Superb children's fantasy that I am delighted to discover stands up perfectly well. This series was one of the cornerstones of my childhood reading - well, early to mid-teens at any rate. The tale of Taran, Assistant Pig Keeper and his heroic companions is thrilling, classic, warm, funny, scary stuff. There is brilliant use of Welsh mythology and fantastic writing and wonderful characters who grow and change through the series, though none more so than Taran himself, who starts out with dreams of adventure and glory, only to find actual adventuring difficult and muddled and full of mistakes and terrors. I identified absolutely with Taran, which made his growth to maturity in later volumes all the more powerful.