Aldair, Across The Misty Sea, by Neal Barrett, Jr.

Aldair, Across The Misty Sea is wondrous imaginative novel that takes place in the dreadful lands of Merrkia. Aldair is a member of Signar-Haldring crew. Halding is the captain of the ship that Aldair is a member of and is his close companion. Rhalgorn is a companion of Aldair. Throughout the book they try to cross the Misty Sea. Along the way they encounter many people and have many adventures.

Aldair, who is the main character, is very smart and thinks too much about everything but rarly coments on anything, for instance “Signar never asked what I had in mind, now that we neared the great river”. He is an observant person who makes split second decision to aid his crewmembers. Signar-Haldring is a very true and loyal friend to Aldair and is arguably the finest seaman of their world as he “learn to adapt to nearly any hardship”. Rhalgorn is a brave, thickheaded person who does not let fear take the best of him and constantly boosting that when he mentions “Even a Lord of the Luavectii lacks the courage for that”.

I Think That Aldair and I are somewhat similar because carefully examine the surroundings and comes up with the best idea that will help or is the first to notice disaster when he realizes “We can no longer use or sails, for they would carry us right into the thing. Soon, our oars would be next to be useless as well-the sea was fast disappearing on either side”. He is also very careful with his work. He has great leadership skills in that his crewmember questioned themselves at times “if Aldair will not lead us, where are we to go?”

The only thing Aldair and his crewmembers want is to cross the Misty Sea. Along the way they encounter many thing that are not in their favor. For instances, at the beginning of their journey they were lost and separated from the other vessels because the wind did not affect the ships all the same. The wind blow stronger on the ship Aldair was aboard then the other two. Aldair decided to tie a rope to all the ships to keep them together. At another point in time they found they were out of water. Signar-Haldring suggested that Aldair drink the seawater and he refuses. So, Signar forced him to drink it and Aldair finds that it was fresh. He never makes it across the Misty Sea because he spend his time searching for supplies and other goods he needs for his journey.

In the novel, Aldair always hesitates to give suggestions or to order the people and never completes his voyage because of that. This is way I believe the theme of this book is that you should always follow you instincts and never bottle any thing up for yourself or you will never achieve your goal.