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Every Other Day – Book Review

To say I have had some spare time for reading might be overstating the matter. It was more like I procrastinated the oodles of other work I should be doing and sped-read a couple of books.

The first book I am going to preview was called Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It is every bit a teen book. All the main and important players – well the heroes of the tale are teenagers; high-schoolers. The villains are adults – but isn’t that always the way?

Yup this is the book cover.

The main character, Kali, is your typical, seventeen year old superhuman. She has insanely inhuman super abilities while fighting the myriad of teenage hormones and awkwardness well associated with high school. It was geared very strongly to that segment of the population. While that isn’t a specifically horrible thing, it is off putting for someone who does not wallow in teenage reminiscent. High school was not the best years of my life and I don’t need to relive them.

The other glaringly irritant for me was the use of science to explain the supernatural. Sometimes I can go along with the ideas presented in meaningless jargon. The use of the DNA triple helix however, I found grating. This may have been due to my recent covering of DNA structure and replication. While it is true, the triple helix was considered as a possible structure, it was very early on ruled out. A good thing as replicating three strands would not work in any logical method I can conceive. I also struggle with how the base pairs could conceivable bond together when bases are held together by specific hydrogen bonding. Even the use of a quadruple helix would have made more sense. It is like the idea behind conservative replication. It was an idea that was ruled out through experimentation. Even though it was inconceivable how it would function, it was a hypothesis – but that doesn’t mean we should claim that superpowers arise from that failed idea.

This is the DNA double helix. Where would the other stand attach?

This doesn’t even touch on the inter-dimensional lines that had to be crossed to further the explanation of how every mythical creature known to mankind actually exists – and perhaps a hundred more too. Of course, I don’t need to have zombies and vampires and hellhounds and … who knows what else all packed into one hormone driven story.

In some ways it is amusing the way that ‘fantasy magic’ is replaced with ‘supernatural, paranormal and psychic’ powers or abilities or creatures in the present, science-grounded society. Essentially these two concepts of the wizard and the psychic work much the same. Their abilities are often similar and often endless, growing with each book in a series or each challenged faced by the hero. I suppose you could argue there is often learned, trained, taught while the abilities of the psychic (and other supernatural creatures) are inherited. Though, often wizards are born in the role (even in Harry Potter) and psychics need to train their abilities.

But that is enough of the negatives.

What I liked about this story was the opening sequence. I liked the powerful fighter. Kali starts as a tough girl, well acquainted with her unusual state. When we first meet, we see Kali hunting. It was an interesting and gripping way to start a story, particularly one written in the first person (a style, wholly over done in modern, supernatural fantasy stories). The first person writing worked in this tale. The plot moved quickly, and while there were moments I want to shake some sense into Kali. At least tell her to listen to the voices around her. I thought she was largely believable. The ending was strong, not surprising, but then that could reflect the solid writing more than anything else. The other strength of this novel was that it is a standalone. There is no sequel, no trilogy to follow. It was a strong, single story with some interesting characters, a lot of teenage drama – but a good solid, quick read. And sometimes it is nice to read something straightforward.

Storm Glass – Book Review

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Well, work has been horrendously busy for the past month. Between that and other life activities I haven’t had time for reading or posting. However over the past few days I did manage to eke out a little time to finally read something new.

I wonder if this book is as good as I remember? Perhaps I will seek it out for a reread.

So a long time ago – an actual number of years – I read a book called Poison Study. I enjoyed. I remember thinking it was an interesting concept, an engaging character and a pretty solid world. I don’t know why I never read the sequels, other than I had become distracted by other reads. Anyway, I was at the library on the weekend and picked up Maria V. Synder’s latest book called Storm Glass. Scanning the title, I quickly noted this was book one of a trilogy. Well, I didn’t let that put me off.

After three days of reading I thought I would do a review, share my thoughts and impressions – that was and is my intention. However, I am struggling to write anything interesting about a story that was just meh. It was not so terrible to be worthy of raging. It was certainly not good enough to gush about. It was safe, bland, predictable and largely lifeless. It had too many cameos of characters from previous books in this world, which I hadn’t read. For a book that should have stood on its own, it depended far too greatly on the reader being familiar with the world. As a reader not familiar with the world I was left with a very lack-luster description.

Bland blue cover to fit with the bland story; Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder

The main female protagonist was unapproachable. I was not familiar with her tragic background. Did all these events play out in other stories set in the same world? I don’t know. I do know that her past was supposed to be scarring, life-changing. It should have been the draw that kept me reading. Instead I just wished the character would stop sighing over her background.

Written in the first person, I should have been drawn into Opal’s life. I should have felt her internal struggle. I didn’t. Opal was not engaging. Her shy, disengaged character was played to good effect. It was clear the author wanted the reader to feel sorry for the main character, but her life didn’t seem so bad. She was taunted by her fellow students – but we didn’t see much of that. The one moment, when Opal accidentally steals the magic from one of the next greatest magicians was the closest we came to true emotional conflict and it was swept away with a little hand waving. Really – this could should have been a driving force for Opal’s actions. Instead she is lead or directed from one scene to the next.

The attempt at a love triangle was sloppy. There was no strong attraction between the characters and Opal seemed to like whoever was standing next to her. Really, the author didn’t even explore the conflict of being attracted to two different people at the same time. Everything was further brushed to the side when Opal decided not to explore feelings towards either man because she was afraid of rejection. A very normal thing to do, however when we only have Opal’s internal dialogue to lead us through this world the romantic tension is complete obliterated. Also, the author has already started to twist one of the men into a traitor and thus is killing the triangle – once more we enter a bland, straightforward world.

As concepts go, there was nothing offensive in the plot. I thought it was too unfocused for my tastes. It tried to have mystery which became a tangle of disconnected threads. I would have liked to see more character development, after all it is written first person. Less focus on the travelling, which was not interesting to read. The ending also fell flat as very little was actually resolved. This is book one after all. Perhaps if Opal was a more engaging character her supposed development over the course of the novel would have been a good arch. As it was, it read as poorly edited and half-baked.

I will say that while the author failed to craft a single engaging character she clearly did her research in glass making. It was almost interest to read about the process. Unfortunately it became page filling without serving a solid purpose.

Buried deep within Storm Glass is a decent story idea with potential. Unfortunately all that potential is unrealized in the actual product. The characters, world and plot is flat, boring and often predictable. Storm Glass is not terrible, but it is also not a good read.

The Night Circus – Book Review

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The jacket cover on my version of the Night Circus. I like it.

This was not a book I chose for myself. In fact it was given to me by my Aunt. While I love my Aunt, I question her taste in entertainment and so I placed the book on my shelf and let it sit there, collecting dust and doing nothing in particular until this weekend.

Desperately tired of the other books I have been trying and often failing to read, I sought the comfort of something familiar. While I was perusing my favourite novels I saw the black and white cover, accented with small flashes of red. The clear white lettering was accentuated with silver scroll work. This time the simple title called to me: The Night Circus.

As I removed the hardcover novel from the shelf I slipped the coloured jacket cover from it. I did not reread the book’s summary, for that was part of the reason I had left it unread on my shelf for the past few months. Instead, I cracked the black cover with its silver scroll work. I flipped past the bold back and white strip end papers to the title page. Beneath the title the author’s name was simply stated: Erin Morgenstern. The book was not filled with extraneous information, advertisements for other works by this author or another. In three pages I was plunging into the novel itself.

The Night Circus is an unusual read. It is written in two different styles: the first is a bit like a narration, almost as though the author is talking to you. The second style is a distant third person; though each chapter often follows a single individual it does not bring the character’s thoughts to the author. It reads like you are an observer watching the players move about the stage. You cannot hear their thoughts, only the words they utter to the world. You can only see the actions they perform. All of this is written in the present tense.

Title page inside the Night Circus. Lots of black and white inside the book.

It was a very distant way of writing. The reader is kept separate from the characters. The story unfolds on the paper before them, but they are not actually a part of it. They are a spectator, capable of catching only glimpses of the characters. While two characters are considered the primary players by the jacket cover, I feel that is an over simplification.

The secondary performers are just as important, more so in explaining the whys and even the hows. The narrative touches on the actions of the primary characters, yet so little detail about their daily lives is recorded on the pages. This is not a novel dedicated to the minute happenings. We are not hand-held and intimate with the characters. We do not follow every day in their lives. Instead the story flits from one performer to another. We touch only briefly on moments in their lives. It is through these fleeting impressions and periodic happenings that the tale is built.

It starts small, with broad sweeping statements and generalizations. We are often told, told that Prospero is a great Magician, told that Celia and Marco study intently for years. There is no detail about how they study – or very little. We see the results of these efforts later. While some of these consequences are described in detail, there is a generalization to it that again makes things seem less personal.

Yet, there is a magic to the writing, a subtle mystery that drew me in. I followed slowly at first, cautious about what I was reading, uncertain I wanted to continue. I did not connect instantly with the characters. They were too remote to understand. But I was captivated by the Circus. Before I knew it, I was hooked. I had to know how the magic unfolded and the story ended.

The chapters often start with dates. It is not a new concept and truthfully it is something I often ignore. I read the date on the first chapter, noted it was set in the past and then continued. I recognized the second chapter took place a little later, but paid little attention to the details. It wasn’t until the date jumped that I became aware of the importance of those words and numbers. Part way through the sixth chapter I realized something didn’t fit. It was more than the change in perspective. Dates serve an importance in this narrative and they needed to be watched with care.

Another cover for the Night Circus. I am fond of the stylized black and white images.

The book itself is like the Night Circus. It is a world of shadow and light, of illusion and theatre. The reader is the audience, watching as performers dance across the stage. While the style is far from traditional and almost cold in its presentation, it is also magical. The story unfolds slowly; gradually revealing its secrets, though there is much that is kept hidden.

It starts in a distant time, popular in fiction, and modified to achieve feats only reached in our dreams. My first inclination is to write this book off as some alternate imagining of our history. While the author has set the story in the real world, she had done so with a twist of magic. To reconcile book and life would be impossible – though it is often attempted. At least, that is what I though until I reached the end, the very last lines where real and illusion blur. Perhaps it is because she is not explicit with her words, though the suggestion is anything but subtle. The connection is made; the story is alive and somewhere out there is the Night Circus.

The Anatomist’s Apprentice – Book Review

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It started when I was surfing the ebook section at my local library. The idea was to find new reading material, for it has been a while since I read something all the way through. My interest had returned from fairy tales to steampunk. What I wanted was something light, fun and fast paced. Amidst the stream of vampire flooded section I found one title and skimmed very briefly the summary.

I read the title as: The Automatonist’s Apprentice (or something of that nature). Certain I was getting a steampunk mystery filled with automatons and dusty, coal-streaked London I flagged the title and waited for it to become available. It was probably this wait that distorted my memory of the book. For what I got instead was a novel dealing with dissected dead bodies and a long-winded murder mystery. I was utterly disappointed with the first chapter. It was a bucket of cold water on my eager anticipation.

However, I forged ahead with the Anatomist’s Apprentice by Tessa Harris. After all I didn’t have anything else to read and I had spent a good three minutes downloading this book. To my surprise, I started to get into the style of the writing and the intrigue of the plot.

I suppose I should have known from the cover which certainly lacks the expected mechanicals.

The beginning revolves around the sudden gruesome death of a young lord, observed by his doting sister. Rumours quickly spread through the county that it may not have been naturally caused. Even the sister begins to worry over the cause of death. Eventually, an inquest is ordered. In the meantime we are introduced to a young, brilliant anatomists who has taken over for a blind professor in London. We meet him as he cuts carefully into the recently deceased flesh of a former acquaintance. The two threads of story merge when the dead lord’s sister requests the secret help of the renowned anatomist.

The piece is written in third person, though each section usually focusses on one individual at a time. While I like this style, the author kept adding new and new character voices as she wove a convoluted tale of intrigue. I was happily following along, wondering if the Harris was the type of author to add a massive twist at the end of the story or not when suddenly an unexpected romance was thrust unwelcoming upon the reader.

I think it was about halfway through the book when the two ‘primary’ characters where suddenly thrust together. I suppose it was supposed to have been a slow building of feelings, but it felt shockingly awkward in a plot focussed on a potential murder. So disconnected was their midnight rendezvous that I put the book down. I suppose her writing was not good enough to keep me engaged. The mystery that was being subtly built with layer upon layer of deception and complexity no longer held my attention.

After a period of reading nothing else, I did return to the story. I skimmed my way through two more chapters before skipping to the end. The final chapter was significantly better than I expected. It did not explain everything that happened in the last 40% of the book, but it suggested at even more complex a story than I previously imagined. In fact, while I spoiled the mystery I am actually now more intrigued by the plot than before. I just might return to this book at some future date.

In the mean time, I think I will return to my own bookshelf and the well-known friends that rest within. I know they will not disappoint me with discontinuous moments or awkward transitions. I will be safe between the familiar covers as I relive their tales.

Author Review – Jessica Day George

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Recently I read a good book. It was a bit strange, as I was half certain I had already read this particular book, but as it was a fairy tale I wasn’t entirely certain. After all, everyone knows how the fairy tale is going to end and who the main characters are. This was further complicated by the fact that I know I have read more than one telling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. In the end, it doesn’t matter if I had read Princess of the Midnight Ball before or not. I read it recently and I enjoyed.

Book Cover

In fact, I enjoyed it so much I checked out the other titles by the author Jessica Day George. It my utter delight she had written two other Princess books: Princess of Glass and Princess of the Silver Woods. Both books were retellings of fairy tales – Cinderella and Red Riding Hood respectively. I enjoyed both.

The first book focusses on the classic story of twelve sisters forced to dance every night until their shoes are worn out. The helpful strange, cloaked with invisibility is the only one able to follow secretly after the princesses, discover what they are doing and help free them. As I said, the tale is classic. The author told it in a world like and unlike ours, set in some fantasy medieval period. It was filled with tiny kingdoms and a bit of magic. If there was any complaint to make I would say that the story lacked depth. It felt simplistic and flitted between several characters without the depth I would have preferred. In this manner the characters moved across the pages, playing their respective roles. Yet, I never felt drawn into their personal conflicts. I suspect this is in part due to the fairy nature of the story and the emphasis being placed more on the world than the inhabitants.

I preferred the second of the books which was surprisingly a sequel. The main character was one of the twelve dancing princesses visiting a different character. I liked the different and not entirely flattering portrayal of Cinderella. I was also surprised by how much I liked the Princess as she reacted to the trauma (forced dancing) of her childhood. Here there was more emphasis on characters than setting and I enjoyed the story much more for it. I also appreciated the link to the first book.

The third book in the series also followed one of the original twelve dancing princesses – the youngest. It was a different twist on Red Riding Hood which was good, but not great. I feel that the author missed a fantastic opportunity to really play with the Red Riding Hood characters. I also wasn’t whelmed to the continuation of the first book’s plot. I understand why we came full circle to the main problem of the first story, I just wasn’t enamoured with it. I would have preferred more of a character piece, which I think is the strength of the author.

Overall, these are good, fun, fairy tales. A great young adult read. As such I was then tempted to read move of Jessica Day George’s books. Her Dragon Trilogy was great original fun. I liked the dragons and who they fit into the world. I liked the main female and her love of sewing (another thing I liked about the Princess books was the incorporation of knitting – being a knitter myself).

Another Book Cover

By far the best book in the series was the first: the Dragon Slippers. This is where we were introduced to the main character, to the world and importantly to the dragons. The dragon hoards are the very best part of the series. The following two books, Dragon Flight and Dragon Spear where good but not as great. The first book held mystery and adventure. So many things happened. When I reflect back on the story, things that didn’t make sense at the time or seemed like the author pushing the story ahead were actually explained. These events didn’t just happen because. They followed in world logic and plot making a cohesive and tight narrative. The second two books lacked the complexity of the plot.

If I had to choose I would place preference for the Princess books over the Dragon books. Why? The Princess books are written for a slightly older audience, the stories feel slightly more complex as do the characters. Also, I have a bias towards retellings of fairy tales – my new obsession.

In summary, Jessica Day George is a good author of children/young adult fantasy adventures. Her writing is fun and imaginative and her characters have some scope. Her work is set in comfortable fantasyland, that may not be revolutionary it is extremely appropriate for these stories. I would recommend her books.

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

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We are going a little younger in the audience of our book review today. The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy is a children’s fantasy that is enjoyably good.

We start after the fairy tales have occurred: Prince Charming has already met and ‘saved’ his princess. They are engaged and the bards speak of bright futures for the couple. However, the bards never get things right; they cannot even remember the prince’s name!

Painted like simple, empty-headed girls obsessed with fashion, the princesses do not live up to their descriptions either. No, the bards have taken the elements of their respective fairy tales and twisted the facts out of recognition.

What we find instead in this eclectic land of kingdoms are four very different princes and four unique princesses. Each has their own distinct outlook on life and a well-developed personality. With that in play we now have a story worth reading. Like all great books it is the characters that sell the simple tale of stopping an evil witch and ‘rescuing’ the missing princess.

Images of the Princesses from the book. Ok, one of them is not a typical fairy tale princess. She is still alot of fun to read about though. – Images from book, but found online.

The book is well suited to its audience. The bad guys are a little on the silly side so as not to be too scary. Even these secondary characters have been given personalities and well-defined goals. They are not just evil, they are purposely bad. The heroes do manage some heroic moments towards the end of the book but are otherwise written as people with strengths and some very obvious weaknesses. The princesses are the most surprising element. After all fairy tales generally revolve around the princess spending far less time developing the male counterpart. These women are even more diverse then their princes and the author has a few interesting twists as he reinterprets their distinctive outlooks on life. I think there is enough writing about both sexes along with a healthy dose of adventure and comedy to appeal to both genders.

Really, it is one of the best children’s books I have read in a long time (only partly because I haven’t read many children’s books in a long time).

My few complaints are … well silly. I find the book obviously childish and the plot simplistic. This is not because the author didn’t do a good job, he did. This is because the book is a children’s tale. I wonder what it would look like if it was directed at an older audience. My other quibble has to do with the narrator’s voice at the end – it didn’t jive with me. I would rather that the princes were not responsible for ‘writing’ the book. Personal preference; it just felt like the wording on the last page broke my emersion in the world.

Still, to be absolutely clear – The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is an excellent children’s fantasy. Also the illustrations are pretty funny too!

Book Review – Nameless

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Another Wednesday and another book review. This time I am delving into the young adult section – fantasy still.

Cover for the recent book review – Nameless

A general reminder that as I review the following work, I may give away details you would prefer to discover through actually reading the book. Be warned.

Today’s book review is on Nameless: A Tale of Beauty and Madness by Lili St Crow. This book wins for not having zombies. Also, following hard on the heels of several really unsuccessful reads I found the young adult fairy tale surprisingly good.

It is a successful merge of modern world building (cars, private schools, and high-security mansions) and magic. They come together in the town of New Heaven which is supposed to be part of a larger world. Though the town ends up feeling isolated in a world not that big, I didn’t find this a problem. Most fairy tales take place in isolated kingdoms, so the setting fit for me. That the story is clearly a retelling of Snow White was another positive. It was actually interesting the manner in which the author took elements of the classic fairy tale: the seven ‘dwarves’, the huntsman, the apple, mirrors and the beauty-obsessed queen with her hunger for hearts and twisted it into something fresh yet familiar.

Snow White comes across as a princess – not a spoiled brat, rather a young woman who is well protected. Her roles in life are small and lean towards the domestic – in the manner of smoothing relations between people, calming tempers and other ladylike things. I suppose her character arc is that of growing confidence, for she physically does very little in the narrative. Mostly she quakes in fear and watches the world around her through anxious eyes. A platoon of friends and family (adopted family) actively fight to protect her from the dangers (largely physical) that threaten the Snow White’s life. Yet, while I was reading about this princess character, I was not immediately struck by how men jump to protect women; particularly Snow White. I think this had to do with the supporting cast of strong female characters; including a fierce Red Riding Hood and determined Cinderella (how do you spell sequel?).

Being a fairy tale – granted one that incorporates the modern love of vampires and other supernatural beings – the story ends much as you would expect. The path is littered with a few unexpected interpretations to keep the reader (me) interested. The writing balances carefully between engaging narrative and teen angst which can often overwhelm and destroy a YA novel. While following the typical trials of teenagers (not the most exciting of material choices) the author creates a present day world of magical possibilities. Here magic is anchored in the world and used to accomplish much of what our technology does. I like that. Never does the supernatural feel overpowered.

So, for creating a teen book that doesn’t drag, whine, or become over the top angsty, for subtly incorporating current vampire and fey trends, and for creating an interesting retelling of a classic fairy tale, I would give Nameless a solid pass. It is a good young adult read.

Failed-Book Review

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I suppose I should start posting spoiler alerts at the start of my book reviews. For this one, an alert hardly seems necessary as I never actually finished any of the three following stories. All have been abandoned for bland tales, poor writing or some combination of the two.

In an attempt to branch out in my reading I went to the internets for a book suggestion. In multiple threads several book titles were continuously flaunted. Having unsuccessfully tried George RR Martin’s unfinished series some time ago, I skipped past that title. I have heard mixed reviews for the lengthy Wheel of Time saga so I ignored that recommendation too. However, one name kept returning to the lists, The Name of the Wind. So I ventured to my local library to delve into the rich fantasy created by Patrick Rothfuss.

Failed-Book Review 1 – The Name of the Wind

Book cover so you know to avoid this poorly written specimen.

Again, I state that this book came highly recommended. I also foolish thought – for a while at least, that this was a stand-alone story. As it turns out it is one in an unfinished trilogy.

It is difficult to know where to begin with a book like this. As my observant brother has already remarked, there are no well-developed characters, no meaningful females and an excessive amount of bottle-polishing in the all black inn. Truthfully, I didn’t even notice the bottle polishing or the authors overwhelming use of black descriptors.

I did, however, notice the incredibly bland nature of the story and the inept dialogue. The scene that sticks out the most for me occurs when the young hero’s teacher goes to speak with the young hero’s parents. Sitting seriously across from the two doting individuals the teacher breaks the startling news that his pupil is actually shockingly bright. Haven’t you ever noticed, he asks the parents, how your son just picks up everything so quickly and so perfectly? With his talents he could even … [drum roll please] … attend university!

Seriously? You have to tell the boy’s parents that he is obscenely gifted and then the best he can do with his oh-so-amazing abilities is attend university? Whoot. He might even me a merchant one day! OMG – this is beyond dumb. Ok, what is really impossibly stupid is that I continued to read this painfully inactive narrative for quite a bit longer. Past the point when his parents are meaninglessly slaughtered so the young hero can experience trauma in his formative years. Of course, the child of some 12 years or so acts in the most un-childlike and ridiculous manner – uhg!

One must particularly enjoy the stories told within the hero’s narrative of his own life’s tale – so glaringly important yet so obviously disconnected with the flow of the story it hurts to read. While the Name of the Wind may lack the glittering vampires and characterless female protagonist in the horrendously terrible Twilight series, it is clearly a Mary-Sue novel (for boys). I cannot understand the appeal. I cannot comprehend how people have not only read the entire 92 chapter book, its equally long sequel and actually await the third and thankfully final installment with anything resembling eagerness.

To all those internet people I have to ask: if you thought this was the height of amazingness, what do you think actually typifies bad writing?

Defeated by The Name of the Wind before I even reached the half-way point, I moved on to something a little different. Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton was an impulse buy from chapters. I was perusing the shelves looking for something new and exciting and this was in the bargain section – was that the first sign?

Failed-Book Review 2 – Legends of the Red Sun: Nights of Villjamur

I still rather like this cover. I like the cold, hard landscape and the promice of epic sword battles it invokes.

Once more I thought I was selecting a stand-alone book. Once more I had picked the first in a series – clearly someone needs to do a better job of reading the book cover.

I will start by noting two things that I found interesting as I started my journey in this new fantasy realm. First, the world was set among an archipelago of islands rather than the typically large continent characteristic of most fantasy stories. Second, it was set in the far north where the threat of another ice age loomed in the not too distant future.

As for the negatives, well it is difficult to know where to begin. We are coarsely introduced to three separate characters in the prologue – each in the midst of uncompleted actions that loosely weave together. Their names, like those of the islands and cities are foreign and difficult to pronounce. So I found it very discordant when we are next introduced to them and two out of three bare different names than the prologue – rather confusing. More voices are introduced and more long and difficult names are bandied about without spending much time lingering on the characters before skipping to the next.

Similarly I struggled to make sense of the cities and their relationships to the each and the world at large. All told, I was not clear whether the city of Villjamur was at the centre of the empire or its edge. Was it the largest city and capital or did it actually belong to some outside force?

The mix of more modern cussing and coarse description interjected in to periods of detailed, historic-feeling description and world building did not sit well. But three things really pushed the slow-moving disjointed tale over the edge for me.

First, the mix of races found in the city: living (apparently) banshees that screamed with the deaths of others; garudas that are half-man and half-vulture (wings, beaks, and talons on a human form); and the rumel which seem to be a human crossed with a horse. Really, why? You have these bizarre combinations and one of the recurring characters worries that everyone else looks down on him because he is albino – well, he doesn’t have a tail or horse hide so I don’t see what the big deal is.

Second, zombies. Yes, they really do introduce dangerous, deadly hordes of clever undead stalking and killing the elite Night Guard (also magically or mechanically altered to be super humans – though I didn’t get far enough to learn which method was employed). This led me to the most obviously evil councilman who is not subtle in the least with his manipulations of the governing body. There was no ambiguity for his actions, not redeeming features. His little seen of bribery was so mustache twirling-evil as to be comical in other media.

Third, there was growing sense of despair that the author was going to directly connect his story with our reality setting it sometime in the future. Granted this was not explicitly stated. But there were worrying signs. It was in the nods to the Vikings with the descriptions of weapons, longboats and a direct mention of Valhalla. It was in the assertion that this was not the first ice age to sweep the lands and destroy earlier civilizations – including those that mentioned the walking dead in their records. It was in the allusions made when discussing magic as the use of ancient artifacts – magic/artifacts that caused large explosions very similar to grenades.

True these characters lacked the same obvious stupidity of those found in Name the Wind. They lacked Name the Wind’s perfect hero capable of doing everything without fault. They also lacked that hook to make them interesting; that snare to make me want to find out how they dealt with the growing problems swelling around them. Of course, because this is the first in the series, there seemed little emphasis on a clear, contained plot and more on introducing some large-picture, overwhelming problems.

One quarter into the book and I gave up. Part of me feels I should return to this tangled mess, after all, I actually paid money for it. On the other hand, I could weed my garden, wash a cat or watch some paint dry.

And so I am brought to review my third failed book. This book was actually the third in a series of undefined length. I had enjoyed book one and slogged through book two before giving up all hope on Black Powder War by Naomi Novik.

Failed-Book Review 3 – Temeraire (Book 3): Black Powder War

I actually perfer the cover of the first book in the series to this one.

The series started interestingly enough with the hatching of a dragon egg on an English navy ship during the Napoleonic war. The unfortunate Captain finds himself transferred from the respectable position of captaining a war vessel to captaining a Dragon. It is a wordy novel that you have to be in the correct mind-frame to read. Most of the action happens in the final quarter, though I did enjoy the growth of the baby Dragon and the development of both main characters that eventually lead to a fight.

While I appreciated the first book, it took time for me to start the second. It was even longer to pull myself through endless pages of sea-voyage as the Dragon and Captain travel from England to China. Again the story is crammed awkwardly into the finally half-dozen chapters. The rest of the book being detailed descriptions of the food eaten by the Dragon (not by the humans), the endless sailing (but never the supposed tensions that exist between ship crew and dragon crew) and the Captain’s lengthy worries that his Dragon would rather stay in China than return to England (he is a Chinese dragon after all).

There was little character development in the second novel. We were already acquainted with the main protagonists and the author didn’t feel the need of personalizing the dragon’s crew (each dragon is manned by an undetermined number of airmen). This lack of detail, beyond the occasional name and one line description (like: one of the cabin boys was actually a girl), meant we the reader didn’t care much when these characters were unceremoniously killed. Often during battles when they were stabbed, shot or cut free to fall to their deaths. Occasionally individuals were washed away during storms or eaten by sea monsters (not as exciting as you would think).

The long-winded style of writing, which I assume was intentionally done, does affect an aura of that time-period. However, since nothing really happens for most of the book, I feel you are better off reading the final quarter which seems to summarize everything you need to know and completely skip the first three quarters of writing.

So, it was with considerably less eagerness that I embarked on the third part of the series. Here they destroyed the ship in a most convenient (or for the characters – inconvenient) fire, thus forcing the Dragon and his crew to travel the over-land route: the dangerous silk road. Even here, most of the pages were dedicated to the number of camels the Dragon would need to eat. As the party, a few men lighter from storms and … honestly I don’t remember any more … were first exposed to the talking, hungry, feral dragons I finally gave up in defeat. I skipped to the end, skimmed the last couple of chapters and closed the book for good.

While I appreciate period pieces to be written with the flavour of the time, you do not need to be as boring. Sure the war wasn’t all excitement, but already you have drifted into fantasy land when you had a dragon egg hatching on your ship! Now, let’s inject some action and more interesting plot and for goodness sake develop your main crew. They are so bland and forgettable the dragon doesn’t care when they die – and these men are supposed to be the dragon’s horde!

I would not recommend any of the above. However, if you have mysteriously found yourself successfully reading these books, I have two questions for you: Exactly how did you get through them? How do they end (please, summarize in four sentences or less – after all, we have already established my short attention span)?

Name of the Wind – The Trouble with Breasts

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Edit – I apologize for the lateness of this post. The site has been undergoing some minor revisions as we attempt to comply to Google’s new SEO formatting and I’m really slow in learning new things.

I have returned from my eastern travels a little more worldly if not a little extra sore. However, during the long hours on the road, my sister had graciously provided me a copy of a very special book. This delightful read, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss to be precise, was a rather interesting experience if only for the reactions it produced from my family as I read it aloud.

True story, I searched for sexy wind in Google and got this. Granted, I have my safe search on so I wouldn’t recommend trying this at home.

Now, I have no intention to write a proper review of the novel mostly in part because I never finished it. Between my constant breaks as I tried to slog through its curious writing and the sudden expiration of the digital download’s loan period left me only about a quarter into the book. Suffice to say, I’m not the most knowledgeable to comment on its overall story and narrative since I don’t know how it finishes. And, as small as it might be, there is a possibility that halfway through the writing actually starts to be good.

No, instead I wish to discuss something that grates on the average person’s nerves even more. I wish to discuss feminism.

This may not surprise anyone, but I am not a woman. This startling revelation has often left me a little wary of feminist issues. I didn’t think I was truly prepared to really discuss its arguments either for or against having never had the experience that usually fueled the standard discourse. However, I have been reading quite a bit of its discussion in my online interactions and have slowly begun to educate myself on its core issues. Primarily, feminism is less about women’s rights as it is about equal rights.

Not really the most astounding revelation, especially for anyone familiar with the movement. But, after reading numerous opinions and perspectives, I began to worry if my writing was somehow anti-feminist. I am certainly a supporter of equality and as popular opinion grows more and more in its favour, the discussion of discrimination has shifted to the examination of more subtler channels. Often times, the things that are discussed as being discriminatory appear to be unintentional. They are more insidious methods of perpetuating classical views of female subordination and repression. Things like the ‘Male Gaze’ only complicate matters further for someone that has never felt discrimination based on gender. So ingrained, goes the argument, of patriarchal standards, that many people are not even aware of contributing to it either through neglecting deeper characterization of female characters or constantly reverting them to positions of powerlessness. I worried that I, like many others, had fallen into this trap. I mean, I don’t even have a D&D story from the only girl’s perspective!

However, after reading The Name of the Wind, I no longer have this worry.

Now, let me first state that I don’t believe Patrick Rothfuss is some disgusting bigot or anti-feminist. I think the arguments I’m about to level are better explained through a much more likely avenue – Rothfuss just isn’t a good writer. And there’s far more evidence tho suggest the latter over the former that I feel comfortable in this belief. Also, as I’ve confessed, I haven’t finished the novel so there does exist that miniscule possibility that squirreled somewhere in the later sections of the book is a damn good representation of a woman. I’m just never going to bother trying to find out.

And, as this is a semi-critical examination of a work, do expect there to be some spoilers.

The first moment when I began to sense this subtle sexism, however, came rather shortly into the story. For those who are lucky enough to have not cracked the spine, The Name of the Wind is the first in a three part series that follows some discredited hero called Kvothe who is so amazing and clever that when going into exile, his idea of the perfect disguise was to drop two letters from his name. Which might not be too bad, but given the constant description of his flame red hair being more red than red and undeniably unique, you’d think there might have been more consideration put into the guise.

However, I digress.

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Obviously I don’t own any of these windy cloud clip arts.

Elusive Kvothe has started – by his own description – an unsuccessful inn smack in the middle of nowhere Medieval England. This inn, in small town Mudville, still manages to pull a constant crowd of six young bachelors who constantly fill the shack’s gloomy hall. This setting is where the majority of the action occurs, as news and gossip is shared amongst the men while Kvothe listens attentively (but not too much to appear interest) while compulsively polishing his massive collection of bottles in the corner.

Now, I knew beginning the novel that it had a rather curious format. The story was meant to be a narration of the protagonist detailing the story of his life over three years to a scribe. What I didn’t realize, was that it has a substantial beginning that covers rather trite events leading up to the actual crux of the narrative. However, curiously, during this lead up I made a rather strange observation.

There were no women.

There wasn’t a female bar wench which is so prominent in fantasy fiction. While I would normally consider a breath of fresh air, the lack of a female presence (let alone voice) drew more and more prominent. Kvothe has some annoying assistant/student who often makes talk of distracting young maidens disrupting his studies as if they were some wild beast trampling past for attention. Yet, none of these virtuous unicorns ever graces the inn. When one of Kvothe’s seemingly single patrons arrives with a gruesome present from the countryside, only a male priest is informed of the discovery. When Kvothe ventures into the town village for errands, he only ever acts with men. The only time I recall there being a female mentioned in the first hundred pages is when two unnamed and undescribed women come bustling into Kvothe’s inn in a most uncharacteristic moment of business. They enter with a group of travelers and merchants of various detail and trades and I suspect the poor ladies were only ever known because the only thing that made them remarkable in that crowd was probably their breasts.

And, of course, none of them have lines.

This struck me as incredibly peculiar. There was no discernible reason for there to be such a lack of female representation, even incredibly cursory, in this world. It wasn’t like this inn had been established as one of many in the small village that only held particular appeal to young, confirmed bachelor men who displayed an uncommon lack of interest in the opposite sex. Their absence on the streets during the day or in shops is even stranger and I am left assuming that in Rothfuss’ world women are meant to be kept like horses: safe and warm in their private quarters with a pile of hay to bed with a salt lick stashed in the corner.

In fact, it takes until Kvothe is sitting down with the Chronicler before we even get a speaking female character. And, unfortunately, what we’re presented with is a shallowly sad one-dimensional individual whose sole role appears to be double duty of providing Kvothe with a sickly sweet doting mother and sexual object for his father.

Seriously, the number of times his parents are mentioned as wandering off for sex is astounding for a story that has been surprisingly chaste up to that point. So important is Kvothe’s mother as a tool for sexual gratification that the last moments of her life are supposedly spent in bed with her father.

Now, sexual liberation isn’t a bad thing. But given that the only other female in child Kvothe’s band of merry travelers is mostly discussed right before she takes Kvothe’s mentor aside for some farewell coitus, it starts seeming like the sole role for females in Rothfuss’ narrative are for gratification. In fact, one of the few times we see Kvothe’s mother interacting individually with her child is after she catches him singing a lewdly suggestive nursery rhyme to himself which I will be very surprised if it didn’t turn out to be a song about her. The only other moment I recall that we get some interaction between the parent and child that is devoid of any semblance of sexuality is when she tries to teach Kvothe courtly manners, thus fulfilling the kindly teacher trope of maternal parenting.

If we were to examine The Name of the Wind with the Bechdel Test, Rothfuss would fail with flying colours.

The Bechdel Test is a rather interesting metric for analyzing gender bias in fiction. The test is simple: does a work have two female characters, does it have them talk to each other and do they discuss something other than a man? It’s not particularly robust. Meeting its requirements does not by any means suggest that a work is free of bias. In fact, it’s establishing a really, really low base-line which so many pieces fail that highlights the inherent bias in modern fiction. In the nearly two hundred pages that I read, certainly there would be a moment that could qualify. However, Rothfuss didn’t even manage to reach two women with moments of dialogue. He barely scrapes by having two women in the first place!

Course, this isn’t suggesting that every work must feature two women chatting or even include women altogether. Setting and story can certainly impact female representation in a work. Which brings me to the second point I want to discuss.

Just because a work is based on medieval fantasy does not mean it has to be inherently sexist. There appears to be a common perception that prior to the the turn of the 20th century, women were a quiet and demur species that constantly bowed their heads to their kindly male keepers and kept themselves and their genders from prominence. Which is, to say, that there exists an argument that you can’t have strong women in fantasy because it’ll break the reader’s suspension of disbelief.

First, the very nature of fantasy makes such assertions ludicrous. Here we have a genre which often features flying, talking and fire-breathing lizards of monstrous proportions with men able to bend the very fabric of space and reality with a simple flick of a wrist and some poorly researched Latin. I have a hard time thinking that swords which glow when some species of monster that is birthed from mud pits is nearby is going to disconnect its audience because a women dares to speak her mind, pick up a weapon or, heavens, just appear with a name and some rudimentary dialogue.

Second, this idea that all women were quietly sitting on the sidelines while letting men do everything is a gross fallacy. Throughout history, there are stories of women performing remarkable services and duties. Some examples are incredibly mainstream that they’re so easy to remember when mentioned. Queen Elizabeth I and Joan of Arc are two women that fall in fantasy’s generic timeline and completely crush this false ideology. And that’s ignoring many, many other examples.

So credit goes to the creators who made these images. Bless your anonymous hearts, wherever you are.

The one mention I would like to give is Geoffrey Chaucer’s depiction of the Wife of Bath in his Canterbury Tales. Now, I know the literary discourse over the work and the debate centred on whether this was a negative satire of certain women and their beliefs or not. However, the Wife of Bath’s Tale is an interesting examination of antifeminism thought. In the Wife’s Prologue, the Wife discusses her many divorces and remarriages and the power women can wield in marriage as well as pointing out inherent contradictions and discrimination put on women by the Bible. So, while she exemplifies antifeminism thought by portraying women as manipulative and coercive, she also attacks these beliefs by pointing out that these traditions and restrictions were set by men in the first place. So even if Chaucer’s goals were to ultimately criticize these thoughts and behaviours, by discussing them he’s demonstrating that they existed at that time.

It is further telling that a man, writing nearly six hundred years ago and in a half developed language is capable of creating a far more compelling and developed character than Rothfuss is with all this medium’s development and with Chaucer’s own work readily available for study. Now, I want to draw specific attention to my use of character in that previous statement. As I mentioned at the start, I don’t think this is inherently an indication that Rothfuss hates women or that he believes they have no value. For that, I would need indication that Rothfuss was capable of actually writing compelling and developed characters. After 200 pages I had yet to see one. His main character is as insufferable as he is a grossly exaggerated ubermensch. The rest of the supporting characters seem to only existto further develop just how awesome Kvothe is at everything compared to everyone else.

This unintentional sexism can really be fixed by one thing and that is simply improving the quality of the writing. For, I think, by improving and developing their skill, good writers begin to realize that their perspective and thoughts can’t dominate that of the people they pen. By exploring other individuals and their experiences, authors begin to delve into deeper and greater stories that will naturally drift away from discriminatory presentation.

Course, this isn’t to say there aren’t bigots out there writing stories. But for most of us who aren’t assholes, the natural development of our skills should steer use clear of these pitfalls. It took reading The Name of the Wind to realize that I’m not unintentionally hurting woman and for that, those insufferable pages of unending bottle polishing and monochromatic interior decorating were well worth the pain and misery they provided.

The book is still Twilight for boys, however.

Bronze Gods Review

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Yes, this yet another book review. I confess to reading more than writing of late – so this is all I have to contribute. At least it is a short read.

Bronze Gods is classed under steampunk – bet you never saw that one coming – and is blessed by its complete lack of zombies! However, steampunk naturally pairs with magic/paranormal in some fashion or another (this could be due to my habit of perusing the SciFi section in book stores) and this is no exception. In this case the husband and wife writing team of A.A. Aguirre selected the fey. I have read a few good things and a few really terrible things involving the fey. This one ranks on the good side.

As I sit here organizing my thoughts I am suddenly struck by how blasé I am regarding the book. It was good. It was enjoyable. Yet, I am not filled with passion. I didn’t love it. I was not consumed by the world depicted in the pages. Why?

The world was good. It was different, a setting that was not London or some version of. In fact, it seemed that they were setting the story in a world completely original – that was until they made a few references to the vikings. Suddenly Hy Breasil is another dimension connected to our world and reality. I found such a small detail strangely disappointing.

While Hy Breasil was filled with clockwork creations it felt largely modern in design and function – well, near recent. There were a few things, the description of clothing and the structure of society that maintained a link to more historic periods. Over all, the development of technologies and their implementations in the world gave it a more current feel.

The characters, the two lead detectives were interesting and fun – and yet. Mikani and Ritsuko had been partners for three years prior to our introduction to them. In all that time they seemed to have communicated almost nothing about themselves to their partner. It was strange the way they worked well together, yet felt as though this was their first case as a team. In three years, Ritsuko never asked Mikani about his family? It is not until the reader joins this duo that they commence discussions about their personal lives. No doubt many will rave about the chemistry between the two characters – and most days I would too. Except it seems conveniently sudden and largely unprofessional. As stated, they have been working together for three years already.

However, the biggest reason I would say this book is good but not great relates to the ending. Yes they catch the bad guy (and yes, I called it well before the end), but the last page clearly states this was only a minor boss. The big boss has not yet been revelled – please level up before proceeding to the next dungeon. Sigh. Why could this not be a single, self-contained plot? One of a series of cases that are not directly related to each other? Or at the very least don’t appear connected to begin with.

There are a few things I am still uncertain about in the story itself. Can you call them plot holes when the main characters point out that inconsistances implicate a different master mind? One occurs when the suspicious man demands the list from a mob boss – how did he know about the list of names? Second, how did no one notice the old House family did not die off as otherwise believed?

I fear any sequels will drift to the magical and illogical. I foresee this series rapidly entering the circus of stupid. Either I am correct in identifying Miss Wright’s father as the master manipulator and everything is blindinly obvious. Or the authors will attempt to suprise and astound us with cunning misdirection that ultimately ruins the flow of the story.

In summary, a good first book – not a great one – and beware of the sequel. It is apt to be dumb.