Posted December 24, 2013 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The Grey King, Susan Cooper
Normally, The Grey King would be my favourite of the five books that make up this sequence. Something about the setting in Wales, and Bran’s loneliness and arrogance, and of course the tie-in with Arthuriana, and the way that it begins to bring in some more moral ambiguity when John Rowlands questions the coldness at the heart of the Light. Somehow, I didn’t love it as much as usual this time — possibly because I’d just spent a lot of time debating the merits of Greenwitch with various people, and thus missed some of the stellar things about that book (more involvement of female characters, more mysteries like the various hauntings of Cornwall, contact with the Wild Magic) when reading this one, which is more straightforward in some ways. If you’ve read the series before, then there’s little mystery about who Bran is and what role he has to play.
Still, it’s a lovely book, with Susan Cooper’s usual understanding of people and lyrical way of describing things so that the sound of the words is an important part of the experience for me. The relationship between Owen and Bran, with that lovely section so near the end; the levels you can see, particularly depicting Owen and in the character of John; the touches of mystery there are like the issue of the Grey King himself — all of it is as wonderful as ever on what must be at least my tenth reread, and probably more than that.
And, of course, there’s Cafall — the courage and loyalty, and the heartbreak. That whole section brings a horrid lump to my throat every single time.
Tags: book reviews, books, Susan Cooper
Posted December 23, 2013 by Nicky in Reviews / 5 Comments
Greenwitch, Susan Cooper
Greenwitch isn’t really my favourite book of the series, though it is the one with the most mystery — I wonder a lot about the background mythology, the legends of Cornwall that the Greenwitch brings to life and what lies behind each glimpse of part of a story. It occurred to me last night while reading that maybe Susan Cooper has come closer than Tolkien to a “mythology for England”. Granted, he’s closer if you’re looking at England as “the land under the rule of the Anglo-Saxons”, but Cooper has touched on the legends of the land, the real stories that matter, rather than inventing a quest and a ring. Her quests come organically out of the mythology she’s using, and the places where she joins on her own are pretty seamless.
(Tolkien has created a world of his own, I think, and people often put too much emphasis on the “mythology for England” stuff. I don’t mean to do that: whether or not he meant to achieve that, what he achieved in the end was great. I just think the idea of a mythology for England is maybe actually achieved by Cooper.)
Greenwitch also features one of the things I love most about this series — the characters. They’re people. Simon and Barney are good-hearted boys who get jealous and possessive when another boy of a similar age seems to encroach on their time and their friends. Captain Toms, an Old One of the Light, gets laid low by gout. And I liked that the Dark is personified in a single character, this one time — not as the tide of the Dark, but as a single man of the Dark. We see hints of individuality there; his bitterness when he says “I have no friends”, his genuine artistic talent. It’s another of those moments where I think the black/white Dark/Light dichotomy cracks a little.
There are also some gorgeous passages in this book about the beauty and danger of the sea, the amoral and uncaring world of the Wild magic (and then, again, that hint of the Greenwitch as a child, as a lonely creation in need of something to hold on to, of kindness).
Tags: book reviews, books, J.R.R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper
Posted December 22, 2013 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper
This book has maybe one of my favourite ways of looking at England, the country and people:
“He saw one race after another come attacking his island country, bringing each time the malevolence of the Dark with them, wave after wave of ships rushing inexorably at the shores. Each wave of men in turn grew peaceful as it grew to know and love the land, so that the Light flourished again.”
It doesn’t quite work, I think: there’s the issue of colonialism, which was arguably wave after wave of the Dark coming out of our island (and the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish have never yet sat perfectly comfortably together, there’s still colonialism at work there). And there’s, well, the BNP and the EDL, etc. But recognising that that is Britain’s identity — our genetic makeup, our language, our history — is something a lot of people forget. We can’t say “get out, foreigners”; most of us have ancestors from elsewhere, somewhere along the family tree.
I’ve loved The Dark is Rising a long time, so I doubt there’s anything new or critical I can say about it as a whole, but each time these small fragments of the narrative catch at me and make me think about them as I haven’t before. That was one of them; there are other snippets, like Will’s sudden understanding of the difference between a child’s fear and an adult’s fear (made up of understanding and care for others).
The Dark is Rising is, I think, one of those books that have a number of layers, and more so through each book. There’s a simple layer of plot, and then there’s all sorts of other stuff about understanding feelings and fears, and if you watch for it, some moral ambivalence. We’re seeing this world through Will, essentially, and he’s one of the Old Ones but he’s also a young boy, and in his horror at what Merriman has done to Hawkin, you can see a subtlety of dealing with the things the Light has done. And then Merriman turns around and shows his human face too, and just — I might, to some extent, be too willing to give these books wiggle room. Too willing to bring my own needs to the table and see the book in those terms. But I think that stuff is there — particularly as it comes up more in the person of John Rowlands in The Grey King and Silver on the Tree.
Tags: book reviews, books, Susan Cooper
Posted December 22, 2013 by Nicky in General, Giveaways / 5 Comments
Spotted some people posting this meme yesterday — I didn’t get chance to do it yesterday, so today will have to do. The meme’s hosted by Tynga’s Reviews, and it’s called Stacking the Shelves. Basically, it’s posting about the week’s haul.
Dead tree books
![The Gutenberg Revolution by John Man](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/c91908b6adcca1e593537425867444341587343.jpg?w=191)
![Only Superhuman by Christopher L. Bennett](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/0765368862-01-_sx450_sy635_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg?w=186)
![Knight's Dawn by Kim Hunter](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1841490903-01-_sx450_sy635_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg?w=176)
![Wizard's Funeral by Kim Hunter](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1841491438-01-_sx450_sy635_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg?w=184)
Graphic novels
![Eternals by Neil Gaiman](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/0785121773-01-_sx450_sy635_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg?w=202)
![Ultimate X-Men Vol. 1 - Tomorrow People](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/0785107886-01-_sx450_sy635_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg?w=195)
![Ultimate X-Men Vol. 2 - Return to Weapon X](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/164888ea696664159332f555a41444341587343.jpg?w=195)
Ebooks
![Strange New Words by Ari Marmell](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1493730762-01-_sx450_sy635_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg?w=199)
![The Conqueror's Shadow by Ari Marmell](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/0553593153-01-_sx450_sy635_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg?w=181)
![Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell](http://breathesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/0060932309-01-_sx450_sy635_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg?w=196)
Possibly of interest: I picked up the Ari Marmell books because of this post, where he explains some current money problems mostly stemming from a period where his medication messed him up. I have complete sympathy with this, and I like that he’s encouraging people to buy his books rather than just holding out his hat.
So, first interested commenter gets a copy of Strange New Words gifted to them via Smashwords.
Tags: Ari Marmell, Bernard Cornwell, Christopher L. Bennett, giveaway, John Man, Kim Hunter, Marvel, Neil Gaiman, Stacking the Shelves
Posted December 21, 2013 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments
So! I have been somewhat successful since 8th December in finishing some books from the currently reading stack. I’ve managed to finish the following books:
- Alan Bradley, A Red Herring Without Mustard.
- Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders.
- Adam Christopher, Hang Wire.
- Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness.
- Patricia A. McKillip, Alphabet of Thorn.
5/50. So I get £5 from my mother, woo! But, on the other hand, I’ve remembered a few books that I missed off the original list, and some that I’ve started since…
- Chris Wooding, Retribution Falls.
- Sarah Addison Allen, Garden Spells.
- Karen Lord, The Best of All Possible Worlds.
- Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising.
- James Renner, The Man from Primrose Lane.
So… we’re still running about even. And it’s about to be Christmas and I know I’m getting books, not to mention the books I’ve bought during the last few days (oops).
And let’s not even talk about the number of books I’ve started but also finished since I made that list. (Again. Oops.)
Tags: Adam Christopher, Alan Bradley, books, Chris Wooding, Geraldine Brooks, James Renner, Karen Lord, Patricia McKillip, Sarah Addison Allen, Susan Cooper, Ursula Le Guin
Posted December 21, 2013 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper
It’ll surprise no one who knows me that I’m rereading this set of books at this time of year: Over Sea, Under Stone is more of a summer book, I suppose, but the one most rooted in a particular time of year is The Dark is Rising, the second book, in winter. (The runner-up would be The Grey King, set in the autumn around Samhain.) So I imagine that a few more reviews of these books will be added to my total before the end of the year…
I read Over Sea, Under Stone in one go, this time. There are still a couple of things that bother me, aside from the Enid Blyton-esque tone of the boys-own-adventure stuff. Like, why would Merriman leave them alone up on top of the hill? Why wouldn’t he ask more questions about who is attacking them? Why —
But it’s probably best not to ask those questions of this book, the earliest and least subtle. There are many subtle touches which I love later in the sequence, but this book is decidedly less mature. Which is not to say that it doesn’t have some very powerful sections: the last two chapters have an unbearable build up of tension that gets to me even at twenty-four years old. Mostly, I love that the characters feel real, squabble and support each other and have fears and weaknesses like real kids, real siblings. Simon’s such a superior brat, but he’s the more real for it. Jane’s a little bit stereotyped, I think: she’s more easily frightened than the other two, carries around “practical” things like a roll of cotton (but no mention of a sewing kit of any kind?), isn’t interested in male pursuits like fishing and sailing, etc. But even that isn’t so bad — she’s not Blyton’s Anne or George, but something closer to a rounded individual.
(Has anyone written an essay where each member of the Famous Five reflects a facet of a single psyche, or something? Because I just came up with that idea on the spot, and I’m too lazy to explore it myself.)
And, finally? Barney’s “cleversticks” is still the best pseudo-insult ever.
Tags: book reviews, books, Susan Cooper
Posted December 20, 2013 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments
I’ve talked about books I reread, and authors for whom I will read anything they produce, which must go some way towards helping even the casual reader get to know me. But when I was thinking about possible posts for this blog, I wandered off into thinking about books that I’d give people to help them understand me — not non-fiction books, which would be too easy, but the fiction books which have shaped me or given a voice to something in me.
So I’ve come up with a little list of five and some explanations; you may also see these as recommendations.
- There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, Hazel Edwards. If there’s a book that defines my whole childhood, I guess this is it. As far as I was concerned, there was a hippo on my roof too, and if there wasn’t, there should be. (And a giraffe in the garden.) My life is still filled with teddies, many of them hippos, and I keep a copy of this book in sight of my desk. And there’s still a hippopotamus on my roof, although sometimes now he worries about his weight, and trades in the cake for a diet of mushrooms. (Why mushrooms? That’s another story.)
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien. I probably love The Lord of the Rings more than The Hobbit, but this is the book that enchanted me when I was a bit too old for Cat and Mouse or hippos on the roof. I could’ve read this endlessly, and often did. I remember one night when my parents were particularly determined to make me go to sleep, and I was equally determined not to, I read this book by the light of the streetlights down past the end of our garden, shining in just a little through my window. My imagination became full of dragons and trolls, and dwarves and gold, and wizards. And they’ve never left me either.
- The Positronic Man, Isaac Asimov. Once upon a time, my mother got me some Asimov books out of the library on her account, because they wouldn’t let me into that section and I’d read everything they didn’t drag out of my clutching little hands. I have no idea what the library fine was when I finally allowed her to take this one back, but it’s fair to say it was probably the most epic fine I’ve ever wracked up — and I did manage some epic ones in university. I loved Andrew and his struggle to become human, and still do, even if I’d happily move the other way. Also, Andrew’s struggle for his rights, for the respect of the people around him, certainly speak to me now on a level I wasn’t aware of back then. I had no idea at that age that civil rights would become an issue for me, or that they were an issue for people like me.
- The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper. I didn’t read this until I was about fifteen, sixteen, despite what everyone expects when they see my battered to death copy. I reread it just about every year, around this time; it seriously got under my skin. It’s magic with consequences: Will is an adult and more than an adult in a child’s body; Bran is isolated, motherless, starving for love; the Drews grow up over the course of the books; John Rowlands loses the love of his life, learning that she’s not the woman he thought she was… Things don’t really come alright at the end. And, of course, it draws on some of my heritage, Welsh legends, and deals with some of the tensions between Welsh and English. And there are themes about racism and bigotry, and some amazing passages about all sorts of things from justice to Englishness to responsibility.
- Among Others, Jo Walton. I read this and thought, this is me. Of all these books, if you want to get to know me, this is the most important. Sure, there are ways in which I’m very unlike Mori, but her love affair with books, her thirst for them, some of the Welsh/English issues going on, many of the things she’s dealing with… I recognise them. For Christmas, I gave each of my ex-housemates a copy of this book. On reading the back, they all mentioned the immediate parallels between me and Mori…
Honourable mentions go to Enid Blyton’s Tales of Brave Adventure (I owned two much-loved, faded copies: one my father’s, one my mother’s), C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books, and Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth.
And, perhaps surprisingly even to my mother, the old chapter-a-day retelling of the Bible for children which I had. I’m not a Christian, but I still think that a lot of the goodness in me, I learnt there.
Tags: books, C.S. Lewis, Enid Blyton, Hazel Edwards, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jo Walton, Rosemary Sutcliff, Susan Cooper
Posted December 19, 2013 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Irregular Creatures, Chuck Wendig
Irregular Creatures is a collection of Chuck Wendig’s short stories. Someone recently compared his work to Stephen King’s, and I can see where they’re coming from: there’s something robustly readable about all of it, and the fantasy/horror aspects are all handled in a matter of fact sort of way. I can’t remember how King handles narrators, at this point, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find similarities there.
I think someone also mentioned a sort of cheerful vulgarity, and there’s that, too. Sometimes I find that uncomfortable, e.g. in ‘Mister Mhu’s Pussy Show’; it’s really not my kind of thing.
Mostly, the stories are fun, very readable, sometimes completely fascinating in their bizarreness. Chuck Wendig is an author I follow because I know he writes solidly and prolifically, and always has ideas I want to see played out.
Must get round to reading more of his Miriam Black books…
Tags: book reviews, books, Chuck Wendig, short stories
Posted December 19, 2013 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
I’d often heard of this pretty classic crime novel, but I’d never read it. However, it was on my ereader, and I was settled in for a looong car journey, so I randomly picked it up and got going. It’s a very easy read: the language is simple, to the point, which helps to define the narrative voice. More flowery language wouldn’t work with the character.
Once it gets to a certain point, parts of the plot are obvious, but the trick pulled in court is amazing. It’s a simple story, in one sense — guy meets married woman, they want to get rid of her husband — but the tangle of passion and brutality stands out more against the relatively simple plot (except for the bit in court, which is less simple).
Definitely worth reading if you enjoy crime fiction and have missed out on James M. Cain thus far. Where now?
Tags: book reviews, books, James M. Cain
Posted December 19, 2013 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
What did you recently finish reading?
I read quite a bit today, Chuck Wendig’s Irregular Creatures and James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. Reviews for both of those are coming up on the blog (though you can see them on Goodreads/Librarything already, in the unlikely event that you’re desperate). Before that it was Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s Signal to Noise, from Netgalley.
What are you currently reading?
Actively, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, by Alan Bradley and The Man from Primrose Lane, by James Renner. Oh, and Chris Wooding’s Retribution Falls, which is reminding me very much of Firefly right now. On the backlog, many books from this list and books mentioned here before that didn’t make it onto that list because I’m a scatterbrain. The Alan Bradley book seems to be serendipitously being read at exactly the right time of year — it’s Christmas in Bishop’s Lacey and Flavia de Luce has a plan to catch Santa — and The Man from Primrose Lane got my attention when going through library books I should return, last night…
(I should talk someday about my problem with library books. Suffice it to say, I went to Ikea, bought and assembled a whole bookcase almost solely for library books, although one shelf does hold my games.)
What do you think you’ll read next?
I’m probably going to break off from the aforementioned backlog to read The Dark is Rising, since it’s exactly the right time of year for it and there’s a readathon going on via Twitter to celebrate the 40th anniversary. I might even start that this evening. Other than that, I want to read more of Alan Bradley’s books (they are on the list), and I’m hoping to finish Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City, Rosie Best’s Skulk and Julianna Scott’s The Holders in relatively short order.
Books acquired:
It’s Christmas, so I have duly been acquiring. Well, that and the Kindle Daily Deal… I forget exactly what I’ve got there altogether, but basically some fantasy/SF stuff that looked interesting. For Christmas so far, I got Jaine Fenn’s Principles of Angels and Consorts of Heaven from my friend Lo, and from my Librarything Secret Santa I got Chris Wooding’s Retribution Falls and Jack McDevitt’s The Engines of God, which seem likely to prove very good picks.
Tags: Alan Bradley, books, Chris Wooding, Chuck Wendig, Dave McKean, Jack McDevitt, Jaine Fenn, James M. Cain, James Renner, Julianna Scott, Lauren Beukes, Neil Gaiman, Rosie Best, Susan Cooper