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After being injured while racing in Ireland’s famous Foster Stakes, the Black and Alec head to the Irish coast to recuperate. While there, they are charmed by the pleasant people and intrigued by tales of the kelpie, a shape-shifting creature of myth who carries unsuspecting riders off to a watery grave. Alec meets a lonely local girl, Mora, who has found a stray pony. Alec, recognizing her love of horses, teaches her to ride. But when Mora disappears, Alec realizes that she has been carried off by the mythical kelpie. Now, Alec and the Black must race the shape-shifter, not realizing that if they lose, not only will Mora be lost forever, but so will the Black.
In Farley's third contribution to The Black Stallion series begun by his father, Alec Ramsey and the Black return to Ireland. Just after accepting an invitation to an Irish stakes race, Alec and his famous racehorse take a final ride along the beach, where they encounter a terrified girl on a wild, dangerous horse. To Alec's astonishment, rider and horse gallop into the sea and vanish beneath the waves. Alec learns that the apparition matches Celtic folktales of the mythic kelpie, a shape-shifting water spirit that can take the form of a horse in order to possess a rider and drown him (or her) in the sea. After the Black suffers a slight injury in the race, Alec and his horse retire to a quiet stable on the Irish seacoast where the Black can recuperate before making the long return trip. At the remote Irish farmstead, the supernatural element that had been introduced in the novel's first scene returns with a vengeance. A mysterious gypsy has a sinister fixation upon the Black. A stray pony displays unaccountable aggression toward Alec and then runs out of control with Mora, a local girl Alec had befriended. Racing the Black along the seashore to rescue Mora from the runaway pony, Alec soon finds that he and the Black are in as much danger as Mora. Although not as well-written as Walter Farley's novels, this atmospheric, supernatural, horse-racing mystery will be popular with fans of the original series Reviewer: Walter Hogan
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Thomas Woodall
reviewed The Black Stallion and the Shape-shifter on October 25, 2015
The Black Stallion and the Shape-shifter
There is a long, sad tradition of sons taking up the mantle of a famous parent's literary world. I know I've mentioned this before in regards to Todd McCaffrey and Felix Francis, so it's clear that I'm not a fan. Years ago I read the joint venture between Walter and Steven, and I wasn't impressed. I felt that the series was starting to veer into straight up fantasy instead of tales about a boy and the wild horse that loves him. I don't know why I thought this would be any closer to the heart of the series than that joint book was, because it's obvious that, without his father's input, Steven Farley has completely lost sight of who and what the Black Stallion is and what role his relationship with Alec means to the books.
Let's be clear, this is not a book about the Black Stallion. This is a book about an aging racehorse that happens to share the name with the Black and happens to run races with someone named Alec as his jockey. This pair ends up in Ireland after experiencing an eerie incident involving a lost girl and a horse - which never gets resolved, by the way - where the horse ends up lame. They then go to a farm to recover, where a bunch of stuff happens to someone else while Alec wanders around doing absolutely NOTHING. Then there's a bit of nonsense and it's over.
This kid, who is not the Alec Ramsey we know and love, does nothing active, makes no choices, displays little sense, and is incidental to the story as a whole. Meanwhile, the "Black" also does nothing, including show any spark of spirit or intelligence, acting more like an aging cart horse than the Black. As for Henry, he gets conveniently, and oddly, shuffled offstage at the earliest opportunity.
Is this a good book? Not really. It's adequate for a horse tale, if you don't mind a story told from the wrong POV. The entire story would have been much more effective from Mora's side of things.
Is this a Black Stallion book? Emphatically not! Not only does the Black not act like himself, neither does Alec. Not to mention, the story isn't about them and they are only in the story to sell the book.
Reread any of Walter Farley's books instead, his worst writing is better than his son's best.
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