Rowan of Rin, from Emily Rodda (Rowan of Rin #1)

Hi, again! I’m sorry, I’ve been reading a lot on the past few days and I can’t put up with my own rhythm to blog about them, haha! Today I bring to you another re-read: Rowan of Rin, from brilliant Emily Rodda!

from my Instagram 😀

The Story

Rowan always felt a stranger on his own village. People in Rin were expected to grow up handling every physic aspect of life with perfection. But not Rowan. He was always too skinny, too thin, too scared… Useless. All the kids always made fun of him. The only thing that he never failed to do was to look after the village’s bukshas, a kind of breed between cow and sheep.

Until the bukshas’ lake rans dry and no one knows why.

Rowan knows he’s not a brave man as his father was before his death and that his own mother doesn’t believe in him to be strong, but he has to save the buskhas. The only creatures that ever believed him and never made fun of him. That trusted him.

So when he’s left with no other option but to travel to the Mountain with the other six villagers, Rowan decides that he will be brave for the bukshas.

Even if it scared him to death.

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

If you have read this post, you know that I LOVE Emily Rodda. I’ve read the whole Deltora Quest series (all three parts of it) and then I started reading Rowan of Rin. As always, Brazilian publishers took so long between a book and other that I stopped reading it on the second book and when I got myself the third book, I could hardly remember the story at all. Hence the re-read, haha!

Rowan of Rin was everything good that I knew I had felt on my first reading and more. With real and relatable characters, a wonderful setting and life-saver riddles, it had everything that I love about a fantasy/adventure book. Five stars again ❤

The narrative is third person styled, from Rowan’s point of view most of time, but anyone can barge in during the book. Even Estrela, Rowan family’s buksha. I personally love Rowan, he’s an adorable kid ❤ He’s always true to himself, no matter how bad things look or sound. I’ll get there in a moment lol

Also, I love Rodda’s writing style. It’s so fluid, detailed and addictive! I’ve read this book in one single hour, as I didn’t remember how it ended, just some pieces of their adventure. (I also read the following book in one seating, haha! Only the third was spilt on two sittings as life is not fair.) I dare to say that the dystopian created and Rodda’s writing are the strongest points on this book.

Rodda’s main characters have a very good thing and a poor thing about them. They observe a lot and pay attention to so many nice things, but they tend to not think about themselves a lot. To this day, I’m not really sure of Rowan’s looks, haha! All people around him is easier to picture, but it’s like he’s a nice faceless boy. I mean, I imagine him just like the Grand Chase character thanks to the name, that is similar, but I don’t have a book official version, you know?

This is Ronan, from Grand Chase! I miss this game so much, the Brazilian branch was closed on 2014 😦

But there’s another catch to Rodda’s characters. Each one of them is one type of person that you’ll find on a society. There’s the optimistic, the grumpy, the honest, the cheater, the workaholic, the loner, the wise… And so on. Still, they aren’t boring one you figure out which type each one of them will be, as Rowan brings the best on each of them. He rarely judges people, as he is always occupied trying to understand them. You gotta love the boy.

Also, I really wished to know his age. Oh, well.

I feel the need of highlighting the world that Rodda created for this series. It starts small, with only the village of Rin, the bukshas’ lake and the Mountain, but keeps growing through the series, showing one more piece of it on each following book. ❤

The first map is the only one present on this book. The other appears only on the next volume (picture taken by me from the Brazilian edition of the third book in the series, Rowan and the Keeper of the Crystal)

Overall, I think this is an ageless book. If you like dystopian, fantasy, adventure and doesn’t care about romance, you have to board my fangirling boat and read Rowan of Rin!

Thank you once again for reading! ❤ Have you read any books by Emily Rodda?