Book Review: Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
Posted on June 20, 2013 3 Comments
Oh man, what can I say about Miriam Black? Funny how Chuck Wendig was able to hook me on his Blackbirds female protagonist the way he couldn’t with Mookie Pearl in The Blue Blazes, my first book by this author. I may have mentioned my aversion for rough, brutish, brawn-over-brains characters like Mookie in my review of that book, but here I find myself completely taken with Miriam and her snarky, foul-mouthed, firebrand hellion devil-may-care badass ways. This chick had me at, “That’s me. My fair fuckin’ lady.”
Miriam also has a very special ability — she can foresee the manner in which a person will die and know exactly when, down to the very micro-second. All she needs is any skin-on-skin contact and the visions will trigger, the deaths playing out in her mind in their entirety but lasting only a couple seconds to anyone watching from the outside. She used to care, used to want to save others from their preventable demises, but quickly learned her lesson: What fate wants, fate gets. Now she’s a vagrant, hopping from city to city trailing those she knows will soon meet their end, so she can swoop in and rob them at the time of their deaths and no one will be the wiser.
Then one day she meets Louis, the random truck driver who gives her a lift and is the first person in a long time to show her even a hint of kindness. She finds she likes him, but then she shakes his hand and sees his death — in 30 days, Louis will be brutally murdered. Miriam is shocked; she’s seen hundreds of deaths from accidents, suicides, and health problems, but very rarely has she seen murder. And the kicker is, in her vision right before Louis dies, he looks up past his killer and calls Miriam’s name…like he sees her there.
It was difficult to put this book down. Obviously, the plot being such a tease was a major draw, but like I said before, I was also very much taken with Miriam. I still don’t know why, really; it’s not like I can relate to her all that easily since I am nothing like her, but I felt connected to her regardless. She’s definitely unique, and it’ll be a mistake going into this book expecting her to be just another independent, tough-as-nails paranormal fiction female protagonist. Miriam would probably just beat someone like her up, but only after cussing her out and drinking her under the table.
A lot of the criticisms I’ve seen directed at this book claim Miriam’s character doesn’t read like a “real girl”, but I have to disagree. Not only do I know women who act just like Miriam, I also think that her rough, trashy badass exterior reflects the kind of life she’s had growing up with her disturbing power, making her behavior and personality convincing and refreshingly honest. At the same time, I sense that underneath is someone more perceptive and complex, with a introspective, kind and caring side to her that you just have to dig a little bit beneath the surface to find. Okay, maybe make that dig A LOT beneath the surface, but I still know it’s there.
This book also made me start appreciating Chuck Wendig’s style a lot more than I had before. His writing, topics, and characters are infused with this attitude which to me is a little reminiscent of the transgressiveness in books one might find by authors like Chuck Palahniuk or Bret Easton Ellis. I also love the paranormal spin to Blackbirds, but I would also hesitate to categorize it as urban fantasy because it throws so many of that genre’s conventions out the window; my guess is that a person can be really put off by this book if caught completely unprepared by it.
Sometimes, it does feel like the book is deliberately out to shock you, what with some of its violent and graphic scenes as well as Miriam’s potty mouth, but I was strangely cool with it. The subject matter also had a way of making me feel deliciously unsettled, but it at least made this book memorable. I admit I was somewhat initially hesitant about tackling another Chuck Wendig book after enjoying but not being completely blown away by The Blue Blazes, but I definitely liked Blackbirds more than I thought I would.
Comic Review: Batgirl: Knightfall Descends by Gail Simone
Posted on June 20, 2013 Leave a Comment
Batgirl, Vol. 2: Knightfall Descends by Gail Simone
Just dial F for Feelings on this one.
My second journey into a Gail Simone book, and let me just say, that I really enjoyed this book. Gail seems to have found her footing in this book and with the character. Much of the campiness that slightly turned me off was toned way down in this book. There was still some campiness there, but not to the same degree as the previous volume. This book follows Barbara on a series of encounters ranging from a run-in with the Court of Owls to the emergence of vigilante named Knightfall who may have been an innocent girl turned into a crazed “hero” intent on saving Gotham by purging it of its evil.
The thing I’m finding very interesting in these books is the storytelling format. So far, the volumes have been made up of various mini-stories rather than having one specific arc focus. I think the reason this works so well with Barbara’s story is because we watch as she adapts to these different situations while coping with the various thoughts and feelings she’s harboring.
Continuing with the theme from volume one, Barbara still stands on shaky ground. She continues to be a dichotomy. She’s still trying to come to terms with her capabilities as a hero, and she’s beginning to question “the system.” She questions if they’re contributing to the problem by protecting the “haves” and their investments from the “have-nots” rather than addressing the problem of poverty and the disproportionate gap between the two groups. She asks is she truly a hero in this respect?
She also comes face to face with very important parts of her past in the form of her mother, which started in the last volume, and one of the thugs who witnessed her crippling at the hands of Joker (an encounter that turned out differently than I expected). There’s also the issue of Barbara’s brother, James. She’s unaware that something is bubbling that will probably blow up on her soon. Throw in the fact that she’s still dealing with her survivor’s guilt and trauma, which tends to make her react in very emotional ways in some situations because she’s triggered.
A character that I’m rapidly becoming to enjoy is Melody McKenna, an investigator for GCPD whose story we learned more of in this volume. Barbara keeps insisting that Melody McKenna hates her. That is so not true, and it’s so obvious that it’s not. McKenna is upset with Barbara because of what happened with her partner after Barbara’s return. That’s obvious as well. However, while McKenna has an invested interest in Batgirl, she’s allowed Barbara on numerous occasions to do her thing. In this volume, McKenna seems to show that she fully grasps what happened with her partner is not Batgirl’s fault because she relates a situation where she acted in a similar fashion as Barbara with the same outcome.
I could chalk this up to Barbara’s current conflicting feelings, though, how she seems to take everything so personally and feel it so deeply. She feels every loss. She sees the situation with McKenna’s partner as something she should’ve handled better, so maybe this insistence that McKenna hates her is just a transference of her own harsh views of herself onto a tangible person/object.
My only complaint with this was In the Line of Fire, which is issue #9 and part of the crossover with the Court of Owls. This pissed me off so bad, but not because it was badly written. Truthfully, it was very good, and it was shaping up to be my favorite part of the book (now my favorite part is the Batwoman/McKenna/Batgirl team-up near the end), but it just ends without you really knowing what happens. I don’t think it really think this should’ve been included since it heavily depends on you reading issues from other books to get the full scope of what’s going on.
The other stories have an “ending,” except this one, and then the next story goes immediately into this Knightfall storyline, which will be resolved in the next volume. You’re left wondering what happened, if you haven’t read it, because it was obvious a big deal. However, it does say that you need to go to Batman #9, but still, I had to track down this Owls business to read soon. Remember, I said I wasn’t really trying to get into all this DCnU stuff, but DC is making me.
I think this is shaping up into a fine book. I like the sort of darker approach to her return. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Barbara has issues that have plagued her return and will presumably continue to plague her for a while. Watching her triumphs and failures, her insecurities, her growing confidence, makes her feel like a very believable character.
Book Review: Meeting of the Waters by Kim McLarin
Posted on June 19, 2013 Leave a Comment
Meeting of the Waters by Kim McLarin
The meeting of the waters is an actual natural event that occurs in Brazil. It’s where the water from the Solimões River (which is muddy) meets with the dark water from Rio Negro. They run side by side without mixing. I’ve seen pictures of it, but I hope to see it in person one day. The phenomenon is mentioned in the book and holds much significance to the story itself.
Porter Stockman, a white journalist from Philadelphia, goes to Los Angeles to get the story on the Rodney King riots. While there, he finds himself the target of a group of angry, black people. Fortunately, a black journalist, Lenora Page, saves him. When he finds out that she will be working at the same paper, he goes out of his way to show her his gratitude, which results in love.
I loved the characters in the book. You have Porter Stockman. His mother is overbearing. His father doesn’t seem to care about much, and his sister is a maverick. He spent his teenage years wondering what the hell he was going to do with his life. He likes to think of himself as a white person who doesn’t see race as an issue. He’s an all-around good guy. He’s believable, funny, and real. He doesn’t do all the right things, and he doesn’t do all the wrong things. He makes human decisions, which many authors tend to forget about.
Lenora is a very pro-black woman who can’t believe she’s falling for a white man. Her father left her family when she was young, and her mother is dealing with being bi-polar. Her younger brother still longs to find their father, but she’s given up all hope. She’s very proud to be a black woman, and she’s quick to let everyone know. She’s independent, smart, and sassy. She loves herself without being a stereotype, and honestly, a lot of women—of any race—could take a lesson from her.
The only thing that annoyed me about this book was Lenora’s preoccupation with race. I understand this was important to establish her character. She was trying to make Porter aware of the prejudices that people of color and biracial couples go through, but it turned into borderline obsessive after a while.
Being a woman of color myself, it even drove me mad. I definitely understood how helpless Porter felt. I could see the wedge she was driving into their relationship with race. It was tiresome, even for me – the reader. She manages to break a really good man, and by the time she realizes her mistake, things are already broken. Then they must choose what they really want.
Other than that, I loved this book. It really makes its reader thing about race relations. One of the most important questions posed in the book is not about Porter and Lee’s relationship itself, but the question of what makes a person racist. It’s not just a typical romance where two of the characters happen to be a different race. It really gets the readers thinking about the politics behind race.
Mogsy: Favorite Book Turned Into A Movie
Posted on June 19, 2013 Leave a Comment
In the end, I had to go with this one. After 20 years (holy crap, has it really been that long?!) the movie is still just as entertaining for me now to watch as it was in the theater the first time I saw it as a little kid, and it was based on what was, in my opinion, one of the best books by Michael Crichton.
“You know, at times like this one feels, well, perhaps extinct animals should be left extinct.”— Ian Malcom, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Tuesday Tea with Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
Posted on June 18, 2013 Leave a Comment
What I’m Drinking: Mango Green, Passionfruit, and Hibiscus chilled with a side of mint and a squeeze of lemon for a summery, fruity taste
What I’m Listening To: Two Become One by Govinda
What I’m Reading: Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
Quote: “I strike the ground with the soles of my feet and life rises up my legs, spreads up my skeleton, takes possession of me, drives away distress and sweetens my memory. The world trembles.”
Comic Review: Jim Henson’s The Storyteller by Dennis Calero
Posted on June 18, 2013 Leave a Comment
Despite my love of Jim Henson, I never did watch his Storyteller series. I’ve made up a bit for that now with this collection of retold myths and legends by various artists and writers. Some of the stories are familiar, with new twists, while some might be a little more off the wall or new, depending on your background and upbringing. No matter the source material all of the stories are uniquely pieced together in this collection.
Cover Lover: King of Thorns
Posted on June 18, 2013 Leave a Comment
Mark Lawrence recently posted the many covers for his King of Thorns, offering fans a chance to vote for their favourite of the eight. This is my favourite, a variation of the most common cover image for this book. I love the brilliance of the red draped across the throne, a sharp comparison to the otherwise monochromatic theme. The US cover, which I am used to, features an almost white “sky,” while the UK hard cover brings in the clouds. But I really like the way the “clouds” work in this UK paperback version because they also give me an impression of smoke, bringing the image indoors. It strikes me more because it means the bodies he rests on aren’t merely on a battlefield where piles of bodies are expected, but inside some sort of ominous building. And as he sits contemplatively on this throne, the world burns behind him…
To reach greatness you must step on bodies, and many brothers lie trodden in my wake. I’ve walked from pawn to player and I’ll win this game of ours, though the cost of it may drown the world in blood…
Audiobook Review: Medicus by Ruth Downie
Posted on June 18, 2013 Leave a Comment
This story follows military medicus (doctor) Gaius Petreius Ruso who is a Roman man living in Brittania (England). He’s escaped to the Brittania to heal from a disaster of a marriage that ended in divorce and the death of his father that left the family with many undue debts to pay. Brittania is considered a backwater town but important nonetheless. It’s too small to be considered grand, but too large to be ignored by the Romans. As if going from everything to having nothing wasn’t bad enough, women continue to bring trouble for Ruso after he examines a dead woman found in the river and rescues a slave from her callous owner.
This story takes place during a time when modern medicine was just beginning to emerge. Doctors were regarded as suspicious conmen and “healers” still ruled surpreme. I loved how Downie weaved that into the story, showing how doctors began to record treatment and discover new ways to deal with various medical ailments and conditions. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Ruso ushered around the new doctors in training and reveled in their naïveté after one fainted (and the others just barely made it out) when Ruso showed them a particular gruesome case. The description made me chuckle because it was just so Ruso-like.
Ruso is a bit cynical and serious, but he does have a little bit of a dry comedic side. He’s very sure of his abilities as a medicus almost to the point of cockiness, but unlike his friend and fellow medicus, Valens, he keeps to himself in a world where knowing the right people means everything. He often feels awkward in social situations and almost always says the wrong things in his mind, so he tends to keep to himself. His bedside manners are cool because he’s a man of logic, even by his own admission, but Ruso cares more about people more than he shows. This care extends beyond mere medical interest, but he’s not sure how to “fix” people beyond what physically ails them.
Ruso complains that he shouldn’t get involved in certain matters, but still he finds that his underlying compassion and concern causes him to do the exact opposite, which is how he ends up “investigating” a murder that he insists he’s not investigating. He’s also terrible at being a hard ass as shown when he became Tilla’s “master.” Tilla is just one of a group of ragtag friends he picks up during the course of the story which includes the charming Valens who thinks that Ruso needs a new wife, an overenthusiastic scribe named Albanus, and a dog he claims not to care for. He complains about them, of course, but I don’t think he’d know what to do without them.
Despite all the elements that could make this a complicated story to listen to, it was very easy to follow. Nothing really went beyond my grasp or caused me to pause and rewind just to make sure I was understanding what I’d heard. Downie didn’t use language that was too complicated, and the things that seemed a little unfamiliar she was able to explain in the simplest terms, even when it didn’t really seem necessary. However, this was a surprisingly light listen. I was afraid that I would get partway in and decide that I need to read the book rather than listen to the audiobook.
One of the chief complaints I’d heard about this book was that the language was “too modern,” but that’s the usual complaint of many historical fiction settings ranging from books to television. I wasn’t surprised to hear the complaint, but it just seems like old news now since many shows and books take this approach. I think that’s because it makes it easier on the reader and the writer. How many people would really be interested in reading this if written in the style of that time? What writer would stick to writing a story in such a style? It would be tedious for both the reader and the writer. I agree that maybe some word choices absolutely were too modern, but that’s such a nitpicky thing. However, I can only say that it doesn’t bother me. Your mileage may vary.
As far as the narration goes, Simon Vance is quickly becoming one of my favorite narrators. He has a voice that is perfect for reading. This will be the third book I’ve listened to with him as the narrator and he never fails to impress me with his read. He’s remarkable; his narration is always so impeccable. I have never encountered a narrator with such clean narration skills. Also, he understands that timbre not pitch determines how realistically a female voice will come across when reading, and even when faced with multiple female speakers in one scene, he gives them all their own personality that makes them easily discernible one from another.
The only real complaint I have is that he’s a fast talker. I tend to speed up my audiobooks between 1.25 to 2.0 times faster than normal. With him, I have to get used to the pace he’s keeping before I can speed it up, but that’s really a trivial complaint when compared to how extraordinary he is as a narrator.
This was a great opening for the series, and I look forward to following more of Ruso’s misadventures as narrated by Simon Vance.
Tiara: Favorite Quote from Your Favorite Book
Posted on June 17, 2013 Leave a Comment
“In a way, her strangeness, her naiveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination. Had she paints, or clay, or knew the discipline of the dance, or strings, had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like an artist with no art form, she became dangerous.”
― Sula, Toni Morrison
Book Review: The Magicians’ Guild by Trudi Canavan
Posted on June 17, 2013 Leave a Comment
The Magicians’ Guild byTrudi Canavan
Trudi Canavan is an author I’d been looking forward to read for a long time, which is why she’s pretty high on my list for the WWEnd Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge. Thanks to my book hoarding habits, I found that I actually own the first books from both her Black Magician Trilogy and the Traitor Spy Trilogy and didn’t know which to tackle first. Then I found out that the latter series is a continuing story of some of the characters in the former, which ultimately decided it for me. I always I prefer to read things chronologically and in publishing order, so The Magicians’ Guild it is!
The book centers around the life of Sonea, a young vagrant girl caught up in the disturbance which occurs every year during the Purge, an event which expels all the city’s poor, homeless, beggars and other undesirables from within its boundaries. Sonea sees a group of children trying to annoy the guild magicians in charge by throwing stones at their magical shield, and decides for fun to join in. In a moment of anger, however, the stone she throws somehow manages to pierce the magicians’ protection, beaning one of them on the side of the head. Then everything explodes into chaos.
The Magicians’ Guild immediately launches a manhunt for the little girl who so effortlessly foiled their shield spell, because it must mean she possesses magical ability as well. No untrained magic user can be trusted to roam unchecked around the city, for the results of that uncontrolled power can be dangerous for all. Not knowing this, Sonea flees and goes deeper underground with the help of her friends, but a time will soon come when she won’t be able to escape anymore, neither from the magicians nor herself.
At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this. I spent a good chunk of the book wondering when the story will get to the part where the Magician’s Guild and Sonea meet up with each other, so that they can finally get on to training her properly in the ways of magic. That’s how these kinds of stories usually go, right? Then I realized that the hunt for her was actually the whole point for the entire first half of the novel, dashing any preexisting expectations I had for the plot.
Going to be honest here, the book still didn’t quite hook me until the Magicians do eventually end up finding Sonea, and that was around the halfway mark. Everything that occurred before this point detailing the search and Sonea’s struggle to control her magic felt like this huge, unnecessarily drawn out introduction, but the good new is, I started to enjoy myself a lot more. It’s almost like, “Okay, now that all that’s out of the way, we can finally get this show on the road.” The conflicts in the plot started to get more interesting, and I found myself drawn to characters like Rothen, for whom I previously felt nothing.
It also wasn’t until I finished this book that I heard this series had been re-marketed for the young adult market. If so, that actually made a lot of sense. Assuming that a YA audience probably wouldn’t be as critical as I’m being, I thought the story and characters were strong but could have done with a little more depth, especially since a few sections of the plot felt thin to me and not very convincing. As general fantasy though, I liked this book well enough and I think it can be appreciated by all.
The BiblioSanctum 