Book Review: Wildwood Dancing

This is the review that doesn't want to go up  I swear, it's not even a case where "the most average books are the hardest to review". Occasionally I just read a book and even though I have thoughts on it, they're either too spolierly or just too bland on there own and take forever to finesse. 

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

Book Reivew: Ironskin

I've been a reader of the tor.com blog for many years now and I really like a lot of the books that Tor Publishing puts out, it's a consistently good mix of fantasy and sci-fi, so I read a lot of the excerpts and summaries of new books and I also have fairly good luck with winning their ARC contests. I was hooked when I read the excerpt for a book coming out this fall, Silverblind, it's another fantasy story about a young woman naturalist similar to A Natural History of Dragons (which, if I remember correctly, was also a Tor book), and eagerly entered their contest to win an ARC. I did, opened up my package as soon as I got it, and then did a little bit of swearing when the back of the book mentioned it was the third in a series and I had completely missed that on the website. But thankfully my library had, well, this book and hopefully I'll be able to find the next one soon enough, I need to have a word with my other system, maybe my plan of actually reviewing a 2014 book in 2014 won't be in vain after all!

Ironskin by Tina Connolly

Book Review: Ballad

So last summer I got a copy of Lament (which I had read three years earlier) and didn't read it until January. So in hindsight it's not that surprising that it took me another four or five months to read Ballad even though I really liked Lament, clearly that's just how things go for me with this series. And apologies is this review is slightly more incoherent than usual it's for the usual reasons (school, stress, more school)

Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater

Summary: Following the crazy events of the previous summer, James and Dee are now both enrolled in a school for exceptionally talented young musicians, the kind who are most likely to be stolen away by the fey and exactly the reason school was founded. But James feels a little out of place since there's not much more he can learn with his bagpipes and Dee seems distant. But James has problems of his own now, a strange fairy named Nuula has taken an interest in him and wants his soul in exchange for power, something that James isn't really interested in. But as time goes by he and Nuula start to become close to each other and it becomes obvious that there are some major events happening in the background that threaten to engulf them whether they want to be involved or not. 

The Good: There are many words to describe The Most Important Person in a Novel; protagonist, lead, main character, hero/anti-hero, narrator, etc. All of these words have slightly diffrent meanings however and this is the first time in a long time, if ever, I've read a book where the lead character is not the Main Character or The Protagonist. To make sure I'm clear, a MC or Protag is important because they are the ones who make things happen and that's clearly what Dee is doing in the background, a lead character is simply someone is there and important, like Jamie (and to a slightly lesser extent Nuula) is. We can only see what is going on with Dee through short text messages and honestly I have been waiting for a story like this forever, a story that features a side character as the lead just because I always wondered how well it would work. And it worked great here, Jamie is more balanced and interesting than Dee, Nuula was a great character as well (and she was a bit of an interesting take on a fairy, I haven't seen one quite like her in my years of reading too many fantasy books) and I wouldn't have liked this book if Dee had been the narrator I think. 

The Bad: I really do wish we had gotten more information about what Dee was doing since it was apparently rather important and, while the climax didn't feel like it came out of nowhere, without that information it did mess up the flow towards the end a bit. Also, these are two books in a series, not companion novels, and I'm trying to figure out what the overall theme/larger plot of the series is. I've got a few guesses but for a trilogy (which, IIRC, was what this was originally planned to be, although at this point I'm not sure the last book will ever be written since it's been quite a while. Really that's my biggest problem with the book, I'm just worried that such a great book won't get the follow-up it deserves.


I think I liked this even better than Lament actually and will have to make sure to pick up a copy for myself sometime. Overall I give the book four out of five stars for doing something different with it's structure, a few different thing with the mythology it used, and for just being a fun book to read. 

Webcomic Review Month 2012: Dream*Scar

Apologies that this is a bit late folks, I've got family over and there's a wedding going on twenty feet from my bedroom tomorrow so I'm likely to be updating late again then. I swear I love these comics and am not trying to slight them or anything, life is just a little hectic now (plus I am home for the first time in two months, I'd like a few hours of laziness).

Anyway! Just one comic tonight since my other either finished/I wanted to give them another year to see what they would turn into, I'd much rather review a comic after it has really gotten going and I can say with confidence that it's worth seeing where it will go rather than recommend one more on feelings/predictions. And last year's review here.

Dream*Scar by Heather Meade

Vix has grown up in a world where vampires, werewolves, and all sorts of magical creatures announced their presence to the world years ago but, even thought there have been hints that she's not entirely human herself, she never really thought that world concerned her. But after a tragedy at her school she has to go on the run, discovers that she's not human and that she's possibly someone vital to bridging the gap between worlds.

I'm guessing on that last line there but there have been enough hints that Vix is even more special than simply being not human, one being that she's the star of a story, that I think it's a reasonable guess. So far the plot hasn't really stood out from many other "character discovers they're not what they thought they were" story but I really like the characters and especially how they talk. The way the characters interact and talk, especially the teenaged ones, really has the kind of silly, realistic feeling to it. It's not a style that everyone likes but I do. Currently the art looks gorgeous and it didn't start off to badly either. It's certainly gotten much more polished as the series goes on, the coloring and shading have improved the most, but the original art is also nice enough that it doesn't feel like you have to drag yourself through the comic to "where it gets good" (and I have had to do that with some comics because of their art). The story has moved a little slow so far but I'm confident that even at this slower pace it's worth following and keeping up with.   

  

Book Review: Lament

Way back in August Maggie Stiefvater was doing a signing not that far from me (the same store I saw Scott Westerfeld in actually) and, since it's generally considered polite to buy a copy of the author's book at the bookstore (and I really didn't like Shiver) I got a copy of Lament which is from a different series and that I had read years ago and remembered liking quite a bit. I was hesitant that I might not like it anymore since it had been four years and that plus my habit of putting books I own at the bottom of my to-read list (after all, my books don't have due dates/fines) it took me a really long time to get around to actually reading it. It seems like I waited the right amount of time though since the second book in this trilogy has been out for a while and the third one is being written so hopefully there won't be another year wide gap between reading those two.

Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

Summary: Deirde is an up-and-coming harp player who has a fairly normal life with a few quirks. Her life gets a bit quirker after a local music competition, strange boys appearing, clover blankets her front yard, her dog reacts to things only the two of them can see, so she's only half surprised to find out that faeries exist and they have taken a possibly deadly interest in her.

The Good: I really liked how Luke was upfront from the beginning that yes, there is something supernatural going on and is willing to try and see how much he can say to give Deirdre a fighting chance at surviving all the weirdness going on*. And I liked how James, Deirdre friend, also noticed that something odd was going on at how he was a bit special himself. I’m used to seeing a major supporting character, often a male love interest, become magical/powerful as the story goes on as a way to keep them in/so they can keep up but it’s unusual to see them like this from the beginning and I also loved the scenes when the two of them sat down and tried to figure out just what was going on.   

The Bad: There was a character death and a betrayal by another character which both caught me off guard, even though I kinda thought I remembered something like that happened, and while both of the events had a bit of foreshadowing they still came off too suddenly for me. Also rather curious how this is going to tie into other books in the trilogy since the story here was neatly wrapped up (and it sounds like the second book has little to do with these characters) yet the first words in the third book are apparently "Luke Dillion". Not a bad thing per say but something that always makes me nervous, I've been seeing a lot of odd sequels (admittedly in anime) lately that I'm extra wary of them these days.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see that yes, I still liked this book and still enjoyed it a lot more than I did with Shiver. Maybe it was because Shiver is primarily a love story and this one isn't, that could be it....

*he actually reminds me of Mark from Guardian of the Dead (by Karen Healey) in that respect and I really LOVE when characters admit something strange is going on, considering how obvious it is to the read it can be frustrating to read about genre blind protagonists all the time.

Book Review: Huntress

Originally I was going to put up this review next week but I found a really good reason for moving it up. Malinda Lo, the author, is part of a group called Diversity in YA which is, exactly as the name suggests, a group of writers who want more diversity in young adult fiction (such as more books written by/main or secondary characters who are LGTBQ or PoC) and they're holding a couple of contests over the summer related to this. So scoot on over here and get reading!

As for the book itself, last year during the spring I was browsing at my local libraries and getting frustrated at how I just wasn't connecting with the characters in YA literature as much as I used to and that maybe I should start reading more adult fiction to fix this problem. Then I came across Ash (set in the same world as this book, it's a lovely retelling of Cinderella that I really need to go out and buy) which I had heard of and, after reading it, I thought that no, I hadn't outgrown YA fiction yet, clearly I just hadn't been reading the awesome books. So I was really happy when I finally got this book from my local library and, even though it's not a direct prequel to Ash (like I originally thought, one of the main characters in Ash holds the position of the King's Huntress which is where my confusion came from), I was very satisfied with this read as well.

Huntress by Malinda Lo

Malinda Lo has said that, since she is an Asian immigrant herself she always imagined her characters to have Asian appearances as well and was happy that she was able to have this cover reflect that. I hadn't realized that when I first read Ash (the setting, from the location to the food to the clothing, just sounded so European that I simply thought the characters must be European-esque as well) so I'm also glad that this cover does reflect what one of the characters really looks like.

Summary: All is not right in the human world, for the past two years the weather has been strange, all the crops have failed and this year summer has refused to come. The whole kingdom is worried and when an invitation from the fairy queen comes for the king his advisers tell him to go to her, hoping that she has an answer to their disaster. On the advice of his sages, the king sends his son Con, the sage in training Taisan and Kaeda, whom Taisan has seen in her dreams about this journey. It won't be a fast or easy journey to the fairy lands but it's the only thing they can do.

The Good: Huntress is a quest book and most books about a quest are rather lighthearted and fun, up until the characters get to their destination that is. Not here, in Huntress the tone of the book is subdued from the start and makes the problems seem even darker than they already are which is a refreshing change. Like Ash before it, the relationship between the two girls is at the heart of the story and, not only is it nice to see a pair of lesbians (especially since this is a world where LGB characters are easily accepted and any angst the two girls have is for different reasons than over the fact that they love each other) but mature characters in relationships as well. I can't say much about the ending since that would involve spoilers but I was really happy with how the book ended, it helped make the book feel like a very realistic fantasy enough though it was set in a very fantastical world. 

The Bad: Like many other quest books, the pacing in Huntress isn't always even or smooth and it gets less even as the story goes on. When the story starts it devotes a lot of time to every leg of their journey and gives a realistic sense of distance between all the locations. As the story goes on however, less and less time is spent talking about their travels and the characters seem to be traveling even faster over distances that are just as great or greater as the ones earlier in the book (using the map included in the book for reference here). And then, like every quest book, once the task is completed the journey back seems to take no time at all and that really bothered me. The book is so well-written in every other area but that one detail really nagged and bothered me when it was all done. 

So, the characters are mature (forgot to mention earlier but they're all around 18 so they're a bit older than your average YA hero/heroine, the average age seems to be 16) and it's the only book I think of that follows the quest arc-type yet isn't a cheerful, let's-go-adventure! kind of story and I love books that defy tropes. I still prefer Ash a little more, not sure why (guess I need to go reread it then) but this was a great book that I'll be sure to buy in the future.  And finally, here is a short story set after Huntress for those who want a bit more to read.

  

Book Review: Small Persons With Wings

When I saw reviews/blurbs about this book a lot of people were comparing the general feel of the book to a Diana Wynne Jones book (fantasy and magic in an everyday setting with everyday problems as well as magical ones) and, since that’s the exact reason I loved her works, I was intrigued and entered a contest on Deva Fagan's blog for the book and lo and behold I won!* So I zipped through that recently (have I mentioned how nice it is to be reading fiction again? I’ve just had too much to read in my classes lately) but I’m not quite sure where I stand on it.

Small Persons With Wings by Ellen Booraem

Summary: Mellie once had a fairy friend (they hate to be called fairies though, they prefer “small persons with wings”) but after he vanished one day she became convinced he was a fragment of her imagination, the resulting teasing from her classmates over her "imaginary friend" didn't help either. As a result, she threw herself into only reading and being interested in “the real world.” But with the death of her grandfather Mellie is moving to a new town and into his old inn where she finds that she was right all along, her friend wasn’t imaginary at all.

The Good: Lately there has been an overabundance of books that try to mess with the norm, in this particular case by writing "edgy fairy tales" that occupy an odd place between the original Grimms fairy tales and the lighter and softer versions for children these days. SPWW does not follow that format however and manages to have a story with somewhat friendly yet dangerous fairies without being pseudo-edgy, a good choice especially since this is a middle grade book (where being edgy would seem out of place).  Mellie by and large acts her age and has age appropriate problems (or, as age appropriate as one will find in a fantasy book) and the ending of the book was fairly satisfying, if a bit predictable.

The Bad: I think my main problem with the book can be summed up in that it is just aimed at a younger audience than me (Mellie is 13 so the book is aimed at the middle school audience, more at sixth graders than eighth graders at that). I didn’t like how the adults were so dumb (to the point where the author has to create a plot device for why they can’t be useful to the story), which sadly is common in MG fiction and I think I just like my protagonists to be closer to my age so I can sympathize with them more. However, that was also one thing that DWJ did very well in her books so that was something I was expecting to be handled well here and was simply disappointed. I think the story would have been richer and more interesting if the adults were given real roles to play, it may have made the villain reveal at the end less painfully predictable too, so I’m curious to see if this author will continue writing MG or if she will also write YA in the future. 

Sorry this is so late folks, I know it's not even Friday anymore, I just had a crazy busy day and, since I know tomorrow will be even crazier (going to an all day mini-con) so no post tomorrow. There will be one Sunday but I know I just won't have time tomorrow so I'm not going to even try, see you then!

*Sorry to say I thought the email was spam first but opened it anyway, glad to know that I’m willing to give my computer a virus if it means I get a free book.

Book Review: Rosemary and Rue

And another book where I'm not quite sure where I got the recommendation from. I was a bit surprised since the book was a mass-market paperback and I am snobby and don't think many good stories are published in that format*.

Rosemary and Rue

 Pretty generic cover that says "I have a dark and brooding past but, since I'm clearly a paranormal series, there must be romance in here somewhere!"
Summary: October "Toby"Daye is half fae but barely has any magic at all, she has a hard enough time hiding her pointy ears let alone breaking out a pond during a 14 year curse. After those 14 years she vows to not be a P.I. after it took everything away from her, but other characters have other ideas and she's soon forced to resolve a murder which threatens her life and shows her how much she never noticed in her old life.

The Good: I'm sure that this isn't the first supernatural (in the way of Old World fairies) private investigator mash-up out there but it was new for me (plus the fact that PIs occur more in children's books and adult books than YA, some in MG). And I've been seeing so much anime/manga lately that it's nice to see Old World style mythology, especially stories that have a heavy emphasis on the Celtic myths**.
The Bad: Toby seems depressed about her missing 14 years but doesn't seem to do anything. Actually, it feels like the author wanted a reason to give her an unhappy back story and set the stage for some family issues a few books down the road (since she left behind her boyfriend and 4 year old daughter who are barely mentioned, it sounds like they haven't contacted her at all which strikes me as a bit odd). And she has an awful lot of men fawning over her for no apparent reason and that is annoying. I'm not saying that people can't be in love with more than one person at a time but the way it's presented here it feels rather sue-ish. As a final note, it's nice that you put in a pronunciation guide for all the various fae but I would have liked a little definition instead, I was too lazy to look up 30 different types of fairies but I think it would've been a good idea in retrospect.

Really not my type of story, if I want mystery I'll grab a classic and, like I said yesterday, romance is never my kind of thing.


*Would like to note that they are also a pain to shelve and slide around when you try to carry more than three at a time, makes me job that much harder.
**Why yes I'm VERY Irish.