First published nine years ago, [The Weirdstone of Brisingamen: A Tale of Alderly] wears well and continues to reveal new riches…. The tense and often horrifying episodes of the plot are centered around the attempt, finally successful, to restore the weirdstone to Cadellin. As in Elidor, but perhaps not with the same balance, reality and fantasy are played against each other. The feeling for terrain and dwelling, for Gowther's dialect and humor, are earthy and of this world. But the inrush of beings familiar from Germanic and Celtic mythology and folklore add the richness as well as the terror of a bygone world to the everyday surroundings of the children…. However, "beauty and terror" are presented as "opposite sides of the same coin," and the almost unbearably tense events closing the story end on a chord of triumph. (pp. 45-6)

Paul Heins, "Late Winter Booklist: 'The Weirdstone of...