gone a long time. Rhodri one day is practicing his falconine skills when his bird gets lost. He wanders through the woods and finds the blind black smith and looks into the pool and sees horrific things. When Rhodri comes back to reality, he remembers that his mother is getting sick, and when his father comes back furious for some reason, he turns to the telling pool, and heads on a quest. This book starts off slowly with the carnival, but gradually gains speed, as the reader progresses into this new world. There is much description in this book, especially with the telling pool scenes. The reader may have to reread the telling pool scenes to get the full picture. The book itself is a good-sized book for seventh through tenth grade. Not too long, not too short, but just right. The book's action could have started earlier and focused more on the quest part, instead of leaving only three chapters for the quest out of a sixteen chapter book. Fortunately the action builds up before the quest. Best of all, you feel Rhodri's emotions through out the whole book, which always makes a good book.

Good book from a great author!

The Telling Pool was a very good book. Of the books David Clement Davies has written, it isn't my favorite, but that is most certainly NOT saying that I didn't enjoy it very much. It is a wonderful blend of medieval fantasy, coming of age, and romance. As you can see, by what the other reviews say, there is a small religious aspect in the story. However, I think other reviewers may have been overreacting a little bit over the matter. David Clement Davies neither puts down one religion or states anything about one being better than another. He simply writes about them, and tells how a person of that religion would think or what they beleive. He doesn't even go into depth about any of them. Speaking of the religions, as far as I can tell, was essential to the story,(Because the war in the story was a religious crusade.) but was certainly not the main point of it. The story overall is a medieval fantasy. Here is a summary of the plot: Rhodri, a 12 year old boy lives with his mother and his father, who is a master falconer. (One who trains and keeps falcons as pets.) During a fair he meets an old fortune teller who reads the tarot cards for him and tells him of a great destiny he is to have. Shortly afterwards, his father is called upon to go to war to fight for the return of the Holy lands. After his father leaves, Rhodri meets a blind hermit who is the guardian of a magical pool that can show Rhodri what he most wishes to see. Through the pool, he discovers his destiny, and eventually, upon the return of his distraught father, he embarks on a wonderful journey to make things right again. David Clement Davies, has written a great book (yet again) with great voice, wonderful character developement, and he has even managed to make an original story out of what could have easily not been original. I would highly reccomend this, as well as his other works, The Sight, and Firebringer! Enjoy!

From the publisher

The Telling Pool does overtly examine questions of belief and spirituality, especially in the context of a religious crusade, but it neither states that Christ was an ordinary man nor that Wiccan is the only way, only that that is what some believe. Since it is dealing with beliefs, but in a story that allows for the existence of magic, it necessarily posits the idea of a magical force, and one profoundly rooted in nature. That is the association of Merlin with nature magic in Arthurian legend, which is a legend cycle that has both pagan and Christian roots. But in essence it is about real relationships and a boy's journey to adulthood, which allows him to test many of the religious and cultural assumptions that divided his society then, and the real people within it, and which have such dangerous echoes today. If parents think that this is dangerous for children, then there is a worrying moral censorship at work that the author profoundly disputes.

I loved it!

It was a bit young and simple, but I still loved this book. It had a familiar plot that was made original, though I did think that it had a rather abrubt ending. Things didn't really speed up until the last 50 or so pages, though the long beginning wasn't boring. It was surprisingly a lot different from Firebringer and the Sight, which had similar plots. Rhodri, after finding the Telling Pool, needs to find the sword Excaliber to free his father's heart. It takes place after King Arthur's age, where he is only a story. All in all, it was pretty good, if rather rushed.