Review of Mothstorm, by Philip Reeve

Adventure, Alternate History, Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction 0

mothstormMothstorm

The Horror from Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus!

by Philip Reeve

narrated by Greg Steinbruner

Recorded Books, 2009. Unabridged. 7 CDs, 8.25 hours.

Here’s a third rollicking tale of the adventures of the Mumby family, subjects of Queen Victoria in an alternate reality where Britannia rules outer space.

As with the others, this book is full of narrow escapes and deadly peril. Now Art and Myrtle go beyond Uranus (which they know as Georgium Sidus) and encounter a powerful Shaper. This Shaper has created a world of giant space moths, intent on making a new home in our solar system. Jack Havock and his crew are back, and we even find out the surprising story of Cilissa’s origins.

I’m still hooked on Greg Steinbruner’s narration, clearly delineating the voices of the different characters coming from such a wide variety of species.

These books will be much more fun when read in order. They’re full of humor, adventure, wild imagination, and wondrous doses of British pluck. This series would be fantastic listening for an entire family, and definitely provided diverting listening for my daily commute. Huzzah for another adventure!

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Review of The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown

Adventure, Fiction Review, Suspense 0

lost_symbolThe Lost Symbol

by Dan Brown

Doubleday, New York, 2009. 509 pages.

It took me a long time to get through The Lost Symbol, because I felt like I read it before. The formula is the same as for The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Once again, we’ve got a supposedly earth-shaking secret with layers upon layers of clues that Robert Langdon is trying to solve before a crazy killer does something catastrophic.

Dan Brown has a habit of short chapters, where people discover something that shocks them, and then it cuts away to something else. The reader doesn’t learn the shocking secret until later. That worked to keep me reading in The Da Vinci Code, but two books later, I find it a little bit annoying.

I also had to laugh right at the beginning when secret government experiments in Noetic Science were discussed. It reminded me far too much of a nonfiction book my son recently had me check out for him titled Men Who Stare at Goats about secret government military experiments on the power of the mind, which have not borne much fruit at all. Having heard of that book ruined my ability to take the experiments in this book as seriously as they were intended.

However, even with all that said, even though my emotions weren’t fully engaged in this book, I do like puzzles. And Dan Brown is exceptionally good at making puzzles, and puzzles that have layers and layers. So for the puzzles alone, this book was worth reading.

I also thoroughly enjoyed that this book was set in Washington, DC. I have been to the Louvre, which was important in The Da Vinci Code, and I was in Rome right after the Pope died, which was the setting of Angels and Demons. And now I live near Washington, DC. Last February, I was in the new Capitol Visitor’s Center, which is where the story starts. And I have been at some of the other sites mentioned — and they are always real places, described in detail, including details you probably didn’t notice when you were there. So I will be looking at Washington, DC, with new eyes.

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Review of Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

Adventure, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

catching_fireCatching Fire

by Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press, New York, 2009. 391 pages.
Starred Review

Wow. The Hunger Games was gripping, heart-wrenching drama, but in this sequel Suzanne Collins has turned things up a notch.

Katniss’ troubles and her family’s troubles should have been over at the end of The Hunger Games, but she challenged the power of the Capitol, and those in power were not pleased with her.

What’s more, Katniss has become a symbol of rebellion. Could that rebellion be spreading? One thing is sure — if it is, it will be brutally squelched. And if Katniss can’t convincingly quiet the uproar she started, she knows her own loved ones will suffer.

This is definitely not light, cheery reading. As if all this weren’t enough, we’re stuck reading about the next year’s Hunger Games, this time a Quarter Quell, for the 75th year of the games, with its own fresh horror.

The story is not complete with this volume. I will definitely be one of the people clamoring for the third book. I do join with my friend Farida to say that it had just better offer some happiness and hope for these people!

Even though the topic is unpleasant — a future repressive and brutal government — the story is transcendent and definitely worth reading. The story has a love triangle, life-and-death drama, and people risking their lives for freedom and justice. The book will keep you reading and then stick with you when you have to put it down.

The only awful thing about this book is how long we’re going to have to wait before we can find out what happens next.

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Review of A Stranger to Command, by Sherwood Smith

Adventure, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

stranger_to_commandA Stranger to Command

by Sherwood Smith

YA Angst (Norilana Books), 2008. 476 pages.
Starred Review

Recently, when I was feeling sick and without much energy, I decided to indulge myself by rereading Crown Duel, by Sherwood Smith. I didn’t realize it would blow the entire afternoon, since I wouldn’t be able to stop until I finished. In this case, knowing what is going to happen makes the story even more compelling as we watch the main character figuring things out and notice the hints the author placed along the way.

A Stranger to Command is the prequel to Crown Duel, but even though it describes events that take place before those in Crown Duel, you should NOT read the prequel until you have read Crown Duel. In the prequel, we learn how the love interest got so awesome. But since half the fun of Crown Duel is figuring out who the love interest is, if you have not read Crown Duel, please STOP reading this review and go place it on hold at your library or order it from Amazon!

I’m not sure if I would have liked A Stranger to Command so much if I hadn’t already loved Crown Duel, but as it was, it gives intriguing insights into court life under wicked king Galdran, and shows us how Vidanric learned to be so awesome. (I’ll call him that because that name doesn’t show up until much later in Crown Duel, so it’s not as bad a spoiler if someone disobeys me and reads this review without reading the first book.)

It turns out that Vidanric’s parents sent him to the academy at Marloven Hess to get him out of the way of the evil Galdran — the same school that Inda went to in the book Inda, though it sounds like that was hundreds of years earlier. The king of Marloven Hess is Senrid, so the next book I will be reading is Sherwood Smith’s Senrid, to find out more about him. She definitely needs to write a book about what takes place after Vidanric is king, since in this book he establishes a friendship with King Senric.

In fact, this book is where Vidanric absorbs the idea of being a king some day. He learns how to fight, he learns about strategy, and he learns to command. He also learns about love, and we can see how his painful first experience would make him particularly drawn to Meliara’s charms.

I’ve long thought that in all of her books, Sherwood Smith seems to have an excellent and almost overwhelming grasp of the politics of kingdoms. I don’t know too much about it myself, but she completely convinces me that the way she describes the politics is entirely realistic. In Crown Duel, Vidanric shows Meliara that she hadn’t considered the practicalities of her revolution, but in A Stranger to Command, we see how he himself first begins to consider political realities of ruling.

My one quibble with the book is that Vidanric leaves Marloven Hess very abruptly, as they are being attacked — and we never learn how that is resolved or how his friends fare. (She definitely needs to write another book!) In fact, I decided I had to read Crown Duel yet again to see if she had put in any information about their fate. Little did I realize that only a week after my last rereading it, the book would still captivate me enough to lose another entire afternoon because I couldn’t bring myself to stop! Of course, I suspect I may just be a sucker for books where a sinister tall handsome stranger carries off the heroine on a horse and it takes her the whole book to realize how awesome he is and that she loves him and he loves her back. Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword can also be described that way, and it’s another of my absolute favorite books.

Even though A Stranger to Command did not have the romance of Crown Duel, it pulled me back into that world, intrigued me, and let me enjoy the process of a future leader learning to command.

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Review of Dreamdark: Silksinger, by Laini Taylor

Adventure, Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

silksingerDreamdark

Silksinger

by Laini Taylor

G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Penguin Young Readers Group, September 2009. 441 pages.
Starred review.
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: #6 Fantasy Teen Fiction

I thought that the first Dreamdark book, Blackbringer, was excellent. Laini Taylor built an intricate world of feisty fairies and told a tale of a young fairy becoming a champion and saving the world.

Silksinger is simply awesome.

In this book, Laini Taylor weaves together six or seven different plotlines in a beautiful tapestry rivaling the carpets of the Silksingers. The world is already built (Yes, I think you should read Blackbringer first.), so now she can get down to the business of weaving a glorious tale.

Not that she doesn’t show us more surprising and imaginative details of that world. We meet new fairies with wonderful new magical abilities, whose clans have long and storied histories, all wound and interwoven together.

Magpie is back, the feisty champion from the first book, with her friend Talon. (And the romance between them is so gently done!) The book opens with Magpie taking on a challenge.

“‘The Tapestry of Creation is failing,’ hissed the Djinn King.

“Looking up at him, Magpie Windwitch could see why the few humans who had ever glimpsed fire elementals had mistaken them for devils. With his flaming horns and his immense bat wings of hammered gold, he was magnificent and terrifying. Sparks leapt from the eye slits of his golden mask as he said, ‘My brethren must be found, little bird. Do you understand?’

“‘Aye, Lord Magruwen,’ Magpie said. ‘I understand.'”

Then, by contrast, we meet Whisper Silksinger, helpless in a desperate flight from a horde of devils. After her grandparents sacrifice themselves to save her, she’s alone on the ground, a “scamperer” whose wings don’t work.

“Tears glistened in Whisper’s lashes but didn’t fall, and ashes caught there and clumped. She was too stunned even to grieve. The teakettle had rolled onto its side in the sand and she stared at it, unblinking.

“Inside it burned an ember. It didn’t look like much, a small seed of fire, but devils would kill for it, her grandparents had died for it, and the world depended on it. And now it fell to her to keep it safe.

“What would she do? She couldn’t go home — the devils had found them there. Where could she go? She knew nothing of the world beyond her island. She couldn’t fly, and she was no warrior — she had no weapon, and she wasn’t even brave.”

We find ourselves wanting sweet and vulnerable Whisper, with the amazing gift, to be able to find the strength to save the world. To somehow survive long enough to complete her task.

Meanwhile, someone else with secrets shows up along her path. He wants to be a champion. Why do visions keep leading him to quiet little Whisper?

And who set the devils on Whisper and her grandparents? Will they find her again? What power has even dragons under its control?

I got to read an advance review copy of this book, but it is already available for pre-order on Amazon. The September publication date will give you time to read the delightful first book. Then you will be set to be blown away by Silksinger.

Although this book comes to a satisfying conclusion, the saga is not over yet, and I’m so glad! I hope the audience for these wonderful books will build as the series continues, because if Laini Taylor continues with books like Silksinger, the series will be truly magnificent!

One of the author’s strengths is to come up with imaginative details. I don’t want to give anything away, so let me just say that the abilities of the new clans and fairies who are introduced are surprising and delightful. It’s also great fun to hear stories of adventures that could be happening right under our noses, and we are just not perceptive enough to see it.

One thing’s for sure: If you ever find an abandoned bottle that appears to have a genie inside, whatever you do, don’t open it!

Dreamdark gives you fairy tales unlike any that have gone before.

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Review of Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

gracelingGraceling

by Kristin Cashore

Harcourt, Orlando, 2008. 471 pages.
Starred review.
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: #5 Fantasy Teen Fiction

Katsa has a Grace. Like every child whose eyes settle into two different colors, Katsa has an extraordinary gift, and was sent to the court of the king, her uncle, until it became clear what her Grace would be and if it would be useful to him.

When she was only eight years old, it became clear that her Grace was killing. She can fight and defeat anyone, with weapons or not. The king did indeed find this gift useful, and from the time that she was ten, he ordered Katsa to do his bullying for him, to punish anyone who displeased him.

Now that she is eighteen, she is finding ways to rebel, ways to use her Grace to help people, to fight injustice instead of causing it. On one mission, she encounters a mystery. Why would anyone want to kidnap the kind old father of the king of Lienid?

Then she meets the old man’s grandson, a prince of Lienid, who is also apparently Graced with fighting, and the first real challenge she’s ever encountered. They begin practicing together, and Katsa is horrified to find herself beginning to trust this man. They decide to tackle the mystery together.

This book has a great story of adventure against impossible odds, with a tremendously likable heroine who can defeat almost anyone or anything. Woven into the story is Katsa’s struggle with who she is. Is she a killing machine for a bully of a king to use for his purposes, or can she choose to be something more?

I found the romance particularly wonderful, as we watch Katsa wrestling with her feelings and her habits of not trusting anyone. I thought that part especially well-written and delightful to read.

Parents, this book isn’t for young teens. Katsa is not interested in marriage, and she and the prince decide to be lovers. Their encounters are described tastefully, even beautifully, but they are described. You might want to discuss your opinion of Katsa’s choice not to marry. To me, it seems consistent with her character and her difficulties with trust. But on the other hand, it’s clear that either one of the lovers would be completely devastated if the other one were to take advantage of the “freedom” they’ve been granted. I like the way Kristin Cashore shows us Katsa talking about being free to leave her lover, but then having tremendous difficulty actually doing it, even when their lives depend on it.

All in all, I thought the romance, with all its ambivalence and wildly fluctuating new feelings for Katsa, was the most beautifully written part of this magnificent book. I’m amazed that it’s a first novel, and am now among those eagerly looking forward to the sequel, Fire, which comes out in October 2009.

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Review of Dreamdark: Blackbringer, by Laini Taylor

Adventure, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

blackbringerDreamdark

Blackbringer

by Laini Taylor

Firebird (Penguin), 2007. 437 pages.
Starred review.

Magpie Windwitch is as different from the other fairies in her world as her world is different from your “typical” fantasy fairy kingdom.

Fairies have been in the world for eons longer than humans, and thousands of years ago, fairy champions had great battles and sealed all the devils into bottles. The sealing spell on the bottles ensured that nothing existing at that time could possibly break the seal. But humans showed up on earth some time after that, and the seals had no power against them.

“Magpie sighed. One devil, just one in all of devil history, had granted three wishes to the human who freed it. Magpie had caught that troublemaking snag five years ago and put him back, but the damage was already done. The mannies had a mania for it now, and every chance they got they freed some wicked thing back into the world, and they surely didn’t get wishes for their trouble.”

But the devil whose empty bottle Magpie finds at the start of this book is no ordinary devil. The fishermen are gone, but there is no blood. When Magpie reads their last memory, it is only of darkness. Most sinister of all, the bottle was sealed by the Magruwen himself, one of the great djinn who made the world, but is now sleeping. He wouldn’t normally bother with a mere devil.

Most fairies wouldn’t worry about it, either. But Magpie is different. She and her crow “family” can’t let it rest, and her attempts to set right this evil unloosed on the world bring her to terms with her own destiny. Ultimately, the very existence of the world rests in her hands.

Along the way, she meets some others her age who seem, like her, able to sense the Tapestry that makes up the world, each in a distinctive way.

Laini Taylor has constructed an intricate world with feisty, memorable characters. The different fairies and fairy clans have different types of magic, usually intriguing. I especially like the one who can knit himself a magical skin with wings that work. (It makes sense. Knitting is magical!) There’s even an imp with the gift of serendip that can find anything it seeks, wherever it may be.

Magpie is incredibly tough and loyal to her crow “brothers.” But she still has the vanity of a lass, hurt when an elegant lady turns up her nose at the dirt of battle sticking to Magpie and her unpolished manners. She’s a believable and lovable heroine.

I like fantasy books where the fantasy could really be happening, only we humans are oblivious. In that case, I’m mighty thankful to Magpie for saving the world!

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Review of His Majesty’s Dragon, by Naomi Novik

Adventure, Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

his_majestys_dragonHis Majesty’s Dragon

by Naomi Novik

Read by Simon Vance

Books on Tape, Westminster, MD, 2007. 10 hours, 9 CDs.
Starred Review.
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: #5 Fiction

His Majesty’s Dragon reminds me of a Patrick O’Brian naval adventure story — with dragons!

Set in an alternate world where dragons are used for aerial combat, the book opens as Captain Will Lawrence discovers a ready-to-hatch dragon egg on the French ship he has just captured. He orders all the officers to draw straws to decide who will have to give up their life on the navy, harness the dragon, and switch to the lonely life of an aviator. They all know that the new aviator will henceforth have mainly the dragon for company.

However, the newly hatched dragon has his own plans and chooses Lawrence himself. Without having given it thought ahead of time, he names the dragon Temeraire, after a ship he once served on. Then he must leave the Navy to train with Temeraire for the expected imminent invasion by Napoleon’s forces.

The facts of dragon training are presented matter-of-factly, as we learn along with Lawrence how it’s done. It’s all taken as seriously as if these were sailing ships of the time, and you find yourself completely believing in this world and coming to understand the strategies of dragon combat.

As you might expect, despite his youth and inexperience, Temeraire and his captain are drawn into a great battle at the climax. It’s all exciting and fascinating.

I listened to this book on my way to work, and found myself quickly drawn in. Simon Vance presents the different voices so you can recognize who is speaking. I found life in His Majesty’s Aerial Corps to be so intriguing, I quickly forgot it had never really happened.

Yes, an aviator’s life is limited in human companionship, but Lawrence quickly finds that Temeraire’s companionship more than makes up for it.

This is a brilliant book, and I’m looking forward to listening to the rest of the series.

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Review of The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Adventure, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

.hunger_games
The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press, New York, 2008. 374 pages.
Starred Review.

When this book first came out, I wasn’t interested. I don’t like reality shows, and I don’t like reading about violence. This book is about reality shows taken to the extreme in a future society where two young people from each district participate in the annual Hunger Games, with only one survivor at the end.

However, the book kept getting rave reviews. When it won School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books, I decided I definitely should read it, and the commentators convinced me it would be worth my time. The final straw, which made me decide to read it right away, was when bloggers began bragging about getting advance readers’ copies of the sequel, Catching Fire. It felt funny to not even want the sequel because I’d never read the first book. So I finally remedied that situation.

The book definitely captured my interest and concern, and kept me reading far into the night. Suzanne Collins does a good job making you care about Katniss, who at the beginning of the book spends time hunting illegally outside the fence, in order to provide for her family.

We’re quickly presented with a world where life is hard and life isn’t fair. When Katniss’s young sister’s name is called to be the district’s tribute to the Hunger Games, we have no trouble believing that Katniss would volunteer to go in her place. We know that Katniss has survival skills to cope, and understand her unwillingness to trust Peeta, the other representative from District 12. After all, even in the very best result, only one of them can survive.

The games are brutal, but the author finds ways for Katniss to show compassion and humanity, as well as courage and resourcefulness. The games are more of a survival contest than a gladiator combat, as the contestants are in an enormous arena with a landscape prepared with challenges. They must find food and water, and evade natural predators as well as each other.

This book is exciting and compelling. Now I find myself as eager as everyone else to get my hands on a copy of the sequel.

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Review of The Queen of Attolia audiobook, by Megan Whalen Turner

Adventure, Audiobooks, Fantasy, Historical, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

queen_of_attolia_audio.jpg

The Queen of Attolia

by Megan Whalen Turner

performed by Jeff Woodman

Recorded Books, 2007.  8 CDs.  9 hours.

Starred Review
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: Wonderful Rereads

This is approximately the fourth time I’ve read The Queen of Attolia, and like the rest of the books in the series, I like it better every time.  With its beautifully orchestrated touch of romance, this is my favorite of Megan Whalen Turner’s books, and indeed one of my favorite books of all time.

Jeff Woodman does an excellent job of bringing the book to life.  The advantage to listening the book instead of reading it was that I was forced not to gobble the whole thing down in one night, and got to draw out the experience.  The disadvantage was that I was very unhappy to arrive at work each morning while I was listening to it.  Of course, this was the perfect audiobook to be listening to just after moving.  My new commute is quite a bit longer than I thought it was going to be — but because it gave me more time to spend with Eugenides, I was glad!

Megan Whalen Turner creates rich and complex characters.  This book more thoroughly explores the character and background of the Queen of Attolia, and we learn that her apparent ruthlessness has reasons behind it.  We find ourselves actually liking someone who seems capable of atrocities. — Is that not the work of a master author?

I also love the way Megan Whalen Turner explores the question of why God (only in the book it is gods she invented) allows bad things to happen.  Eugenides has a Job-like moment that gives Eugenides — and the reader — a perspective on how God transcends human comprehension, but also works for our good, even when we don’t understand.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/queen_of_attolia_audio.html