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highly recommended |
Metal 
A stone grail filled with blood, that alone gets points for being totally metal. The fact that the rest of the book is well constructed and entertaining makes it worth a read.
A true gem 
Highly enjoyable and recommended. Author also writes under the pen name Jan Siegel. First of a trilogy, but actually has an ending, which is nice. Shades of "His Dark Materials", though not anti-religious. Skillfully blends fantasy and science fiction with history and legend. An 11-year-old boy is the protagonist, but it's not written for kids. However, there is nothing inappropriate in it - no swear words or sex scenes - and older teens would definitely get into the story. One of my all-time favorite series, that I often give to older Harry Potter fans looking for something new.
excellent start to series
If one has to accept the fact that almost all fantasy books are now the beginning of a series (and we're just about to that point), then at least The Greenstone Grail is a compelling enough beginning to leave the reader wanting more while still resolving at least this portion of the story. Grail opens nicely with a bit of suspense and mystery as Annie Ward, carrying her infant son, is chased/herded, down a dark unfamiliar road by things dark and barely seen. She stumbles across a haven in the form of the small home of Bartleby Goodman, whose sight clearly has some power. From there we jump to when Nathan is thirteen years old and about to embark on the adventures of the trilogy.
Half the story involves a local legend regarding the Greenstone Grail, a family legacy lost centuries ago that seemingly has returned and is about to be auctioned off. The resurfacing of the cup leads to a legal battle, some strange mystical events, an old, usually harmless witch ("grat-grandmother" to Nathan's best friend) biting off more than she could chew, and eventually a murder or two.
The other half of the story involves Nathan's emerging and improving ability to dream himself into a strange dying world where magic exists and whose inhabitants (steadily decreasing) are becoming more desperate to find someplace to move where the encroaching "virus" that has killed off most of their universe won't find them.
It doesn't take the most astute reader to figure out that eventually the two stories will have something to do with one another. Meanwhile, toss in a vengeful waterspirit, a mysterious couple who just moved into the small town, Nathan's best friend Hazel who is both repelled and compelled by her own potential Gift for magic, a dog who is more than a dog, an old-time bumblingly benign inspector, an otherworldly princess, and a host of other items and you have a book whose numerous parts mesh together wonderfully well.
The plot is both complex and nicely compelling. The coming-of-age portion of the story is handled subtly and with humor. The characters could do with a bit more edge or vividness, with the exception of Annie who comes across strongly. If Nathan seems a bit too good or too wise/eloquent for the typical 13-yr-old, the author gives us a built-in reason for this.
All in all, Greenstone Grail stands out as one of the best of the many, many offering in young adult fantasy--better written, better plotted than most. It doesn't quite achieve the quality of the Bartimeus trilogy by Stroud or the Gregor series, and falls somewhere in between the two with regard to target age (though can be enjoyed by older teens/adults), but it is a welcome addition. Highly recommmended.
The Geenstone Grail (Sangreal Trilogy)
This book kept my daughters and me on the edges of our seats. If you or your children enjoy Harry Potter then here is his match. We are weighting with bated breath for the next installment in the Trilogy -- What happens next??? I am sure will delight and fascinate!!!!!!!
Cannot be classified as a book for only adults or only teenagers
I'll leave the details of The Greenstone Grail to others here as they have already been elaborated upon. My purpose of writing a review is to note how remarkable this book is. I have been a reader for many years of various genres. Some have been disappointing and others have been very satisfying. I would put this book into the latter category.
Curiously, this story is a blend of fantasy and science fiction. However, my local library has it classified as an ordinary story. It is also listed in the adult section, while others have noted that it is more suited to teenagers. It can't be classified one way or another and that is a sign of a good story. A good story draws one in and shuts out the ordinary world. A good story makes one question the world around and look differently at the events that make up one's life.
While it is only a story, who hasn't longed to know something of the extraordinary? Our world seems bent on overwhelming reality. Reality is reality with its own set of rules, but we are primitives in modern accoutrements. Our very beings long for some of the mystical and unknowns that our early ancestors knew. If one book can bring out only a little of that, then it is a book worth reading. It has been a long time since I found a book that I felt ended too early. I look forward to the next installment.
reviews: page 1, 2, 3
A desperate mother spirits away her infant son, seemingly drawn (chased, perhaps?) to the small English village of Thornyhill. She ends up on the doorstep of old Bartlemy, a curious man who has lived on the forested land for as long as anyone can remember?and who comes to believe that the child is destined for great things. . . .
While growing up under Bartlemy?s protective eye, Nathan Ward senses something else watching him, a shift of shadows in the surrounding Darkwood. Then pieces of his dreams begin to come to life. A man he saved from the ocean washes ashore on the television news. A greenish stone cup set with jewels that has haunted his visions sounds eerily like one lost by the Thorn family centuries ago?a cup that has recently made its way back into the hands of the village?s last living ancestor.
Yet when Nathan learns the chalice may have come from another world, a land with bloodstained moons and a toxic sun, he knows he is destined to play a part in something beyond his most vivid imagination. But why is the cup here, and what could it possibly want with a teenage boy and a sleepy town of villagers full of tall tales? With the help of his best friend, Hazel, Nathan must figure out why he?s been chosen?and for what purpose. Even if it means traveling deeper each night into dreams, into lands, into legends that both terrify and mesmerize him.
The Greenthorn Grail is the first novel of a thrilling new trilogy, tracing a boy?s journey?a quest rife with magic, wonder, and forces as dark as midnight.
From the Hardcover edition.
greenstone grail, grail, greenstone
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