Jonathan Stroud
Jonathan Stroud
Jonathan Anthony Stroudis a British writer of fantasy fiction, mainly for children and young adults...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth27 October 1970
CountryUnited States of America
sleep animal understanding
Not bad in short, though the last one [understanding the language of animals], isn't half as useful as you might expect, since when all's said and done the language of the beasts tends to revolve around: a) the endless hunt for food, b) finding a warm bush to sleep in the evening, and c) the sporadic satisfication of certain glands. (Many would argue that the language of human kind boils down to this too)
mother sweet littles
It's the same with spirit guises; show me a sweet little choirboy or a smiling mother and I'll show you the hideous fanged strigoi it really is. (Not always. Just sometimes. *Your* mother is absolutely fine, for instance. Probably.)
opportunity wife skirts
Hippo in a skirt: this was a comic reference to one of Solomon's principal wives, the one from Moab. Childish? Yes. But in the days before printing we had limited opportunities for satire.
distance dark night
He was a worried man (I'm stretching the term a bit here, I know. By now, in his mid to late teens, he might just about have passed for a man. When seen from behind. At a distance. On a very dark night).
waiting pardon-me pardon
Pardon me, Highness, a women waits whithout." "Whithout what?
mirrors long looks
Then again, Solomon was human. And that meant he was flawed (Go on, take a look at yourself in the mirror. A good long look, if you can bear it. See? Flawed's putting it mildly, isn't it?)
running sight lords-and-ladies
He was transfixed at the sight of the lords and ladies of his realm running about like demented chickens.
people get-better teeth
Did Lovelace's forces find you? Did Jabor break in?" He spoke slowly through clenched teeth. "I went to get a newspaper" This is getting better and better! I shook my head regretfully. "You should leave such a dangerous assignment to people better qualified: next time ask an old granny, or a toddler-
looks hey fields
Hey, we've all got problems, chum. I'm overly talkative. You look like a field of buttercups in a suit.
illusion
Freedom is an illusion. It always comes at a price.
eight two dozen
A dozen more questions occurred to me. Not to mention twenty-two possible solutions to each one, sixteen resulting hypotheses and counter-theorems, eight abstract speculations, a quadrilateral equation, two axioms, and a limerick. That's raw intelligence for you.
mirrors samarkand magician
One magician demanded I show him an image of the love of his life. I rustled up a mirror.
taken style form
Check out that one at the end. He's taken the form of a footstool. Weird...but somehow I like his style." "That is a footstool.
believe heart boys
Believe me, I know all about bottle acoustics. I spent much of the sixth century in an old sesame oil jar, corked with wax, bobbing about in the Red Sea. No one heard my hollers. In the end an old fisherman set me free, by which time I was desperate enough to grant him several wishes. I erupted in the form of a smoking giant, did a few lightning bolts, and bent to ask him his desire. Poor old boy had dropped dead of a heart attack. There should be a moral there, but for the life of me I can't see one.