Tag Archives: fantasy

Warrior and Witch by Marie Brennan

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Oh man, I'm slipping. I have about 3 books I read recently that I should post about, but… laze, laze. Maybe I can do some shorter ones since I'm being a bum this week.

Warrior and Witch
Warrior and Witch
Marie Brennan

This is the second book in what is so far a duology. I don't think a third book is currently planned – the author's website talks about another series that she's working on, not this one, but there seems to be room for more to happen in any case.

I posted about the first book – Doppleganger here. The premise is this – all witches are born with a doppleganger. This twin of the witch is born without a soul, and killed before she can be exposed to moonlight (and thus receive one). Somehow Miryo's dopplegangler Mirage survived and Miryo was tasked to kill "it" or be unable to control her magic and die. This is is the continuation of the story of what happens when Miryo and Mirage meet – and what they did. A lot of theory and questioning about the witches beliefs occur – about the Void and how it affects witches to travel through it, about the Cousins – their servants (some of them failed witches), the way witches get their powers and changes to how this is tradionally done.

There is a lot of upheaval in the customs of the witches because of Miryo and Mirage, and not everyone agrees with what happened. While most of the witches now believe dopplegangers should not be killed, many believe them to be abominations and disagree. A faction of witches leaves the witch stronghold of Starfall and attack it from outside. War amongst the witches begins. The faction would like to bring about the death of several young girls who are witches and their surviving dopplegangers, and topple the Primes that would protect them. This is an interesting situation because it clearly shows how beliefs felt strongly cause people go to war when they feel that there is no other way to prove that they are right. Both sides do questionable things in order to preserve their beliefs and win the war.

Liked:

1. I thought that illustrating the frustrations of both sides in the war was a huge strength of the book. You can see what incidents cause them to react the way they do and to understand the belief that they are right and those who oppose them are wrong.

2. Another strength was the way that the author managed to shift the focus temporarily away from the main character in a seamless way. It gives us different viewpoints and clues about what's going to happen and how one character is perceived by another (sometimes incorrectly).

Nit picky over:

1. While the story had forward momentum, I think that sometimes the author indulged a little bit too much answering her own what-ifs (what if a doppleganger did x? What would happen to her witch? etc). There were a couple of what-ifs that were answered too quickly in the timeline they occurred. Brennan created this interesting world and an interesting idea with the dopplegangers, but she didn't have to explore every idea that spun off of it. I thought a couple of incidents it didn't quite fit the story as a whole and only served to answer a what-if. I think they could have had their own separate stories, but not in this book.

2. The writing is solid and good, but it lacked something. Maybe it's my own personal feeling, but it felt a little flat because the characters could have been stronger. I knew who everyone was, I knew their motives and their emotions, that was well done, but I needed a little more to care more about them. I think I needed to know more about their personalities so I could get into reading what happens to them – not just their fears which I got, but their joys too. And maybe because of this, the emotional ties between characters felt a little off. Affection between characters – I didn't see much of this, and if I did, it wasn't always believable. This wasn't a HUGE glaring problem - but something I thought when I looked back – that the foundation was there – it just needed more give it kick.

When I think about this author, I would say that if you like Kristen Britain's books, you will like this.

General Feeling: 6 (Solid. Liked), Plot: 5.5 (OK, Liked) Writing Style: 6.5 (Pretty good, lacks a little emotional oomph). Recommended for straight fantasy lovers.

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Things to look forward to

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Iron Kissed cover
Iron Kissed cover

Patricia Briggs posted the cover of the next book in the Mercy Thompson series on her site. Nice ass huh. This will be out January 08.

She also says on her website that there will be a total of 7 books in this series to be released in Jan/Feb of each year. Also there is another series starting in the same world following characters in the "Alpha and Omega" story that was is in the anthology "On the Prowl". Three books have been proposed: to be released in July-ish of each year, so a new Patricia Briggs novel every six months.

Also here is an interesting link – Briggs explaining why many fantasy authors write multi-book stories which I found after my mini-rant on series that go on too long. Still, she talks about trilogies more than anything which is a series length I'm ok with so no disagreements here.

The Mercy Thompson series is one of my auto-buys. Another one is the Cast series by Michelle Sagara West, the Magic series by Ilona Andrews and the Tinker series by Wen Spencer. 

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Resenting the Hero by Moira J. Moore

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Resenting the Hero
Resenting the Hero
Moira J. Moore

This is a a light fantasy set in a world that does not let technology thrive. It  was populated by colonists who have evolved certain powers to protect themselves from the world's natural forces. Sources can channel the energy from natural disasters (floods, tornados..) harmlessly away, but to do so they often die unless they have a Shield – someone to watch and regulate their body (heartrate, breathing) while they channel. Sources and Shields pair up in a bonding ritual which makes them paired for life – no matter if they have complementary personalities or not. Shields are typically stoic people while Sources are considered emotional and flightly.

The voice of the narrator is Dunleavy Mallorough (Lee), who is a Shield. She prayed for a steady Source, but got paired up with one of the most famous up-and-comers at the academy (Shintaro Karish). Pay attention to the title, that's what this a lot of this book is about! Although she says she found his much gossiped about antics amusing when she wasn't paired, she isn't pleased when they are. They have a rough start because of her preconceptions that Karish will pull her into some kind of trouble because of his "obvious" rakishness. Also, because Karish is the darling of the academy, they are soon sent to the most active post in the country, where Lee is just waiting for Karish to mess up and doom them both (Pairs are punished together). I think that some readers will find Lee's judgemental attitude annoying, and she holds onto it for much of the book, but I think she is a stubborn person who takes a long time to change her mind. I felt that taking so long to warm up to someone is something that happens every so often, especially if you have a stubborn, somewhat naive personality like Lee's, and I could believe the slow progress they make. Also I believe because he is her Source, not someone else's, she is even more hard on him because of the huge impact he has on her life. They can't be separated, and if one dies, so does the other. The writing in the book is good, the adventure interesting (some thought-provoking ideas on Shields and Sources which I hope get continued in following books), but it is definitely a series. Book 2 is "The Hero Strikes Back", I believe book 3, "Heroes Adrift", comes out in 2008, and book 4 is being written by the author. Fast reading and there is an underlying feeling that the two main characters are eventually going to get together although the author isn't going to let that happen until the very end of the series, which may drive some people insane (see pet peeves. I am on the fence about if this is going to bug me since it's only book one, and I think there are other love interests in there).

The one thing that kind of bugged me in the book was this – when Lee talked to someone heart to heart, she doesn't say much. She thinks a lot which the reader sees, but doesn't say this to whoever she's speaking with and gives short answers. She just doesn't say what she's really thinking! Drives me a little nutty.

Another thing: The cover makes it look very much like a comedy, and it isn't. I'm not sure why they decided to market it that way. It's written in a straight tone.

General Feeling: 7.5/8 (Liked it quite a bit, could get good), Plot: 7 (Liked it, plus it had something, so I give extra)Writing Style: 6 (Liked it)

An Excerpt (first few pages of the book)

Here is a review of this book at sfreviews.net (maybe goes into too much detail about what the plot is).

Here is one that seems like a similar opinion to mine.

Here is a review from Dear Author (who HATED the book). I thought the inconsistencies she pointed out weren't really inconsistencies if you read the book carefully.

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Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

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Claimed By Shadow (Cassandra Palmer Series, Book 2)
Claimed By Shadow (Cassandra Palmer Series, Book 2)
Karen Chance

In book one, Cassandra (Cassie) Palmer is introduced as a clairvoyant with the ability to see ghosts and see flashes of the future (usually bad things that she can't stop from happening). Raised by vampires with mafia-like attributes, she escapes their "care" and spends most of the book running around and being chased by different factions of mages and vampires while learning that the power of the Pythia (head clairvoyant for lack of a better description) is going to be hers. She doesn't want to be Pythia and to make things more complicated – others are trying their damnedest to make her Pythia or to kill her and stop her from becoming it. On top of that is a lot of action and some time travel that occurs when some of the Pythia's abilities start to transfer to Cassie.

Now in book 2 we have some of the same problems – Cassie has enemies and her supporters aren't very clear cut. She still spends her time running from one place to another and again we have people who want her to be under their control or dead. I think the goal here is Cassie wanting to track down two people who she knows are her enemies and want to kill her, but she spends so much time getting there it was ridiculous. Subgoal – she has a geas placed on her by master vamp Mircea, her guardian from childhood which binds her to him and she wants it off.

This was the book: Cassie is somewhere, suddenly 4 random characters appear and chaos ensues, Cassie gets/runs away or other character/s leaves. Cassie is somewhere else (it doesn't help that she gets pulled back and forth in time too). Suddenly 4 random characters mentioned in book 1 or new ones appear and chaos ensues. Cassie runs away. Cassie is somewhere else.. suddenly more characters appear, chaos, fighting, someone runs away.. Cassie is somewhere else.. SUDDENLY…

Oh my god. First of all: does it have to be this way? And how slowly does anything happen in between all the action? Sure its interesting to see the world building here and the neat new characters with cool abilities (moving tattoos, incubi, magic bombs, portals, talismans, zombies, gargoyles), and fights and action is fine, but don't overdo it so that it bogs down the story. Save it for the next book!  Basically: too many characters, too much action without a break, too complicated. What really irritates me is that if the author cut down on her interesting ideas she would have a good story, but she has a tendency to just throw everything in there and mix. This COULD be a good book, but too much cool ideas = overkill. If there were less new characters added every scene or so, less action (does it have to happen every scene?), and less complications, the book would be AWESOME. Right now the pace is always high, and its tiring to read something with one pace. It needs breaks and it doesn't have any. Something is always happening and even when Cassie does her thinking and planning – she's doing this when she HAS to make a decision, so its all very forced march and it doesn't help that explaining her decisions is very complicated to read because the author adds a billion things to make things more complicated – mostly more and more characters with their own agendas. Cassie explains her thought process is this way: "If I d x, then this is how the vampires will react, this is how the mages will react, this is why its good for me, this is why its bad for me, this is probably the goal of the vamps, this is what the mages probably want.. blah blah blah". Very confusing and irritating that it has to be so complicated and take so long. I would like to see Cassie just make a decision and explain it in simple, straightforward, non wishy washy terms. What's sad is that because I see it could be awesome I keep reading, hoping the plot will get better.  Another thing: I really don't like it when the author finds a plot device where sex is needed in order to complete some ritual or where the characters get all hot and bothered because of a spell, both which are used in this book. Not to have orgies or anything, there hardly any actual sex in here, but it hangs over everything and the plot revolves around it and I suspect will continue to revolve around it.

Siiiiigh. I just ranted on that one. And yet: I still want the author to get it right in the next book and I'm willing to read it to see if she does. I liked book one better, so maybe I'll like book three better. Or I'm a machochistic.

General feeling – 4.5 (it was ok. I think it can be redeemed)

Plot – 4 (didn't like it, made worse by it came close to being good)

Writing style - 7 (The writing is good. Nit: were some typos I noticed in the early pages that bugged me – quotes in wrong place, same exact sentence used twice in a couple of pages that were right next to each other)

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Stardust by Neil Gaiman

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OK, most people reading this blog know that the Stardust movie is coming out very soon. In the U.S the opening date is the 10th of August. At first I wasn't that pysched about it, but slowly I began looking forward to this more and more, and now its probably one of the movies I'm most looking forward to. The cinematography looks like it will be pretty judging by the stills on IMDB . Of all the actors in this, I'm most interested to see Michelle Pfeiffer as the "Lamia" (in the book her character is called the "Lilim") – I think she can do evil well. There will be a whole host of other famous faces involved as well (Robert De Niro, Claire Danes, Sienna Miller, Jason Flemyng, Peter O'Toole, Rupert Everett, Ricky Gervais). I'm not sure I've heard of the actor playing Tristan Thorn though – Charlie Cox? I'm sorry, but he looks a little like a doofus.. is that just me? We shall see.

Anyway, in preparation I had to re-read Stardust. I read it when it first came out.. 7-ish years ago was it(?), and I remember the Wall, Tristan Thorn going after a star for the woman he loves, and that was pretty much it other than liking the book.

I don't feel like I've read much Gaiman. I've read some Sandman (read up to volume 5 of the graphic novels but some jerk stole volume 6 from the library and I can't move on from that point. I'm bitter…), Coraline, Wolves in the Walls, and Neverwhere. Out of those I'd say Neverwhere is the only one that fits into the same category – adult fantasy novel, and its been a long time since I read that too. So basically as I was reading Stardust I was mostly thinking .. hey this Gaiman guy is a pretty good writer huh? I seemed to have forgotten how well thought out each sentence felt. I think its even better the second time around.. truely feels like a fairy tale. Every paragraph is .. magical. So I guess that may explain the legions of fans. 

If you haven't read Stardust, its starts at the village of Wall, which borders Faerie.  Between the village and the Faerie kingdom (Stormheld) is a wall. And in this wall there is one gap, which is guarded day and night by the villagers for centuries, except for when the market comes to the meadow on the other side of the wall. This market happens every nine years, and because of this market, Tristan Thorn is born. Stardust is chiefly the tale of a young man (Tristan), setting out on a foolish quest for a fallen star in order to impress the woman he thinks he loves. Of course he finds more than he expects and wonderous adventure occurs in the land of Faerie.

Oh 9 / 9.5 out of 10.

This book seems to have some inspiration from John Donne's Song (Go and catch a falling star..). The other book I can think of which I loved and is similarly inspired by that poem is Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. There. Two posts in a row where I have referenced Diana Wynne Jones. But am I missing another book? Do tell, I will want to read it.

The one thing I would complain about with this book is.. wow there are a lot of things that fell into place ridiculously easily weren't there? I mean, there are hardships and whatnot, but I sure noticed there were a lot of convieniant things going on? That they were.. oblivious to? Right? No? And yet, when everything is wrapped up, there is still something that made me a little sad, but it made the book realistic at a point where it was looking dangerously close to too pat. Discuss.

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Doppelganger by Marie Brennan

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Doppelganger
Doppelganger
Marie Brennan

Doppelganger is the first of two books (the sequel is Warrior and Witch). This is a straight fantasy. I say that because the cover made me think it was urban fantasy. The woman is wearing black leather, kind of an urban look, but I think they just got the clothes wrong. The cover character is Mirage, who is a Hunter – a trained mercenary, and one of the best at what she does. Miryo is a witch and about to take the final test that will allow her to access her full power. Miryo passes the tests for all elements but when she goes through the test for Void – her power goes awry. Miryo can't use her power because somehow her doppelganger (Mirage) survived. Miryo's task is to find and kill "it". Meanwhile Mirage has been hired by witches to find out who was behind the assassination of a fellow witch and she must complete the job or die herself.

I always liked the word "Doppelganger"..and I like the premise of the book because I remember when I first heard what doppelganger meant, the myth was explained to me too – you see your doppelganger shortly before you die. I was a kid so I thought this was creepy. I was also told when you look in those mirrors where you see a million reflections of yourself – one of the reflections is your face when you die.. hmm.. why do kids like to be morbid? Anyway. Where was I…

There was some set up in the beginning of the book that showed how witches operate, the different Paths, their schooling and testing and conversely how the Hunters operate, the different Hunter schools and jobs they are hired for afterwards, while also introducing us to the two main characters. There seemed to be a slight asian influence to the world – witches names sounded Japanese, the Hunter uniform was ninja-like with a mask over half the face, and honorifics for the witches seemed inspired by Japan as well. The warriors on the other hand reminded me a little of gaming characters – with names like Eclipse, Avalanche, Mirage, Ice and Wraith, and belonging to schools named Cloudhawk, Silverfire, Thornblood and Wolfstar. Everyone seemed to worship the same diety though – the goddess who has different aspects which sound a little Wicca – Maiden, Bride, Mother, Crone, and Warrior and which correspond to a particular element for the witches – Fire, Air, Water, Earth and Void. While this world was well thought out and the set up was important, it felt a little slow to me. It is about midway through the book after set up is done and both women learn about the other that things really get interesting, so I would recommend reading further if you feel it dragging because once I got to that point it felt like it had momentum and I read the rest uber fast.  The doppleganger idea, the warrior and witch schools and religion in the world felt original, but the characters and the journeying from town to town needed something to give them oomph because it felt a little flat. A lot of amazon reviewers called it a solid novel and I'd agree.

P.S. I like the way things wrapped up. And I want to read book 2.

This is somewhere between I liked it and I really liked it.. So.. 6.5 to 7 out of 10

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Graphic novel of Farseer Trilogy

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Assassins-Apprentice-port
Assassins-Apprentice-port

Oh my god, I wish I knew french!!! There is going to be a "a French graphic adaptation of Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy. The comic books will be produced by Soleil." – this news from Pat's fantasy hotlist.

I loved the Farseer trilogy. I own the Liveship trilogy and the Tawny man trilogy. But, I've been told NOT to read Tawny man until I've read the Liveship trilogy because they are somewhat related. Unfortunately I seem to have an aversion to the characters in Liveship and its taking me YEARS (since.. oh when they came out?) to read it. So far I've read halfway through book 2 and stopped. Now I can't remember most of the story and have to start again. Meanwhile I'm dying to read Tawny man.. sigh. One day I will prevail. But probably when my TBR is down to something like 50.. so in a year or two? Meanwhile I've started reading the Soldier son trilogy (finished book 1, will pick up book 2).

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Eyes of Crow by Jeri Smith-Ready

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Eyes Of Crow
Eyes Of Crow
Jeri Smith-Ready

I just finished Eyes of Crow a couple of days ago. The book was pretty long -  (473 pages? Something like that), but the writing was simple and the font wasn't tiny, so for me, I was reading a hundred and so pages in an hour (it was an absorbing read).

This is a story set in a world that could be ours in the future or maybe its set in a different world, I couldn't tell. The society depicted here is a tribal society where every person has a Spirit animal. I found this very interesting – these Spirit animals are not just symbols, they really exist for these people and each person has powers and a personality that fits their Spirit. For instance – Owls are wise and it is impossible to lie to one, Wasps are warriors and quick, Bears are strategists. As each person progresses through life they move from one phase to another and their abilities increase (Wolves can become invisible at Phase 2 for example).

The focus in this story is Rhia. As the book starts she is a young girl and it is becoming evident that she has the aspect of the Crow – bringer of death (here is a excerpt from Eyes of Crow showing this that made me want to read this book in the first place). What's interesting is that Rhia does not embrace this right away at all. She doesn't want to be able to tell who lives and who dies, and she doesn't want to be feared by the rest of the populace; but because she refuses to embrace her Crow Spirit and doesn't go on the trek she must take to become adult and a Crow woman, there are consequences.

This is a journey from childhood into adulthood story. This was done very well, Rhia doesn't want to grow up, and has to face becoming responsible for the consequences of her actions, and to think about the world outside of her own comfortable place. Its not always as simple she she would hope (there is a feeling of resentment between tribes because of the differences between them, and an even larger difference between her people and the "Descendents" - could mean war). Because of this, and because of the straightforward writing style, there are some elements that feel young adult, but there are adult situations. I enjoyed the way the story flowed and Rhia's journey, moving from young girl to embracing her Crow aspect (and the Spirit journey she takes to get there), moving past loss and heartbreak as well. The rest of the characters were also interesting – most of them had more than one dimension, flaws and heartache that defined them, which added more depth to the cast. I think the story could have become stereotypical but the author avoids making it predictible and stale. This is a Luna book as well which means there is some romance too.

I didn't really find much wrong with the book, unless you aren't into young adultish books - 8 or 8.5 out of 10.

Book two is Voice of Crow, out October 2007.

And there is a free online story set in the same world here (Wild's Call, supposed to be a distant prequel). I haven't read it yet though.

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Bloodring by Faith Hunter

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Bloodring
Bloodring
Faith Hunter

This is a story that centers around Thorn St. Croix, a neomage hidden among humans in a post-apocalyptic world. The book blurb calls it a "ambiguous apocalypse" because while seraphs have descended upon the world and mass genocide occurred, followed by a continuing war against dark beings, life seems to be going on. Now the survivors aren't sure of what the Divine Powers expect or what religion is right; they all live in an uneasy peace, following strict rules against sin (or the seraphs could exact vengeance) and in fear of demons that live underground and DO exist.

Thorn is a mage whose powers are from stone, and she's pretending to be human because for some reason most humans hate and fear mages. Humans will turn into a murderous mob if they found out who Thorn really was. Most mages are protected from humans in enclaves but Thorn cannot do so.

 The story starts when Thorn's ex-husband is kidnapped under mysterious circumstances and Thorn is determined to find him. A cast of interesting friends and acquaintances surrounds her at her store – Thorn's Gems, who form a family that help Thorn even though they are unaware of her powers.

THOUGHTS: Overall the world was fascinating so I enjoyed the book. 7/10

Good things: I found this to be a very well-imagined and detailed world. I could see the scenes very well, especially the cold weather and ice (nice to read about when it's summer). It also felt like Hunter spent a lot of time thinking about the way Thorn's magic worked and how different stones worked differently for a stone-mage: chants to get magic working, shortcuts, and how magic is taught to the mages, and there was a lot of thought about the history of the apocalypse, and about different species in the world – mages, humans, and seraphs. Sometimes the details were hard to keep track of (Thorn's amulets were described particularly often) – I found this page @ the author's website helpful and interesting after I finished the book. Another thing I liked was the side characters were pretty interesting and well-written, especially the interaction between them. There is a sense of history and shared memories between her business partners and I could believe the relationship and reactions of the characters.

Less good things: I had a lot less questions answered at the end of the book than I expected. Really big, obvious questions that I expected to have answered were not. I know one biggie that other readers commented on was.. why do humans hate mages so much? This is the one out of them all I most wish was answered in this book. Another one I had was - why is there this weird "mage-lust" between Seraphs and mages, but they are not allowed to mate? Many times in the book Thorn goes into throes of lust. Amazon reviewers compared it to Laurell K. Hamilton's "ardeur", but this book does not have the sex all over the place that Hamilton does (point to its favor). Still.. what's up with that? Finally (Hunter did this several times in the book) – Thorn notices something and then she'd "forget", or it seemed important for a second but she moves on. What is this stuff she keeps forgetting? It usually does not get referenced later on! So because of all these questions, Bloodring did not feel like a standalone book and even though there is sort of an ending to it, it has a huge "to be continued" feeling and I have to go get the sequel now because I'm still quite confused.

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Working for the Devil and Dead Man Rising by Lilith Saintcrow (mini review)

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There's a review of Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow (I love that name), over at Smart Bitches, Trashy books. The books deal with a futuristic world where the protagonist is a necromancer who calls the dead to ask them questions, or brings people back if they aren't over the gate yet. A review I mostly agree with (Dante is angry and explodes over things I don't really think are that big a deal), except I thought that the relationship between Dante and Japhramel was believable (it grew subtley, I noticed it, but I think many people didn't find it obvious enough? I don't like the over-obvious "I LOVE YOUUUU, you are my SOULMATE even though I just met you and know nothing about you" storyline, and didn't think this was that).

The angry Dante thing was better in the second book – Dead Man Rising. There is more backstory of her past which explains some of it she's had a tough life. Actually I was beginning to feel wrung out over reading about her past and how many loved ones she's had die. In Dead Man Rising Danny seems to have grown a little bit, although her very headstrong attitude remains. Anyway, I liked the world quite a bit in these books (necromancers, schools for people with gifts, going over to hell and talking to the devil? how could you not), although there is quite a bit of angst going on. I reviewed them on PBS here (book 1) and here (book 2, don't read if you dont want to be spoiled over the end of book 1)… too lazy to review it again on vox.

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