YA Weekend: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Posted on January 11, 2014 Leave a Comment
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Genre: Young Adult Horror, Paranormal
Series: Book 1 of Anna
Publisher: Tor Teen
Date of Publication: August 20, 2011
Author Information: Website | Twitter
I seem to be running into a lot of young adult novels with overly vague or very misleading descriptions lately. Anyway, I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked up this book, but for better or worse, it wasn’t this.
From what I’ve seen and heard, Anna Dressed in Blood is a horror novel. Everything about it screams, “Read me! I am scary!” I mean, you have ghost hunter Cas Lowood traveling the globe in search of urban legends and lore, vanquishing the evil spirits that are killing and terrorizing innocent people. He ends up following a tip to Thunder Bay, where a ghost called Anna has been the bane of the local population since her death in 1958.
A victim of a grisly murder herself, she is called “Anna Dressed in Blood” because her ghost still wears the white dress she had on the day she died, now dripping and stained red with gore. She haunts the house where she used to live, and every person who has ever stepped foot inside has met a gruesome end by her hand. If you ask me, when it comes to evil ghosts that need busting, no one deserves it more than Anna. I so looked forward to Cas ending her reign of terror.
And therein lies the kicker. I wanted Cas to kill Anna, not fall in love with her! Granted, I had a suspicion this was where the book was headed given its genre, not to mention how obvious it was from the way these two characters were being handled. Still, while I did not immediately dismiss or even terribly mind the romantic side plot, I did have some issues with the way their relationship unraveled. It felt rushed and clumsy, and I did not find it remotely convincing. The way I see it, Cas has been killing far too many ghosts for far too long to just up and one day fall in love with one. And despite Anna’s special circumstances, the author did not give her an engaging enough personality to persuade me that she could capture Cas’ heart so effortlessly.
Also, despite the horror vibes practically leaking off this book, it is still classified as young adult and as such I did not actually expect it to be very scary. In this I was mostly right, though there are some genuinely tense and downright disturbing scenes which could possibly set off a reader’s creep-out meter. If anything, I applaud Kendare Blake for being able to create this spine-chilling atmosphere, and wish she had expanded and continued this aspect throughout the entire book. This had all the potential to become one of the most unique young adult horror novels I’ve ever read, but it was the lukewarm romantic subplot that ended up derailing the momentum for me.
There are some other more minor things that made me stumble, including the supporting characters who felt shoehorned in and not given adequate space to really shine. Carmel, Thomas, Morfran and even Cas’ mother were all very intriguing people, with personalities that I would have been delighted to see explored further. Plus, considering how little time the teens actually spent in class, the book really could have done without the school setting to begin with. Cas could have been in the area for the summer and there would have been very little difference. Massive points to Anna Dressed in Blood for taking place in Thunder Bay though, a very nice hat tip to this very nice Northwestern Ontario city.
All in all, this book gets several mixed opinions from me, though my overall experience was positive. If the romance had been handled better, I really think this could have been something more special and amazing. As it is though, it’s still quite good. I’ll definitely still be checking out the next book.
Mogsy’s Book Haul
Posted on January 11, 2014 Leave a Comment
Be My Enemy and Empress of the Sun – This was a pretty awesome week thanks to Jo Fletcher Books, starting with number 2 and 3 of the Everness series. I’ve heard so many good things about it that I quickly caught up with the first book Planesrunner at end of last year just in time to tackle these books. Be My Enemy was as amazing as I thought it would be, and I’m looking forward to start Empress of the Sun very soon!
Cemetery Girl – the first graphic novel published by JFB and it’s a pleasure to be able to check this one out!
The Scarlet Tides – last year I also read Mage’s Blood and loved it. Much thanks to JFB as well as Pat from A Bitter Draft for passing along his extra copy of the sequel, because you have no idea how badly I want to find out what happens in this series next.
Netherworld – a book I received from the small press JournalStone via a giveaway. It looked very interesting from its description of a paranormal historical featuring a nineteenth-century female demon hunter.
Red Delicious – Blood Oranges was one of the first reviews I wrote for this blog when we revived it again last year, and how time flies because the sequel is about to come out already! I absolutely adored the first book and I have a feeling this one will be just as incredible. The main protagonist of this series Siobhan Quinn is such a riot.
Iron Night – I already an ARC of this but I had to get the retail copy to complete my collection. And why not, this is such a brilliant series and I can’t remember the last time I was this excited over an urban fantasy! Iron Night just came out this week, so go get it!
Necessary Evil – the second audiobook also happens to be a sequel, the third book of the Milkweed Triptych. I’m finally all set to finish this trilogy by Ian Tregillis; I enjoyed the first and second books and I hear the third one ends with a bang and is the best one of all.
Silence – I’m thinking of doing a YA reading challenge for 2014 and this one has been on my reading list for a while. Needless to say, when I saw it as a daily audiobook deal one day, I quickly snapped it up.
Book Review: The Inevitable by Daniel Hope
Posted on January 10, 2014 1 Comment
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: July 2013
Author Info: speculativeintent.com
Tuck is a robot. The last sentient robot in existence after the culling of the Bot Riots, and the most human robot you’ll ever meet, in spite of his completely inhuman appearance. After 150 years, Tuck is barely held together with old parts that he diligently works to replace. He is often hunted by collectors seeking to add a much prized trophy to their shelves. His quest for survival eventually leads him to a man of questionable motives who can keep Tuck functioning for many more years, but the arrangement may force Tuck to take human lives, something he is strongly against.
From the moment we first meet Tuck, it is clear that he’s a robot, but though he makes the Pinocchio comparison himself, he notes that he is not seeking to become real. He knows that he exists, and while he doesn’t question being alive, he knows that he doesn’t want to die. Nor does he want to kill, though he has in the past, either by mistake, negligence or intent. And he remembers every death.
Through Tuck, Hope explores the idea of mortality and of humanity. Even when Tuck is making highly technical calculations as he assesses a situation, Hope’s writing maintains such an endearing level of compassion. One of my favourite scenes involves Tuck is pithily breaking down how we experience emotion. It becomes clear early on that Tuck understands and respects more about humanity than we humans ever will.
The plot described in the blurb implies a lot of action and intrigue, and The Inevitable certainly has no shortage of that, but it’s the human interactions and Tuck’s experiences that truly make this book a surprisingly touching gem. I loved the vastness of this future world, while appreciating that Hope didn’t feel compelled to go too deeply into the details of each and every planet. It’s important only to know that earth exists, and we’ve moved on to other worlds as our technology and hubris demands. And most of all, I loved Tuck.
Panels: Star Wars: Legacy #6 (Vector)
Posted on January 10, 2014 Leave a Comment
Cade Skywalker is not a big fan of his famous surname,
or its 100 year old legacy.
Book Review: The Grendel Affair by Lisa Shearin
Posted on January 9, 2014 2 Comments
Book Review: Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald
Posted on January 8, 2014 Leave a Comment
Waiting on Wednesday 01/08/14
Posted on January 8, 2014 Leave a Comment
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that lets us feature upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
At the end of The Scroll of Years, the poet Persimmon Gaunt and her husband, the thief Imago Bone, had saved their child from evil forces at the price of trapping him within a pocket dimension. Now they will attempt what seems impossible; they will seek a way to recover their son. Allied with Snow Pine, a scrappy bandit who’s also lost her child to the Scroll of Years, Gaunt and Bone awaken the Great Sage, a monkeylike demigod of the East, currently trapped by vaster powers beneath a mountain. The Sage knows of a way to reach the Scroll — but there is a price. The three must seek the world’s greatest treasure and bring it back to him. They must find the worms of the alien Iron Moths, whose cocoons produce the wondrous material ironsilk.
And so the rogues join a grand contest waged along three thousand miles of dangerous and alluring trade routes between East and West. For many parties have simultaneously uncovered fragments of the Silk Map, a document pointing the way toward a nest of the Iron Moths. Our heroes tangle with Western treasure hunters, a blind mystic warrior and his homicidal magic carpet, a nomad princess determined to rebuild her father’s empire, and a secret society obsessed with guarding the lost paradise where the Moths are found — even if paradise must be protected by murder.”
Book Review: A Guile of Dragons by James Enge
Posted on January 7, 2014 Leave a Comment
A Guile of Dragons by James Enge
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of A Tournament of Shadows
Publisher: Pyr
Date of Publication: August 21, 2012
Author Information: Website | Twitter
James Enge’s A Guile of Dragons is actually the first book of a “prequel” series called A Tournament of Shadows featuring his celebrated character Morlock Ambrosius. Not having read the original books, I’m sure my experience is probably going to differ wildly from that of a reader who is already familiar with the world and character, but knowing beforehand that I was going into an origins-type story was good preparation for what to expect.
Most of the book covers the life of young Morlock. We begin at a point before he is even born, then watch as he is given to the dwarves as an infant. Morlock’s real father is Merlin — yes, that Merlin — though he is raised among the dwarven folk; as such things go, the character’s struggles with his birthright and mixed feelings about his heritage eventually emerge as one of the overarching themes of the story.
But on top of that, the book is also an adventure, with an ancient war between dwarves and dragons at its heart. When the dwarven territories are invaded, their defenders taken prisoner or placed under the corrupted influence of dragonspells, it falls to Morlock to protect his surrogate family and the people who raised him.
This was a good story, well told in its complexity and showing of relationships between different characters, but I have a feeling I’m not clicking with it as much as I should. I’m sure a lot of it had to do with the book and I getting off on the wrong foot, with the introductory chapters throwing me off with its pacing. The sections that take place before Morlock’s birth and up to the brief scenes of his childhood with the dwarves feel like they should have been a prologue, separated from the rest of the book.
I understand the importance of including this time of his life as part of his back story, but I don’t know if it meshes that well with everything that comes afterward. The first part of the book felt like a running commentary on the circumstances behind Morlock’s birth, resulting in a disconnect between myself and the character. Fortunately, the book really gets going once he reaches adulthood and we get into the meat of the story, when we encounter the dragons and their violent confrontations with the dwarves.
What follows is a very intriguing take on the history behind the dwarven-dragon conflict, and the intricacies in the nature of the two societies. The character dynamics also pick up, and as factors like bitter resentment or shifting loyalties start to come into play, things get a lot more interesting. The author throws in a lot of surprising twists, and I have to say one of my favorite aspects of this book is how Enge incorporates elements from legend and Arthurian fantasy into the world lore.
My overall feeling is that you can definitely read A Guile of Dragons on its own, but I have no doubt I’m also missing out on a lot of the subtleties. Yet despite delving into this one without any context, I was on the whole impressed. After seeing how the events of this book has shaped Morlock as a character, I admit I find myself curious about him and his future exploits.
Book Review: Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
Posted on January 7, 2014 Leave a Comment
Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Romance, Erotic Fantasy
Series: Kushiel’s Legacy #6, Imriel’s Trilogy #3
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: June 2008
Author Info: www.jacquelinecarey.com
Wendy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Kushiel’s Mercy is the sixth book in Carey’s Terre d’Ange adventures, and the third book in the Imriel de la Courcel’s story. It is the conclusion of his trilogy and honestly, I only read it for the sake of completion. Thus far, neither of the two trilogies that followed Phédre no Delauney’s own have been nearly as good, mostly because of the main characters.
Prince Imriel de la Courcel is the son of the beautiful traitor, Melisandre Sharizai. He was kidnapped into slavery, rescued and later adopted by Phédre and her consort, Joscelin, and has since gone off on his own adventures. In the last book, he was betrothed to a woman he didn’t love, but then perhaps matured with the brutal murder of his wife and unborn son and the subsequent vengeance he enacted upon the culprit. And within that all of that, he fell in love with Sidonie de la Courcel, the dauphine of Terre d’Ange, and daughter of the queen whom Imriel’s mother sought to depose. Unsurprisingly, there are those who are quite opposed to their union, in spite of the precepts of blessed Elua: “Love as thou wilt.” Queen Ysandre will only allow them to be married, if Imriel brings his long missing mother to justice. But before he is able to do so, Prince Astagal of Carthage orchestrates an incredible piece of magic that ensorcels half of Terre d’Ange, even convincing Sidonie that she not only has never loved Imriel, but that Imriel does not even exist.
This wasn’t a bad story. It contained all of Carey’s epic, world hopping fantasy, her beautiful people, intriguing characters, wonderful mythology and theology that touches on our reality, while still being wholly hers, sweeping political intrigue and more. The problem is that, at the centre of all this are Imriel and Sidonie and their cloying romance. I can be as hopelessly romantic as the next person, but it gets tiresome when it’s the main plot and purpose. The beauty of Phédre and Joscelin’s romance was that they didn’t spend the whole time pining for each other, even when they were together. But Imriel and Sidonie’s story is made to be a fairy tale romance (and is repeatedly referred to as such). I suppose it doesn’t help that the characters have never endeared themselves to me. I appreciate them, but they lack the depth of their predecessors. And Imriel spent the last two books being an annoyingly self-centred teenager.
One thing I do find annoying about the subsequent books in this series is the constant and repeated reference back to past events. It’s usually quite unnecessary, though perhaps it might be less so for someone who has not read the previous books. However, I do appreciate the scope of the history Carey creates with each new epic addition to her world.
Book Review: The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley
Posted on January 6, 2014 1 Comment
The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne
Publisher: Tor
Date of Publication: January 14, 2014
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Looks like epic fantasy in 2014 is off to a running start with The Emperor’s Blades, a novel by Brian Staveley featuring an intricate plot about a murdered sovereign and his trio of offspring who survive him. As debuts go, it was a great book despite a few hitches in the story that tripped me up. Still, I don’t doubt for a second that Staveley will be winning himself a lot of fans with this one, and you can count me in amongst those who are looking forward to his future work.
From the very beginning, the author has my undivided attention with introductions to Emperor Sanlitun’s two sons and daughter. First things first: take those images you have of pampered princesses and princelings living in luxury in a cushy decadent palace and throw them out the window, for the lives of Sanlitun’s children are about as far removed from that as you can imagine.
Kaden the heir has spent the last eight years sequestered in a remote monastery in the moutains, learning the mysteries of the monks who live there. It’s also where he gets beaten bloody on an almost daily basis, for not grasping his lessons quickly enough. Meanwhile, younger son Valyn trains with the Kettral (an elite group of the empire’s warriors — think of them as the emperor’s special forces) but leads a life no less brutal for all the dangerous tests he is made to go through before earning his place on a Wing. Finally, back at the capital Sanlitun’s only daughter Adare fights treachery, conspiracy and political unrest in order to maintain stability in the heart of the empire in the wake of her father’s murder.
The scope of the story turned out to be not as vast or immense as I’d expected, maintaining a tight focus on the perspectives of these three characters for much of the novel. That’s not a bad thing at all, especially if character development is as important to you as it is for me; narrowing down the interest and activity to Kaden, Velyn and Adare allowed me to get acquainted with them more closely.
If the three plot lines have a common thread, it’s that nothing ever seems to go right for the siblings. Kaden can’t seem get anything right in his mentor’s eyes, Valyn comes off almost as incompetent in his failures during training while simultaneously trying to root out a plot against him, and Adare is mostly helpless and unable to take action. For much of the novel it’s almost painful to read about how each of them are outmaneuvered, outsmarted, outgunned. But you know what they say about experiences that are upsetting, humiliating, or distressing: it builds character! That’s literally the case in this book. And really, there’s plenty enough action and excitement in Kaden, Valyn and Adare’s lives to keep things interesting, certainly enough to keep the novel’s pace up and maintain its level of epicness even when following just a handful of characters.
To be honest though, something never quite sat right with me when it came to their situations. It’s one thing to send your royal children away to pick up new skills, see the world, or learn of what real life is like outside the palace, but it’s quite another to expose your only (and therefore presumably precious) heirs to such terrible risk and brutality. In the book, we are told that Kaden and Valyn were victims of a kidnapping or assassination attempt when they were very young, but the perpetrators were caught and executed summarily for their troubles. However, Sanlitun is apparently happy enough to let monks and the Kettral do any more would-be assassins’ jobs for them, by sending his sons to places where the punishments equate to child abuse and torture in Kaden’s case, while Valyn is made to go through the type of training exercises where a single mistep could snuff his life out at any second.
I’m also a bit mystified by all the people around Kaden and Valyn who have the guts to treat the emperor’s sons so poorly, knowing full well that these young men are only a heartbeat or two away from the Unhewn Throne and being the supreme ruler of your land able to order your head lopped off from your shoulders on a mere whim. Maybe it’s just me, but crown princes aren’t exactly people I’d want to offend, let alone bully, because payback would be a real bitch in this case. Adare also has her own troubles with garnering respect in the capital, and here I’m also a little frustrated that her character was not given as much attention. Her chapters make a few brief appearances between long stretches, but for the most part she is underrepresented in this story. It’s a shame since I get the feeling she possesses just as much strength and intelligence as either of her two brothers, and that needs to come to the forefront.
The truth is, Kaden and Valyn take center stage here, and the story heats up even more when the two finally reunite for a showdown against their enemies. As endings go, the novel finishes off in style, wrapping up the major threads while leaving plenty more to tease the next installment. You can be sure I’ll be picking it up and continuing this epic series, with high hopes for more action, a deeper look into the world’s magic and history, as well as a larger role for Adare. Several parts of The Emperor’s Blades may exhibit the type of rawness not uncommon in debut novels, but it’s certainly still a hit in my eyes.
The BiblioSanctum 