The Sleeper and the Spindle audiobook

3.5 ⭐️This was an interesting take on the classic story of Sleeping Beauty, with a few new characters that you may recognise. The pictures by Chris Riddell were FANTASTIC. But then I always knew they would be since reading The Edge Chronicles, he is an amazing illustrator.A curse has taken over the castle and is spreading further and further afield. A nearby Queen, along with three dwarves heads into the castle to find out what has caused this sleep sickness, and how it can be stopped. (view spoiler)[ I found it interesting that the girl asleep is actually the witch, and the old woman wandering around is Aurora – cursed to see her entire family asleep forever, while the witch stole her youth and slept. Also the fact that the Queen was actually Snow White, was a nice little twist. (hide spoiler)]Overall, a good retelling with a few twists.********************Slowly working my way through everything Neil Gaiman has written :)

Final review, posted at www.FantasyLiterature.com:Neil Gaiman took one of his twisted, rather creepy fairy tale stories and turned it into a 66 page picture book with wonderfully whimsical and detailed illustrations by Chris Riddell (who also did the amazing illustrations in the illustrated version of Neverwhere).I went out on a limb recommending this to Kelly (and the Book Boar) for her fairy tale retellings project when I was only halfway done with this, but I'm relieved to say I still liked it when I finally finished it last night.A queen is (reluctantly) about to get married, but when a sleeping sickness spreads through a neighboring kingdom and threatens hers, she sets aside her plans, puts on her mail shirt and sword, and heads off with her dwarf friends to take care of the problem herself. There’s a fascinating, gradual reveal of who the queen actually is, and Gaiman deftly interweaves details about how her past experiences inform her present decisions. Occasionally it seems like Gaiman is pandering just a bit to readers:She called for her fiancé and told him not to take on so, and that they would still be married, even if he was but a prince and she a queen, and she chucked him beneath his pretty chin and kissed him until he smiled.It feels as if he’s trying to display how much he supports female empowerment, which is a great thing except when it gets in the way of the actual story. And I can't say I'm all that sympathetic to the queen's feeling that, because she's getting married and ruling a kingdom for the rest of her life, she has "no choices" and "the path to her death, heartbeat by heartbeat, would be inevitable." Seriously?But there are some really nice touches to the story--the queen's decisive action when she comes up to the Sleeping Beauty castle, surrounded by deadly thorns that have killed many adventurous men, had me thinking, why didn't any of the guys ever think of doing that? A suitably creepy note is added when it develops that the people struck by the sleeping sickness do more than just sleep. And the detailed pen-and-ink illustrations with touches of gold really made the story. I loved the skull motif, which subtly changes at the end.This story may not be amazingly unique--there are a lot of dark fairy tale retellings out there--but between Gaiman's fantastic use of words and imagery, and Riddell's gorgeous illustrations, this is a pretty easy 4 star book for me.

Ideal Christmas present alert! However old your kids are, buy this for them. If they don’t like it, you might want to think seriously about disinheriting them, because it will show they have no heart, no eye for beauty and no sense of humour. And you don’t wanna empower people like that, really. They might be sociopaths. Those with no kids - yeah, buy it for each other.The art by Chris Riddell is so stunning, every other page is a gobsmacker, and it helps that the young (nameless) queen kind of looks a bit like Jessica Jones as played by Krysten Ritterand the retelling of Sleeping Beauty by Neil Gaiman is wry and has dwarves.

Quizá más un 3.5 pero no estoy muy seguro.A ver, si fuera por la edición de Salamandra y las ilustraciones le ponía 20 sobre 5. Pero en esta novela/historia lo que cuenta es también, justamente, la historia.Es la primera vez que leo algo de Neil Gaiman. Creo haber visto algo que él haya guionizado o participado a nivel audiovisual, pero no había leído nada. Y me ha gustado bastante. Tiene una manera de narrar muy interesante, porque aunque describe mucho, lo hace a la par que avanza la trama.El giro que le da a las historias de Blancanieves y La Bella Durmiente son muy interesantes y me pillaron por sorpresa, pues no es hasta el final que entiendes lo que verdaderamente está pasando. Igualmente, se me hizo corto, y entiendo que es una historia corta, pero el final se me hizo muy repentino.Recomiendo este libro a aquelles que busquen un nuevo enfoque a los clásicos a los que estamos acostumbrades, y a quien le gusten los libros ilustrados. Porque en serio, las ilustraciones son pura delicia.

Pre svega moram da kažem da sam se oduešvio što je Laguna odlučila da objavi ovo u Srbiji. Nekako mi je delovalo kao previše rizičan korak i čak sam se plašio da će (da prostite na izrazu) zgovnati knjigu i da će ona izgubiti svoju draž. Na svu sreću, ono što imam u rukama je apsolutno WOW! Tehnički i grafički knjižica je odrađena fenomenalno.Priča sama po sebi jeste poprilično dobra. Postoji onaj Gaimanovski "twist" koji mi svi jako volimo i odličan je crossover Uspavane lepotice i Snežane. Međutim, glavni i jedini problem ove knjižice je u tome što se Gaimanov tekst jednostavno gubi i postaje minoran u odnosu na Riddellove grafike (a malo je reći da su grafike fenomenalne).

Poznati motivi iz bajki ispričani na malkice drugačiji način...neki bi rekli "Svetogrđe!", "Kako se samo usudio?!", a ja kažem, ako je neko mogao to da uradi na pravi način, onda je to Neil Gaiman. A koliki je Gaiman mag za reči, toliki je Chris Riddell majstor za crtež.Vidim da su mišljenja podeljena kada je reč o ovoj pričici, ali meni je posle napornih mesec dana na poslu došla kao melem na ranu.

There are choices, she thought, when she had sat long enough. There are always choices.Since I've read The Graveyard Book I wanted to read more books by both Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell. So when I found out that they were translating this book in my country, I was beyond excited and my expectations for this book were pretty high. And now, that I've read it, I can safely say that this book was just as good as I expected it to be.This was a retelling of Sleeping beauty and Snow White mixed together. I loved Gaiman's dark twist to the story but I've got to say that my favorite thing about this book were Riddell's illustrations. I think that I stared at every illustration for at least a minute. And as soon as I've finished the book, I wanted to read it again. I just really hope that these two will collaborate in the future many, many times.

3.5 magical starsEnormous peaks of mountains separate the kingdoms of Dorimar and kanselaire. Kanelaire is rowdy as the wedding of their queen approaches. But Dormiar is silent as it mourns the spell that has put its princess to sleep. “Up the blooming stairs and past the blooming cook and what are you cooking now, eh, great land-arse, nothing in your pots and pans but dust and more dust, and all you ever do is snore.” There is one oncoming calamity, though, poking its head out its burrow, viz; “It is expanding, the zone of the spell, a few miles every day” It is now up to one kingdom to save another one and in doing so, save itself.The lust for beauty, power and youth underlies this story and the concept of life threaded into a roll of yarn is unique. Comprehensively written with lucid descriptions, The Sleeper and the Spindle is a blend of Snow white and Sleeping Beauty with a few touches from Maleficient. It is a quick, beautiful read with an unpredictable villain. “She’s still there. That’s what they say. If you get that close. If you make it through the roses, she’ll be waiting for you. She’s old as the hills, evil as a snake, all malevolence and magic and death.”