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.

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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).

The uglishest cover for a Green Rider book thus far. Really don’t like this one. Image from the internet.

Three years later and we have a new Green Rider novel. Sure, I hated the last book and despaired of any future books. But, well, I am bored and the library had a copy. So, once more I will turn my attention to the series on a downhill trajectory from really great to oh-so-dull as we review Firebrand by Kristen Britain.

I am pretty sure this 800 page monstrosity is the longest Green Rider book to date. To those who have perused any of my book reviews, it can come as no surprise that I thought the novel was bloated and the writing mediocre at best. But before we go any further, I just want to assure the adoring fans of the Green Rider Universe: If you loved the first 4 books in the series (no one really liked book 5), then you will undoubtedly love this one too. If you are just starting with Firebrand, I really have to question your thought process. Who comes into an epic fantasy series at book 6?

Over the past couple days, and long-winded pages, I have been ruminating on exactly what I was going to write about. I confess, I am really not sure what to say. I didn’t like the book, but die-hard fans will? True, but hardly a detailed post. I suppose we must look at what I didn’t like and for that we are going to have spoilers. So, be warned!

Like Mirror Sight and Blackveil, Firebrand suffers from too many words/too many pages. It is unnecessarily long. While, it is an improvement over Mirror Sight that was such a low bench mark I really feel it should not count as an accomplishment. Now, to be honest, I did not re-read all the past books before picking up Firebrand. I just couldn’t be bothered. So, perhaps it is my failing memory that has the Evil Grandmother still in Blackveil. Which I thought was an unexplained problem as in Firebrand she is way up north. It is possible I forgotten this transition.

A better version of the cover. Image from the internet.

I’m not cranky, I am emotionally damaged – see that makes me a real and complex character!

So, our spunky heroine Karigan is about 25 years old. Over the course of the saga she has gone from runaway school girl to demi-god. Which brings me to my first major complaint of power creep. In order for Karigan to progress as a character, she becomes increasingly stronger in each novel. She has gone from being able to use a sliver of magic to disappear to being the avatar of the death god with the power to seal the dead and direct the spirits of the recently deceased.

Mostly, she is akin to a god; the one person who can survive anything and do anything. It is more than just a little over the top. Of course, the fact that there are other superheroes, I mean powerful characters does not diminish the ridiculousness of it. Reading about Karigan now requires more than just a little suspension of disbelief, because everything she has done in her short life span is over the top. She is the most capable rider (as is evidenced by the missions she is sent on), she is a sword-master, an honorary Weapon, a friend (maybe?) to the Queen (it is complicated), a friend of the mystical Elt, a friend to the Golden Guardian, the true love any important man to enter into the novels (including, but not limited to the King, Alton, Yates, Enver, Cade, etc.) and inspiration to everyone else (who isn’t Evil).

Yes, I realize that the author then tries to balance Karigan’s super-amazingness with flaws, but being cranky or suffering from grief/torture are not really striking a semblance of realism. Her problems are either stupidly small or overwhelming large that it only emphasize how unrealistic the character has become.

Green Rider – still my favourite book in the series. I do like my beginnings. Image from the internet.

Fantasy creep – where did all this magic come from?

Along with the power creep of the main character there is fantasy creep. That is the incremental increase in fantastical or magical elements to a story. This occurs in fantasy novels where the author strives to recreate that sense of world-building wonder only ever achieved in the first book of a series. Stubbornly, however, the author will continue to dream up wondrous beasts or magic infused elements in their vain attempt to bring back that first rush of amazement felt by the reader.

It never works.

Worse, it creates an internal logic problem. We are told that magic is leaving the lands. That is was scoured from the kingdom thousands of years ago – literally they killed people who had magic. That even the Elt have noticed its decline over the centuries. Then suddenly it is coming back? All because of a breach in the wall, or because the author forgot that this was a low magic world? No explanation. As for the reactions of the people, well, they are hesitant but largely accepting. No one seems to question why we now have Griffins, that didn’t exist three books ago. Or the mirror man – which seemed largely out of place. Nope, this reads like an author who loved the little bit of magic too much and now we are suddenly swimming in it.

Elt improvements – they are now Vulcans!

Image from the internet.

I have previously commented on the Tolkein flavoured Elt (they are the now stereotypical elves) and their lack of originality. Well, someone heard by complaints because not only do we suddenly have half-Elt they are also emotionally-stifled. The problem with the half-Elt is the fact that these beings had apparently not been seen in the lands for several hundred years prior to book one. While that was changed in later books – because naturally our heroine must have an Elt connection – it still seems odd that half-Elt would exist now.

But more importantly, why are they like the Vulcans? Emotionally stoic until it is mating time. Then they have no control over the sexual urges. This is the best you could do for a character flaw? Really?

There was a mission – oops, I nearly forgot.

So, Karigan goes off on an impossible mission to find the moose people, I mean the p’ehdrose and Estral’s father (the Golden Guardian). When the story eventually gets going, we spend most of the time tracking down the missing musician or following the kidnapped King. We have more time with the Second Empire and our dearly departed Grandmother. We are briefly introduced to more Evil characters, because someone has to die by the end. Spoilers, someone from the Good Team parishes too (can you guess which one?).

Image from the internet.

After plodding through the woods, facing freezing cold winds, working in the mines, being physically tortured and finally destroying the Second Empire’s most recent camp we are left wondering, what did happen to our diplomatic mission? And why is Karigan sent anywhere for talks when she always ends up in a battle? Not the diplomat I would choose.

Never fear, you may have thought the author forgot about the p’hedrose, or decided the rest of the mission would be saved for another over inflated book. I would be wrong in this case. Nope, Karigan meets and treats with the p’hedrose in just about 2 chapters tucked in at the end, making us wonder, why it took 200 pages for her to leave the castle in the first place?

Wait, we didn’t forget about these characters – see, they are right here at the end.

Now, I know there are some people out there who hate Lord Amberhill. I am not one of them. Well, at least I liked him in The High King’s Tomb. I was fond of this sword thrusting charismatic thief. And clearly the author was too, because she carried him through book 4 and made him more of a feature in book 5. When it came to book 6, Firebrand, well, I thought poor Lord Amberhill had been forgotten; along with several Green Riders.

Image from the internet.

But that was not the case. Nope, she makes mention of our dear Lord Amberhill as a point of conversation between two green riders in the dying pages of this epic work. Yup, 800 pages and Lord Amberhill is relegated to a passing comment on the very last page. A real clutch character we have here.

Where’s the connection – why did we have Mirror Sight?

There was one question that kept running through my mind as we trailed after Karigan and sat with the Queen (confined to her bed like a good pregnant wife): What was the point of Mirror Sight. Book 5 had zero barring on the characters and plot of Firebrand. And to those who argue otherwise, I challenge you to think about the events really closely.

With a few minor tweaks, Karigan could have been just as emotionally scarred from her adventures in Blackveil. The mysterious reference to the weapon that some super-minor characters are searching for could have come from another source. The mirror eye could still have resulted from the end of Blackveil. The p’hedrose could have been convinced to join the cause for other reasons. Really, with very little effort Mirror Sight could be erased from the series without a problem. Emphasizing once more that it was a waste of a novel.

Image from the internet.

While I will continue to argue the author’s best books were still the first two in the series (Green Rider and First Rider’s Call), there is merit in saying Firebrand is an improvement (slightly) over Mirror Sight. If I could offer a suggestion or two. Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the over-arching narrative. Does Karigan really have to the main character? Could we not branch out and explore some other issues and other people? Tamora Pierce is fond of series too. However, I think she was really cleaver in her handling of her fantasy world of Tortall. Pierce has several characters and thus different story arches all in the same world. She can move forward or backward in time as her fancy dictates. And regularly has four books for each of her characters, who then appear as cameos in other books. I think this helps to keep individual books from become bloated and any one character from becoming too powerful (though that might be arguable). Certainly, this method allows the author to explore her creativity more. Then we could look at a future as seen in Mirror Sight, still in the same world only facing different problems. That, I think would be really interesting.