Mini reviews: Wexler, Leckie, Walton, Black, Neumeier, Bujold

I'm so behind on my reviewing! I blame summer and my ridiculous tomato plants. I'm going to do a few quickies, mostly of adult stuff I've read this summer, and then list the Middle Grade/YA books that I intend to review very soon.

Django Wexler: The Thousand Names, The Shadow Throne, The Price of Valor. The first three of what looks like five books in The Shadow Campaigns series, these are a lot of fun. The first one is very military—lots of details of battles and strategy—with some interesting fantasy elements mostly at the end. The second one is political manoeuvring and spying, and the third is basically the French Revolution, with demons.

I'm in it for the characters: Winter is my favourite, the girl disguised as a boy who joined the army and proved to have a pretty good knack for soldiering. Raesinia, the princess fomenting revolution, didn't grab me as much at first, but I liked her plot line, I really liked her faithful maid/spy/bodyguard, Sothe, and Raesinia grew on me as she grew as a character. I loved the new person introduced into Winter's life in book 2, and the way that plot plays out. And, of course, how can one not love Marcus; he's just such a nice, competent guy continually being thrown into the deep end and figuring out how not to drown.

So far the books have been good at having their own internal plot arcs, so each book feels finished even though the overall story isn't done. I don't think it's too spoilery to say that by the end of book 3 we still have no idea what Janus is up to!

No content I wouldn't let my 13-yr-old read. I recommended the series to my nephews who have just finished Wheel of Time.

Ann Leckie: Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword. Such a great concept, such a wonderful character. I reviewed Justice on Goodreads here. Sword was simpler in structure and didn't have the big emotional reveal of Justice, so wasn't quite as mindblowing, but I was still compelled by Breq's story, I loved the writing, and I am anxiously awaiting Ancillary Mercy.

I think content is okay for teens, but it would take an experienced reader to get through Justice.

Jo Walton: Tooth and Claw. Because, Victorian novel-of-manners starring dragons. How could you not want to read it? The high-society family drama is compelling enough I would have enjoyed it even if they weren't all dragons, but Walton does such a good job of cross-breeding dragon biology, psychology and mythology with British class structure, she simultanously makes you believe completely in the dragons and brilliantly satirizes the British. I was gasping in admiration the whole time I read it. What an accomplished writer. Oh! And she's Canadian! (This makes #2 of 13 Canadian books this year.)

Holly Black: The Darkest Part of the Forest. I read this and enjoyed it, and then two months later when I noticed it on my TBR list, I had completely forgotten reading it. Not sure what that says. Once I jogged my memory I remembered liking the modern setting and the way the Forest and the fey world is integrated into it. I loved the character of Jack, the changeling, and I liked that the prince character's development wasn't predictable. I guess the verdict here is a good read but not as memorable as other Black stories (Coldest Girl in Coldtown still makes me shiver a bit when I think of it.)

Kind of sounds like it might be Middle-Grade, but it's definitely YA.

Rachel Neumeier: Pure Magic. Second book in her Black Dog series, which happily she has decided to continue publishing on her own even though the publisher of the first book went defunct. (I just hope she keeps her promise even though she has like five other books she's working on at the moment: this woman is seriously prolific! Not that I'm complaining; I'll read anything she writes. I just want to maintain a certain level of fan pressure so she knows we want book three of this series. Soon. Please?) Pure Magic is a thoroughly satisfying sequel. More of Natividad, Miguel and Alejandro, more Ezekial and Keziah, more threats to the Dimiloc black dogs, trying to maintain civility and order despite being seriously outnumbered. A great new character: Justin, who is completely new to all this magic and shapeshifting and isn't sure he wants anything to do with it. Everything I loved about Black Dog, lots of action, more character development, and plenty of scope for more story in this world. (Book three? Soon? Pretty please?) I will say I thought Black Dog was tighter; there were times in Pure when I rolled my eyes a bit and thought "we get it already, just get on with it." But I still loved it.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Penric's Demon. A novella that felt like a very long short story, set in the same world as Curse of Chalion, but different country and time period. Great character study. I enjoyed being back in the world, and I loved Penric. I thought the pacing was a bit odd: slow development and then rushed climax. When I got to the end I thought, "Oh, it's the end already?" One reader said he thought it felt like the first third of a novel, and I agree that it does feel like the setup part of her novels. But it's also a complete little arc unto itself, so if she never continues Penric's story, I won't feel cheated. It's like a little unexpected treat.

Coming soon: complete reviews of more books that I really loved:

Naomi Novik: Uprooted

N. K. Wilson: Dandelion Fire and The Chestnut King

Susan Juby: The Truth Comission

Eva Ibbotsen: The Dragonfly Pool

#AMonthofFaves: Fave new-to-me authors I discovered in 2014

Kirsten at We Be Reading has been following this meme hosted by Estella's Revenge all month, with daily prompts to make various lists of favourite books from the past year. It's generated some awesome lists on people's blogs, so it's worth checking out (if you want to add a ton of things to your TBR!)

I'm not nearly organized enough to a) do that much blogging and b) look back and analyze my reading all year. (People count the books they read? In categories?? People have reading goals and measure their progress toward them???? My reading does NOT work like that!)

But this prompt (from Dec 9, so I'm only 10 days late) really works for me because it's been a great year for finding new authors. And it doubles as a chance to quickly review a lot of my travel reading.

I'll even divide it into categories for you:

YA Fantasy:

Rachel Neumeier  —  After really enjoying The Floating Islands and The City in the Lake (the only two books available at my library), I decided to buy The Griffin Mage trilogy to read on the plane. Was not disappointed. Yet another original magic system; awesome griffins; heart-breakingly complex characters whose stories interweave with each other over the trilogy; beautiful descriptions; Neumeier's trademark ability to create intense conflict without anyone being an actual villain, because everyone has such good reasons for what they're doing (even if they're griffins who want to wipe out all the humans). Excited to read her more recent stuff: no more waiting for the library to get them, Neumeier is now on my "I fork out hard-earned cash for anything she writes" list.

Katharine Eliska Kimbriel  —  So far I've read the first two of her Night Calls series—spooky witch stories set in an alternate frontier America—and I love the characters and the setting. Kindred Rites has seriously scary evil sorcerers that Allie gets kidnapped by and runs away from, with some nice realistic surviving-in-the-winter scenes. As with Night Calls, the details of every day life are immersively vivid, and the magic just seems like one more realistic detail. I've got the third book to read yet, and I also picked up the first book of an interesting-looking sci-fi series, Fires of Nuala.

YA Sci-Fi:

Andrea K. Höst  —  The Touchstone Trilogy was so much fun. And All the Stars is just as much fun: it's a sort of Invasion of the Body Snatchers /Host/ Animorphs story (did you ever read the Animorphs? I thought they were awesome!). An implausible premise but she makes it feel so real. I doubt a huge spire is going to appear in every large city in the world, dispersing dust that kills lots of people but (slight spoiler if you want to be surprised by what happens) gives some people superpowers and then allows unbodied aliens to take them over and use them in dominance challenges—but if that ever did happen, we would all react exactly the way Höst describes it. Great use of the Sydney, Australia setting, great cast of diverse characters. So far I've liked Höst's sci-fi better than the one fantasy I tried—Medair had an intriguing premise and was compelling enough to draw me along, but I felt as though the most interesting things were happening in the flashbacks, and I really wished she had told the story in the order it happened; I'd be more invested in it that way. So I haven't read the sequel yet (also because the blurb makes it sound like it's going to be sad, and I don't want a sad ending! So maybe I'm more invested than I'm willing to admit!). But she's such a good writer that I'm willing to try another of her fantasies, especially since her books are on sale on Kindle for .99 right now! (Quick, go snap up the Touchstone Trilogy!)

Fantasy: (I was going to say Adult Fantasy, but that would give entirely the wrong impression!)

Patrick Rothfuss  —  Finally decided to see what all the buzz was about, and I'm with the majority on this one: he's an amazing writer and I wish he'd hurry up and finish the third Kingkiller book! (But I'm willing to wait if it means it's going to be as good as the other ones.) Traditional magic kingdom fantasy with a great protagonist and just really good writing. Here are links to my Goodreads reviews of The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear, and The Slow Regard of Silent Things (which would be on a Top Ten Books that Blew My Mind list (the Dec 16 prompt), were I to make one).

Jo Walton  — I first encountered her name in a review for her non-fiction work, What Makes This Book So Great, a collection of her Tor reviews of science fiction (which I still haven't laid my hands on). I went over to Tor.com to see what sort of things she was writing, and have been following her ever since. She's incredibly widely read, and smart, and snarky in a compassionate way, and she just has this angle of view on things. So when I saw that she had recently come out with a novel (Among Others), I figured I'd like it. I did (link to my review). Then I tried her alternate history Small Change trilogy, and was wildly impressed. I've got Tooth and Claw on my iPod now (Victorian novel plot and setting, but with dragons. What's not to like?!), and I'm waiting until I have the time to devote to it to get My Real Children, which sounds amazing. If you want a quick taste, she has a number of short stories online in various places, including a couple of Christmas ones on her blog.

Uncatagorizable in a sort of steampunky way (but for sure not steampunk):

Max Gladstone  —  Maybe it's too soon to put him on a favourites list, since I've only read one book, but Three Parts Dead would also go on that hypothetical Books that Blew My Mind list, so I'm fairly confident that I'm going to keep liking the Craft Sequence books. Also, look at those covers. So gorgeous; so colorful, and by that I mean notice the different colors of people on them. It's like he's writing books about humans or something. Quite radical. And I love the titles even more after reading this post explaining his chronology. (Also I'm liking Max Gladstone more after reading it. Smart, funny guy.) (Of course, now I can't decide which book to read next, since apparently it doesn't matter.)

Happy Canada Day!!

Actually this is in Kananaskis Provincial Park,
but it's right next door to Banff

Yay Canada! Yay picnics in the park and bands playing music by the beach and people wearing red and white, and knowing that there are parades and fireworks going on (even though we don't really enjoy parades or fireworks so we don't go).

Some things I love about Canada:

Anne of Green Gables
Banff National Park
The Group of 7

I know, I know, those are all pretty typical. But they're still great, and I can say I grew up with them; they shaped who I am.

St John's, Newfoundland

The Arrogant Worms
The Trans Canada Highway (which I've driven in its entirety. Twice.)
Newfoundland (where I lived for a wonderful year)
Douglas Coupland
Terry Fox, and the fact that he is pretty much our biggest hero (every elementary kid knows who he is).
We love laughing at ourselves
Our political discourse is boring. Boring is good in politics!
We have really good Thai food (that's what we had tonight). And Italian food and Vietnamese food and Indian food and Russian food and Ethiopian food and  . . .  Let's hear it for multiculturalism!

Anyone else have things they love about Canada to share?

So June passed me by completely (I was in the garden picking strawberries all month)(I swear, it's true! I suffered from "eyes bigger than my stomach" syndrome when I planted two huge beds of strawberries, and I ended up with way more strawberries than I knew what to do with!). But in failing to blog in June I managed to miss the deadline for the Canadian Book Challenge this year, and I was only one book short! The worst thing is that I had actually read the thirteenth book, but was too deep in strawberries to get around to reviewing it. So, one day late, here's my final Canadian book of the year:

Half a Crown, by Jo Walton, is the conclusion to her Small Change trilogy. Set in an alternate history in which Britain made peace with Hitler and is sliding slowly but surely into fascism, the three books are fascinating and horrifying in equal measure. Inspector Carmichael is the hero (anti-hero?) again, and again he shares the narration with a naive girl who at first accepts what's going on because everyone else does, but then gradually realizes how wrong it is. The tension created by the alternating narratives is again brilliant. I hesitated to read this trilogy, because the premise sounded really depressing, but Walton is a compelling writer, and she does a wonderful job of drawing you into the world through the characters, and showing how individual moral choices are affected by and affect the moral choices of a society. Really worth reading. The dense, chewy texture of a real Montreal bagel with a complementary sharp/creamy shmear of Winnipeg cream cheese. (More things I love about Canada!)

John Mutford has way more great Canadian reads on his blog, The Book Mine Set, where he hosts the Canadian Book Challenge every year. I will do better next year, I promise!

What I read on the plane

Safely back from the south of France; still getting over jet lag, and haven't downloaded pictures yet, but I'll share a few as soon as I do. There's a reason why everyone always says, "Ah, Provence!"

So, did I get through that whole list of books I brought with me? Well, not quite. And I read a few I hadn't planned on. Here's what got me through all that waiting in airports and riding on trains and planes:

The Lego Movie. Have you seen this? Okay, it's not a book, but I watched it on the plane and it's hilarious! If you have ever played with Lego, or had kids who played with Lego, you must watch this movie!

Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. Sometimes on a plane you don't have the mental energy to read something new. This one was on my iPod, and it happened to match the mood I was in, and Connie Willis is just brilliant. I had forgotten how funny this one is, even while it's also very sad. Time traveling historian gets stuck in the Middle Ages during the Black Plague; meanwhile a flu epidemic hits Oxford in the time she came from, so her colleagues can't retrieve her. Lovely parallelism, great building of suspense (you could teach a masterclass in pacing using this book), wonderful characters (including Dunworthy and Colin, whom you'll know if you've read her other time travel novels.) A classic. (If you've read it and want to share thoughts about it, I put a few ideas down in my Goodreads review.)

The Innocent Mage, by Karen Miller. This was a random pick from the library. (I have to bring a few paperbacks in case my iPod battery runs out!) It's a twist on the unknown-peasant-is-actually-the-prophesied-saviour-of-the-kindgom story, and you'll like it or not depending on how the main character rubs you. Asher is belligerent, uncouth, rude, obnoxious—and yet somehow he becomes best friends with the prince and is elevated to a high government position. I liked Asher, I believed in his friendship with Prince Gar, and I enjoyed his mostly unsuccessful struggle to fit in with the appalled courtiers. I still don't know how he's going to save the kingdom, because this book ends on a ridiculous cliffhanger, and I only brought the first book with me!

Ha'penny, by Jo Walton. One of the sequels I said I was going to read, and I did, and it's scary good. Also an excellent lesson in how to build suspense. Inspector Carmichael, who dealt with a murder in Farthing, is now investigating a bombing, which may or may not be part of a conspiracy to kill Hitler (this is an alternate-history in which Britain made peace with Hitler). Carmichael's point of view alternates with Viola Lark, who is playing Hamlet in a production that Hitler plans to visit. Each story has its own suspense, but the alternation between the two adds a whole different layer, as the reader watches their tragically ironic collision course play out in slow motion. It's terrifying how believable Walton makes Britain's slide into fascism.

These are all adult books that are perfectly appropriate for YA audiences (Doomsday Book has very realistic depictions of people dying of plague which might be disturbing, and in Ha'penny characters have sex behind closed doors.)

I'm saving the best for last: in fact, I'm going to save them for another post entirely! Yes, I read Laini Taylor's Dreams of Gods and Monsters, and yes, it was as wonderful as I was hoping, and I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

Among Others, by Jo Walton

I went looking for this book after reading some of Jo Walton's wonderful reviews of speculative fiction on Tor. (Her latest post is an excerpt from a new novel coming out next month which sounds amazing: can't wait!)

I knew I'd love Among Others when I read the premise, and when I finished the book I knew Jo Walton was my long lost kindred spirit and I would have to stalk her until she agreed to become my BFF. (Or I could just keep following her blog and reading her books: less creepy and almost as satisfying.)

Anyone who was ever bookish and didn't fit in and discovered SF at a critical time in their life is going to find a kindred spirit in Mor, the narrator of Among Others. Something terrible has happened to Mor, and she's run away and is now in the care of a father and aunts she's never met, and she has to go to boarding school, and books are the only thing getting her through. Well, books and fairies, though the fairies in the little patch of woods behind the school don't seem to speak either English or Welsh like the fairies back home.

If you've read much of my blog you know I don't really buy in to fairies (oops, I mean faeries), but these ones are different: they're real. I am quite convinced that Jo Walton spent her childhood dealing with them, and I can understand why Sherwood Smith is miffed that she didn't tell her about them.

In fact, just go read Sherwood Smith's review, because I'm finding it hard to put my feelings about this book into words, and 'liminal' is the best word I've heard yet.

I love Mor as an unreliable narrator. The faeries and the magic are absolutely real to her, but all the way through it's perfectly possible that she's making it all up—or that she's insane. Jo Walton says it's real, but the ambiguity makes the reading experience quite delicious. Plus, Mor doesn't tell us things. We know something terrible happened, but we have to piece it together from stuff Mor lets drop. It sounds like it was a climactic battle between good and evil, the kind that a fantasy would normally conclude with—but this fantasy is all about what happened after, when Mor walked away, injured but alive, from a confrontation she thought would kill her. It's about how to keep going, how to survive.

It's also about how to figure out who you are, where you belong, and the unreliability and ambiguity of the narration work so well to depict this.* The scenes when Mor is trying to find her karass are heartbreakingly real. (I finally gave up and googled "karass": it's from Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, which I really ought to read, and it means a group of people who are cosmically connected.)

Oh, the allusions! I want to make a list of all the books Mor reads, go read them myself, and then reread Among Others. I'm sure that would add twenty more layers to all the layers I already got on a first read.**

I've said too much; I haven't said enough. I'm pretty sure that anyone who is following my blog will love this book, so just go read it! (It's marketed as adult, but it makes a perfect YA book. The few references to sex are frank but not explicit. Younger readers might get fewer of the classic sci fi references, but it's a great way to find out what books you ought to read!)

Among Others is one of those fancy constructed desserts made with different kinds of bittersweet chocolate: like maybe a warm Venezuelan chocolate brownie with Mexican chocolate ganache, a dollop of Belgian chocolate mousse and a spoonful of Madagascar chocolate gelato; as you eat it you get all the different textures and temperatures and combinations of flavenoids and they enhance each other in different ways as you combine them differently.

Hmm. Chocolate. Might have to go get some now.

Oh! And Jo Walton is Canadian!!

For more great Canadian reads, click through to John Mutford's blog.






*Slightly spoilery so written in yellow; highlight to read:We don't even know which twin Mor is for the longest time: Morganna or Morwenna! (And there's always the insanity possibility: maybe there never was a twin!)

**There's nothing like recognizing an allusion for creating an instant bond between you and the allluding person (like when I was at a Shakespeare festival in Oregon and the person in front of me was wearing a Shepherd Book shirt).