Tag: book reviews

Review – The Boy Who Lost Fairyland

Posted February 14, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Boy Who Lost Fairyland, Catherynne M. Valente

I just want to eat Valente’s words. All of them. They’re like cream cakes and jam-covered scones and fairy cakes with buttercream and cookies with gooey centres still warm from the oven and… Yeah, as usual, Valente’s writing is great in The Boy Who Lost Fairyland, and I’m not sure, but I think I may well prefer it in these self-aware, charming, cheeky fairytales than in her adult novels. It’s beautiful there, too, but here it’s stripped down to suit the audience and genre, and that works really well for it.

As for the story, well. It’s not about September, really. Most of the time. It’s about another Changeling — a Changeling in the opposite direction, who finds our normal world just as strange and magical as his own, and yet… and yet he always knows something is missing, and he does want to find it. He really does. I’m just a little sad that we don’t see him being bothered about being separated from Gwendolyn, his human mother, at the end. That would have been an awesome opportunity for some of Valente’s wise words on children and hearts and home.

I didn’t, perhaps, love it quite as much as I love the books which feature September more heavily, Changeling-child as The Boy Who Lost Fairyland itself is in the series. But I did enjoy viewing everything aslant, and not once but twice — both our world and fairyland turning out to be strange to Hawthorn. (And how will he cope? Will he miss his human family? Will Tamburlaine? I hope we find out.)

And now there’s only one more book? I want it, I want it now — but I don’t want Fairyland to end, not ever.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Catherynne M. Valente, SF/F

Review – Soundless

Posted February 13, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Soundless, Richelle Mead

I had pretty low expectations of Soundless, based on other people’s reactions, which perhaps helped me enjoy it a little more. I certainly don’t dispute that for something “steeped” in Chinese culture, it’s rather thin on it, and that the magical cure for deafness — coming right at the start of the book, as if all the rest of the plot couldn’t have been carried by a deaf protagonist — is kind of icky. On the other hand, at least the love interest remains deaf, and despite the star-crossed lovers thing it tries to pull, at least it’s never about the fact that Fei can hear and Li Wei can’t. It’s also nice that this is a standalone, with a self-contained plot.

It’s my first Richelle Mead book, so I can’t comment on the style and skill level as compared to her other work. It’s rather simplistically written, and for a book which involves the miraculous return of a character’s sense of hearing, it’s a little thin on the sensory descriptions apart from at key moments — there are some moving descriptions of spontaneous displays of grief, and an interesting section where Fei is beginning to realise she can hear and working out what exactly each noise means… but I feel like I should have been able to smell the paint, taste the tea, feel the grain of wood when she touches Li Wei’s carvings. That richness definitely isn’t there, and it would have added a lot, I think.

Also, on a purely technical note, I know magic is involved, but Fei has actually missed the critical period for learning to hear by a long, long way. You need the experience of hearing as a baby to really be able to understand and interpret it as an adult. At the very least, it’s much more painstaking, and I didn’t see that here either.

The set-up is also pretty simplistic: it’s only a stone’s throw from Panem, really, but less complex. There are only three classes of worker, plus beggars: miners, servants and artists. In a larger social situation, the artists’ importance would probably make more sense, but we’re given to understand it’s a pretty darn small community. Word of mouth (so to speak) works just as well in that setting, and wouldn’t be a drain on resources or manpower. Also, the division of labour versus the division of food makes very little sense.

Still, if you read Soundless as a kind of folk tale, a fable, it kind of works. I didn’t dislike reading it — and I did read it practically all in one go.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Camelot’s Sword

Posted February 12, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Camelot’s Sword, Sarah Zettel
Originally reviewed in February 2010

I’m liking all of these books in my second reading. It’s interesting to see all the different threads of Arthurian myth and Celtic myth brought together in this way — this book especially weaves so many things together: Tristan and Iseult, Lyonesse (Laurel) and Lynet, Lancelot and Guinevere, Morgaine, the Celtic Otherworld… I think I’m focusing a lot more on that, in this reading, instead of on the romance — which isn’t actually as central as I thought. It could do with more time spent on it, actually, because Gareth’s transformation from a womaniser into Lynet’s faithful knight is very hasty and not really given the time and space it should be. Perhaps the scene on the moor could’ve been expanded — another fifty pages would probably have made the love story much more engaging and satisfying. There were some parts of the relationship with Ryol that were glossed over a bit too much — that was closer to the centre of the story, I think, and didn’t suffer too much, but there were a few places where I wondered why the heck it was happening like that. For example, how did Guinevere figure out that the mirror was the problem? Whence came her sudden decision to confiscate it?

One thing that is becoming clear to me is that the relationships aren’t as cookie-cutter as I thought, my first time through. The relationships between Gawain and Rhian, Geraint and Elen, Gareth and Lynet… they’re much more distinct than I thought at first, and the brothers are less alike than they thought at first. I’m not sure why I thought them so cookie-cutter the first time through, actually. Possibly because all the romance is that bit hastier than I’d like. Possibly I’m a slightly more discerning reader. Possibly my taste has just changed!

I really wish this book had received a little more attention from a proofreader. The little nags I have about grammar and punctuation are really little. For the most part I like the writing. But it’s so distracting to keep thinking, “But where is the comma?”

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Arthurian, book reviews, books, Flashback Friday, romance, Sarah Zettel

Review – Age of Ultron Prelude

Posted February 11, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Avengers: Age of Ultron Prelude, Will Pilgrim, Joe Bennett

This is probably the most disappointing of all the prelude books. If you know a little about the Avengers and you’ve seen all the other films, you’re covered. Don’t bother with this. It becomes especially pointless once you’ve actually seen the film, because it includes background on the Vision and Ultron which doesn’t apply so much anymore. Okay, it’s kind of cool to see a much more diverse team, including Jessica and Carol, but nearly all of this stuff is available elsewhere, and a big chunk of the book is just a retelling of the first Avengers film. Only it makes it a lot flatter and just lacks everything that made that a great spectacle: dialogue, fight scenes, team scenes… it’s all condensed down and drained.

Just… don’t waste your time.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Marvel

Review – Song for the Basilisk

Posted February 10, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Song for the Basilisk, Patricia A. McKillip

I’ve mentioned before that I had a somewhat difficult time getting into Patricia McKillip’s books, and Song for the Basilisk is definitely one of the more difficult ones, in my opinion. I wouldn’t suggest starting with it. It contains many characteristics that the other books share — Ombria in Shadow, the tyrant ruling the city; The Bards of Bone Plain, the bards of Luly; the lyrical, reflective prose. I have to be in the right mood to read McKillip’s books, I think: The Changeling Sea was the gateway for me, where I really learnt to appreciate her work.

Song for the Basilisk is rather more abstruse than that one, though it is — as you might expect if you like McKillip’s work — beautiful and entirely worth spending the time with, at least by my lights. Somebody wrote a review which makes a comparison between this and Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana, and that’s apt: there are similar themes and even images. I disagree that Song for the Basilisk goes deeper than Tigana, though: they’re different in that in Basilisk the vendetta is more targeted and personal, against a single family, rather than erasing the culture and identity of a whole people. Your response may vary depending on personal taste and experience, but for me the denial of Tigana as a wellspring for identity hits pretty hard — harder than “tyrant hated powerful family because power”, which is more what I got from Basilisk.

Some things about this book I was unsure about: I’m used to feeling some ambivalence about McKillip’s characters, but Luna Pellior threw me for a loop. I was sort of expecting the ending, but I find it difficult to connect the dots. There’s a kind of opaqueness about the book, about Luna, that made it difficult to see things from her perspective — or anyone’s. I felt like more of an observer than a participant.

If you already know what you’re getting into with McKillip’s work, I don’t think this will disappoint. It wouldn’t be my choice of starting point, though.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Patricia A. McKillip, SF/F

Review – The Midnight Queen

Posted February 9, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

The Midnight Queen, Sylvia Izzo Hunter

I can’t remember exactly when or why I picked up The Midnight Queen, but I think I was attracted by the references to the scholarship of magic. After Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, that’s proven to be something I enjoy reading about, particularly in alternate-history settings. This book reminded me of that, and of Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown in the sort of approach to integrating magic and history, while being on the lighter side — more Heyer than Dickens, if you want an idea of tone and style.

The Midnight Queen moves between London, Oxford and Brittany, and delighted my heart in a small, unobtrusive way by referring to the Welsh language as Cymric, and the country as Cymru, rather than Wales. (It’s a small touch, I know, but “wealas” in Saxon meant “foreigner”, so it’s nice to see a book using our word for ourselves as a matter of course.) It does the same with Breton, too, which proved interesting — there’s quite a few references to Breton customs and settings which is a little different in fantasy, I think.

The characters are likeable enough: the awkward Gray, and the lovely but trapped Sophia; lively Joanna, and Gray’s kind sister… they all work well as a cast you can root for, or in the case of the antagonists, hate. The magic is interesting, featuring various different types of magic — including Sophia’s own magic, wrapped in the power of song, like a Siren. It requires exploration on both Gray and Sophia’s part, though Gray starts off with a good grounding in it which allows him to guide Sophia and the reader.

I can see some readers finding it rather slow paced, particularly at the beginning; aside from a quick burst of initial action, there’s a longish section where not much seems to happen except Gray and Sophia talking to each other. I quite liked it anyway: it builds the relationship, which you do need for the later chapters to really work. The romance is sweet, without too many stupid setbacks due to lack of communication. Hurrah!

This is listed on Goodreads as a series, and I’ll be interested to see where it goes next — whether it follows the same characters, or perhaps takes a little detour into Joanna’s doings, or perhaps into the past with Laora. Personally, I’m up for it!

Rating: 4/5

Tags: alt history, book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Arrows of the Queen

Posted February 8, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Arrows of the Queen, Mercedes Lackey

I’ve always vaguely known about Mercedes Lackey’s work, but rarely read any, so this was my first experience with Valdemar. I’m aware that there are tons of problematic things about Mercedes Lackey’s body of work, though I haven’t looked at details. Still, Arrows of the Queen is a book I wish I’d had when I was younger. It has a couple of queer characters, who are treated pretty much like the other characters — okay, things aren’t all rosy for them, but not for other characters, either. And the main character is a young girl who loves books, and turns out to belong to something bigger than herself — that scullery maid to (almost) princess sort of transition which can be so fun (and which so often brings forth cries of “Mary Sue” when the character is female, and yet no such complaint is made if the character is male).

It’s fun, and Talia is capable and compassionate, while also learning and growing throughout the book. There are some things which jar a little now, for example her casual use of corporal punishment with the spoilt young princess, even after coming from a rather abusive background herself. It’s pretty commonly agreed now that corporal punishment doesn’t really go any good, but here it’s treated as a valuable tool in the arsenal of unspoiling a child. I’m dubious, and I’m sure there are people who would hate that section, but at least Talia has a general common sense approach to dealing with the Brat.

On the less positive side, the writing seriously falls down in places. Large chunks of time fly by, without any real framing, so that you think she’s been at the school for a month and it turns out it’s been a year, and such things. Worse, Lackey is — at least at this point in her career — very prone to “telling, not showing”. This sometimes wrecks the pacing and makes sections seem rather dry and didactic.

Still, I read it in one go and did enjoy it, and I’m planning to read more in the Valdemar universe. And I still wish I’d actually picked this up as a kid, and given it to my sister too. It might have made us feel less alone.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Mercedes Lackey, queer fic, SF/F

Review – The Collectors

Posted February 7, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Collectors, Philip Pullman, read by Bill Nighy

I don’t think I knew when I picked this up that it was part of the His Dark Materials world, but it doesn’t really matter that it is. It does add another dimension if you can identify why certain things go together, but it works as an atmospheric creepy story, too. Especially as read by Bill Nighy — I don’t often read something only as an audiobook, but this seems very much designed to be an audiobook. The action is almost entirely in dialogue.

The feeling of the story… it’s something like Neil Gaiman’s style, now I think about it. And it feels more like Clockwork, of Pullman’s work, than His Dark Materials. That’s not a criticism, despite the fact that Clockwork is aimed at a younger audience. I think both capture something creepy and bring it across in just the right number of words.

For an audiobook I got for free, this is definitely worth the half hour’s listening. Especially if you are a fan of Pullman in general.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: audiobooks, book reviews, books, SF/F, short stories

Review – Rose Cottage

Posted February 6, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Rose Cottage, Mary Stewart

Rose Cottage is a quiet mystery/romance, not too heavy on either, with no dramatics of the sort you find in The Gabriel Hounds or Touch Not the Cat. It’s all fairly quiet and peaceful; a restful sort of book, with only brief moments of unease, no madly evil people (though one at least who is very flawed), no great tragedy, and an ending that brings everyone neatly together in a perfect reunion.

Given that I’d definitely choose the word “gentle” to describe it, and the romance is just barely there in the last half, this isn’t the most pacey, exciting story. It’s a cosy one, of homecoming and heart-healing and family, needing and wanting no heroics. It’s a post-war story, but the war is just a shadow in the background; it’s a family mystery, but the important thing is not so much the mystery, the not-knowing, but almost the end of the story, when people come together.

This all might sound like faint praise, and it’s true that Rose Cottage isn’t one of my favourite of Stewart’s books. But it’s enjoyable, and especially good if you don’t want high drama, just some village life and a happy ending.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Mary Stewart, mystery, romance

Review – Camelot’s Honour

Posted February 5, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Camelot’s Honour, Sarah Zettel

Originally reviewed in February 2010

The first time I read this series, I wasn’t all that impressed. There are still things I’m not so keen on — the love at first sight, for one thing, doesn’t ring very true, and also the books could do with better proofreading. There’s punctuation missing, and I’m pretty sure “grieves” and “greaves” don’t mean the same thing. But, this time, I found myself a lot more interested. I preferred Geraint to Gawain, I think, and I was interested in him and his feelings about his relationship to Morgaine, and his way of dealing with his legacy from his father — and his love for Elen.

I don’t know if the story of Elen and Geraint is based on any legend, Arthurian or otherwise, although I suspect that the story of Gwiffert, at least, has some kind of link to existing mythology. Still, it’s nice to see a lot of mythology together and coupled to the Arthurian mythology, to make something new. The ongoing story of Morgaine is interesting, too: I can’t actually remember very well how that’s resolved, and I forgot that she seemed genuinely in love with Urien.

I originally didn’t like Elen much, but there is something compelling about her, too, and her struggle, and Collanau. I wished the book had more about the Lord, the Lady, and Elen’s family. As far as I remember, the Lord and the Lady don’t come into it again, which is a shame.

(Erec and Enide is, of course, where I think this comes from. It doesn’t follow it directly in plot, but I think the idea of the bird came from there.)

[Note in 2016: I know much more about the various sources now — The Mabinogion is a big one.]

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Arthurian, book reviews, books, Flashback Friday, romance, Sarah Zettel