Category Archives: Fantasy

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

by Rebecca

uprootedUprooted
by Naomi Novik
2015

This was so good! I love it!

I love this so very much, and luckily I’ve been on vacation so I was able to just blast through this book within 30 hours (which did include a full night’s sleep, for which self-control I should definitely get kudos.) Of course, now I’ve finished it, and that is a travesty and I may need to start it all over again.

Novik created a world of magic and politics and then wrote these gorgeous, vivid descriptions, and complex characters. I love Agnieszka (the main character) and I can empathize with literally every other character who appears, good and evil and in-between. The characters are complex and human. The story is a fairytale, but it’s also a fully developed novel and it addresses the difficulties and horrors that get skimmed over so easily in a short fairy tale.

Uprooted reminded me of Robin McKinley’s various fairytale books, but I think I like this even more. Unlike McKinley’s stories, Uprooted is an original story with original characters, but is steeped in Polish and Russian folklore.

The story starts with Agnieszka being picked as the once-very-ten-years tribute to the Dragon. The Dragon is actually the local lord and an immortal wizard who protects the land from the Woods, which are quite dangerous. It’s unclear what happens when he takes his tribute except that when they are released after ten years, they are well-dressed, well-spoken, are delighted to see their families, but refuse to live anywhere near the Woods ever again.

After that, things happen! And it’s all very exciting.

You can read the first chapter here.

Go read it!

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, part 5

by Anna

By Susanna Clarke

Book Cover: Strand & NorrellAlright, I am in Volume III now – titled “John Uskglass” (the mundane name for the Raven King, remember). I am now wholeheartedly enjoying reading the book, but am not quite enjoying trying to recap all the characters and events. I am about two-thirds of the way through the book (Chapters 45-52), and so much craziness is happening now that I’m in awe of the screenwriters. They are practically having to rewrite huge chunks of the book in order to fit it into the seven episodes. Anyway, here’s part 5, with spoilers:

Continue reading →

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, part 4

by Anna

By Susanna Clarke

Book Cover: Strand & NorrellSo, I reached the halfway point (Chapters 32-44, roughly translating to Episode 4 in the show) and things are going downhill fast. (Plot-wise, things are going downhill; the pacing is actually quite speedy which is a relief after the slow start.)

I believe I have found my purpose for these recaps, however! Out of a poll of three (Kinsey, my dad, and someone that Rebecca follows on LiveJournal), all three said that they had read this years ago but barely remember it. I also struggle to remember exactly what happened in the tv show from week to week, though I thought that might be due to reading the book at the same time. So since this book doesn’t seem to have much sticking power, so this can stand as a rudimentary refresher (with spoilers, of course). Continue reading →

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, part 2

by Anna

By Susanna Clarke

Book Cover: Strand & NorrellI’ve realized now that I’d inadvertently picked the perfect book for my first live-blogging—The Shining has three characters and almost nothing happens. It makes for very concise recaps. Atlas Shrugged was a complete mess, of course, and now I’m struggling with the various characters and plot threads in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, as well.

I have (mostly) stopped sulking over the size of this brick of a book, and am starting to appreciate the absurd humor of all the side diversions (though they do make it hard to figure out what will be pertinent later in the story – I have even more appreciation for the script writers of the television show now). I think part of my problem was that I was expecting what it seemed to be at first glance – a historical fiction with magic and adventure – but now I think that it is really more of a satire of the different social circles of high society, military, and academia, with the magic providing a distance with which to skewer them. Let’s dive right into Episode 2/Chapter 10-22, with spoilers: Continue reading →

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, part 1

by Anna

By Susanna Clarke

Book Cover: Strand & NorrellAlright, I’m going to try to use the new BBC miniseries as a motivator to get through this book. I’ve tried a couple of times already, and never got past the first chapter. I was particularly excited about the miniseries, since I figured I’d just watch it and never read the book. But now it is leaving me with questions that I figured the book would probably answer. As an added motivator, I’m going to attempt to semi-live blog my progress, but even though this damn book is nearly as long as Atlas Shrugged, I’m going to stick to the seven-part schedule dictated by the mini-series, so hopefully not bog us all down too badly.

Also, I’m having to play catch-up a bit, since we are already in the second week. So here’s Episode 1/Chapters 1-9 with the caution that this is a recap, not a review, so spoilers everywhere: Continue reading →

Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

by Rebecca

carnival-of-souls-melissa-marrCarnival of Souls
by Melissa Marr
2012

I picked this up randomly at the library because I remembered enjoying Marr’s previous book Wicked Lovely. And Carnival of Souls was fabulous to begin with. And then it got really kind of skeevy. And then it ended abruptly without any resolution.

I assume there were plans for a second book or two in this “series” but really it should be another part or two in this book. (Instead, there was apparently a reprint of the same book with a different title, Carnival of Secrets.)

Things this book does really well:
The characters are all full characters such that even when they consider each other their enemies, the reader is left rooting for each of them and not sure what to do about the conflicts between them. Because they’re all trying to survive in a really rough world!

On a related note: the world-building in which there are witches and daimons (and humans, but they hardly matter) and they hate each other. They each think the other are dangerous creatures that need to be put down, and you can see the point of view given that there are protagonists on all sorts of sides within this conflict.

Thing this book does not-so-well:
Keeping me rooting for all the protagonists. I started out really rooting for all of these characters, and understanding why they’re making some pretty messed up choices given the situations they’re finding themselves in. But as time goes by and they keep on making ever more horrible decisions for poorer reasons, I lose a fair bit of respect for a lot of them.

Thing this book does terribly:
Come to any sort of resolution. The book ends on a big reveal, but it’s the kind of reveal that generally acts as the turning point of a book rather than the conclusion. About 50 pages before the end, I was already getting suspicious because Marr kept on adding complexities rather than even advancing the timeline such that a resolution was possible. This is something that I generally see in long but unfinished fanfic, but didn’t expect in a published novel. It was annoying. This was essentially half a book and doesn’t stand on it’s own.

Disappointing given how much I was enjoying it to begin with.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

by Anna

By Laini Taylor

Daughter_of_Smoke_and_Bone This is a little embarrassing. Kinsey has recommended this book multiple times on this blog, and even gave me a copy, but it took me three tries to get through it. It is actually very good, but it starts with some of the most Mary Sue you’ve ever read. Our heroine, Karou:

  • Is 5’ 6” but seems taller because of her willowy ballerina’s build, with slender neck and long limbs
  • Has long hair that grows out of her head a bright blue
  • Has a gorgeous, older ex-boyfriend, who wants to get back together and over whom all the other girls sigh
  • Attends a high school for the arts in Prague, where she paints such imaginative images that all of the other students gather around each morning to see her daily sketchbook

Multiple times, I gave up in the face of such blinding impressiveness right off the bat. I couldn’t imagine what else the author had left to unveil down the road, and I wasn’t sure what she could do to make me actually like Karou. It turned out that her being attacked by a killer angel did the trick!

So, once I got over sulking over the heroine, I was intrigued by the very unusual hidden world that slowly reveals itself over the course of the book. And while I stayed a little aloof from Karou herself, I was charmed by the wide variety of other characters. For people who don’t have as big an issue with Mary Sue-ism as I do, I can unreservably recommend this book; for those that do, I still recommend the book, actually – I did eventually enjoy the whole story, though sort of grudgingly throughout, and I admit that was entirely due to personal bias.

—Anna

The Darkest Part of the Forest

by Rebecca

darkest partThe Darkest Part of the Forest
By Holly Black
2015

Since I really enjoyed The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, I started paying more attention to Holly Black. This book didn’t hit me quite the same way, but it is still a fun read. There’s something really pleasing about her heroines in both books: they know what they want and they go after it. Even when they flounder about a bit, there’s a certainty to them that I like.

Hazel, the main character here, occasionally (okay, more than occasionally) makes idiotic decisions, but she does so with a purpose. It’s always understandable and I’m often left wondering if maybe she’s right. And when she’s wrong, she acknowledges it, which is another rare and attractive quality. I didn’t feel much of a connection with Hazel (it’s possible I’m aging out of YA, at least a little bit), but I liked her.

The book also provides an interesting look at how easily some pretty horrific things can be normalized such that both the characters in the book and the reader reading the book don’t think too much about it… until someone points out that, wait, no, what you had been accepting for so long is actually not acceptable.

Only the most obvious example of this is how cruel, tricky and magical the fae are, but also how accepted they are in the town of Fairfold. They’re a dangerous and disturbing part of life in this town. People just carry on… until they can’t anymore.