Tyger Tyger

Goblin Wars - Trilogy #01: Tyger Tyger: A Goblin Wars Book

Tyger, Tyger is the first of the Goblin Wars trilogy by Kersten Hamilton based on  Celtic Folklore or Mythology. It is Chronicles of Narnia meets Hunger Games with creatures scarier and even more mystical. Hamilton pens fear to life and sheds a shadow over a world that while just like ours,  it is awake to the dreamlike and nightmarish creatures that most humans know nothing of. Just as I felt after reading books from the masterminds of  Tolkien and C.S Lewis who created worlds where I that submerged me, Tyger Tyger holds its own in the fantasy arena. Beware though that even as an adult you will find yourself trapped by what awaits you inside these pages.

Hamilton does not shy away from the spiritual implications on either end of the spectrum. I know that could make some people uncomfortable, but it is written as fantasy, in which you will see characters that resemble reality but aren't fully real. Although Kersten Hamilton is a christian, she longs for this book to go out mainstream and minister by way of storytelling, or a parable-like approach to our world. Too often we are afraid to mention the power of darkness, so as not to cause fear, disturb anyone. But as followers of Jesus Christ we strip Him of His power when we don't acknowledge what we are battling in His name.

On an entertainment can-I-put-it-down level, I tore through it, in a day or so. And then I was mad. Why? Because I hated for it to end and now I 'get' to wait a year to read the next and I don't want to (read that in a VERY whinny voice)!! I want to keep reading in that world,to know what happens to Tea and Finn.  I am thinking about it while in the garden, while washing dishes long, LONG after the last page was turned. It is the type of book where I am now spending the evening wandering around looking for another one that could satisfy this craving. I pick one up, look at it and then set it down. Repeat. Repeat.

Have you felt this way about a book? Oh, it is a love hate relationship I have with books that make me do this. I love them, but hate them for ever ending. This is the kind of book that makes reading fun again. This is one of my absolute favourites of the year!!! (It is available on Amazon right now, or wait until the 15th of November and it will be in other bookstores too!!)

I'll leave you with the poem 'The Tyger' by William Blake, which is why this book is titled Tyger Tyger.  In this poem Blake leaves it up to the reader to decide if the creator of the predatory tiger could also make the docile lamb, its victim.

The Tyger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

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