Book Review: Shadow Scale

Eeek, between the last week and family visiting I seem to have fallen behind again. BUT I'm getting this post out before tomorrow's is supposed to be up so there's still hope! So sit tight, I'll be getting back on track shortly, and in the meantime you should really read about these dragons.

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

Manga Review: Spirit Circle

This review is a bit later than I hoped, both in the context of this week and in general since Crunchyroll was a bit slow getting the final chapter up. I'm not sure why, they were fairly up to date with the rest of the chapters, but I have noticed that there are some, less popular CR series that don't update quite as regularly as others (by that I mean, not consistently same day, two days later etc than the Japanese magazine release). I don't think that contributed to the manga's relative unpopularity however, I have just had the hardest time convincing people to try this series so, once more with feeling! This is one of my favorite series from the last few years and dammit if it's never gonna get a physical release you should at least read this digital release since who knows how long CR will hold this release.

Spirit Circle by Satoshi Mizukami

Manga Review: Vinland Saga (volumes 1 - 5)

Well this is not the reasonable time I hoped to have this review up, my apologies. So let's not waste anymore time and talk about vikings. 

Vinland Saga (volumes one through five) by Makoto Yukimura

Anime Review: Maria the Virgin Witch

I did purposely shuffle this post to the end of my winter 2015 anime reviews since I was hoping I could stall long enough that the manga would be fully out in English so that I could compare the two but alas, even with my unexpected week delay here it wasn't long enough. I'm not sure if people have noticed but starting this season I'm reviewing the finished shows in the order that I enjoyed them so this series should have been one of my middle reviews, it's far from the worst show I saw over the winter even if it did have a lot of flaws.

Maria the Virgin Witch

Anime Review: Garo

Most of the buzz I saw for Studio MAPPA last fall was their unexpectedly good series Rage of Bahamut: Genesis which I found enjoyable and way better than any card game-based series ever has a right to be, but it was there other series that first caught my eye. I've seen bits and pieces of tokusatsu shows before but the hamminess of Japanese live action is a mild turnoff at the very least so it's not a genre I actively seek out. Put it in anime however, which for some reason has that same hamminess much less frequently, and I'm game for trying it out!

Garo

Book Review: Dark Triumph

With so many new books to keep track of this year it's not surprising that one or two nearly slipped my mind, after all it's not like I'm thinking of medieval, nearly-France, or assassins everyday. However my new library system actually has a section within the young adult section (the section forbidden to over-eighteens after 3pm on weekdays and all day on weekends, for once my ambiguous age appearance works in my favor!) dedicated to new books and that has helped me out quite a bit in keeping track of books. Now, if only all the books I wanted to read would magically pop up there....

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers 

Book Review: The Cadet of Tildor

When I picked this one up at the local library the blurb made it sound a lot like Tamora Pierce's works which I thought was a good thing. Young girl chooses the path of knighthood and is determined to succeed and protect her kingdom while there is dirty politics flying around in the background, that sounds great to me, where is it?

The Cadet of Tildor by Alex Lidell

Summary: Despite her father's objections Renee is determined to finish her schooling to become a Servant of the Crown, no matter if she's smaller than all of her male classmates and not the brightest in her class. One would think the fact that her idol is her new teacher would help her out but with him comes more politics and baggage than Renee could have predicted. 

The Good: I wish the story had focused more on the magic system in the story since that was interesting or that it had made the conflict about registered mages (where they have to register yet have no say in whether they become say a healer or a war machine) the main part of the story, it's not a new idea but I think this could have been an interesting take on it. Or heck, the story had some rather interesting legends in it and I wish those had either twined into the main story more or had been the focus of the book instead. There was just a lot of little interesting things going on in the background and I'm baffled why those weren't the focus instead.

The Bad: I did not enjoy this book at all probably should have instead dropped it halfway through because of just how dull it was. I suspect that part of the problem is that Lidell was trying to write some rather complicated characters (a protagonist who thinks they have to be just like the guys in every way to be better than them, a mentor figure who is possibly unsuited to training and in some ways seeks to make himself even more unsuitable so he can get out of it) and just doesn't pull it off since they aren't likable or sympathetic at all so I just didn't care about their struggles. I mean, not only does Renee insist of trying to master a sword fighting style that won't be nearly as a effective as another one (due to her size and strength, it's not even looked down upon or anything, she just wants to win with brute force instead) but she also neglects her studies in order to do so and therefore nearly fails out in two different ways, why should I care about a character who is so clueless in some ways? The story's politics also don't fully work in the end, the story really tries to mess with Renee and tell her all these conflicting stories about why her mother died ("this side did it!" "no it was your father!" "it could have all been an accident") and then, if I remember correctly, doesn't elaborate in the end on what actually happened which is the case of a lot of the other political shenanigans in the book as well. While in real life it may be hard to uncover the truth of the matter books aren't real life, they're fiction, and if you build up a mystery you must have a reveal or you've simply wasted time and space which could be been used to develop something else instead.


In the end I give this book just two out of five stars for being boring and uninteresting, I have no interest in reading any other books by Lidell unless they get rave reviews from some of the book blogs I follow.

Book Review: Crown Duel

Well I was hoping that I would be able to get this second review out yesterday but then got involved in a rather long, hmm, contentious debate on twitter (must be Memorial weekend, everyone has been online all weekend long) and didn't have the energy to be coherent any longer once that finally wound down so apologies, for once this one isn't just my fault! As for the book itself, it's funny but this book really reminded me of Tamora Pierce's various Tortall series for some reason. Meliara isn't very similar to any of her protagonists yet I did notice that this book came out around the time some of Pierce's earlier books did, perhaps there was some common source of inspiration which led to both of these.


Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

Summary: Meliara and her brother swear on their father's deathbed that they will overthrow the current, corrupt king who assassinated their mother and then rule together in his stead. Thus the two of them embark on a gurella war and, even though she doesn't want to, Meliara ends up learning more about her enemies than she wanted.

The Good: Meliara is a pretty likable lead and at first I thought the story was going to make everything too easy for her, such as when she's captured and later escapes but that wasn't the case and the story managed to keep the tension up during those bits as well. She was a bit thick in places, thick enough to be slightly unbelievable, but thankfully not so much that I disliked her. One random note, I've think I've said before but I'v read a lot of fantasy YA, enough to the point where I can usually pin-point the year in which it was written fairly accurately. While I did get Tamora Pierce, specifically early Pierce, vibes from it at points I'm still a bit surprised that this book came from the 90s, it has a lightness and flexibility to it (just, less emphasis on the "inspired by medieval Europe" part of the setting and a bit more on the "fantasy" side) that I usually see in post 2000s books so I think that it probably appeals to a wider bunch of readers than other books from the same year do.

The Bad: This is a fairly slim book, although I need to keep in mind this is before Harry Potter became big and publishers would publish larger books for young adults, and is often the case with slim books the plot was a bit too simple for my liking. It worked and straightforwardness isn't a bad thing yet I kept feeling like the story was a bit too pale, like a soup where someone has forgotten a few key ingredients. I'm not sure what else the story would have needed, it had intrigue, plotting, enough characters, and good pacing, maybe it just needed more details. 


So, 3 out of 5 stars for this book. I'll also note that I didn't realize until I was already done that there's a sequel to this, Court Duel and it seems like there are even editions where both stories are bundled together, and since I already had to place an interlibrary loan for this book and it was right at the end of the school year (ie, before I move for the summer) I don't have a way to get a hold of it. Honestly I'm not sure exactly why there's a sequel, everything wrapped up so nicely I'm not sure why Meliara had to go to court and apparently get into trouble, but from what I'm seeing on goodreads there is also a revised edition out there so I'm wondering how different that version is.

Book Review: Grave Mercy

I've already seen a few lists of books coming out in 2013 which people are excited for and I was thinking "man, it seems like assassins are the new in thing (which is kinda odd but o-kay)" and then remembered that I had heard a lot of good things about a book which involved an assassin in a medieval sounding setting that came out in 2012. Lo and behold my school library even had a copy of it, hurray!


Grave Mercy by Robin Lafevers

Summary: Before Ismae was born her mother tried to abort her but she was born anyway prompting the local herbwife to say that her father was actually Death himself. After a rather miserable life Ismae finds herself at the convent that serves death and is trained in all kinds of things including fighting, poison-mixing, and killing. She has no reason to question the sisters who took her in but when she's on an extended mission to keep the young duchess of her country safe and out of the hands of the invading French she begins to question whose will she is really following, Death's or the convents.

The Good: I really liked Ismae's character, she both loyal to the convent but still thinks for herself, even before all the facts start piling up in front of her. And all of her character development is paced well, it's a thick book (I believe it was a bit over 500 pages) but it never felt like the book was stalling for time or got lost and was wallowing around. The side characters also have some character development, or at least turn out to be more complicated than they originally seemed, and I'm happy that this is part of a series since I really want to see where Ismae goes after her big choice. As a side note, it's actually rather interesting to read this book so soon after Seraphina, both of them have very similar settings, conflicts, and character archetypes yet Ismae and Seraphina come from completely different places and it's interesting to compare how you can have two different characters in similar situations and seeing how they approach the problem.  

The Bad: I have absolutely no clue what is up with that tagline across the top of the book, Ismae rarely (if ever?) scorns the people around her for not knowing all the secrets of the court or for living simpler lives and it's almost the opposite of the character development she goes through. Bah, in any case, I'm also quibbling over the fact that the duchess is so young, just 13, I had wondered why she wasn't as active as I had expected but seriously, would it hurt or even change the character dynamics if she had been a bit older? After learning that I'm now questioning what she can really do in the next book or two with such little experience of life, hopefully I'll just be able to ignore it and not let that bother me too much.


So a 3.5 out of 5 for this book, not 100% if I'd buy it (since right now I don't have the urge to re-read it) but I'm certainly excited for the next books in the series (called the His Fair Assassin Series). I'm a little worried since it sounds like the viewpoint is switching over to another character (who did appear briefly so I have no idea where it'll fit timeline wise) and there were a few things left unresolved in this book but I'll just cross my fingers and hope that Lafevers makes it all work!

Book Review: Seraphina

Originally my last review of the year was going to be volumes 5 and 6 of Kieli (yes not only  did I finally get both of them but I found time to read them as well!) and I didn't think I'd have a chance to read this book until 2013. But unexpectedly one of my libraries had a copy of this, I got it out, and then proceeded to read it over a day and a half this. This was impressive because not only is the book around 460 pages (which even for me is a bit thick) but those two days were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day where between the two of them I spent over 10 hours in parties and another couple of hours each day getting to/helping prepare for each. So I didn't just read this book fast, I read this book fast for me and I think that alone says something about how I liked it.


Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Summary: In the country of Goredd there has been a tenuous peace agreement between humans and the dragons for 40 years which seems threatened nearly every day due to a lack of understanding of each side. For Seraphina the peace is even more important for her than most, her mother was a dragon (a fact her father didn't know until she bled silver blood while she died giving birth to Seraphina) and her father human making her a hybrid and a fact she hides every day. There seems to be no upsides to her strange parentage and it only seems to have given her terrible headaches and strange mental landscapes to attend to, hardly a desirable thing. But with dignitaries from both sides gathering to celebrate the treaty she'll simply have to deal with everything while trying her best to stay out of the dangerous politics that it seems like she was born into.

The Good: Now THIS is what people should do if they want a medieval-Europe inspired setting! Goredd isn't a dressed up and renamed England or France, it's an original setting which draws heavily inspiration from real world culture (such as the music and the idea of Saints) without falling into some of the traps ("noooo you can't have women with power in a middle ages setting, wait almost all of the named royals are female? Well, everyone has to be whit-oh hell side characters from other countries and clearly described to be not-white!"). The story makes use of it's large page count to create a fairly detailed plot with multiple subplots that come together by the end (like a calmer version of Diana Wynne Jones' books) and there is plenty of politicking and scheming to make me happy. In these ways it feels like a rather mature young adult book, I can easily see that if just a few things were changed that it could be a work of adult fiction. That isn't to say that it should be an adult fiction book, it's simply a book that I think has more crossover appeal than others. 

The Bad: There were some points where it felt like Lucian, who can be a bit touchy but isn't hot tempered, got mad (or madder) at Seraphina than he should've just for the sake of advancing the plot but even then you could come up with a realistic reason for that (being in charge of all the security for the peace treaty celebration will make anyone cranky). I also had a bit of a hard time buying that Princess Glisselda was only 15, she does act like a 15 year old a lot of the time but there are other times when she was too wise beyond her years (which is something I could say for a lot of characters in young adult books actually, so while a bit frustrating it was something I could easily deal with and did half expect).


So I happily give this book four out of five stars, would buy it, and I'm hoping that there is in fact going to be a sequel. There was a note in one of the appendixes which lead me to think so but honestly I won't be crushed if there isn't. Yes there is so much more plot that could happen but after spending this much time with the characters I can see how they could further develop so even if there's not a sequel I can easily imagine how it would have gone down. For those interested there's a prologue which fills in one or two details and gives you a good feel for what the characters and the book is like. 

Book Review: Two Moon Princess

Another book from the Enchanted Inkpot giveaway, although I'll confess that I kept reading the title as Two Moon Princesses and was rather confused for a while why there seemed to be only one princess in the story (well, only one who can be called a main character in any case). But enough of my silly mis-readings of words, onto the review!

Two Moon Princess by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

 
Summary: Andrea is the youngest princess of the country of Zeltia and would rather be a knight than a princess much to the disapproval of her traditional father and even more traditional mother. But her fate begins to look up when she discovers a mysterious passage between her world and California, the birthplace of her mother, although she may have created a terrible problem in the process.

The Good: While the setting is still Western-European-Medieval it's much more heavily inspired by Medieval Spain than say Medieval England which was a nice change of pace and I can't remember the last time I read a story that didn't have a 12 month/365 day calender. Actually, the setting feels a bit more Renaissance than strictly medieval which is also a nice change of pace, although I wish it had a chance to talk more about the ancient civilization that they keep giving tantalizing hints about.

The Bad: Overall the book was just a bit, well, bland and I could never get into the story even though it had a lot of things that should have endeared me to it such as politics and a bit of a different setting (I will admit that as much as I like that it's set in a world that doesn't have a 365 year day it made figuring out character equivalent ages rather difficult and frustrating). Andrea's story is nothing new, her mother is complicated for reasons that never seem to be fully (or even partially) explained, it's painfully obvious that Andrea's friend from California is an idiot, and the romance towards the end felt a bit awkward. 


I know it's a bit of a quick review but it's true that it's much easier to write a review about something you love or hate and this book was just so bland that there's not a lot to talk about. It did have a solid ending but it's another book I'm going to pass along to the library and hope that others enjoy it more than I did.   

Book Review: Spice and Wolf volume 5

So it appears that before I did have a good reason to worry that Yen Press had only licensed the first six (novel) volumes of Spice and Wolf since that was the case, however recently they announced they had licensed I believe the next three which actually makes me less worried. Sure the whole, 17 volume series isn't licensed but licensing through volume 9 shows that there is a market for them (or at least, the series is selling at or above what they predicted) and that they will license more if there is demand for them. So I guess my job now is to keep reviewing the books and convincing everyone else that they're worth buying huh?

Spice and Wolf (volume five) by Isuna Hasekura, illustrated by Jyuu Ayakura

Summary: Covering the same material as the second arc of the second tv season, Holo and Lawrence have arrived in the town of Lenos where they have heard a town chronicler might have more records of where Holo’s elusive home of Yoitsu lies. A fellow merchant introduces them to him but they want some help in return, help with a risky endeavor involving the town’s fur trade that might end up being more than they can chew.

The Good: The books continue to excel in creating secondary characters that don’t feel like repeats of an earlier side character and are rather fleshed out for characters who (probably) won’t ever appear in the series again. This is a bit easier to accomplish in a story that spends a lot of time with the characters sitting around and talking but when you think about it it’s impressive just how many characters Hasekura has been able to create without repeating traits (and there are still 12 more books to go!). There was also some very good foreshadowing this time around and once again felt like a solid installment.

The Bad: So far the stories have been rather good at explaining the economics and politics that make up the various situations and I’ve been able to follow along (and having already seen many of the stories in anime form has helped) but this one did confuse me quite a bit. This didn’t make me like the story less per-say but when everything was said and done I wasn’t quite sure what had happened and I do hope the economics in the next book are easier to follow.

Despite my trouble with the economic parts I still thought this was a good installment, although I must confess I'm more excited for the next book since then we'll be dealing with completely new material again. Funny enough by now I really want to watch the anime series again, it's been a few years since I've seen it, I've now read all the source material, and Funimation has some rather good prices for both seasons now, hmmmm.

Book Review: Mastiff

I remember starting to read this trilogy back in high school, almost five years ago, so I'm both happy and sad to come to the end of it. Happy because, well, who doesn't like getting all the way through a good story, sad because I think that Beka is my favorite or tied for my favorite Tamore Pierce heroine and, since her story is set 200 years before all her other stories in this 'verse, there won't be any more stories about her except for maybe a short story or two in the future. But at least this story has a strong ending and one that's satisfying enough that I don't mind the series is now over.

Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

  Sadly this cover has some of the worst looking photoshop I've seen all year on it which baffles me since the other two covers look just fine. It's easier to see if you have a copy of the book in front of you but the hands show that the arm on the left is facing the viewer and the arm on the right is facing the mountains, ie one of those arms is backwards, and the way her head is twisted back doesn't look like a natural pose. I noticed something was off the first time I found the book in a bookstore so this isn't a problem you only notice if you're looking at it, this is a cover where the quality control missed a major problem and it makes me wince every time I look at it.

Summary: It's been a couple of years since Beka became a full-fledged Dog (cop) and has dealt with many other cases but none so big as the ones in the previous two books. That is about to change however, the heir to the kingdom has been kidnapped and a curse has been placed on him that is slowly killing his parents as well. Beka, her scent hound Achoo and her partner Turnstall are put on the case and it's going to take all the talent and luck they have to bring him home.

The Good: I often complain about settings in stories but here we have a magnificent setting, one that is more realistic than the kind you would find in most realistic fiction stories. The setting, a country that has had a few rough years for the lower classes and an upper class that is resisting higher taxes to help cover these costs (hmmmm, I wonder what that sounds like), ultimately affects everything in the plot (every character's motivation, it instigates the plot, ect) and the story would not work nearly so well without it. The setting is also an evolving one, there were a few ideas introduced in the previous book (such as this cult for the "Gentle Mother" interpretation of the main goddess) that comes back here and it becomes clear why the setting has changed by the next chronological set of books in this 'verse (where women aren't allowed to become knights which sets up the plot of those books). I also knew there was likely to be some romance in this book, since one of the set-ups for the trilogy is that this is the ancestor to one of the characters 200 years down the line, and I surprised at how well I liked the ensuing romance. Part of the reason I enjoy fantasy so much is that romance is rarely the main theme of the book so it can be much more subtle and exist as a side plot which is exactly what this story did and it's been a while since I was so genuinely pleased at the outcome of the romance.  

The Bad: I was spoiled about a twist when I was still early on in the book (it occurs less than a hundred pages to the end so I won't even mention what kind of twist it was) but that was rather frustrating*. To be vague about the twist, even knowing it was coming it still felt a bit too sudden and I really feel like I need to reread the other books since the moment also felt out of place (again, I plan on rereading sometime to see if it really was as out of place as it felt or if there was some foreshadowing I missed but this is how that plot point felt).


It's no secret that I love Tamora Pierce's books and this book was no different. I'm not sure which verse her next book is going to be set in (she has two, this one "The Tortall Verse" and another "The Circle of Magic Verse" and I enjoy both) but I can't wait to see whatever it is.



*and hardly the first time that tor.com has had an unmarked large spoiler like that, I thought that the post was a brief blurb about the book or I would've been more wary (especially after their Summer Wars review gave away a major event with no spoiler warnings at all). 

Book Review: Spice and Wolf (volume four)

Funny story here, I didn't actually mean to get a copy of this book when I did. Back in August I had my mom place a RightStuf order for me (since I was going to be out of town when the final Utena set went on pre-order and I was afraid they would sell out of the rings before I had a chance to order) but a few things went screwy, my mom accidentally placed two orders instead of one and I didn't know about this until TRSI had a Yen Press sale and I went to add this volume to my cart and discovered that not only was it already in one of my orders but it had shipped as well. Oops, although I wasn't too unhappy at this turn of events since I wanted to read the volume soon anyway, especially since volume four was not covered by the anime (season one covered volumes 1 & 2, season two covered volumes 3 & 5) so I was curious to see if there was a reason Brains Base had chosen not to animate this novel.

Spice and Wolf by Isuna Hasekura, illustrated by Jyuu Ayakura

  Here is the American cover which is also better than the previous ones but the plain white background bothers me, sure there are regular novels with white backgrounds but it's usually a very minimalistic style cover and this just isn't minimalism, especially with that kind of font used for the title.

Summary: About a week after their last adventure, Holo and Laurence are searching for an abbey they heard about in Kumerson that has a large collection of pagan tales and hopefully more information on Holo's lost hometown. But when they arrive in the village of Tereo they encounter unexpected resistance and an interesting arrangement between the village and the nearby town of Enberch.

The Good: I'm not sure why this story wasn't adapted into the anime version (perhaps it's too similar to the next story?) because it was a fairly solid story that uses yet another point of commerce for it's conflict and has a rather clever solution in the end. Holo and Lawerence's relationship continues to progress forward slowly (it's a little hard to remember that the novels only have a short gap of time between them, that makes the speed the relationship is developing at seem much more realistic) but there certainly is progress for both of them.

The Bad: The ending does feel a little bit like a deus ex machina (funny enough, it both kinda is and is supposed to be seen as one) but I still thought it was a clever solution. Elsa (the priest in Tereo and one of the major characters) felt a little flat to me despite Hasekura's attempts to make her a more rounded character however. She had quite a few scenes and made decisions but never seemed to have a lot of personality to me and I simply had a hard time caring about what she was doing as a result. The other side characters were much more interesting (such as the village elder, the miller and the bar keeper's wife) so I was sad that Elsa felt so dull for the entire story.

The Art: The illustrator for Spice & Wolf is the same as the previous novels so the art remains unchanged. The designs are a little too simple for my taste (which is odd, generally light novel art is more intricate than manga art which is turn is more complicated than anime artwork) but I really do like Holo's look on the cover.

So another good addition to the series, now to hope that it stays that way for the remaining 13 volumes. Funny enough this is the only Yen Press series I'm not behind on, really hoping that next year I can take advantage of more of TRSI's sales so I can try to stay that way since it's so frustrating to be volumes behind on the releases.