Beschreibung A Poem for Britain, A Contest for England: BARDS OF FANTASIA #1 & #2 Omnibus. "4 of 5 stars overall, 5 for originality....make the world and the opportunities for animating beautiful sequences a selling point....keep it up!" --Jonny Perl for Rob Minkoff, director "The Lion King"As the world almost ended, we were teased-back to the gods' birth to redirect this cruel fate. But these "small d" deities are as confused about world affairs as we time-voyagers! --First, the clouds blazed, then mythic monsters invaded. What a life, and I, Dormira, am only 16, but going on 30. Good thing my boyfriend Skall is a genius. I'm a co-minstrel, linguist--and his bodyguard too, as we face Magic schools...Stolen youth...and Love-obsessed gods. Now the ancient Fire & Ice giants want the world to end. But they're opposed by elements of water, air, and earth, the shock-troops of friendlier nature-gods and wizards.It figures the darker gods, ghosts & ghouls we're pitted against don't like our meddling. That's their shapeshifting sport. But bards from our techie future are a new piece on the chessboard. So Skall urges we race mythic British landmarks within 48 hours of Halloween, performing key songs as hero-minstrels, solving ancient riddles and tragedies. Things move fast when you're royal-vendetta-dodging, time-skipping, and running for your own life as well! Can our music save the world from chaos? For schools, learn about 4 famous UK kings (Conor, Penda, Oswald, William II), the 3 Sorrows of Ireland, the 10 realms of the Norse WorldTree, and Odin's 18 songs (recreated in rock opera form). Novella #2 also has thorough study questions for mastery of Dark Age UK. There's chapter-end prompts for over 20, 2-page research papers, plus vocabulary lists, and no less than 80 films are referenced. I'd also suggest Padraic Colum's Children of Odin/Nordic Gods & Heroes as a companion, 300-page novel--but as a comparison how the original myths leave huge gaps in logic that no modern teen could make much sense of beyond a few chuckles and questions about magic and monsters. And Colum's is even better than Gaiman's, imho. But neither touch on the gods, kings, and people of Britain, let alone Europe and related figures such as Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, nor the music that bound these lands together. 5 minute animated trailer can be seen at amazon.com/author/swwilcox. That's an excerpt from the 100min. Previs film I made where all scenes, dialogue, and music were tested for fluidity: it is not, however, a version for commercial release. Rather, it's aimed at a future director's use, as a reference.