Book Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Posted on April 4, 2013 1 Comment
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
This story is told through Mary’s eyes. It’s well-written, but it took me forever to read this and not because I was busy. For me, this is the sort of book that can be depressing to read through. It’s just a knot of darkness. The religious oppression along with the situation they’re in just didn’t leave me feeling very hopeful for the characters.
Now, I enjoy dark stories, but this story just seemed to be bleak and not offer much else for readers to feel—if you don’t count exasperation at Mary’s selfishness, but I’m getting to that.
Book Review: The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
Posted on April 4, 2013 5 Comments
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
Moon has spent his life working to fit into the other societies, but when he finds his own, he has difficulty. I appreciated the way Wells balanced Moon’s need for acceptance with his suspicion and discomfort without making him come across as petulant or annoying. Actually, there a few characters whose disagreeable personalities initially seem like they will just be annoying and troublesome, but all the significant characters have purpose and reason and are able to change and grow with the situations presented.
Orphaned at a young age when his mother and siblings were killed by predators, Moon has moved from groundling village to groundling village trying to fit in. Unfortunately, his inconvenient secret always comes back to haunt him: Moon is not a groundling. He can take their form, but he can also shift into an armoured, winged, clawed, spined being that looks far too much like the Fell, the intelligent predatory species that feed on everything else in the Three Worlds. Moon knows he’s not a Fell, but has no idea what he is until he meets another shifter and agrees to go to his home to learn about his own species, the Raksura.
Moon is, unsurprisingly, very hesitant to get comfortable with what are apparently his own people, especially when he discovers that he has a very specific status among them that instinctually causes conflict. Add the ever present stench (literally) of the Fell. And we’re in for obvious trouble!
Don’t worry. The story is not quite as predictable as it might seem. Moon’s discovery of his people happens almost right at the beginning and we quickly move into the politics of his people, which we learn along with him, and deal with the Fell, who refuse to leave anyone alone and worse, seem to have even deadlier plans up their sleeve.
The plot moves along at a comfortable pace, but what really made me love this book was the incredible world that Wells has weaved, complete with very unique races of people. Moon’s travels have introduced him to several villages of groundlings and the Raksura turn to him for advice dealing with them. Many of the groundlings look somewhat similar or are accepting of outsiders, hence Moon’s ability to find places to live. They also have very unique cultures and Wells intricately describes them all through their appearances, their native language, foods and food preparation, building structures and living arrangements and even naming conventions. As the main species of the story, we learn most about the Raksura and the Fell, but I found myself wishing that Wells would publish a great big codex containing information and images on all the species we learn about within the book.
I loved the transition Moon makes. He begins the story living in a groundling village where we can easily relate to their human-like activities, if not their lizard-like skin and colours. Moon has spent almost his entire life doing his best to fit in within these groundling societies. But when he gets to the Raksuran court where he no longer has to hide his other form, instinct kicks in and watching him react and the others react to him was absolutely fascinating. Wells smoothly transitions us from the human-ness we understand, to a more animalistic society. Violence and dominance through violence or intimidation is not uncommon, but it is not purely bestial. The intricacies of the Raksuran society and how it differs from our own are truly a highlight of the book as they unravel through Moon’s interactions and relationships.
I particularly enjoyed the Raksuran male/female roles. It is a matriarchal society with significant power granted to the male consort, but while dominance battles do occur, they are never about gender issues. It was refreshing to read a book that did not require males or females to prove themselves worthy of their gender. In fact, I loved the way Moon, who by our standards represents an alpha male, could give himself over to the comfort of his mate when he needed it, without any implication that he was “less of a man” for doing so. Everyone in the society had their roles and could perform equal duties regardless of gender.
Wells does not skimp on the details of their physicality, either. Particularly in their winged Raksuran form where she skillfully describes the full range of their movements, even in flight and in battle where it could have been easy to skim over such detail.
I have already obtained the other two books in the series, as well as several other books by Wells. You can take that as indication of how I feel about The Cloud Roads!
Character Appreciation Post: Anna Korlov from Anna Dressed in Blood
Posted on April 1, 2013 Leave a Comment
“… there she is, my goddess of death, her hair snaking out in a great black cloud, her teeth grinding hard enough to make living gums bleed.”
– Cas Lowood, Anna Dressed in Blood
A Song I Associate with Anna
Dig up her bones, but leave the soul alone
Let her find a way to a better place
Broken dreams and silent screams
Empty churches with soulless curses
Bones by MS MR
Why I Love Her
Admittedly, the main reason I wanted to read these books was because of the covers, and while I do love Cas and his misfit group of friends, Anna Korlov, a girl relegated to an unfortunate fate, is the real hero of the story for me.The thing that really stood out for in these books is that Blake kept Anna consistent in general character and in the ghostshipping (the romance) that’s presented in the book.
In so many books, once a male counterpart enters the story, the female character becomes a bit useless, especially in young adult books. Let me stop here for a moment to clarify “useless” in the sense that I mean. Anna has fears. She has desires, wants, and needs. She has feelings that run deep. She is not a shell of a person… er… ghost. I’m not saying that she shouldn’t be allowed these things and feelings. Quite the contrary.
A strong character for me doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed their weaknesses or that they shouldn’t need someone to save them from time to time. I don’t mean that, sometimes, they don’t break when things overwhelm them. However, when a character loses complete sense of self and suddenly becomes nothing more than “that chick that needs saving by her oh-so-strong man all the time,” I get pissed. Vulnerability as well as strength should be shown. There needs to be a balance, and I think Blake did an excellent job with that. She also seemed to do a great job of having Anna and Cas complement each other.
In the story, Anna did not suddenly become a weepy girl ghost who needed Cas to protect her after he helps her reconcile her duality, which makes her a near unstoppable force. Anna already outpaces the average ghost with her strength and awareness (most vengeful ghosts in the story don’t realize they’re dead and are unaware that the world has changed at all). She becomes Cas’ protector in some ways. She doesn’t run in always saving him. She allows Cas to be the person that he is, and she doesn’t underestimate his abilities or formidability.
Cas gives her the same respect. But they both are there for the other to lend strength when needed. And there have been scenarios when they have both needed the other in extreme cases. Anna doesn’t ignore her feelings for Cas, but she tries not to mourn what she can’t have with Cas. It pains her and she quietly shows it, but she she is more willing than Cas to accept that a relationship between them is impossible. I really liked the dynamics between Cas and Anna, and I appreciate the love story didn’t eclipse the rest of the story.
Anna doesn’t excuse herself from what she’s done. She understands that she’s taken lives and she’s disgusted and saddened by it. Her living companions–Cas, Thomas, and Carmel–are much more sympathetic to her and her plight than Anna is to herself even though they’ve seen what her fury can do firsthand. She doesn’t know if she’s deserving of the kindness that she’s given. She doesn’t know if her final rest should be peaceful because of the horror she’s perpetrated over the years.
Anna is presented as a realist, and she’s pragmatic about her situation and the situations surrounding her. She won’t lie to herself or to any of the others just to dull an ache. She’s not some over-romanticized wisp of a ghost who spends time sighing about life and the living. She seemed more practical about what was going on than her living companions. And this doesn’t seem like something she only gained in death. In the brief glimpses of her life we are given, Anna was respectful and kind, but she would not be cowed.
She shows impossible courage along with the rest of the gang. Despite her fears, she stands her ground, even in one of her weakest moments, and she makes a sacrifice far greater because she knows she’s the only one who can despite the fact that she may be sending herself to some unknown fate. Anna has earned her place on my list of favorite fictional characters.
Graphic Novel Review: Captain America: The Chosen by David Morrell
Posted on March 31, 2013 1 Comment
Captain America: The Chosen by David Morrell
Before I get to the Captain America gushing, I need to get this out of the way. I don’t like the setting for this. No, I’m okay with the war environment, but I didn’t like that it specifically had to be Afghanistan and Al Qaeda related with the 9/11 references. That felt, in my opinion, felt like a cheap sympathy grab on Marvel’s part, making it feel more like an US versus THEM problem, which can distract from what I felt was the true message of this story.
This story is mostly told from the POV of James Newman, a young soldier serving in the United States military. He wants to help his country and the country he’s fighting in, but he’s no longer sure how to help when he can’t distinguish those who need help from those he needs to fight. He misses his wife and infant son. And he’s also becoming jaded toward fear because he’s living in a constant state of fear. During a fight, Captain America shows up on the battlefield and “helps” Newman to save some of his squad. The only problem? No one else saw Cap. In fact, he’s many miles away dying.
The super soldier serum has finally “failed” for Captain America. Not only is he losing all the physical conditioning he had, but he’s regressing to a state far more frail than he was even before the serum. He’s initially given 6 months to live, but his health degrades in weeks instead of months. Captain America agrees to submit to one last test, an experiment that allows him to telepathically project himself in any location, but causes him to expend a lot of energy, which speeds up his regression.
He’d been using this ability to find and map out terrorist hideouts, but then he learns that he can project himself into the consciousness of others, making them believe that he was standing right there with them. Not only that, but apparently, this also gives him access to their thoughts, feelings, and memories. He uses this to cause fear at first, but changes his focus to inspire ordinary heroes to be courageous. He says that courage isn’t the absence of fear, but a motivation for it. Fear will make you do things you didn’t think possible, which is true.
I appreciated the idea of Captain America expending himself to help people in any way he can even after his body starts to fail him. Captain America pushes himself so hard and takes it so personally when he feels he failed the people he swore to protect. Despite his rapidly deteriorating state, he still puts everything he’s got into helping others. This does feel like something that Captain America would do—defending others until he just couldn’t any longer.
The idea of the serum finally catching up to him and proving that it wasn’t a complete success was an interesting angle. It’s never fully discussed in the comic how that might’ve happened. If he hadn’t been frozen in ice, would he have burned out a few months later? Had the experiment actually been a complete success and his time in the ice had subtly degraded the effect of the serum? Did he overextend himself? It’s a mystery, but I’m not upset there isn’t some drawn out explanation about why this might’ve happened. It leaves readers to speculate for themselves.
However, I wasn’t too crazy about how that story was told. In some panels, there was too much back and forth going on trying to get Newman to keep it together. I know it was necessary, but it started to feel a bit filler-ish after a while. And I’m not even going to touch that part of the ending where Newman went full Rambo (and this was written by the author of the Rambo books), and it was a bit too hackneyed in some panels.
Many of the lab scenes didn’t really feel necessary, especially since he was basically telling Newman his story from beginning to end at the same time. The lab scenes added too many questions that weren’t addressed like when they wanted to know who he chose. Chose for what? To become the next Captain America? To fetch his dinner? How were they supposed to make a new Captain America, if they were hoping he’d choose an heir, to be able to perform physically on the same level? Or were the hoping for someone to continue this new experiment they started?
The government obviously didn’t care about—or was blind to—the fact that it took more than physical prowess to make Captain America, if that’s what they were going for. But part of, maybe even a large part of, the traits that make Captain America who he is doesn’t have to do with physical conditioning, but his indomitable will and the virtues he holds close to his heart, and this was something he had even before he became Captain America. This is something that anyone can have and extends beyond beliefs, race, citizenship, etc. Captain America knew this and admired the people who didn’t have his conditioning, but performed their duties every day. He questioned if ordinary people could go out there and risk their lives to help others, what made him any different? What made him better? Just because he may be physically superior to them didn’t make him better.
After Captain America did his final heroic deed in the book, the first question posed was, “What will we do without him?” But I can see this question being the opening for them to start relying on their own strengths, a wakeup call to the fact that you can’t always rely on a superhero to save the day. Quite often, you can only rely on yourself, and you have the necessary “powers” to do so.
I thought this was a good story, but it could’ve been better. Some of the ideas behind it were magnificent in theory, but were not executed to their full potential.
In the end, I felt like the story’s main goal was to show how there are ordinary people doing extraordinary things every day. Even though we only see him with Newman, he is actually inspiring many others at the same time, encouraging them to use their strengths to help their fellow man. You don’t have be Captain America to embody the virtues of courage, honor, sacrifice, and loyalty. You can find these same “hero” traits in doctors, teachers, farmers, any average person in the world. Everyone has the potential to be a Captain America. It’s not always the strength of body that makes a hero.
Book Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Posted on March 28, 2013 5 Comments
We follow the adventures of “R,” a zombie who isn’t decayed nearly as bad as some of the other zombies. He’s described as being tall and dressed in business casual. Zombies can’t remember their life before dying, but they take on the first letter of names that the might’ve had, names that are just beyond the reach of their thoughts. Communication is limited and very simple between zombies. They struggle with words to adequately express themselves and are often distracted away from their thoughts when speaking aloud, but “R” shows a crude complexity in his thinking, which is hinted at possibly being abnormal for a zombie.
The zombies spend much of their time performing a poor emulation of human behavior. “R” lives at an airport with a hive of zombies. They use escalators, have church, even get “married” and take care of children (young zombies given to newly married zombies). They attempt to do things like have sex, but their bodies aren’t able to perform the act. “R” mentions it’s like watching a pathetic imitation of bodies bumping against each other. There’s also “school” where mostly children are taught to hunt by using live human prey. They also have a rough set of laws in place that they follow enforced by a group called the Boneys.
This book is unique because it tells the story from the point of view of a zombie instead of a human trying to survive in this world. It reimagines zombies as more than just mindless creatures. The need for flesh isn’t as simple as a driving, animalistic hunger for it, but part of a craving for something lost, something they can no longer remember. I never thought I’d read a zombie book and use words like “heartbreaking” and “tender.” But those are just two of the words that aptly describes this story.
R is presented in a self-deprecating, humorous way, but he’s easy to connect to. However, this story is touched with a tinge of sadness that made my heart ache. He wonders about his former life and struggles with not being able to express his thoughts in more than a rudimentary fashion. He is already beginning to want something he can’t quite grasp at first, but when he saves a living woman named Julie, things begin to fall into place.
It’s never mentioned what caused the zombie epidemic, but personally, I was fine with that. I didn’t need another rehash of a virus, God’s wrath, or government experiments popping up. That would’ve taken up precious space in the book. R wouldn’t know what caused it anyway, and even if he did, he might not have been able to really explain what happened to them. R is smart, but his thought process has its limits. But the cause is unknown to both human and zombie alike anyway.
One complaint I had was Nora. She just felt so out of place in the story. I liked the character, but it just seemed like she was in the wrong book. I was also a little surprised with her accepting attitude toward R all things considered, but that may apply to Julie as well. I’d read there was a novella out there about Nora, so maybe I can fill in the gaps with that and get to know her character a little more. She seems to be very optimistic despite their situation. She’s very loyal to Julie, but that’s explained in this book. And admittedly maybe the end wrapped up a little more hopeful than it should have, but I loved it. There’s nothing “usual” about this book, so I don’t necessarily see the ending being a problem.
Overall, I really loved this book. Marion took a genre that’s so rife with clichés and tropes (as with most supernatural/paranormal things these days) and found a way to make it his own. Even if I hadn’t loved it so, I would’ve still applauded his effort to be different. Also, Muse provided the perfect musical backdrop for me while I was reading this. Uprising even started playing during the ending, and it was so perfect.
Book Review: Tankborn by Karen Sandler
Posted on March 21, 2013 3 Comments
Tankborn by Karen Sandler
Genre: Science Fiction, Biopunk, Young Adult
Series: Book 1 of the Tankborn Trilogy
Publisher: Tu Books (October 11, 2011)
Author Information: Twitter | Website
Tiara’s Rating: 3.5 out 5 stars
Kayla is a GEN, a tankborn person whose purpose is to serve others. While in the tank, their DNA is sliced with DNA from animals granting a skill set (known as sket) that will prove useful once they hit sixteen and are given their permanent work assignment. They have no parents and are placed in homes with “nurture mothers/fathers” who are GENs who have been programmed to have parental instincts.
GENs are treated worse than animals and subject to the whims of the trueborns (high status humans) and the brigade that serves as law enforcement. They have few rights and tolerate aggression and violence from humans, making them live in a constant state of fear. After turning sixteen and receiving her assignment, Kayla is thrust into a world where she learns that not all things are as they seem, and she soon finds herself involved in something much bigger that herself. Read More
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Posted on March 8, 2013 3 Comments
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism
Publisher: HarperCollins
Author Information: Twitter
Tiara’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
First, I should say if you want a sweet, innocent Peter Pan story, this story isn’t for you. This is nowhere near as dark as Brom’s The Child Thief, but while Brom’s book focuses on presenting Neverland as a very gray place where all sides do their evil in the name of some “greater good,” this is a story about first loves, betrayal, yearning, and heartache mixed in with a bit of action. I think this book and The Child Thief are the only two Peter Pan retellings that have elicited such a strong emotional response from me. I wouldn’t even try to write this review before I could stop tearing up about this story.
This story toes the thin line between magic and magic realism. While there are magical things in the stories like mermaids and fairies, many other “magical elements” have more practical reasoning behind them. One example being the belief that the lost boys fly being attributed to an elaborate rope system they’ve made in the treetops.
Neverland turns out to be an island nestled away in the Atlantic, protected by a treacherous sea that sinks many of the ships that dare to tread too close to Neverland, reminding me a little of the Tristanian Islanders. However, a few stragglers make it to shore from time to time. Most of them die of exposure or by some terror that lives in the forest. Other Englishmen that make it to shore are often cut down by Captain Hook and his ragtag group of pirates who hate their fellow countrymen. But even though most of the inhabitants there have a peaceful existence together on that island (however, peace between the pirates and natives is tenuous at best), they all fear the lost boys who most people never see. They only whisper about their evil deeds, but Tiger Lily learns better.
It is true that people on Neverland didn’t age, but it seems that it seems mostly something that happens to the native people and beings on Neverland. It was never fully explained why it happened, but the people on the island aged until a monumental event happened in their life and caused their bodies to stop aging beyond that point and they never moved beyond that physically and perhaps even a bit mentally if we’re to judge by Tiger Lily’s actions even some 80 years after the events that changed her. And sometimes that meant children out-aged their parents and grandparents. It seemed like the island granted this “gift” to the natives, but not to the outsiders such as Captain Hook. The natives fear catching the “aging disease” from them. However, this could be indicative that nothing of extreme importance has happened to them or if it has, it happened in their lives before Neverland.
I’ll be honest, while I did like the idea of a life changing event causing people to stop aging in response, as if this exact moment was the moment they were to remember forever, I don’t know if I think it was well executed in the story. It came off a little dubious at best to me. Fortunately, it wasn’t something that was talked about much in the story after the initial explanation. There was also bits of the storytelling that seemed a little out of place, and there were a few other places where something should’ve been explored a little more or explained a little better. But that didn’t detract from the story for me.
The story is told through Tink’s eyes. Fairies have evolved to be mute, but they learn to observe and listen to the feelings of others, giving them the uncanny ability to be able to look inside others and see all their innermost workings. Unlike her incarntations in other works, Tink is seldom acknowledged by humans, but still she clings to Tiger Lily, hitching rides in her hair or on her clothes as she watches a bittersweet love story unfold between Peter and Tiger Lily, a story that is set into motion when Tiger Lily begins to care for a shipwrecked Englishman who made it to their shores, an event that not only changes her, but her whole village. Tink falls in love with Peter herself, but knowing he can never be hers, she roots for Tiger Lily’s love to flourish with Peter because she cares about them both.
Their love does and it doesn’t flourish like most first loves. Lack of understanding what the other needs, the newness of a new love, works for and against Tiger Lily and Peter. Tiger Lily, who is an outsider in her own tribe rather than a princess (but still someone of status since the shaman is her adoptive father), has a hard time showing strong emotion even if she feels it intensely. She feels that she has to be as good as Peter, as fast as Peter, as strong as Peter, or he’ll outrun her grasp and leave her because she’s not his equal. Peter is a swell of emotions and inconsistencies who needs reassurance, who needs to know that she can love all of him, assurances Tiger Lily is unable to give due to not understanding the new feelings she’s having, assurances that are given easily by Wendy when she arrives on the island.
As the story wears on it seems as if some of the magic begins to fade. More and more, wondrous creatures and things begin to retreat to safety. The mermaids swim deep within the ocean where they can’t be found. Tink’s own people move deep in the swamps where men fear to tread. Even people’s perception of Tink, and even her perception of herself starts to relegate her to nothing more than a mere bug. All these things are responses to a changing world that magic no longer plays a part in. The world has been conquered, all except Neverland.
Tink warns in the beginning that the tale would not end happily ever after, so I expected something completely heartbreaking. However, I think the story ended in a way that was best for both Peter and Tiger Lily. What happened between Peter and Tiger Lily is painful yes, but what their lives become after that shows they both needed something different as much as they needed each other. Peter’s decision also seemed to be a mix of sacrifice as well. He loved the lost boys. He worried about them, even though Tiger Lily was the only person to ever know that. He made a point earlier in the story that he wasn’t a good role model, but that he tried to shield them by being carefree. So, I do believe part of his decision was for them to have something better as well. Despite it all, it doesn’t mean that Tiger Lily and Peter stopped loving each other. They see each other in everything and will love each other forever, but every love is different. Every love fulfills a person in different ways. Love makes you do things you’d never expect.
Graphic Novel Review: Princeless Book One: Save Yourself by Jeremy Whitley
Posted on March 4, 2013 3 Comments
Princeless Book One: Save Yourself by Jeremy Whitley
Genre: Leading Ladies, Fantasy
Publisher: Action Lab (May 23, 2012)
Author Information: Twitter
Princeless follows the quest of Princess Adrienne to free herself and her sisters from their fate of waiting for a prince to save them from their towers. From the beginning Adrienne has rebelled against the idea of princesses being passively saved by princes, asking her mother, “Who has the kind of grudge against this beautiful princess that they would lock her in a tower?”
Adrienne decides, after finding a sword after another failed rescue attempt by a prince (one who didn’t even know the definition of fair, at that), that she is going to save herself. She doesn’t need a prince to save her–no princess does. She decides that not only will she save herself, but her sisters as well.
This is a cute story, for sure, but it’s so much more than that. Adrienne questions a world where women are expected to be second class citizen. They’re not expected to rule or hold jobs that traditionally are for men (such as Bedelia secretly smithing in her father’s place). They’re expected to wait for their prince and depend on men to take care of them. A very touching moment came at the end when Adrienne’s mother confides in the prince that she’s treated her own daughter like currency rather than the child she loved. She’s been groomed to behave this way.
But this story doesn’t just point out the pressures that females are expected to adhere to. The male perspective is shown through the prince, Wilcome, who tried to save Adrienne. There’s a brief look at how he went to Prince Charming school when he really just wanted be a kid. He was ripped away from that to become a Prince Charming and shown how prince’s act–only to find out that being a prince was harder than it was made out to be, especially when he still felt like a kid. He says no one comes to save a prince when he’s locked up.
Adrienne’s brother Devin presents another view. His father pretty much says that Devin isn’t fit to rule his kingdom because he’s soft. He expects one of his daughters to marry a strong prince who will take over. He laughs away any talk of one of his daughters ruling because that isn’t their place. Devin isn’t good at sword fighting, preferring poetry to fighting. And he’s never allowed to forget how much of an heir he’s not by his father. And I appreciate this balance being added to the story.
Yes, this is a story about gender binary, but it’s not preachy. It’s a cute story whose moral simply is girls can be strong and boys don’t always have to tough, that boys and girls aren’t boxed in by their gender. This is exactly the kind of story I want to read to my daughter. I love comics, but it’s often hard to find something age appropriate. And if it is age appropriate, it’s very hard to find one where the lead is a female character of color.
I posted a couple of the panels on Tumblr where I had a brief exchange with the author who expressed excitement that I was reading this with a friend and because I wanted to share it with my daughter. I mentioned that she was one-part princess and one-part tomboy, and I see my daughter in this story. I did a Google search on him after that and read an interview where he said he wrote this comic for the exact same reasons that I expressed in my post (he wrote it for his daughter when she gets older). I can’t wait to read more of this story.
Book Review: Black Feathers by Joseph D’Lacey
Posted on February 24, 2013 Leave a Comment
Black Feathers by Joseph D’Lacey
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, Supernatural
Series: Book 1 of Black Dawn
Publisher: Angry Robot (March 26, 2013)
Author’s Information: Twitter | Webpage
Tiara’s Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
This is an advance reader copy that I snagged from Netgalley. I think the book will be released sometime in March/April 2013. From this point on, there will be spoilers.
Gordon Black’s birth signals the beginning of the end for the world. As each year passes, the world falls further into economic and environmental upheaval. Tired of the abuses committed against her Mother Earth rebels and begins to purge her lands of the people who harm her, leaving only those who give back as much as they take. In 2014, a few months before his 14th birthday, Gordon begins a journey to find the Crowman who he hopes can set everything right.
Megan Maurice is a young girl who lives quite some time after the collapse of everything. People are living in simpler times, reminiscent of life before technology and materialism had a firm grip on humanity. Megan is on the cusp of womanhood when she’s called to become a keeper, someone who keeps the story of the Crowman alive. She is the first and only female keeper, and her teacher, a man known only as Mr. Keeper, says that she will either bring them total salvation or total destruction. He can’t be completely sure of her part yet, though he knows everything will change for better or worse because of her.
No adventure is without its foes, and the foes in this story are called The Ward. They’re a group of people who believe that the earth is only there to be exploited by man, despite all the environmental warnings taking place. Their goal is to unite all the nations under one rule. In the chaos and calamity, they introduce strict laws (such as making migrant workers return to their own countries) which are lauded by the people whose fear makes them blind to what The Ward is truly trying to achieve. However, The Ward knows about Gordon, and their main goal is to stop him from meeting the Crowman, an event that will prevent them from reaching their full power.
This book entwined two stories from different points in time, the past and the future, but neither story could be told without the other. Read More
Book Review: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Posted on February 16, 2013 2 Comments
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of Chalion
Publisher: Voyager (December 1, 2000)
Author’s Information: Website
Tiara’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
First, I should say that if you enjoy a fantasy story full of action, then, this may not be the story for you. There’s more talk of battle and war than actual battle. This book relies more on political intrigue, dark family histories, and betrayals. And these are things I enjoyed about the story, especially toward the end of this book.
I think I appreciated the characters before I really started getting into the story itself. I didn’t think the story was bad, but it seemed to move along slowly at first. I blame those feelings on my recent GRRM bender where there is something always happening page after page. You can’t start his books without someone dying or someone planning to kill someone. However, I really loved the characters Bujold gave us in this story. Many of them captured my attention the moment they were introduced. Read More
The BiblioSanctum 