The Eagle of the Ninth (and Sutcliff's other early books) were really written for children. Mind you, "Young Adult" as a library classification didn't exist back then. You basically went from Children's to Adult with a brief look at the small Teens collection, which comprised high school romance and YA SF such as Norton and Heinlein.
By the late 50s, even though her stories were really no longer children's books, they were still shelved there by default. As you know Eo9, you might want to try its sequel, The Silver Branch, and then Frontier Wolf, both of which predate (internally) The Lantern Bearers, which ends a few years before Sword of Sunset starts. The dolphin ring is worked through later books as well.
I'm not sure which my own favourite is. As a kid, though, I adored The Eagle of the Ninth and found The Lantern Bearers virtually incomprehensible. The invention of "Young Adult" books was long overdue, really. And, frankly, LB made even more sense when I read it as an adult.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2019-12-02 07:27 am (UTC)By the late 50s, even though her stories were really no longer children's books, they were still shelved there by default. As you know Eo9, you might want to try its sequel, The Silver Branch, and then Frontier Wolf, both of which predate (internally) The Lantern Bearers, which ends a few years before Sword of Sunset starts. The dolphin ring is worked through later books as well.
I'm not sure which my own favourite is. As a kid, though, I adored The Eagle of the Ninth and found The Lantern Bearers virtually incomprehensible. The invention of "Young Adult" books was long overdue, really. And, frankly, LB made even more sense when I read it as an adult.