Guest Post by J. Kathleen Cheney + The Golden City Series Giveaway
Posted on July 7, 2014 16 Comments
***Our giveaway has now ended, thank you for all those who entered!***
Does the setting of an early 1900s alternate Portugal pique your interest? How about sirens and selkies? All this and more can be found in J. Kathleen Cheney’s The Golden City. Be sure to check out the BiblioSanctum review! With the sequel The Seat of Magic just released in the US, we’re so excited to have the author stop by to talk a little more about the inspiration for the people and places in her series. Sit back and enjoy the ride, and good luck to those entering our giveaway!
CHANGE CAN BE GOOD, OR HOW DID WE END UP IN PORTUGAL ANYWAY?
by J. Kathleen Cheney
Back in March of 2009, I opened up a file that I called “Story Idea”, the entire text of which was: Girl rescued from sinking house by seer. He tries to get her to save other victims, but won’t do so himself. She’s an illegal, and so can’t report him, or the killer.
Yep, that was my entire idea. I remember deciding that she was illegal in the city because she wasn’t human–that’s how I ended up with my heroine, Oriana, being a sereia (siren). It took a few months for the rest of that idea to flesh out in my mind, and then I sat down and wrote a novella of about 15,000 words in two days. I did put together an outline before I started, but in the very first scene, one of the characters got out of hand. A walk-on character who didn’t even have a name was supposed to talk to Oriana, drop some backstory about a work of art in the water, and then leave. I referred to him as the Ambergris Gentleman.
I had set the novella in Venice. After all, that seemed a likely location for underwater art.
But the Ambergris Gentleman snatched control of that scene, and I quickly realized that he must have an ulterior motive for talking to Oriana. So I gave him a first name–Duilio. His backstory started unfolding in my mind as I typed–that he, like Oriana, had something to hide–he was half selkie.
The sudden appearance of selkies in my story was what necessitated the setting switch. The Mediterranean has Monk Seals, but they’re small. I couldn’t imagine one of them changing into a human…not enough mass. So I began casting about, hunting a location that would work better.
Hmm…..Portugal has lots of coast line, and they do have some larger seals that come down from the north, and I wonder if the Caribbean Monk Seals ever hit Portuguese shores…
Not a very sophisticated thought process, I admit. I was typing pretty fast at that point. But the decision was made, and what followed was months and months of research. I had started off writing a piece of short fiction (which was published in 2010), but Oriana’s story evolved into three books, meaning that I would have to research my new setting endlessly.
Despite my cavalier approach to the setting, Portugal turned out to be an excellent choice. The country has a golden history and epic literature that backed up a lot of my story choices. They even had a war between two royal brothers that threatened to divide the country in two. Although I had some difficulty researching the setting (much of their great literature has never been translated into English), I loved what I found.
And right after I turned The Golden City in to my editor, my husband and I travelled to Portugal to see it firsthand. We spent two weeks there, one of those in Porto, the very setting I usurped for my novels.
It’s a beautiful country, with a long and glorious history. Our host in Coimbra took us down into his basement and showed us that his house contained not only part of the 10th century Moorish city wall, but the 6th century Roman wall as well. In Lisbon we stayed in the Barrio Alto, which survived Lisbon’s 1755 destruction by earthquake, tsunami, and fire.
And in Porto we stayed in a building that Duilio or Oriana might have walked past on a daily basis. I slogged up and down the steep Street of Flowers and took a boat ride out on the dark and deep Douro River. I stood under the steps of The Golden Church of São Francisco and determined that, yes, Oriana would have been able to overhear her father talking there. I sat at the café where she could have sketched the church’s Rose Window. (The photo is one of the Golden Church, taken from the river. The church is, if you’re confused by its plain granite exterior, literally golden on the inside. The walls and altars are completely coated with gold leaf.) My only regret is that I didn’t get to see the Titans (the giant cranes) up close, since the southern one was being refurbished and the northern one was on the far shore. (I have pictures of that, too, but it is barely visible in them.)
And yes, I discovered I needed to make small corrections to my book. Fortunately, the book was at a stage where I could still do that. But otherwise, I was walking the same steep streets my characters had and loving it!
So even though I can’t visit every setting I’ve written about, I was ecstatic to be able to go to this one. Want a place to visit on your next vacation? Portugal is lovely, the people are very welcoming, and if you don’t speak Portuguese, they’re more than willing to take a stab at English. And you might just end up with a lovely setting for your novel!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. Kathleen Cheney is a former teacher and has taught mathematics ranging from 7th grade to Calculus, with a brief stint as a Gifted and Talented Specialist. Her short fiction has been published in Jim Baen’s Universe, Writers of the Future, and Fantasy Magazine, among others, and her novella “Iron Shoes” was a 2010 Nebula Award Finalist. Her novel, “The Golden City” is a Finalist for the 2014 Locus Awards (Best First Novel).
The sequel, “The Seat of Magic” will be out July 1, 2014.
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THE GOLDEN CITY SERIES GIVEAWAY
Here’s what you’ve been waiting for! We have a print copy of The Golden City AND a print copy of The Seat of Magic up for grabs in this giveaway to one lucky winner. Open to residents of the US and Canada only. Entering is super easy, all you have to do is send an email to bibliosanctum@gmail.com with your Name and valid Mailing Address using the subject line “THE GOLDEN CITY” by 11:59pm Eastern time on Monday, July 14th, 2014.
Only one entry per household, please. The winner will be randomly selected when the giveaway ends and then be notified by email. All information will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner and sending them their books. Once the giveaway ends all entry emails will be deleted.
So what are you waiting for? Enter to win a set of these amazing books! Good luck!
Book Review: World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters
Posted on July 6, 2014 21 Comments
World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters
Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery
Series: Book 3 of The Last Policeman
Publisher: Quirk (July 15, 2014)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Last Policeman series is simply awesome and underrated. And now the trilogy has come to a close.
Technically, these books would probably fit more comfortably in the Crime & Mystery/Police Procedural category. But there’s a twist. Imagine that for the past year, everyone has known that a giant killer asteroid is hurtling towards earth, set to impact in just a matter of days. On Boomsday, tsunamis will wipe out the coasts, atmospheric dust will black out the sun, and life as we know it would cease to exist.
Over time, society has degraded by degrees. As the probability of a direct hit gradually inched towards 100%, people abandoned jobs by droves to go bucket list or to reconnect with old friends and loved ones. Others sought religion. Some chose suicide. Everyone seemed to have their own way of dealing with the end of the world. Protagonist Hank Palace has even developed a color-coded system for categorizing towns based on their populations’ reactions – “Blue-Towns” look abandoned, but are actually filled with scared, stricken people. “Green-Towns” are where residents have chosen to continue with a life of normalcy, or at least put up a good attempt. And “Red-Towns” are places where all hell has broken loose.
Hank used to be among the small minority who has decided to go on business as usual. But as a reader who has had the pleasure of following his character over the last couple of books, it’s interesting to see how his motivations have changed since the first installment. In The Last Policeman, I could see how his doggedness to solve a suicide-maybe-murder could be attributed to a dedication to his job as a small town detective, asteroid be damned. In Countdown City, the missing persons case he is hired to solve involved a close friend, so you could possibly chalk it up to loyalty. In World of Trouble, he sets off on a journey to track down his sister, whom we last saw was part of an underground initiative with plans to destroy the incoming asteroid with high-tech weaponry.
However, at this point Hank has become such an unreliable narrator, it’s hard to tell whether he’s driven purely out of love for his sister, or that he has thrown himself into an obsession due to his innate need for order, logic and rationality in this world of chaos. After all, some people can fall apart without any outward indications, and we’re back to the argument that everyone handles stress in a different way. Hank’s seems to be his tunnel vision about finding answers. Yet, even as I’m wondering at his mental state, his determination is contagious. Hank’s desperation becomes the reader’s desperation, and the result is a suspenseful page-turner. And don’t forget, all this time the minutes are also tick-tick-ticking away on the Boomsday timer.
I’ve never read a more unique series of mystery novels – or apocalyptic novels, for that matter. What makes this scenario different is that the story first begins when the asteroid’s landfall is still so far off, and so society doesn’t implode so much as it starts to slowly crumble away. In each book, Hank’s investigation takes center stage, but it’s all set against this backdrop of a nation slowly losing hope, and I like the author’s speculation of what might happen.
So yeah, for three books we’ve read about this asteroid. The Last Policeman: half a year until impact. Countdown City: still three months out. But with World of Trouble, it’s finally on earth’s doorstep. Everything finally comes to a head in this book, and I’m not going to spoil what happens. No way. You’ll just have to pick up this series and find out for yourself. Believe me, it’s worth the read.
A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher via LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Quirk Books!
YA Weekend: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Posted on July 5, 2014 19 Comments
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Series: Book 2 of Throne of Glass
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children (August 27, 2013)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Behold, the Young Adult sequel. This is where the real test is for me. First books of a series have the advantage of being new and shiny, and I can usually be won over by the prospect of exploring a brand new world full of fresh and interesting ideas. Second books admittedly have to work a little harder, not only because my expectations are higher now, but also because so many sequel plots invariably end up falling into a very predictable pattern.
So how does Crown of Midnight stack up? Well, in a nutshell, I can’t say it wowed me, and I probably liked it less than the first book. That being said though, I think it’s better than a lot of YA sequels, and despite the shameless rehashing of some of the same tired old tropes, there were still a couple of big surprises that kept the story entertaining.
The bottom line is, I am so done with YA romances. Girl meets boy, and if by book two they haven’t fallen in love already, this is where they will do so. Then invariably, boy will go and do something incredibly dumb – the result of a momentary lapse of judgment or just a gross failure of miscommunication – which causes girl to go ballistic on boy, throwing the entire future of their relationship in question, thereby also keeping the tension of a possible love triangle alive for just teensy bit longer. I can effortlessly name a handful of YA series that follow this pattern just off the top of my head, so I wasn’t surprised to see Crown of Midnight follow suit. Overused formulas suck. They have turned the romantic aspect into the weakest part the book. Nothing kills my enthusiasm and interest in the characters faster. And unfortunately, the book spends way too much time trying to shove the drama of Celaena and Chaol’s relationship down my throat. Maybe I’m just a bitter, jaded curmudgeon, but I just can’t find it in myself to care about such an artificial pairing.
But that’s my rant and the last of the negativity you’ll hear from me. Apart from my issues with the romance, Crown of Midnight was actually a pretty good book. Celaena has won the contest and become the king’s Champion and assassin, but instead of carrying out the king’s orders, she finds increasingly more ways to secretly fight back against his evil will, letting her intended victims go instead (ever notice how YA assassin characters actually do very little killing?) It was a relatively slow plod through the first half of the book, but once you get past this stage with its many clichés and run-of-the-mill romance, things will start to pick up.
I have to say, the plot elements in the later parts saved this book for me. The structure of the story remains somewhat predictable, but it always impresses me to see all the amazing things a writer can do while staying within a certain framework. The second half of the Crown of Midnight becomes a lot more bold and daring, which are certainly qualities I admire in a YA novel. There were a couple of unexpected developments, darker places I didn’t think the book would go. Once the pesky romance was out of the way, you started to get a lot less fluff and a lot more substance. Sarah J. Maas seriously ups her game, building up her world by weaving history and lore and magic into the story, dialing up the intrigue and mystery.
So all right then, sign me up for the third book. Despite a shaky start to this sequel, Maas has built something worthy of continuing with here, and has done some incredible things with her main character. I probably won’t hold my breath for the romantic aspect to improve, but thank goodness there’s so much more to like about this story. It’s definitely going places (literally!) and I look forward to visiting a new setting in the next installment as well as seeing the outcomes of several massive revelations.
PANELS: Sex Criminals vol.1: One Weird Trick
Posted on July 4, 2014 9 Comments
Suzanne’s first sexual experience leads to the discovery of “The Quiet” in Sex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick
Audiobook Review: Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Posted on July 4, 2014 13 Comments
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Series: The Broken Empire #1
Publisher: Voyager (August 2011)
Narrator: James Clamp
Author Info: mark—lawrence.blogspot.ca
Wendy’s Rating: 5 of 5 stars ~ Lawrence delivers knife-edge wit, crisp descriptions, swift action and reaction. There are no wasted words as he paints his dark pictures,with each and every moment evoking a raw intensity of action and emotion.
I am remiss. I have had Prince of Thorns sitting on my nightstand for too long with full intention to read it, though I have admired Mark Lawrence for a long time. His wit and his commitment to giving of himself to his fans, all things writery, and more, speaks of a man worthy of lots of attention. So forgive me, Mark, for taking so damn long to fall in love with your series. Please accept this five star review, which I have written after only about a hundred pages, as my humble apology.
I have a soft spot for broken people. For the assholes, jerks and bastards that others shun. I am not naïve enough to wholly trust them, and I am mostly not I arrogant enough to believe I am the one who can “fix” them. But I appreciate their honesty about who they are and how they see the world.
With this in mind, it was no surprise to me that Prince Jorg became an instant favourite. Jorg is driven by, among many other things, a seething rage and a lust for revenge against the enemy that brutally killed his mother and little brother while Jorg watched, trapped by fear and thorns. This is called Prince of Thorns for a reason, and Lawrence neither wastes nor overuses the literal and figurative barbs that have shaped Jorg’s life.
But I’m going to save the gushing soliloquy on why I love Jorg, for a future Character Appreciation Post. Stay tuned!
It’s not just Jorg that sold me. Lawrence’s skill as a writer is mind blowing. A sure sign that I’m smitten with a book is when I am listening to the audiobook (wonderfully narrated by James Clamp, who shall be added to my list of favourite narrators), and find myself running back to the book itself to dogear pages and underline all the delicious text, and then spam Goodreads with all my favourite quotes.
Writing through Jorg’s eyes, Lawrence delivers knife-edge wit, crisp descriptions, swift action and reaction. There are no wasted words as he paints his dark pictures, with each and every moment evoking a raw intensity of action and emotion.
At its heart, Jorg’s journey is a simple one that we’ve read before: the (self-)exiled prince returning to claim his birthright from a father who refuses to acknowledge him until he proves himself worthy. But Lawrence gives this a dark twist, starting with a dark and twisted character. Jorg is not a purely evil creature and perhaps there are other factors at play beyond his control, but Jorg never makes excuses for his decisions and their consequences. And while he recognizes the immorality and/or impropriety of his choices, they are always based in the ruthless practicality of achieving his goals, no matter the sacrifice required (I may have to have words with you, Mr. Lawrence, for one sacrifice in particular. *shakes an angry fist at you*)
There is unrest in the land and Jorg’s father tasks him with taking down one of his enemies. This is not as straight forward a process as one might think it should be. The story gets a little muddy when it delves deeper into the dark magic infesting the lands, but it all leads Jorg into some very intriguing plot twists and spoilery discoveries about the world Jorg lives in. I won’t divulge those elements here, but I will say that I am now very intrigued by the history behind the broken kingdoms and am on a definite need to know more basis.
Some might complain that this book is too dark and too hopeless. There are no good guys or heroes, only deeper shades of wrong with our lead being just as depraved as the rest. It’s a gritty and realistic world, even with the magical elements. Personally speaking, I love the way Lawrence teeters on the edge of true darkness and am curious to see how far he’s willing to go.
Posted on July 3, 2014 Leave a Comment
“Instructing you, sweet Ista, would be like teaching a falcon to walk up to its prey. It might with great effort be done, but one would end with a very footsore and cranky bird, and a tedious wait for dinner. With a wingspan like yours, it’s ever so much easier just to shake you from my wrist and let you fly.”
~ Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls
Book Review: The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney
Posted on July 3, 2014 20 Comments
The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of The Golden City
Publisher: Roc (November 5, 2013 )
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Golden City is a book that may take a bit of patience to get into, but it ends up being well worth the time once the story gets going. It also stands out for being one of the more unique novels I’ve read this year, with its one-of-a-kind setting in an alternate Portugal around the turn of the 20th century and its rousing combination of subjects like dark magic and sea folk.
The book begins with an introduction to Oriana Paredes, a spy for her people called the sereia. As a member of a race of sea folk banned from the city by the ruling king, Oriana has been posing as a maid working undercover in a wealthy aristocratic household for two years, but has befriended the family’s lovely and vivacious daughter Isabel. When Isabel decides to elope to Paris, Oriana decides to help her make her escape by disguising themselves as simple servants. But before the young women could depart, they are abducted and left to die in an underwater trap. Saved by what she is, but at the same time forced to watch Isabel drown, Oriana is set on a course to uncover the mystery of a string of similar murders and seek justice for her human friend.
Ouch. I just want to say how surprised I was at how hard I took Isabel’s death. While it is revealed in the book’s description, I didn’t do much more than skim the back cover before I started reading and so the beginning was still quite a shock for me. But it was a good kind of surprise. In just a handful of pages, J. Kathleen Cheney has established a realistic friendship between the two girls and made me care for Isabel and the prospect of her grand romance. And in a blink, that life was taken away. It was a very effective and impactful (not to mention heartbreaking) way to start the book, and it only worked this well because the writing was so convincing. At this stage in the story, I still had only a vague sense of the bigger picture, but I understood the desire for vengeance as the driving force behind Oriana’s actions. I seized upon it, looking to it as the backbone of this novel, despite all the questions still buzzing away at the back of my mind.
For believe me, there were questions aplenty. While overall I enjoyed The Golden City, it did take me a while to immerse myself completely into it. Books that thrust me into the middle of situation tend to have me at a disadvantage. Admittedly, I will also sometimes overwhelm myself by asking too many questions. Possibly the biggest blank for me was Oriana’s role as a spy. The goals of her mission were never really clarified, and I wasn’t sure what kind of information she was supposed to be bringing back to her superiors. The “City Under the Sea”, which is a massive underwater art show featuring replicas of the aristocratic houses placed there by a mysterious artist, was also another source of confusion for me. A project that is so grand and ambitious even by today’s standards would have plenty of buzz and investigation into it, but it seemed like much of the city took its appearance for granted.
In fact, it is the replica of Isabel’s house in the City Under the Sea which should have been Oriana’s water grave, if she weren’t a sereia. After extracting herself from the death trap, she finds herself adrift in a city whose citizens would arrest or do worse to her if they discovered her true nature. That is until she crosses paths with Duilio Ferreira, a police consultant who has secrets of his own. Like Oriana, Duilio is looking into the disappearances of servants from wealthy households, but he is also the half human son of a Selkie (mythological creatures said to live as seals in the sea but shed their pelt to become humans on land) and is also in the midst of investigating certain crimes against his family.
Which leads me to the main reason why I’m glad I found a book like The Golden City – Sirens! Selkies! I am always on the lookout for good books about “sea people” that aren’t rife with The Little Mermaid clichés or that don’t simply portray creatures like sirens as malevolent seductresses. Cheney does a fantastic job providing Oriana with personality and purpose, and I love the cultural, historical and mythological details she has worked into her world.
In time, something more than a business partnership develops between Oriana and Duilio, but the romance is in no way distracting or overbearing. The romantic elements, like the mystery elements, are well blended and balanced. It won’t be enough for everyone, but it was perfect for me as someone who prefers a more subtle and natural approach to romance, and the author teases the relationship between her two characters just enough for me to remain invested in seeing how their feelings for each other will be resolved.
In sum, The Golden City may start off slowly, but the payoff will come. Somewhere along the way, it just clicked. And most of the answers I sought were answered by the end of the book. If an alternate historical with a dash of fantasy and mystery sounds like your thing, or if you’re intrigued by a story set in a unique place starring magical sea creatures as its main players, you may want to push this up to the top of your reading list. I’m looking forward to see what will happen in the next book of this series.
A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Roc Books!
Tough Traveling: Necromancy
Posted on July 3, 2014 21 Comments
The Thursday feature “Tough Traveling” is the brainchild of Nathan of Review Barn, who has come up with the excellent idea of making a new list each week based on the most common tropes in fantasy, as seen in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynn Jones. Nathan has invited anyone who is interested to come play along, so be sure to check out the first link for more information. Compulsive list-maker that I am, I’m very excited to take part!
This week’s tour topic is: Necromancy
NECROMANCY is, in Fantasyland, the art of raising the dead and you need a specialized MAGIC USER to do it.
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton
All right, as badly as these books made me want to put a fist through the wall by around book seven or so, I feel no list about necromancers can be without Anita Blake. Being a vampire executioner may be something she does on the side, but her day job as an professional animator for Animators, Inc. is how she makes a living at the beginning of the series. The business primarily specializes in raising the dead as zombies, and Anita’s one of their best necromancers.
Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence
Prince Jalan is running from a lot of things, from angry creditors to a necromancer and their nightmarish creatures. Together with his companion Snorri ver Snaggason, our two reluctant adventurers travel to the north to try to break the spell that binds them, but run afoul of everything from vicious mercenaries to an undead army. (See review)
Silence by Michelle Sagara
Necromancy is more than just raising the dead, it can also involve just communicating with them. This book follows Emma, a grief-stricken teen who has taken to visiting the graveyard at nights ever since her boyfriend died in a car accident. One night, she encounters a mysterious old woman. At the crone’s touch, Emma experiences some kind of change. Ever since then, she realizes she can see, touch and speak with the dead. (See review)
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
The process of necromancy is a bit different in this series. Known as “The Resurectionist”, Brimstone of the Chimaera resurrects the bodies of his fallen brethren by capturing their fleeting souls in a thurible before transferring them into new bodies created by teeth, horns and other creature parts. This allows the dead to rise to fight again in their ongoing war against the seraphim. After the demise of Brimstone, Karou takes up the mantle of neighborhood necromancer. (See review)
Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z. Martin
Gail Z. Martin actually has a series called Chronicles of the Necromancer, but since I haven’t read it yet, we’re using this book instead! It also features a necromancer, who ends up being the big baddie Cassidy and her friends and hunting when they try to investigate why so many mundane objects are suddenly turning harmful and haunted. (See review)
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
This a story about Tara Abernathy, a young woman with a degree in necromancy who finds herself unexpected hired by the necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecth, and Ao. Her first assignment: to work with her mentor, the talented and experienced necromancer and senior lawyer Elayne Kevain, to resurrect a dead god before the unrest can tear the city apart.
PANELS: Nextwave Vol. 1: This Is What They Want
Posted on July 2, 2014 Leave a Comment
Healing America by beating people up.
Nextwave Vol. 1: This Is What They Want
Book Review: Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines
Posted on July 2, 2014 13 Comments
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Magic
Series: Magic Ex Libris #1
Publisher: DAW (August 2012)
Author Info: www.jimchines.com
Wendy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m not going to say this was the greatest story ever, or that I really came to care about the characters and their fate, but for the sake of the magical concepts in this book, I will recommend that every bibliophile put it on their list. Because how many book lovers have ever read a book and not imagined what it would be like to visit or even live in the worlds we read about? A libriomancer isn’t quite able to do that without going crazy, but they can pull out elements of books to use in the real world. Fighting monsters? Reach in and grab Excalibur to tip the scales in your favour! Wounded in battle? Grab a healing potion from Narnia!
Okay, I am not normally presented with such situations, but I would totally raid Cersei Lannister’s dinner table when I get a bit peckish, and Hermoine Granger’s time turner would sure come in handy now and then.
Fortunately, there are porters to make sure libriomancers don’t get carried away or take advantage of their magical abilities, lest the veil between reality and magic fall apart. That’s where Isaac Vanio comes in. A porter on suspension for overuse of his powers (in self-defense), he comes under attack, throwing him into the centre of a mystery involving vampires, a dryad, murdered mentors, and the founder of the porters.
I will go ahead and make the inevitable comparison between Isaac and Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden, in that they are both males, both wear long jackets, and both wield magic. Isaac is much less self-deprecating than Harry, and, once you get over the initial comparison, he holds his own as a character, especially when the dryad, Lena becomes involved. In fact, I’m not sure either of Hines’ characters would be as interesting without the other, though the pairing does feel a bit forced due to Lena’s circumstances.
Lena is an unusual character in that she directly speaks to the treatment of female characters within this genre/industry and many others. Like the objects Isaac is able to pull from books, Lena herself was pulled out of a book – one written for the sole purpose of (male) fantasy, creating a creature bound to her partner. She has no identify of her own and conforms to her partners’ beliefs and desires. Basically, an unwitting sex slave.
While her sexuality plays a part in her personality within the story, Hines focuses first and foremost on her physical strength and her determination. She is not a creature without fear, but she confronts everything head on, with her only true weakness being those she loves. After the loss of her mate, Lena comes to Isaac more or less seeking a replacement, but Isaac struggles with this as he doesn’t want to take advantage of her. Hines handles the relationship well, without dragging it on or making it all unbearably sappy, and gives both Isaac and the reader a lot to chew on when it comes to Lena’s choices and free will.
As I said, this wasn’t the greatest story ever. The plot took some interesting twists and turns, but nothing overly thrilling. The best part about this book is the libriomancy, as well as the recommendations it offers as Isaac rattles off the various reads in his arsenal.
The BiblioSanctum 