Book Review: The High King by Lloyd Alexander

The High King by Lloyd Alexander

After Taran finished wandering in search of his parents (which he never discovered) in the last book, he returns to his home, the farm at Caer Dallben. The homecoming is upset by more bad news--the Huntsmen of Annuvin have struck a grievous blow to Gwydion, High King of Prydain. They have stolen the black sword Dyrnwyn, a flaming weapon of ancient power that can only be wielded by those worthy of ruling Prydain. The Huntsmen have taken it off to Arawn, Lord of the Lands of Death, who is amassing a new army to subjugate Prydain. All the heroes work to raise an army and fight to regain the only weapon that can defeat the Death Lord.

Thus an epic war story begins the final Chronicle of Prydain. Taran and his friends work to avert the great disaster that looms over them all. The plot is a great way to revisit all the characters and places from previous books, allowing for further developments and epic confrontations. The war story is quite exciting with plenty of reversals of fortune to keep interest high. This book provides a great ending to Taran's story as well as the other characters. I highly recommend the whole series and can't wait to read it to J, who is just getting old enough for it.