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.

The Keeper of the Mist

by Rachel Neumeier

Story summary: Summary from Goodreads:
"Keri has been struggling to run her family bakery since her mother passed away. Now the father she barely knew—the Lord of Nimmira—has died, and ancient magic has decreed that she will take his place as the new Lady. The position has never been so dangerous: the mists that hide Nimmira from its vicious, land-hungry neighbors have failed, and Keri's people are visible to strangers for the first time since the mists were put in place generations ago.
At the same time, three half-brothers with their own eyes on the crown make life within the House just as dangerous as the world outside. But Keri has three people to guide her: her mysterious Timekeeper, clever Bookkeeper, and steadfast Doorkeeper. Together they must find a way to repair the boundary before her neighbors realize just how vulnerable Nimmira is."

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Cool magic system, of the "instinctive, inborn, just feel it" kind.
• Relationships, of the family and friends sort, are important.

And Why You Might Not:

• It was a little light. Definitely a Young Adult book.
• In general, there just wasn't enough of the good stuff. I wanted it to go deeper.

And All the Stars

by Andrea K. Höst

Story summary: At first: survival under weird, mysterious circumstances! Then: friendship and The Three Musketeers! After that: plot twists and aliens!

Why You Will Like This Book:

• See all the exclamation points in the story summary?
• It's very Australian!
• At least one of the twists made me want to go back to the beginning and reread from there. (That's by far the best kind of twist.)

And Why You Might Not:

• There are definitely reasons why you might not like this book, but as I discuss in my thoughts below, Höst's books confuse me somewhat. You'll have to read my thoughts to get a better idea, but my recommendation is to read one of her books yourself and figure it out.
• For those concerned about sexual content in YA books, there is some here. Not a lot, mostly just one particular scene.

A Certain Slant of Light

by Laura Whitcomb

Story summary: Ghosts fall in love, relationships break and relationships heal, people struggle with death and abuse and Sad Things, the physical world is discovered to be glorious.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• People overcoming issues! I love books like this, that give hope and show dragons can be beaten.
• The visual descriptions! I'm not really one for visual descriptions, but these struck me as quite inspiring.

And Why You Might Not:

• There is definite sexual content. I think it makes sense given the context and type of story it is, but it deserves a warning.
• The practicing Christians are all portrayed in a negative light.

A Silent Voice

by Yoshitoki Ooima

Story summary: From the description of the first volume on Goodreads:
"Shoya is a bully. When Shoko, a girl who can’t hear, enters his elementary school class, she becomes their favorite target, and Shoya and his friends goad each other into devising new tortures for her. But the children’s cruelty goes too far. Shoko is forced to leave the school, and Shoya ends up shouldering all the blame. Six years later, the two meet again. Can Shoya make up for his past mistakes, or is it too late?"

Why You Will Like This Series:

• Complex people and relationships--messy like real life.
• Slow growth in friendship, self-respect, courage, and living.
• The realistic emotions the art managed to portray staggered me sometimes.
• The romance was pretty much the cutest thing ever, though not as important as even I wanted it to be.
• With only seven volumes, it's a nice and short and manageable read, and didn't continue past it's expiry date (unlike many series).

And Why You Might Not:

• This IS manga. A lot of people I know find it difficult enough to read normal graphic novels, let alone ones structured backwards to match the original language's format.
• I could see this being triggering to people who've struggled with depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and the like.
• The ending is more open-ended than many people liked. (Not totally sure what I think of it myself.)

A Tangle of Gold

by Jacqueline Moriarty

Story summary: Don't want to spoil too much from the end of the previous book. So I'll leave it vague: The royal family still has difficulties with forgetting who they are, the colours are still attacking in larger and larger numbers, and there are yet more political factions with their own agenda. How are the Royal Youth Alliance and a girl from Cambridge going to save the whole Kingdom?
Sequel to the other The Colours of Madeleine books: A Corner of White and The Cracks in the Kingdom.¹

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Complicated human relationships
• Dysfunctional but interesting and realistic families
• Unique and beautiful fantasy world
• Strange and unexpected plots twists
• It's the kind of book that makes me want to research all these historical figures (huge plus for me)

And Why You Might Not:

• The writing is somewhat stylized, in a way which usually doesn't work at all for me, so I can see it not working well for someone else
• I liked the plot twists as well, but I did see many of them coming ahead of time.

The Hunt

by Andrew Fukuda

Story summary: He is a lone human in a society run by vampires. Barely managing to escape notice (and a gory death) through a series of rigorous personal rules, he lives a quiet, lonely life without love or friendship. Until the worst happens, and he's thrown into the spotlight of the event of the century... a human hunt.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Everything's inverted! It's the vampires that are just called "people" while humans are strange creatures hunted for their blood!
• It's gripping! How's our protagonist going to survive when every time he sweats or bleed or shows any emotion whatsoever, he will be ripped to shreds and eaten?

And Why You Might Not:

• It's a pretty standard YA dystopian. Other than the central twist, there's not really anything new or exciting.
• I found the characters pretty uninteresting.

Truthwitch

by Susan Dennard

Story summary: Meh, don't feel like doing a summary. Here's a shortened version of the Goodreads description instead:
"Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It’s a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the struggle between empires.
Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her—but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of reckless adventure, where she is a cool, wary balance to Safi’s hotheaded impulsiveness.
Safi and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and ship’s captain) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emperors, princes, and mercenaries alike, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch."

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Gripping--one of those books you can't stop reading.
• Devoted female friendship.
• Awesome magics and fighting skills.

And Why You Might Not:

• It wasn't particularly memorable for me.
• The romance was a little quick and passionate for my taste (though it bothered me less than I expected)

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.

Gothic!

ed. by Deborah Noyes

Why You Will Like This Book:

• If you're looking for short, dark, and creepy, this is it.
• There are stories by some great fantasy authors such as Neil Gaiman and Garth Nix.

And Why You Might Not:

• There's nothing really new or exciting in this collection.

Catch & Release

by Blythe Woolston

Story summary: Polly gets flesh eating disease and loses her eye. This other victim, a kid aptly named Odd, takes her on a fishing trip to take her mind of things. It turns into a road trip to Portland, with friendship and personal growth and all that.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Deals with difficult life events like the loss of a limb or eye.
• Has an unusual friendship and complex character relationships.

And Why You Might Not:

• It's strange. The characters are strange, and pretty unhappy.
• And...I can't really criticize more than this, though not because it's necessarily very good. See after the break for more on this.

Winter

by Marissa Meyer

Story summary: A retelling of Snow White, where the seven dwarfs are space outlaws, the evil queen is a mind-controlling ruler of the Moon, and everything is awesomely science fantasy.
Sequel to Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Such great characters, especially the mentally unbalanced title character.
• Revolution and romance; cyborgs, hackers, and princesses; battles and plagues and kisses and last-minute rescues.
• The last book in one of the more surprisingly entertaining series I've read in the last few years.

And Why You Might Not:

• There are too many points-of-view for one book, and it changes between them too quickly, making the book a little scattered.
• I think partly because of this, some of the relationships aren't given the depth and focus they deserve to be interesting.

Lockwood & Co: The Hollow Boy

by Jonathan Stroud

Story summary: Our trio of intrepid young ghost hunters is now a quartet! But even the addition of the super-efficient Holly doesn't mean they don't have to deal with bloody footprints, near death, and annoying teammates.
Sequel to The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Really fun and entertaining, with great characters, exciting swordplay, and terrifying supernatural events.

And Why You Might Not:

• There are ghosts, blood & guts, dark stuff. I was totally fine with it, but I suppose it could be disturbing to some people.
• The jealousy the two female characters had towards each other got tiresome.

Fairest

by Marissa Meyer

Story summary: Levana, the lunar princess, is horribly disfigured, has to exert her powers constantly to cover it up, falls in love with an ineligible man, can't be queen because her cruel and shallow sister is the heir, and has an annoying niece to stop her from claiming the throne. Her life sucks, eh?
In the Lunar Chronicle series. See also Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and the upcoming Winter.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Entertaining, despite who it has for the main character (basically the evil queen from Snow White--and not a version of her that was made into a sympathetic good guy, either).

And Why You Might Not:

• It's a very short book, and although well-written, probably mostly of interest to people who are already fans of the series.
• It's not exactly a happy book, and not fun and adventurey like the rest of the series.

The Scorch Trials

by James Dashner

Story summary: Thomas and the gang of boys that survived the Maze have been brought to safety with the mysterious WICKED group. Except--surprise! Turns out there's another part to this horrible experiment, and instead of being sent to a maze full of monsters, they're sent to a scorching desert full of crazy people and lightning. So that's... great.
Sequel to The Maze Runner.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Like The Maze Runner, the primary appeal of this book is finding out what the heck is going on. Reminds me a bit of the days of watching LOST.
• It's fast-paced and exciting. Not surprising they're making a series of movies out of these books.

And Why You Might Not:

• It was really light, lacking in character development or interesting ideas.
• There is an annoying love triangle.

Stone in the Sky

by Cecil Castellucci

Story summary: Meh, I'm lazy. It was fun to read this book, but not fun enough to get the energy necessary to write a story summary.  I'm going to use the Goodreads description:
"In this thrilling follow-up to Tin Star, Tula will need to rely on more than just her wits to save her only home in the sky.
After escaping death a second time, Tula Bane is now even thirstier for revenge. She spends much of her time in the Tin Star Café on the Yertina Feray—the space station she calls home. But when it's discovered that the desolate and abandoned planet near the station has high quantities of a precious resource, the once sleepy space station becomes a major player in intergalactic politics. In the spirit of the Gold Rush, aliens from all over the galaxy race to cash in—including Tula's worst enemy."
Sequel to Tin Star.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Traveling the galaxy! Multitudes of alien species! Even alien romance!
• In other words, it's fun scifi/space opera.

And Why You Might Not:

• It was too short to fit in all that it tried to fit in, and felt a bit too busy and lacking in build-up.
• There was a love triangle I found annoying.

Tin Star

by Cecil Castellucci

Story Summary: Thula is beaten and left for dead by a cult leader to whom she was just a little too clear-thinking. Stuck in a space station outpost with no money, friends, family, food, anything, she has to build up her life from the ground up, while navigating the tricky world of inter-species relations.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Survival on a space station! How Thula learned to survive in the gutters of a space station is probably my favourite part of the book.
• Interesting and well-developed alien races! The galaxy has an interesting political system too.
• Quite unexpected romance! (There's also some quite expected romance, but that's for the second set of points below.)

And Why You Might Not:

• As I mentioned above, some of the romance seems a bit cliched YA to me. It was all about "he makes my heart race!" and nothing about his actual character in any way.
• It's quite short. Some changes seemed a bit abrupt because of that. Could have used a bit more build for a few things.

Knife

by R. J. Anderson

Story summary: Knife is a faery, a befriender of dangerous humans, a hunter of Crows. And when it becomes clear that something mysterious is very wrong in the Oak, she isn't going to stay in safety and ignorance.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Stars a fiercely inquisitive heroine whose name is Knife. (I mean come on, awesome name, no?)
• For me as a Catholic, I love Anderson's tiny references to her Faith. (Though don't worry if you're not religious; it's a very, very small part and not at all distracting.)

And Why You Might Not:

• It's a little simpler than I'd like, especially with regards to the growth of Knife and Paul's relationship (which I liked--I just wanted more exploration of it).

A Wicked Thing

by Rhiannon Thomas

Story summary: What would it really be like to be awoken by a kiss from a stranger after sleeping 100 years? Startling, upsetting, lonely, confusing. Aurora awakes to a long-dead family, a marriage with an unknown prince, and future-queenship to a city completely changed from the one she knows--filled with unease and hints of rebellion.

Why You Will Like This Book:

• Focuses on a girl's realistic reaction to the extreme events of a fairy tale.
• The female characters are great; all of the main ones are interesting and complex and not clichéd "strong female characters".

And Why You Might Not:

• There were three separate guys with a possibility for romance, which is two too many. This was mitigated by the fact that it became clear she was really not in love with one of them, and romance with another became unlikely due to certain events. But still...
• Despite the inward focus, it is still a fairly light book.