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| Troll Fell | 
| Author: Katherine Langrish
Category: Book
List Price: $15.99
Buy New: $10.00
You Save: $5.99 (37%)
New (7) from $10.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 2131723
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.3
ASIN: B000IOEQOO
Publication Date: June 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A secret kingdom of trolls, and their legendary gold, lies in the mysterious shadows of Troll Fell. It is to this eerie and dangerous place that Peer must go after his father's sudden death, to live with his greedy uncles, Baldur and Grim, at their mill. When Peer discovers his uncles' plan to sell children to the trolls, he has to bury his fears and set out to stop them somehow. In a world filled with magic and mystery, Peer has only his bravery, his wits, and two new allies -- a daring girl looking for adventure and a mischievous house spirit looking for a good meal. Their story will become part of the legends and lore that fill this extraordinary land by the sea.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 The Troll sensation November 29, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Troll Sensation
A boy gets taken by his mean, cruel uncles. Will he survive?
In the book Troll Fell a boy gets taken and his name is Peer. His uncles take him to a farm that has that has tons of leaks. One of his uncles own a mill that has a Nis. If you have seen Harry potter it is like a house elf his uncles make him do all the work. Then he gets mixed up with some Trolls. Will he make it?
My favorite part is when Peer goes with his friend Hidle and her two younger siblings to the beach and leaves his work. When Peer goes back from the beach, his uncle almost breaks his arm. I like this part because Peer left his work and had some fun. He meets some Vikings that told Hidle that her dad went to an island and hasn't come back.
I think the author's purpose is to inspire people to explore.
I think people should read this book because it has tons of surprises. I would rate this book 5 stars.
By Rian
 A Demoralizing Book May 7, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Troll Fell is a depressing book. Unfortunately every major event in the book can be effortlessly predicted. It bores booklovers. Causing the reader to weep in sheer despair for the characters as they endure unimaginable hardships, this book definitely depresses determined readers. Despite all of the sadness, despite all of the troubles, and despite all of the trolls, the main characters defeat the villains, who are wicked relatives, with a weak ending. If you decide to read this book, beware because it is discouraging.
The story begins with a boy named Peer Ulfsson watching his father's funeral pyre lighting up the night. What a hopeless beginning. Shortly after, when Peer is still staring at the flames his Uncle Baldur, who was a miller, came to take Peer away. Above all the nasty relatives Uncle Baldur is the worst, here is his insensitive remark about Peer's father's funeral, "A funeral? And I thought it was a pig roast!' Uncle Baldur crowed with laughter." As the story continues Uncle Baldur succeeded in forcing, frightening, and discouraging Peer, because of his intimidating size and booming voice, and succeeds in taking Peer to his mill that he shares with his twin, Grim, Peer's other uncle. Realizing that both of his Uncles are cruel, Peer is forced to do their dirty work like cleaning up the dishes and running the mill. If Peer did not comply with his Uncles commands he is beaten and thrown in a cramped moldy storage closet. Sound familiar? This part reminds me of the story of Cinderella and Series of Unfortunate Events. First his father dies, then he is practically enslaved by his own uncles, things can only get better for Peer, but not in this book, things get much worse.
Adding to the distress of the story, the evil and ugly trolls, who are having a royal wedding, require two slaves as wedding presents for the engaged couple. Uncle Baldur and Grim, because they are greedy, selfish, bullies, pledge to acquire the slaves for the trolls if they are paid with gleaming troll gold. They plan to take Peer. They plan to kidnap another. They plan to become rich. Entirely unaware of his uncles' plot, Peer meets and befriends an amicable farm girl named Hilde. Since she is the same age as Peer, lives nearby, and her father is away on a Viking ship, Hilde is potentially the perfect person to be the other slave. As the unfortunate story continues Peer and Hilde are captured by Peer's uncles and are taken to the trolls wedding.
If a book has a problematic plot and the characters suffer relentlessly, wouldn't one expect an elaborate ending? In this book Peer ends up tricking his uncles to drink out of a magic cup that turns humans into trolls. Agreeing to receive the uncles as the slaves, the trolls let Hilde and Peer go free. That is it. Peer suffers, suffers, suffers, nearly dies, and is abused because of his uncles, who were vile and ill bred, then deceives them into becoming trolls, then goes free. Exceedingly disappointed with the book's weak ending, I had hoped that it would have been stronger considering the plot.
Overall Troll Fell was certainly a depressing book. After all of the hardships the characters avoided, endured, and survived the climax which was unsatisfactory, gave a feeble impression. Ignoring the plot for a moment, the setting was vague; I could not conjure up a mental picture of where the story took place. The troll description was unbelievable. As an example because of its absurdity, the princess troll had her tail growing out of her forehead. The way it was described it sounded like a disgustingly over developed blemish. Although the story was a fairytale that idea was just too implausible. Evidently Troll Fell is for those readers who like disheartening miss described books.
Trollerific! A Fantastic and Fun Read!! February 23, 2007
Troll Fell strikes me as a sort of Cinderella story for boys...the difference in Troll Fell is that while there are magical/mythological elements, the main focus of the story isn't magical as has been the case in many books I've read of late. Troll Fell does have is that classical element of a orphaned child in a miserable situation. In Troll Fell, we meet Peer Ulfsson whose father has just passed away, in face as we join the story, the funeral pyre is still burning when Peers uncle shows up to claim the boy and doesn't even let him stay out the remainder of the funeral before dragging him back to the village, selling off his fathers things (and keeping all the money for himself). In short order Peer finds himself tied to his Uncle Baldur's cart, traveling away from the only home and people he's ever known with his bully uncle. He Arrives in Troll Fell only to find out that he's got TWO uncles, twins (Uncle Balder, the miller and Uncle Grim, the Farmer) who are miserly, living in the run down and seldom used mill with their resentful house sprite (the Nis) and like Cinderella, Peer is made to do all the work, gets little if any food and has to sleep out in the barn with the animals. From there, the similarities to Cinderella fall off and we get a more Scandinavian treatment complete with trolls, lubbers, and a lovely gem of a "monster," old Granny Greenteeth who inhabits the pond by the mill and resents the millers for daring to dam up and control her waters.
It's not soon after he arrives that he meets Hilde, a young girl his age from a neighboring farm...unfortunately for Peer, it's she is the daughter of Ralf Eiriksson, a man that his uncles have been feuding with for years over a parcel of land...the land where the Trolls and their gold (which the greedy brothers prize and covet above all else) can be found. He also overhears his uncle's plans to give him to the Troll King (along with a girl of the same age) as a wedding present/slave for his daughter and her new groom on their wedding night. From there it is up to Peer and Hilde to find a way to stop Peer's uncles, all of which is complicated by the departure of Hilde's farther on a Viking ship for a season. Will Peer and Hilde be able to thwart his uncles? Troll Fell is well worth a read to find out!!
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed Troll Fell, it was dark, full of monsters, the protagonists were clever, resourceful, and interesting in their own rights and the Uncles while some what single-sided (which is to be expected in this type of story), they were still interesting and bad...really, really bad! I particularly liked that the events didn't "magically" fix themselves, this was an active participation story...Peer and Hilde had to work to "fix" what was wrong, not just sit back and wait to be rescued. I think this is a great read for both boys and girls (ages 8-12). Younger readers would certainly enjoy this as a read aloud...unfortunately there are NO illustrations or color plates in this book (which I feel it is ideally suited for). I am of the opinion that books like this are excellent read aloud material for the 5-8 range, but a lot of the time the effort is hindered by NO illustrations, as I find that younger listeners in particular WANT pictures to look at every so often. If this were done in a slightly larger format and had some color plates about every 20 or so pages, I would be ecstatic. Older readers might not be quite so enchanted by the story (though, clearly *I* was) as it is somewhat predictable and there isn't anything overly innovative, yet the story manages to be both engaging and highly entertaining! The ending does have an interesting (though again, somewhat predictable) twist and culminates in a kind of a fuzzy/feel good way...but not so as to be nauseating or unbelievable. I read it in one night. I must stay it is VERY nice to see more Scandinavian influence in children's literature these days...much of the story is an excellent glimpse into the day to day life of a farm in the given time period (showing the cycle of planting for the farm in as much detail as the author gave details on daily diet and how children, Peer not included here, were treated, what was expected of them and how families in general lived), just a wealth of detail that is a joy to read. As it is a Cinderella fantasy involving trolls, goblins and various other northern boogie creatures is did quite well in this area, with the creation of the Troll Hill and the world underneath it! I give Troll Fell five stars, it's a fine read for kids (especially those who love fantasy), I think it's one of the best books I've read in the last 6 months (others include The Snow Spider and The Whitby Witches).
 A Disappointing Effort April 10, 2006
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
While there's no denying that Katherine Langrish's Troll Fell represents a fresh approach to the children's fantasy genre, the book ultimately falls far short of its potential. The writing is pedestrian, failing to capitalize on the dramatic possibilities of the potentially riveting plot concept. The plot itself is meandering and plodding -- even young readers/listeners will see the "surprise" twists coming from a mile away. While Langrish does a good job of conveying emotion and yanking the heartstrings, she seems fundamentally incapable of adeptly handling fear or suspense. Even the most dramatic scenes somehow manage to be dull.
Fantasy is notoriously difficult because the masters of the genre -- Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowling, in particular -- have already set the bar so high. A bit of "borrowing" from the classics is understandable, but Langrish dips a bit too deeply in the well. It is telling that the most interesting character, a house spirit the writer calls a "nis," is basically a cross of Rowling's house dwarf, Dobie, and Tolkien's Gollum. The only characters that seemed new were the trolls themselves. Yet in the quest to be creative with their physical appearance, Langrish gets carried away to the point of absurdity, such as when she describes a troll princess with a tail growing from her forehead. From a character standpoint, the trolls are not developed at all and end up being little more than cardboard bad guys from fantasyland central casting (think a less-cunning version of Lewis' black dwarves).
On the plus side, Troll Fell does not contain anything inappropriate for younger children (I just read it to my seven-year-old), isn't too scary, and stays away from silliness, crudity, or patronizing inanities. Given some of the garbage currently being published, that is no small feat.
Overall, I give the story itself two stars, with an additional star for its acceptability for children whose parents don't want them reading trash. If you are reading this to your child, it is passable if the child is a fan of fantasy. Otherwise, I would let them wait and read it themselves when they get older.
An Entirely Entertaining Book February 4, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I would really recommend this book because it is about a boy who is in a desperate situation and still manages to find hope. He is forced to live with his two uncles who have stolen everything he owns, including his only remembrances of his father. There he must clean their boots and do other work including work in their mill. They are widely hated, for when they grind people's flour, they often intentionally throw in dirt and other yucky substances. What upsets me most is the fact that they nearly get their dog to kill the boy's dog.
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