Title: Cast in Secret
Author: Michelle Sagara
Begun: August 23, 2007
Completed: August 25, 2007
You have to be careful when reading Michelle Sagara - whatever the name she's using. So much of her exposition slips in where you least expect it, important details of motive and history are constantly eluded to and only very rarely fully elaborated on. Her books require close reading and a lot of thought, and Cast in Secret is a perfect example.
The third book in the fantasy/romance Elantra books, Cast in Secret chronicles once more the adventures of reformed street kid (well...sort of) Kaylin Neya. If Samuel Vimes had stayed at the bottom of the Watch ranks and had a lot more serious trauma and been a girl, he might be something like Kaylin. She is endearingly lower class, and she sticks to those principles despite her frequent forays in the Elantran aristocracy. It's hard not to love Kaylin.
Cast in Secret forces Kaylin to confront her prejudices against a variety of issues, most obviously the Tha'alani and her own unpredictable magic. Sagara once again explores Kaylin's unrequited-and-highly-tense chemistry with the mad, bad and dangerous to know Lord Nightshade (you want to laugh at the name... and then you meet him) and the stoic Severn. It's easy to cast Severn in the "strong, silent good guy" role, but he's much more morally complex than that. Sagara also has the good sense to bring back Tiamaris, my favorite character in the first book and more than a simple bit player here.
Like the preceeding novels - Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight - Cast in Secret blends genres and techniques in a highly intricate pattern. Though it comes from the Luna line and is billed as romance and fantasy, it's also a good part gritty crime procedural. But though Cast in Secret doesn't quite spark as much as Cast in Shadow, it certainly piques the interest for the fourth book. When, hopefully, we may get some of the much-delayed gratification.
Cast in Secret at Amazon.com
Showing posts with label genre: fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genre: fantasy. Show all posts
Monday, September 3, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Review: Archangel, Sharon Shinn
Title: Archangel
Author: Sharon Shinn
Date Begun: July 1, 2007
Date Completed: July 1, 2007
Archangel owes Anne McCaffrey a very, very large debt.
It has been some time since I reread one of McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books, but even so the similarities between Shinn's world and characters and McCaffrey's early books were both striking and slightly disturbing. The angels are almost exactly identical to the dragonriders - both are elite groups who dwell in high places and govern and protect their world. Also, they fly. Rachel, the heroine, could understandably be mistaken for Lessa and Gabriel, the hero, has several traits in common with F'lar. Their relationship, too, is uncomfortably similar to the romance that takes up much of Dragonflight.
But beyond characters, there is a sense that Shinn's Samaria is also populated by refugees from Earth, the the "magic" and religion are actually science provided by the original settlers, now long forgotten. And like Pern, music is of paramount importance.
This is not to say that Archangel is badly written. It is well-done enough for me to hope that the sequels deviate enough from McCaffrey's template to be worth reading. Grading it presented me with a problem - perhaps the similarities were accidental, certainly Shinn is a popular author and her style is engaging. But nevertheless, the similarities are there and they are blatant enough to bring down the grade quite a bit. So Archangel gets a C from me, with fingers crossed.
But if talking dolphins and Artificial Intelligence show up, I call foul.
Author: Sharon Shinn
Date Begun: July 1, 2007
Date Completed: July 1, 2007
Archangel owes Anne McCaffrey a very, very large debt.
It has been some time since I reread one of McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books, but even so the similarities between Shinn's world and characters and McCaffrey's early books were both striking and slightly disturbing. The angels are almost exactly identical to the dragonriders - both are elite groups who dwell in high places and govern and protect their world. Also, they fly. Rachel, the heroine, could understandably be mistaken for Lessa and Gabriel, the hero, has several traits in common with F'lar. Their relationship, too, is uncomfortably similar to the romance that takes up much of Dragonflight.
But beyond characters, there is a sense that Shinn's Samaria is also populated by refugees from Earth, the the "magic" and religion are actually science provided by the original settlers, now long forgotten. And like Pern, music is of paramount importance.
This is not to say that Archangel is badly written. It is well-done enough for me to hope that the sequels deviate enough from McCaffrey's template to be worth reading. Grading it presented me with a problem - perhaps the similarities were accidental, certainly Shinn is a popular author and her style is engaging. But nevertheless, the similarities are there and they are blatant enough to bring down the grade quite a bit. So Archangel gets a C from me, with fingers crossed.
But if talking dolphins and Artificial Intelligence show up, I call foul.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Review: The Divided Crown, Isabel Glass
Title: The Divided Crown
Author: Isabel Glass
Date Begun: May 19, 2007
Date Completed: May 20, 2007
I picked up The Divided Crown based on two things: The K. Y. Craft cover art and the Patricia McKillip blurb on the front. I love Patricia McKillip. She is one of the best fantasy writers ever, and some day everyone else will know it. Of course, I don't expect every author I pick up to have the same mastery of language and characterization that McKillip has. However, I thought The Divided Crown would be a safe bet, if Patricia McKillip liked it.
Not so much. I'm glad I bought this on the bargain shelf, because I would have been really pissed off if I'd bought it a full hardcover price.
The Divided Crown has some good points. For example, of the main characters two of them are middle-aged and married with children. That's something you hardly ever see among fantasy novels, or novels period. And I genuinely liked Angarred. But generally, I was left with the feeling that none of Glass' characters were really very smart, and that's never a good way to feel. Certainly, politically involved people should be quicker on the uptake, even if one of them is a recovering drug addict. (I really should have liked this book more than I did. It had a recovering drug addict too. And cross dressing fortune tellers.)
Beyond the characters is Glass' writing. Her style reminds me of Lloyd Alexander, but not in a good way. Alexander's writing was superior - not least because he included jokes. But there is an oversimplified style to Glass' writing here which doesn't do well in a novel this length. Like some of Alexander's writing, I was left with the feeling that I was reading this a bit too soon after taking some Benadryl. But that feeling works with Westmark or The Black Cauldron. I don't know if it will ever work for The Divided Crown.
Author: Isabel Glass
Date Begun: May 19, 2007
Date Completed: May 20, 2007
I picked up The Divided Crown based on two things: The K. Y. Craft cover art and the Patricia McKillip blurb on the front. I love Patricia McKillip. She is one of the best fantasy writers ever, and some day everyone else will know it. Of course, I don't expect every author I pick up to have the same mastery of language and characterization that McKillip has. However, I thought The Divided Crown would be a safe bet, if Patricia McKillip liked it.
Not so much. I'm glad I bought this on the bargain shelf, because I would have been really pissed off if I'd bought it a full hardcover price.
The Divided Crown has some good points. For example, of the main characters two of them are middle-aged and married with children. That's something you hardly ever see among fantasy novels, or novels period. And I genuinely liked Angarred. But generally, I was left with the feeling that none of Glass' characters were really very smart, and that's never a good way to feel. Certainly, politically involved people should be quicker on the uptake, even if one of them is a recovering drug addict. (I really should have liked this book more than I did. It had a recovering drug addict too. And cross dressing fortune tellers.)
Beyond the characters is Glass' writing. Her style reminds me of Lloyd Alexander, but not in a good way. Alexander's writing was superior - not least because he included jokes. But there is an oversimplified style to Glass' writing here which doesn't do well in a novel this length. Like some of Alexander's writing, I was left with the feeling that I was reading this a bit too soon after taking some Benadryl. But that feeling works with Westmark or The Black Cauldron. I don't know if it will ever work for The Divided Crown.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Review: The Element of Fire, Martha Wells
Title: The Element of Fire (2006 edition)
Author: Martha Wells
Date Begun: February 9, 2007
Date Completed: February 10, 2007
I love reading Martha Wells. There's a feeling I get, when I read her books, that there is someone else out there who looked at the fantasy book shelves and thought "Enough with the goddamn druids already" and decided to do something about it. (No, really.) Reading her books always makes me want to go and find more of hers, and luckily I've got a few. Of course, now I'm thinking about getting into Stargate so I can read her tie-in novel and that's dangerous territory, there.
The fact that two of her books open with the hero breaking into someone else's house may also have endeared her to me. In fact, I had a recent conversation about The Element of Fire with my sister which went something like this:
HER: There's a new Martha Wells book?
ME: Not exactly.
HER: Is it good?
ME: I don't know yet. But the opening scene has breaking and entering so...
HER: You were powerless to resist.
What can I say, I'm easy.
Like all the Ile-Rien books, the setting is a major benefit. Vienne, however, is not quite the minor character it is in Death of the Necromancer. The characters are not quite the characters Wells is capable of writing. Despite the revisions, this is very obviously a first novel. It is neither as tight nor as well-drawn as her later work. But it's a decent book, and I enjoyed it.
Actually, I really enjoyed the female lead the most, and I never like the girls. Seriously. But she's quite interesting and, I think, well done.
Really, I'm torn. I don't know if I'd suggest you start with this book because it's only okay, it's not great. I definitely enjoyed Death of the Necromancer more. For one, because it's funnier. The Element of Fire is quite dark and quite political. It's also probably worth a second read. Maybe my feelings will be clearer then.
The Element of Fire on Amazon. Martha Wells' website.
Author: Martha Wells
Date Begun: February 9, 2007
Date Completed: February 10, 2007
I love reading Martha Wells. There's a feeling I get, when I read her books, that there is someone else out there who looked at the fantasy book shelves and thought "Enough with the goddamn druids already" and decided to do something about it. (No, really.) Reading her books always makes me want to go and find more of hers, and luckily I've got a few. Of course, now I'm thinking about getting into Stargate so I can read her tie-in novel and that's dangerous territory, there.
The fact that two of her books open with the hero breaking into someone else's house may also have endeared her to me. In fact, I had a recent conversation about The Element of Fire with my sister which went something like this:
HER: There's a new Martha Wells book?
ME: Not exactly.
HER: Is it good?
ME: I don't know yet. But the opening scene has breaking and entering so...
HER: You were powerless to resist.
What can I say, I'm easy.
Like all the Ile-Rien books, the setting is a major benefit. Vienne, however, is not quite the minor character it is in Death of the Necromancer. The characters are not quite the characters Wells is capable of writing. Despite the revisions, this is very obviously a first novel. It is neither as tight nor as well-drawn as her later work. But it's a decent book, and I enjoyed it.
Actually, I really enjoyed the female lead the most, and I never like the girls. Seriously. But she's quite interesting and, I think, well done.
Really, I'm torn. I don't know if I'd suggest you start with this book because it's only okay, it's not great. I definitely enjoyed Death of the Necromancer more. For one, because it's funnier. The Element of Fire is quite dark and quite political. It's also probably worth a second read. Maybe my feelings will be clearer then.
The Element of Fire on Amazon. Martha Wells' website.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Review: The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
Title: The Eyre Affair
Author: Jasper Fforde
Date Begun: December 21, 2006
Date Completed: December 22, 2006
I've been reading an awful lot of books about other books recently. Don Quixote, The Age of Innocence (you think I'm on crack, but a lot of it is about books), The Friendly Young Ladies...I'm stopping, before you feel the need to point out that The Friendly Young Ladies is about lesbians, not books. Well, it is. But not just lesbians.
The Eyre Affair, however, is primarily about books. In fact, though the blurbs on the cover are eager to compare Thursday Next to Harry Potter, it's really more like James Bond. You know, provided James Bond ever read a book. Fforde has created a really fascinating world to back up his literary jokes, the divergent chronologies reminded me a little of Diane Wynn Jones' Chrestomanci books. (The "this book is like ___" formula is a cliché, but I feel that in this case it is appropriate. Fforde relies on books, and so will I.) That's a good thing - I like the Chrestomanci books. However, I do feel like it weakens the world a little. We learn that Richard III won the Battle of Bosworth Field, for example, so presumably the Tudors didn't take over but a Renaissance England under a Plantagenet king would have been very different...of course, perhaps that's why the identity of Shakespeare's plays is so hotly contested in the books. I don't know, but it did raise some questions for me that I would have preferred not been raised. Fforde already opened up an enormous can of worms by making time travel a common part of his world, I wish he'd stopped there.
See, the problem with time travel is that it sort of fixes all the problems if you use it. It's a deus ex machina, yeah. But when you don't use it and don't explain the not using it, then it gets very frustrating for the reader. I know there were passages where I felt like they could have just had the whole thing solved if Thursday dragged someone from the ChronoGuard into the mix. We're told time travel is dangerous but it still happens an awful lot, so why not use it? As it is the time travel was an amusing side plot to the story and I enjoyed it, but while we saw plenty of examples of it being dangerous that was never enough of a deterrent for its use. Not in the story, not out of it. Frustrating.
But, really, The Eyre Affair is very entertaining. I'm not sure Thursday is, exactly, a real character. She's sort of a vehicle for the plot, I feel. (Sort of like Candide.) But she's fun to read about and she gets to fix Jane Eyre so...I like her, I think. Certainly I can side with her. That's more than I can do with Candide.
The Eyre Affair on Amazon. Jasper Fforde's website.
Author: Jasper Fforde
Date Begun: December 21, 2006
Date Completed: December 22, 2006
I've been reading an awful lot of books about other books recently. Don Quixote, The Age of Innocence (you think I'm on crack, but a lot of it is about books), The Friendly Young Ladies...I'm stopping, before you feel the need to point out that The Friendly Young Ladies is about lesbians, not books. Well, it is. But not just lesbians.
The Eyre Affair, however, is primarily about books. In fact, though the blurbs on the cover are eager to compare Thursday Next to Harry Potter, it's really more like James Bond. You know, provided James Bond ever read a book. Fforde has created a really fascinating world to back up his literary jokes, the divergent chronologies reminded me a little of Diane Wynn Jones' Chrestomanci books. (The "this book is like ___" formula is a cliché, but I feel that in this case it is appropriate. Fforde relies on books, and so will I.) That's a good thing - I like the Chrestomanci books. However, I do feel like it weakens the world a little. We learn that Richard III won the Battle of Bosworth Field, for example, so presumably the Tudors didn't take over but a Renaissance England under a Plantagenet king would have been very different...of course, perhaps that's why the identity of Shakespeare's plays is so hotly contested in the books. I don't know, but it did raise some questions for me that I would have preferred not been raised. Fforde already opened up an enormous can of worms by making time travel a common part of his world, I wish he'd stopped there.
See, the problem with time travel is that it sort of fixes all the problems if you use it. It's a deus ex machina, yeah. But when you don't use it and don't explain the not using it, then it gets very frustrating for the reader. I know there were passages where I felt like they could have just had the whole thing solved if Thursday dragged someone from the ChronoGuard into the mix. We're told time travel is dangerous but it still happens an awful lot, so why not use it? As it is the time travel was an amusing side plot to the story and I enjoyed it, but while we saw plenty of examples of it being dangerous that was never enough of a deterrent for its use. Not in the story, not out of it. Frustrating.
But, really, The Eyre Affair is very entertaining. I'm not sure Thursday is, exactly, a real character. She's sort of a vehicle for the plot, I feel. (Sort of like Candide.) But she's fun to read about and she gets to fix Jane Eyre so...I like her, I think. Certainly I can side with her. That's more than I can do with Candide.
The Eyre Affair on Amazon. Jasper Fforde's website.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Review: Mélusine, Sarah Monette
Title: Mélusine
Author: Sarah Monette
Date Begun: December 15, 2006
Date Completed: December 17, 2006
To be quite honest, I picked the book up because one of the characters is a cat burglar. I have a shameful, shameful weakness for cat burglars - it's all Cary Grant's fault. And also fantasy novels about thieves. Even if the characters are only moonlighting as thieves. (See: The Death of the Necromancer.) Gets me every time. (Damn you, Cary Grant!)
I enjoyed Mélusine quite a lot. Monette has an interesting and enjoyable style. She writes well enough for me to overcome my dislike of first person, and that's not something any author can do, you know? When I realized the book would be told in alternating first person POV I was even more leery but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. The parts of the book where the narrative is strongest are from Mildmay's perspective, though to be fair Felix is insane more than half the time so his passages are going a little...odd. Although, even when Felix is lucid Mildmay's passages are much more engaging. But I guess Mildmay isn't a flash son of a bitch on a good day and Felix...is.
The summary on the back cover makes it fairly obvious [SPOILER!] that they're long-lost brothers. (I will avoid spoilers from now on, or do my best, but come on, guys, like you couldn't tell from the synopsis?) Sadly, the minor characters all disappear when Felix and Mildmay team up, and while I love Mildmay a lot it's sort of like watching Firefly with only Simon and River. You know, they're great but - I love Wash and Zoe too, at least.
Another thing that Mélusine suffers from is the new vocabulary. I am all for authors inventing new vocabularies for their characters. I mean, that's what Tolkien's work is based on. But I feel like Monette should have reconsidered who she gave what vocabulary to. The lower classes (Mildmay) use a different way of reckoning time, or at least of naming it, than the upper classs (Felix) who use the typical "week", "month" etc. This wouldn't be a problem, except the lower classes use words like "septad" which makes more sense to me in the mouth of a nobleman or something. Mildmay is the character we get most of our time updates from, and I have no concept of time with a standard vocabulary so I wasn't clear on how long some things had been going on. The other thing that bothers me is that by creating a new vocabulary for time I assumed time would be an important theme throughout the book and it...wasn't. Which is a pity, because time is always an interesting concept to explore.
The other vocabulary problem is from the mixture of real English words (like with reckoning time), real French words and just fake words. (I have some similar problems with Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books and their mixture of French and English and fake words.) I don't have a problem understanding the French, because I speak it (badly) and anyway most of the words Monette uses are cognates or common knowledge. But she goes out of her way to change other words so I don't understand why she kept these. I would have preferred she stick to English, at least for Mildmay who, after all, swears in English. And he swears a lot.
The other problem, for me, was that two characters seem to undergo personality changes. They're both secondary characters at best, but they are important secondary characters. The first character changes almost completely soon after we're introduced to him, he turns into a snippy, whiny little bitch when before he'd seemed quite sensible and had been (more or less) a sort of refuge. There's another character who changes similarly, but the explanations are brief and unsatisfactory. If Monette had meant them to be unsympathetic from the beginning, I would have appreciated more notice. I only mention it because it was distracting for me to read scenes with both characters. Change isn't something I mind, but I like changes to be explained.
It's still a good story, and Monette has created a wonderfully rich universe. Although the book would benefit from at least one map. Especially since maps are mentioned several times in the course of the story and there are some very important geographical discussions...
I'm nitpicking now. Which is too bad, because I feel like Mélusine deserves a lot of praise. The writing is rich, the plot is interesting - though largely unresolved, but this is only the first book - and the characters are great. Besides Mildmay, I really loved both Gideon and Stephen.
In fact, let me talk about how much I love Gideon: I love Gideon. Seriously. I am confident that this means his death is rapidly approaching, but I don't care. He is great. And so is Stephen, because he is probably the sanest person in the book. Stephen! Call me!
I enjoyed Mélusine and will be checking out the sequel, though not until it is in paperback and/or the third book is easily accessible. I bought books as they came out with Robin Hobb's Tawny Man trilogy and that made me a nervous wreck. Monette probably has the power to do the same thing and I'll enjoy seeing what she does with her writing in the future.
Provided she sticks to one language.
Mélusine on Amazon. :: Sarah Monette's site.
Author: Sarah Monette
Date Begun: December 15, 2006
Date Completed: December 17, 2006
To be quite honest, I picked the book up because one of the characters is a cat burglar. I have a shameful, shameful weakness for cat burglars - it's all Cary Grant's fault. And also fantasy novels about thieves. Even if the characters are only moonlighting as thieves. (See: The Death of the Necromancer.) Gets me every time. (Damn you, Cary Grant!)
I enjoyed Mélusine quite a lot. Monette has an interesting and enjoyable style. She writes well enough for me to overcome my dislike of first person, and that's not something any author can do, you know? When I realized the book would be told in alternating first person POV I was even more leery but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. The parts of the book where the narrative is strongest are from Mildmay's perspective, though to be fair Felix is insane more than half the time so his passages are going a little...odd. Although, even when Felix is lucid Mildmay's passages are much more engaging. But I guess Mildmay isn't a flash son of a bitch on a good day and Felix...is.
The summary on the back cover makes it fairly obvious [SPOILER!] that they're long-lost brothers. (I will avoid spoilers from now on, or do my best, but come on, guys, like you couldn't tell from the synopsis?) Sadly, the minor characters all disappear when Felix and Mildmay team up, and while I love Mildmay a lot it's sort of like watching Firefly with only Simon and River. You know, they're great but - I love Wash and Zoe too, at least.
Another thing that Mélusine suffers from is the new vocabulary. I am all for authors inventing new vocabularies for their characters. I mean, that's what Tolkien's work is based on. But I feel like Monette should have reconsidered who she gave what vocabulary to. The lower classes (Mildmay) use a different way of reckoning time, or at least of naming it, than the upper classs (Felix) who use the typical "week", "month" etc. This wouldn't be a problem, except the lower classes use words like "septad" which makes more sense to me in the mouth of a nobleman or something. Mildmay is the character we get most of our time updates from, and I have no concept of time with a standard vocabulary so I wasn't clear on how long some things had been going on. The other thing that bothers me is that by creating a new vocabulary for time I assumed time would be an important theme throughout the book and it...wasn't. Which is a pity, because time is always an interesting concept to explore.
The other vocabulary problem is from the mixture of real English words (like with reckoning time), real French words and just fake words. (I have some similar problems with Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books and their mixture of French and English and fake words.) I don't have a problem understanding the French, because I speak it (badly) and anyway most of the words Monette uses are cognates or common knowledge. But she goes out of her way to change other words so I don't understand why she kept these. I would have preferred she stick to English, at least for Mildmay who, after all, swears in English. And he swears a lot.
The other problem, for me, was that two characters seem to undergo personality changes. They're both secondary characters at best, but they are important secondary characters. The first character changes almost completely soon after we're introduced to him, he turns into a snippy, whiny little bitch when before he'd seemed quite sensible and had been (more or less) a sort of refuge. There's another character who changes similarly, but the explanations are brief and unsatisfactory. If Monette had meant them to be unsympathetic from the beginning, I would have appreciated more notice. I only mention it because it was distracting for me to read scenes with both characters. Change isn't something I mind, but I like changes to be explained.
It's still a good story, and Monette has created a wonderfully rich universe. Although the book would benefit from at least one map. Especially since maps are mentioned several times in the course of the story and there are some very important geographical discussions...
I'm nitpicking now. Which is too bad, because I feel like Mélusine deserves a lot of praise. The writing is rich, the plot is interesting - though largely unresolved, but this is only the first book - and the characters are great. Besides Mildmay, I really loved both Gideon and Stephen.
In fact, let me talk about how much I love Gideon: I love Gideon. Seriously. I am confident that this means his death is rapidly approaching, but I don't care. He is great. And so is Stephen, because he is probably the sanest person in the book. Stephen! Call me!
I enjoyed Mélusine and will be checking out the sequel, though not until it is in paperback and/or the third book is easily accessible. I bought books as they came out with Robin Hobb's Tawny Man trilogy and that made me a nervous wreck. Monette probably has the power to do the same thing and I'll enjoy seeing what she does with her writing in the future.
Provided she sticks to one language.
Mélusine on Amazon. :: Sarah Monette's site.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
