I read the Watchmaker’s Daughter last week and have been ruminating on a book review since then. I have been having problems as this was a book I neither loved nor hated. It is not dreadfully written nor brilliantly told. Having not sparked a strong reaction one way or the other, in the end all I can really say is that the book was Okay.

Book cover for the Watchmaker’s Daughter. Image from the internet.

The Watchmaker’s Daughter is the first book in the Glass and Steele series by C.J. Archer. It starts, unsurprisingly with the daughter of a recently deceased watchmaker struggling to survive after her fiance dumps her and takes over her father’s business. Set in Victorian England (or something like that), the all important element of magic is alluded to briefly then introduced at the end of the story.

And that, I believe is one of the key reasons I was so lukewarm towards this novel – it felt like an introduction. I understand that this is book one in a series. However, I still want the story to feel complete and the threads left dangling made the story feel far from that. While I understand that authors, particularly of series, need to leave some threads loose to work into the subsequent books, these were rather large concepts. Why does magic exist in this world? Why are so few aware of it? I suppose the staunch defenders will say the book covered these points in the two paragraphs dedicated to magic – it is scary so most magicians were killed and thus the few remaining are hiding. That is an extremely weak response to the problem. There is no feel of magic in a world that is designed to be a real representation of historical times. For this to work you need weave the idea (or fear or love for or …) of magic into the world.

The other aspect that felt completely unresolved was the extremely negative reactions of other watchmakers to our female protagonist. Even India Steele herself comments on how peculiar this behaviour is. The lack of detailed histories, the predictable nature of the plot and the lack of depth to the characters made for a somewhat bland story. The mystery of the characters never felt important. The writing was fine, but there was no spark in style to really capture the reader. Our lead female wavered uncertainly between being a strong independent female – though right no I am struggling to think of an instance when she showed true strength – and the love interest of a romance novel. There was some promise in the secondary characters who at least demonstrated a little diversity, though all were subservient to the alpha male.

To balance out the negatives, I will say I liked the blending of American and British cultures. There were some amusing moments, as half the important characters came from America.

Would I recommend this book? It is difficult to answer. I want to support new voices and writers. And I am sure there are people who would derive much enjoyment from the book. It was, for me, too flat and simplistic a read to put forth effort of recommendation. With that I would give it a 3 out of 5 (or maybe a 3.5 out of 5 – as this time I feel I might be unnecessarily harsh towards the book). It was okay, not great or stellar but not terrible either. You might like it.

Book cover for The Bear and the Nightingale; from the internet.

The Bear and the Nightingale is the first book (as far as I can tell) by author Katherine Arden. It is a fairy tale of sorts set in old-timey Russia.

I don’t know a lot about Russian fairy tales, so I cannot say if this was a retelling of a single tale or a compilation of several. From the writing and the feel of it I would guess that this is an original tale heavily influenced and pulling on multiple other classic folk tales. Further, I have little schooling in Russian history. So, I cannot place the period of the writing nor comment on the authenticity of the setting. The world certainly felt vaguely medieval, set in a time where the Grand Princes bowed to the Khan overlords. A time of feudal lords, when the word of the Christian God was still in the process of displacing the hearth-tales of small wood-sprites and local fairies.

The world of the Bear and the Nightingale was richly developed. With particular success seen in the tension created between ordained worshipers of the Christian God and those who still followed the old practices. I was really struck with the manner of creating characters both good and evil (or good and misguided) that followed both religions.

Image for The Bear and the Nightingale; from the internet. The date holds reflects the release of the book – I assume.

The narrative meandered between perspectives with general success. With this style of storytelling we had a much better idea of motivations propelling the various characters as they moved throughout the story. At the same time, I feel several perspectives became lost or reduced in the telling. And that was confusing come the end of the tale when some people, who I thought would be more important earlier, were left off in the distances – far from action of the main thread.

I would say that the biggest weakness was the ending. It seemed the story was so busy trying to wrap itself up in poetry and mystery that much was left unresolved. I was left feeling unsatisfied with the culmination of various characters. The Frost-God was teased but nothing much came of him. Even Vasya, our primary protagonist, was just left. This was particularly perplexing when earlier passages tease her death being needed to resolve the main conflict.

If the internal contradictions were intentional, then I would say the author’s purpose and story became lost in her attempt of subtly. Otherwise, this is an example of immature writing, a story requiring greater polishing.

Finally, I am left wondering at the title: The Bear and the Nightingale. The Bear was certainly clear, but the Nightingale appeared at the end of the story and seemed largely inconsequential.

In the end, I am unclear how well I liked the book. I did like it. It was different and interesting. The writing felt like an old-time fairy tale which certainly appealed. I liked Vasya and her family. Only her family came and went from the story and I feel was not as well realized as it could have been.

Book cover for The Bear and the Nightingale; from the internet.

Upon consideration, I would say The Bear and the Nightingale has a spirit similar to Uprooted by Naomi Novik. In fact they both held that same promise of a good, interesting fairy tale, but left me feeling a little empty at the end.

In conclusion, I suppose I would give the story a 4 out of 5.

Yes, I have been reading. But nothing I have read has inspired much thought for discussion. So do not expect much from today’s book review. I will try to do better at some future date.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Image of the book cover from the internet.

Title: A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent

Author: Marie Brennan

Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis (giving nothing of import away): Lady Isabella Trent, preeminent dragon naturalist lays before the reader her beginnings into a career that would make her famous from Scirland to the furthest reaches of Eriga. The start of her story lays in childhood and Isabella’s early obsession with dragons. The book continues until the conclusion of her Vystrana Mountain expedition.

What was good: I like that the author created an original world. I like the description of dragons as another type of animal to be studied. It is successful in its stylized memoir format.

What was less impressive: I did not like the memoir format. Sure it was accurate. It echoed reading Darwin’s Origin of Species. Which meant that it was largely impersonal, vaguely scientific in style and almost dry considering we are discussing dragons. I did not engage well with the main character. Despite efforts to round out the character, I found Isabella largely cold and distant. The word and secondary characters were similarly distant and unapproachable.

Because of the memoir format, it was difficult to have an overarching plot or classical story element. Despite these inherent challenges, the author shoved one in there. Unfortunately this plot was seemingly tacked on at the end of the book and introduced an element of magic that did not fit well with the science bend of the book.

Solid effort, but I struggled to connect with any of the characters. And the side notes became something I skimmed over uninterested.

Prognosis: Since this series appears to be available at the library and I have been bored of late, there is a chance I might continue with the series. I wouldn’t invest money into the book, but the fact that I am willing to mention it on the blog means it is not trashy. And that is something at least. Still, I am not rushing out to read more of Lady Trent’s banal adventures.

Rank and Reason: 4 out of 5 stars for being well written, inventive but still a dry read.

Image from the internet.

My last book review was a rather lengthy one – at least for me. This promises to be exceptionally short. Every so often I get lucky and a book on my wish list becomes free! Always exciting. Without much thought about what book I was “purchasing” I loaded up my new digital read.

That is not entirely true, I vaguely remembered something about a Regency-like period and a new mage discovering she had the ability to burn things. What I didn’t pay attention to was the author’s name. Thus, I was expecting more of a trashy romance when I started to read: Burning Bright by Melissa McShane.

While there is romance, sort of, in the background of Melissa McShane’s books, they are not what I would describe as trashy. They are not really all that focused on the romance either. Actually, the author is pretty good about establishing a friendship between the two love-interests before anything so scandalous as a kiss happens.

The story centres around Elinor, who wakes one day to discover that she is an Extraordinary Scorcher after nearly setting her entire house on fire. Not wanting to remain in the same residence of her father and not willing to submit to his choice in husband, Elinor offers her talents (as a fire-starter and stopper) to the navy. They are busy with wars and pirates, something Elinor feels she can assist with.

I will say this. Elinor does not dress as a boy to hide on the ship. That would have been silly. Instead she is kept as segregated as possible from the rest of the crew spending much of her time in the Captain’s quarters. It was a surprisingly reasonable set up.

Image from the internet.

Further, the story revolves around Elinor’s adventures helping to root out the pirate problem in the Caribbean. Her Captain love-interest was a reasonably developed character, a little too shiny but otherwise fine. Over all, it is a solid, clean read.

As for my problems with the book. First, Elinor’s tyrannical father was not well-developed. He was Evil! It was clearly done as motivation for Elinor, but left me with a completely unrealistic feeling. My second nit-pick is the pacing. It was a bit slow. Finally, the magic system which was crucial to the plot was not clearly defined nor did it feel integrated into the world. I think the biggest irksome moment was when we are introduced to the skills of a Bounder half way through the story. I didn’t even realize that one of the sailors had this skill. It felt rather tacked on as the author realized she needed scenes to happen in more than one location.

I would give it a solid, generic good rating. Nothing overly offensive (the father can be shoved to the side), nothing overly fantastic (magic system was okay).