Travel Reading: Madonna House Part 1

After my trip home to BC, I went to a farming community in the middle of nowhere (if anything can be called "the middle of nowhere", rural Canada can), with no electronics. It is far too difficult to write up proper reviews in these circumstances, so I'm continuing the Travel Reading series, where I simply write a couple sentences about each book read, and leave it at that. Here goes the first set of three:


"The Man in the Queue" by Josephine Tey
Grade: 3 stars
Entertaining Golden Age British mystery story, with some delightful but spoilery twists on the usual outcomes of such mysteries. I didn't enjoy this as much as some of Tey's other works, though. Her tendency towards atmospheric description I found a little more boring, rather than breathtaking and claustrophobic, as in The Singing Sands, or than entertaining and intriguing, as in Miss Pym Disposes. And although I loved to a surprising degree some of the secondary characters ([Raoul Legarde, Miss Dinmont, even Ray Marcable--Tey really has a strength with fascinating characters you want to know more about), they weren't as impactful as MPD, The Daughter of Time, or The Franchise Affair. In general, it seemed a little less well written. But it was her first book, after all.

"The Paladin" by C. J. Cherryh
Grade: 2 1/2 stars
Retired general in east Asian inspired land reluctantly takes on a young and passionate-for-revenge girl as a student. The ending felt a bit rushed, and there was too much emphasis on how much the older guy wanted to sleep with his student. Cherryh is great at a properly limited third person view, but in this case I would have liked the romance better if it had more of the girl's perspective. Especially because it was so much more central than expected. It didn't throw me off Cherryh, though. I found her writing both excellent and entertaining, and I'm looking forward to reading her more well-known works.


"Lost in the Labyrinth" by Patrice Kindl
Grade: 2 stars
Retelling of the Minotaur story. I think it is too young for me at this point in my life, and I didn't find it as unique as some of her other books, so not my favourite read of the year. It would be good for teaching kids about myths though, I think.






"Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card
Grade: 3 stars
Had a bunch of notes on this, but I lost them. Will update this if I find them. It was too long ago to remember most of what I thought, but it wasn't as good as I was hoping. Still good, though.

"A Confusion of Princes" by Garth Nix
Grade: 2 1/2 stars
The first half was pretty cool because of Nix's worldbuilding (which he always does awesomely), of the scifi future-y sort, and his secondary characters, of the distinct and memorable sort. But the second half, with the romantic relationship and the sudden resolution seemed a bit simplistic. Also, why is Khenri so special? He didn't strike me as being particularly special... The characterization could have used a bit of work, think. Anyway, ultimately it was fun but too light.

Travel Reading: BC Summer

It is far too difficult to write up proper reviews when I've been away from regular internet access for extended periods of time. Thus I started this Travel Reading series, where I simply write a couple sentences about each book read, and leave it at that. So from a trip home to my family and friends in BC comes the following:

"Owl in Love" by Patrice Kindl
Grade: 3 stars
Strange little book, which seems to be Kindl's style. I like her best in fairy tale land, where strangeness doesn't seem unusual (Goose Chase made me very happy). But this one was surprisingly entertaining. The strangeness was less disconcerting than in The Woman in the Wall. Owl's voice is unique, even from Kindl's other heroines; her inhuman-ness was treated well. And I still want to read every one of the rest of her books, if only for curiosity's sake. 2 1/2 stars because I think it was a little young for me, but then an extra 1/2 star for the fact that I couldn't really stop reading it.



"A Coalition of Lions" by Elizabeth Wein
Grade: 3 stars
A sequel to the Arthurian retelling The Winter Prince, but not nearly as heart-wrenching and impactful. I still enjoyed it, especially in the enormous potential for a favourite new character that was young Telemakos (the future books follow him as a protagonist). The setting and politics were cool as well. But it felt too short, and like some of the relationships (especially Priamos and Goewin) and characters needed more background and build up.





"Port Eternity" by C. J. Cherryh
Grade: 2 1/2 stars
Not as good as the other Cherryh I read (Cuckoo's Egg) but that was expected. I'd read reviews beforehand that indicated this. I only read it as my next Cherryh because it was an Arthurian retelling of sorts, and I've been on a bit of an Arthurian kick recently (see A Coalition of Lions above and the Top Ten (Or So): Arthurian Retellings list). I think I would have preferred even more character development, though maybe that wouldn't be possible with the kind of characters these "people" were. Or maybe what I wanted was more action... It happened at the end, but there seemed to be a big, slow build up to some large character explosion, and that never happened as much as I expected. The mythic, idyllic ending seemd to suit more conflict and events than actually happened.



"The Curse of Chalion" by Lois McMaster Bujold
Grade: 3 1/2 stars
It was a little slow to start out with, but once I got far enough through, the Bujold-ness showed up, especially with the main character, Cazaril. The interaction between gods and men was great. There are certain elements of theism that Bujold seems to understand much better than most people (this also showed up in the Vorkosigan saga with Cordelia's beliefs).
Note: everything about this edition (the back cover text, the inside cover picture) indicates there's a cliched main romance, which there isn't. Just putting that out there because it turned me off for a while.



"Tomorrow When the War Began" by John Marsden
Grade: 3 1/2 stars
I appreciated the realism of this YA post-apocalyptic Australian survival story. The teens seemed to me to act and think much like real teens. There was even a religious (not just "spiritual") girl who wasn't stupid or puritanical! That was hugely refreshing. The Australian element also gave it a bit of exciting exoticism for me as a Canadian. I think I'd like to read the sequels, once I come back from my travels and adventures and start a normal life again. It won't be that high on my list, since I didn't become passionate about any particular element. But it was a great and exciting and highly readable start to a series, and I'd recommend it to people who were mature enough for the small amount of sexual content.

Who Could That Be at This Hour?

by Lemony Snicket

Story summary: What happened to his parents? Where is that screaming coming from? Is it too late? This book contains these and other wrong questions.*
First in the "All the Wrong Questions" series: the story of a young Lemony Snicket and his apprenticeship in a secret society.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Puzzling
• Clever
• Meta

And Why You Might Not:

• Full of bleak, unpleasant people in a bleak, unpleasant town.
• It's strange. A little too strange for me.

The Woman in the Wall

by Patrice Kindl

Story summary: Anna is so shy that she hides in the secret rooms she built in the walls. She does this for so long that her family forgets about her, assigning her memory to foolishness and youthful playfulness. But she is very much alive, growing and changing and falling in love.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Growing up
• Learning self-confidence
• People are better than you think they are

And Why You Might Not:

• It's a strange little book. The fantasy elements are only really present at the beginning and are quite small, but they're weird. Why are they there at all?
• The main character herself is obviously a little on the odd side as well.

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

by Brandon Sanderson

Story summary: Evil librarians plotting to take over the world! An epic search for a bag of sand! Amazing skills gained in tripping and breaking things! 13-year-old warrior girls with grumpy attitudes! And maybe even young adventurers being tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias and sacrificed to the dark powers?

Why You Will Like This Book:

• The humour!
• The meta!
• The strange gadgets!
• The mysterious happenings!

And Why You Might Not:

• It's definitely for a younger audience than Sanderson's other books I've read. Although it was still very enjoyable, this made it slightly harder to read for me.

Jinx's Fire

by Sage Blackwood

Story summary: The trees are panicking because the forest of Urwald is being cut down and burnt. The wizards are panicking because they might have to actually do something together for a change. Sophie is not panicking because she's smart and sensible, but she feels like panicking because her husband Simon is caught in life-sucking elvish ice. Jinx is panicking because it's all down to him to save everything.
RED is panicking because she can't think up a better story description than this, and what if it turns people off a really excellent series?
Sequel to Jinx and Jinx's Magic.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• It has all you could want in a children's book. Friendships and familial relationships, vivid imagery, human insights, surprising humour, magic and adventure.

And Why You Might Not:

• I really can't think of any good reasons, unless you're not a fan of children's entertainment like Narnia and Pixar. I suppose the battle could be a little scary for younger readers? But yeah, that's pretty much it. Great books!

Jinx's Magic

by Sage Blackwood

Story summary: Jinx, the apprentice of the crabby and possibly-evil magician Simon, learns cool new kinds of magic, meets a werewolf with spectacles, gets his memory wiped by creepy elves, and gets even closer to his new friends, the trees of Urwald.
Sequel to Jinx.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Characters and relationships and humour and human insights and adventure! So good.

And Why You Might Not:

• Cause you don't like kids entertainment, even the awesome stuff like Narnia and Pixar? Only reason I can think of really, because these are great books.

Jinx

by Sage Blackwood

Story summary: Jinx is abandoned by his step-father in the wild woods of Urwald, and then promptly kidnapped by a possibly-evil magician. He becomes his apprentice, starts talking to trees, meets a thief boy and a cursed girl--and another magician who has knives in his thoughts.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• THE CHARACTERS!
• THE FAMILIAL RELATIONSHIPS!
• Also the world and the humour and the adventure and the insights, but mostly those first two.

And Why You Might Not:

• The only reason I can possibly think of is if you're against kids' entertainment, even if it's fabulous. If you wouldn't read The Chronicles of Narnia and wouldn't watch Pixar because they're for kids, then yeah, you probably won't like this either.

Switch

by Ingrid Law

Story summary: Gypsy comes into her savvy power on her 13th birthday, and it is the grand and difficult one of seeing people's pasts and futures. But when the Beaumonts' unpleasant grandmother moves in and runs away, suddenly everyone's powers go topsy turvy. Now it's up to Gypsy and her brothers to rescue their grandma without betraying their secret or destroying the town.
Sequel to Savvy and Scumble.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• A great cast of characters. (Samson and his fire and emo-ness and adorable crush! Del and his fake power! Grandma and her grumpy forgetfulness! Momma and her perfect imperfection!)
• Really wholesome and family-oriented, without being kitschy, as many movies/books about family is. (In other words, as someone raised in a large, Catholic family, it rang true for me.)

And Why You Might Not:

• A little too simple for me, with a less unique main character than I was hoping for and some unexplained plot twists.

Capt. Hook

by J. V. Hart

Story summary: I only read a few chapters of this one before deciding I was going to leave it unfinished (at least for now), so I don't feel like I can properly summarize it. Goodreads it is:

"With his long black curls, a shadowy family tree, and an affinity for pet spiders, James Matthew bears little resemblance to his starched-collar, blue-blooded peers at Eton. Dubbed King Jas., he stops at nothing to become the most notorious underclassman in the prestigious school's history. For James, sword fighting, falling in love with an Ottoman Sultana, and challenging the Queen of England are all in a day's skullduggery. But when he sets sail on a ship with a mysterious mission, King Jas.' dream of discovering a magical island quickly turns into an unimaginable nightmare.
Screenwriter J. V. Hart traces the evolution of J. M. Barrie's classic villain from an eccentric outcast to the scourge of Neverland."

The Last Ever After

by Soman Chainani

Story summary: I lazily stole the Goodreads description for the first two books--of course I'm going to do it for the third. Here it is, slightly rearranged to avoid spoilers:
"[A]s [former best friends Sophie and Agatha] settle into their new lives, their story begs to be re-written, and this time, theirs isn’t the only one. With the girls apart, Evil has taken over and the villains of the past have come back to change their tales and turn the world of Good and Evil upside down.
[E]verything old is new again as Sophie and Agatha fight the past as well as the present to find the perfect end to their story. This extraordinary conclusion delivers more action, adventure, laughter, romance and fairy tale twists and turns than you could ever dream of!"
Sequel to The School for Good and Evil and A World Without Princes.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Epic fairy tale battles.
• Epic friendships and romances.
• Epic secret organizations of really old retired people.

And Why You Might Not:

• Boy, the relationships in this series are really intertwined and convoluted.
• And these relationship twists pretty much take up the first half of the book. It's a thick book, and could have been cut in half and been much better.

Retro Friday Review: Eight Days of Luke

by Diana Wynne Jones

Retro Friday Introduction:

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Angie @ Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be a favourite, an under the radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print etc.

Recently I've been on a bit of a Diana Wynne Jones kick (see my other recent reviews Archer's Goon and The Magicians of Caprona). She's one of my favourite authors, and there are few who I enjoy re-reading as much as her. I haven't read Eight Days of Luke since the first time back in October 2008,  so it was interesting to see how my perspectives did and didn't change since then.


Story summary: David has nasty, horrible relatives (they're almost as bad as the Dursleys), and a unpleasant, boring life. But one day, after uttering a curse in a fit of anger against their cruelty, he meets a strange young boy with red hair and a strange affinity for flames. Luke does not follow the same rules as other people, and with his presence comes a sinister neighbour with a missing eye, ravens that can speak, and lots and lots of fire.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Loki!*
• Other Norse mythology!
• Cruel relatives to be quietly defied, strange boys to be befriended, quests for unknown objects hidden in unknown places by unknown persons, and lots and lots of fire.

And Why You Might Not:

• Not enough Loki!
• Not enough other Norse mythology!
• (Ok, there's quite a bit in there. I just meant that I wish there were a few more really cool mythological scenes.)
• It's a little less complex than some of her other books.

A World Without Princes

by Soman Chainani

Story summary: I didn't make my own summary for the first book, so I don't think I should have to here either. And laziness wins again!
Beware the SPOILERS for the first book!
"After saving themselves and their fellow students from a life pitched against one another, Sophie and Agatha are back home again, living happily ever after. But life isn't exactly a fairytale. When Agatha secretly wishes she'd chosen a different happy ending with Prince Tedros, the gates to the School for Good and Evil open once again. But Good and Evil are no longer enemies and Princes and Princesses may not be what they seem, as new bonds form and old ones shatter."
Sequel to The School for Good and Evil.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• A passionate friendship is at the heart of this book.
• Explores dichotomies like Good & Evil, Male & Female.

And Why You Might Not:

• There were a lot of issues caused by a simple lack of communication. I find this really annoying, personally. Why don't people just talk to each other and be straight forward? It's prevented any number of problems in my life.
• The relationships kept switching back and forth and there was sort of a love triangle and just in general too much focus on that aspect of things.

The School for Good and Evil

by Soman Chainani

Story summary: I'm very lazy and don't feel like doing a summary of my own, so Goodreads it is:
"With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she'll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.
The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie's dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.
But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are?"

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Focuses on a female friendship in a non-cliched, non-boring way.
• It's surprisingly complex, for a kids books with such a dichotomy in the title. (This book has been on my radar for a long time, but I could not get myself to read it because it seemed like it was going to be simplistic and boring. I don't think the title helps with that.)

And Why You Might Not:

• It is still a little simplistic, especially in writing style.
• The relationship complications caused through lack of communication can get tiresome. It's annoying when problems could be solved so easily if people just talked to each other, even a little bit. Though saying this, it isn't actually very bad in this book--it's the sequels where it really started to bother me.

The Magicians of Caprona

by Diana Wynne Jones

Story summary: Romeo and Juliet, but with kids, magic, and significantly less death. Also talking cats and flying gryffin statues!

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Inventive magic; large, quarreling families; plots and shenanigans.

And Why You Might Not:

• There are a lot of Italian names to remember. Big Italian families with all the sisters and the cousins and the aunts.
• It's perhaps not quite as inventive and complex as some of hers, and if you've read a lot of her books, you'll recognize a number of very common themes.

Retro Friday Review: Archer's Goon

by Diana Wynne Jones

Retro Friday Introduction:


Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Angie @ Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be a favourite, an under the radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print etc.

This Friday, I chose Archer's Goon, the short, weird, but wonderful book about a family of megalomaniac wizards trying to rule a small town and the ordinary family who accidentally gets in their way. I reviewed it when I first read it back in September 2008, but it was a terrible and very short review. It deserves better.


Story summary: The Sykes are living their ordinary family life, with unwanted music lessons and awful little sisters, until one day, there's an enormous goon in their kitchen. He demands that Mr. Sykes (an author) write two thousand words (any words) for his boss Archer. It turns out Archer is one of seven wizard siblings ruling the town and battling each other for power. And all of them, in their own ways, are out to get Mr. Syke's two thousand words.
Can the Sykes survive the plots and machinations of seven self-absorbed wizards? Will they ever figure out what the heck those two thousand words are all about? And just how does your mother expect you to practice violin when you have imaginary spaceships to design?

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Family. It's all about family: dysfunctional, chaotic, funny, surprisingly loving and surprisingly heartless.
• Twists, complexity, originality, weirdness, chaos.

And Why You Might Not:

• As with many of Diana Wynne Jones books, how everything comes together in the end can seem a little rushed and lacking in coherency upon first reading. This is a lie, though. She has everything work together meticulously, you just have to pay attention. (Re-reads really help clarify this.)
• It is a weird book. And not extremely deep with the most complex characters or anything. If you're looking for something that isn't funny, strange, light, subtle, and family-friendly, then you probably won't like this.
• None of the covers are pretty. None of them. None of them get the feel of the book right, let alone look at all interesting and attractive. I was thrown off this book for quite a while due to the unappealing covers.

The Lie Tree

by Frances Hardinge

Story summary: A family whisked off to a tiny, grey island followed by whispers of scandal and deception. A father found dead under mysterious circumstances, his secrets lost and his family poverty-stricken. A girl struggling with faith in her father, religion, and own goodness. A tree that lives in darkness and feeds off lies to give truths the heart desires above all else.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Very creepy, but in a good way (i.e. the creepiness makes you horrified at Evil in a way that is quite reasonable and healthy, imho)
• Realistically and complexly drawn characters.
• And of course, Hardinge's typical originality is present as always.

And Why You Might Not:

• As a Catholic, it gets rather annoying how Evolution--very compatible with the Faith--is treated as something which pretty much inevitably leads to atheism.
• It's a bit bleak. Faith (the main character) is treated rather badly by her family, and people are extremely condescending to her because she's female. I discuss this more below, but it definitely turned me off this book.

The Case of the Missing Moonstone

by Jordan Stratford

Story summary: Lady Ada Byron (Lovelace), 11-year-old mathematical genius, and Mary Godwin (Shelley), romantic and clever 14-year-old, decide to start a clandestine detective agency. Their first case seems open and shut--the criminal has already confessed! But there's something fishy going on, and Ada and Mary must use their not-inconsiderable wits to save the day.
Also features such memorable people as Percy Shelley, Charles Babbage, and Charles Dickens.

Why You Might Like This Book:

• Ada Lovelace!
• And Mary Shelley!
• Being detectives!

And Why You Might Not:

• It's purposefully historically inaccurate (e.g. Mary Shelley and Ada Lovelace being close in age). I liked this alt-history aspect, but I suppose it could be annoying to some. (There's an appendix with all the real facts at the end, so no one gets too mixed up.)

The Castle Behind Thorns

by Merrie Haskell

Story summary: Sand wakes up in the nearby castle, in which every single item has been torn asunder, with no memory of how he got there. Stuck behind the wall of living thorns surrounding the castle, he builds a blacksmithing forge and begins to slowly mend all the broken items, setting up a life in the castle, and surviving. But he discovers he may have more of a talent for mending than he thought when the princess buried in the castle crypt comes to life.

Why You Might Like This Book:

• The theme of forgiveness is excellently done, especially for a children's book.
• It actually makes me want to take up blacksmithing. And that's saying something.

And Why You Might Not:

• It's a quiet sort of book, and not fast. This is a good thing for this book, but it does mean that it can seem like nothing much is happening for the first half of the book.

The Battle for Skandia

by John Flanagan

Story Summary: Alt-Vikings and alt-Mongols battle it out with some help from our young heroes Will, the Ranger; Horace, the warrior; and Evanlyn, the princess.
Sequel to The Ruins of Gorlan, The Burning Bridge, and The Icebound Land.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Rescues, escapes, and splendid archery skills.
• The battle taking up the last third of the book is really epic. Awesomeness abounds.

And Why You Might Not:

• It's quite simplistic in some ways, lacking in subtlety or complexity.