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Originally Posted by pwalker8
Hum, there is more to Harry Potter than just some sort of Wizard School. Reading the blurb, Shadowland by Straub seems more like a traditional master/apprentice in a horror setting. IMPO, the attraction to the Harry Potter series was a combination of a sense of whimsy, plus more than anything, the enjoyable characters. They seemed more like people the reader might want to hang out with. So many of the would be Harry Potter knockoffs seem to forget the likable part of the equation.
On an aside, one way that I find new books to try is running across books that look interesting as I pull up books people recommend. For some reason, one of the books that came up when looking at Shadowland was Frederick Forsyth's The Fox. I really liked Forsyth's early books (Day of the Jackel, Dogs of War, Odessa File), and it was priced at a price where I said "why not". Heck, I didn't even know that Forsyth was still alive, much less still active.
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Shadowlands is not a knock off. It was written long before. Perhaps you should try more than the blurb before writing it off. I suppose Amazon let's you look inside. The first pragrapgh should belie of your assumption. It is a great character work in its own right.
Apparenly Strugatskys Monday begins on Saturday is a very good soviet era adult Potter type precursor. Ive yet to read it.