I'd Rather Watch The World Cup! (The Cup of the World - John Dickinson)

Member Name: English Lady

Product:	The Cup of the World - John Dickinson
Date:	03/10/05 (502 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Characters and places are described well and in detail .

Disadvantages: Obvious plot twists, unconvincing female point of view

Phaedra is the spoiled daughter of Ambrose, Warden of Trant, she is the only child he has left, the other seven having died in childhood and his wife, Phaedra's mother, died in childbirth. Phaedra is a whimsical child, Sixteen and just introduced at court, she already has the attention of the King's son's and several other knights.

The only person she loves appears to her in dreams and visions, his name is Ulfin. When it becomes apparent that she will have to marry or face the Wrath of her loud and overbearing Father she sends out a cry of Help to Ulfin who promises to rescue her.

This is the start of a worldwide war, Phaedra is left home alone after her rescue and whirlwind marriage to her dream lover. She begins to uncover a lot of dark, worrying secrets that her husband was trying his hardest to keep from her and she ends up in a fight against evil, a fight to save her own life and that of her young baby.

What I didn't realise when I picked this book up for just a pound in a local charity shop, was that it is aimed at the teenage/young adult market. In fact, I didn't realise that until I'd almost finished reading the books, and as soon as I found out, a lot of things fell into place for me.

Thee story is simple, it has "twists" but they're more like slight kinks or twirls really. Anyone who's read any kind of fantasy book before will see them coming a mile off. To go with the simple story, the language is simple. There is very little poetry to the way the words flow on the page, they didn't evoke any real strong emotion within me as I was reading.

One of the issues that puzzled me most was the wedding night. You have a long detailed explanation of the way the kiss and hold each other and even get down to them lying in bed naked together but the whole act itself is glossed over. I was very confused at this, wondering why it said so much to be cut off before the juicy bit, but of course when I found out it was a book for teens that was all explained. Parents are not going to like their young budding child reading explicit sexual action are they? However, it still felt as if it was uneven, too much attention to detail in the foreplay made the lack of afterplay somewhat jarring.

This probably partially explains the almost insulting birth scene. Phaedra is scared when she find's she is pregnant as her mother died in childbirth, and all her brothers and sisters died as children. She had no idea what would happen to her and I thought it would be interesting to see how she handled the birth. However the birth is glossed over, a few grunts, a few women boiling water and ripping sheets and pop! There's the baby. I think the lack of graphic detail possibly is partially the censoring issue again but also the fact that the writer is a man and maybe hasn't seen a child being born before writing this tale.

Now I'm not saying all men cannot write birth scenes and cannot write from a woman's point of view, as that is clearly nonsense. Terry Pratchett and David Gemmell are both male authors I regularly read who write well rounded women (I'm talking character not curves here!) but John Dickinson seems to lack the skill of getting in touch with his feminine side.

There's not much out on the world Wide Web about him, having only written two books, this one and it's sequel "The widow and the king." He has worked with the ministry of defence, the cabinet office and NATO. He's married and has children and I imagine he wrote his book aimed at the teens because of this. I do not want you to go away believing he is a bad author, he has his moments. He describes places and people beautifully and captures conversation naturally. He just does not convince me that I am reading the thoughts of an actual teenage princess.

This is not a children's book that adults can enjoy, it leaves too many unanswered questions and the plot is too predictable to take in a person who has digested many books over the years, especially if you're a fan of fantasy and have read the likes of CS Lewis and Lloyd Alexander. However I do believe a young teenager, showing the start of an interest in the fantasy genre may well enjoy this. It reminds me of the overly simplistic style of the Harry Potter books, and look how popular they have become!

I was disappointed by this book, but at an outlay of a Pound I'm not going to cry about it. I don't recommend paying the full £5.99 cover price and you'd pay the same for a used copy on Amazon including the postage, look out on Ebay for copies (Mine's going on their soon!) or see if you can spot it in your local charity shop or borrow it from the library.


ISBN: 0-552-54886-3

Summary: A simple fantasy book for teenagers.