Book 15

Book 15 was The Sweet Far Thing, by Libba Bray. It the final book in a series of three, that recount the adventure of Gemma Doyle, a Victorian girl raised in India sent to boarding school after her mother dies under mysterious circumstances. 

I really like this series, and the final book wrapped things nicely. The main plot line, restoring the balance of magic between "the Realms" (a darker version of fairyland) and the real world is completed, and completed in a realistic way. By realistic I mean that lives are lost and it's not an instant, perfect battle by any means. Gemma loses her love and protector to the battle, and one of her closest friends turns on her. The loss of Gemma's love intrest was a major blow to me-he was a great character throughout the books. 

I also enjoyed these books for their look at the live of Victorian young women. I thought the portrayl of how few choices and options they had was a nice touch. Gemma and her two friends and companions were shown throughout the books as being "different" and their struggles with coming of age in a restrictive society very realistic drawn. All three girls end up getting their heart's desires, but for none of them it's perfect, fairytale ending.

The Sweet Far Thing

Libba Bray 

1/15/15

Book 14

Sorry for all the delays, but this last chuck of books was pretty depressing and I had to take extreme measures to cheer myself up after these. 

On that note, book 14 was Atonement by Ian McEwan. An excellent book, but dear lord was it depressing. I almost cried, which is a very uncommon thing for me.

Basic plot (SPOILERS)-gardener's son and daughter of the manor fall in love. DOM's little sister sees GS and DOM in a very intimate moment, and becomes confused as to what is really going on, causing her to now distrust GS. She ends up accusing GS of horrible crime that he did not commit and he goes to jail, tearing him and DOM apart. DOM believes he did not commit said crime, and cuts herself off from her family. WWII starts, and he goes to war and DOM becomes nurse. Sister grows up, and realizes she was totally wrong in accusing GS. Attempts to make amends, and the three make a tenative start at reconciliation. Only, that attempt was all in sister's head, since DOM and GS both died in the war.

Yeah, horribly sad. I really liked the novel despite that-it showed how much gestures and actions can be misconstrued when people lie and try to conceal things that should not be hidden. I don't know if I will ever reread this book-it was almost too much.

Atonement

Ian McEwan

1/14/14

Book 13

Alright, back with another update. (FYI-this one is VERY spoilery.)

Book 13 was Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was different-a quiet book, and sad. It's about a girl who was created as an organ replacement clone. The story follows her life in three parts-the school she and other clones were raised at, her year or so of moderate freedom after finishing school at 16, and her life as a "carer", taking care of other clones who have begun making donations.

The book isn't so much depressing as sad in a wistful way. The clones are very sheltered, and there lives are very close-they don't mingle with non-clones, and therefore know very little of the wide world. They long for more, but they all know they can't really have it.

It was a good book, very subtle and more about emotions than actions. I liked it-I spent a lot of time thinking about the morality of raising clones to replace body parts after reading it. 

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro

1/13/13

Read 1-21-08

Still more coming

Anyway, I still have two more books to type up yet, but Bones calls.....

Book 12

Book 12 was Renegade's Magic, by Robin Hobb. It was the final book in the Solider's Son trilogy. 

I can't really talk about this book without mentioning the rest of the novel's in the set (Shaman's Crossing & Forest Mage). Anyway, the basic plot is that one country wants to expand out, and in order to do that needs to expand out & through a forest held by strange, magical people. The main character is Nevarre, a solider's son who is also destined to be a solider. It all goes wrong when he is infected by the forest people's magic.

Overall, the trilogy was kinda depressing. As a character, Nevarre was pretty passive, which meant that a lot of really bad things happened to him but he never did anything about it. It ended well, but not so smoothly that it was fairytale style.

The book moved pretty fast, but in some parts it felt a bit thin. Character development through out the three books was excellent-by the end you really felt Nevarre had progressed in learning to take action, and understand his place in the world. The world building was pretty good (the book included maps, which is always appreciate in fantasy), but the magic system could have been explained a bit better. 

Overall the series was solid, but not quite outstanding. It did end well, but that can't make up for the very depressing second book (it was pretty awful in terms of horrible things happening). It would recommend it, but only if you can handle a darker series.

Renegade's Magic

Robin Hobb

1/12/12

Book 11

Sorry I was gone so long, but it was my birthday, and then I watched Arrested Development on DVD, and so on. But I have finished 3 more books!

Book 11 is Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher. It's a historical novel, telling the story of a girl named Judith and her coming of age during WWII. It's one of my "comfort" books-I have read it many times, and I can slip into it anytime I want and just relax and be at home with a familiar story and charaters that are like friends.

One of the main things I love about the book is that it takes place mostly in Cornwall, England, a place I have always wanted to visit. This book just makes me want to go there more-the descriptions in this book are top notch, very vivid. 

This is probably very close to a top ten book for me. Why? Evocative descriptions, a historical setting, and a main character I can relate to and like.

Coming Home

Rosamunde Pilcher

1/11/11

Abandonment

In case you were wondering where moonshower is (nobody reads this blog yet, so nobody was), she's been watching Arrested Development obsessively. Her giggles and cackles from her room are disconcerting.

Sadly, the show is based on slapstick and embarrassment, so completely not my cup of tea.

Mistborn

After moonshower's glowing recommendation, I had to read Mistborn for myself. It took me a while to get past the first 50 pages... I read a bit here, a snatch there for a day or so. But then I reached the part where one of the protagonists is learning magic... and got hooked. I finished it that night... technically the following morning, since I didn't put it down till I was done at 6am.

The magic system has a beautiful internal consistency. The most powerful magic users, the mistborn, can use metals as fuel for their abilities; their abilities are described in excellent detail... no vague hand-wavy spellcasting here. And it's not just the use of magic that is explained so well... the way magic users fit with the world is just as consistent.

The primary way mistborn fight is by magically shoving metal around by "burning" iron or steel. Iron pulls, steel pushes. Yanking away the sword from a fighter is child's play for a mistborn, as well as throwing the poor soldiers sword back at him in a most violent way. But powerful nobles employ lesser mages and normal folk specially trained to counter mistborn, who are by no means invincible. It's much harder to fight someone who wields obsidian or wooden weapons and wears no metal.

But enough about the magic. Beautiful as it is, without a compelling world and interesting characters it would be nothing. And the author doesn't disappoint. The world is a dystopia of feudal lords, choking ash, and listless vegetation. But despite that, the people and characters are vibrantly alive and well rounded. Thieves and outcasts living on out outskirts of society, all with different motivations, they are very distinct. I have a difficult time keeping characters straight sometimes; with this book, I had no issues at all.

And the antagonists... the steel inquisitors, the immortal emperor. They are a little over-the-top, and thus not quite as believable as the protagonists. But they still fit within the world wonderfully, supporting the atmosphere of hopelessness that a millenia of enslavement and subjugation would bring.

All in all, this is a superb book, and apparently the start of a trilogy. It stands well on its own though. Book two, The Well of Ascension, is already out in hardcover; I nearly bought it for moonshower on Monday, but she voted against it. We have the first in paperback, and it's always annoying to mix book types in a single series.

Book 10

Book 10 is Dancing with Werewolves by Carole Douglas Nelson. I picked up the book since it was by an author whose mysteries I loved (the Irene Adler series, not the cat one), and I thought I would give her first turn at paranormal romance a try. It was only okay-my main gripes with the book where that I didn't feel the story was very coherent and that there wasn't enough back story about the world set up. The world building in the novel left a lot to be desired-there were some interesting ideas (dowsing was explored as a form of magic, some neat fey-type characters), but nothing was really fleshed out any further than the basics. Also, the setting was the world of today with magic, monsters, etc. Only this book, unlike most paranormals, gave little background of how this all happened and what the "rules" of the world were. The plot was ok-reporter who was an orphan and raised alone sees what looks like her twin dead on a TV show, and goes to Las Vegas (where the show was shot) to find out who the look alike is. The problem with the plot was all the jumping around-one minute the main character was just a reporter in Kansas, the next she was a hard ass sex bomb in Las Vegas. Big jumps, and the author seemed to expect you to intuitively know what was going on. I got confused a few times as to what had just happened, which is not a problem I often have. 

There were some good points. The descriptions of character appearances were excellent, as was the setting of scenes. The world felt real in term of physical descriptions, just not in terms of the magicy parts. The main character, Delilah, was great. She was intelligent, funny and came off as very real, not some crazy Mary Sue. The secondary characters were also well done. Also, I liked the fact the author took the time to really describe what her characters were wearing. It's a nice touch a lot of authors don't cover, and one I always appreciate, since it helps to give me a clearer mental picture of the world.

I would not recommend this book. Maybe if there is a second novel, and it clears up some stuff, I will. While I did like it, it just did not grab me in any real way that said "other people will like this".

Dancing with Werewolves

Carole Douglas Nelson

1/10/10

Book 9

Book 9 was Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson. I have read his first book, Elantris, and like it a great deal. It was very original, and Mistborn is as well. 

Anyway, instead of a synopsis or a dumb paragraph about the book, I will give you three reasons to read it.

1-The magic system used it completely original. Mages burn metals in their body to create varying effects. It's a neat system, and the lore about it in the book is well thought out and explained nicely.

2-People actually die. Which is a nice touch, especially since in many fantasy novels, they don't.

3-The main character stays believable. She starts out as a street urchin, and never loses many of the habits she learned there. It's a nice touch.

Anyway, I really liked the novel and look forward to the next one coming out in paperback.

Mistborn

Brandon Sanderson

1/9/9

Book 8

I finally finished book 8, Wolf's Blood, by Jane Lindskold. It is a part of her Firekeeper series, which is currently at 6 books. The series is overall solid-the first book is very good and quite original, but the quality does go down quite a bit in the last two of the series. Anyway, this book seemed to close out the series, so it may be this is the last one. I hope so-I wouldn't mind reading more books set in this universe, but at the same time it's getting a bit tired.

Wolf's Blood

Jane Lindskold

1/8/8

Book 7

Book 7 was a reread of Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs. Yeah, I reread a lot. I read it Saturday, Jan 05.

Iron Kissed

Patricia Briggs

1/8/8

Book 6

I just finished the final book in the Tir Alainn series, The House of Gaian, by Anne Bishop. And now I am depressed, since my favorite character dies in a pretty horrid way at the end of the book.

The House of Gaian 

Anne Bishop

2/7/7

Book 5

Book 5 was Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs. It's third in a series about Mercy Thompson, a mechanic who can shift into a coyote. Yeah, it's a paranormal romance. I read a lot of paranormal romance, which is why I think my taste in books probably isn't the best. I really liked the book-it was a quick read (only 287 pages), fast paced and resolved one of the main threads of the series thus far. I like it when story threads get resolved-it makes up for all the novels I read where stuff doesn't.

Iron Kissed 

Patricia Briggs 

1/5/5

Book 4

So, book four for the year was also by Anne Bishop, book 2 in her Tir Alainn series, Shadow and Light. The series is not as good as her Black Jewels books-it doesn't  flow very well. Too many characters, and some unneeded story lines detract from the overall effect. Still, I like them (I have no taste in books, which will become very apparent very soon), even if I feel they could be better.

Read: 

Shadows and Light

Anne Bishop

(finished 1/4/07) 1/4/4

Books 1, 2 and 3.

I got off to an excellent start this year, and completed two book New Year's day and one today. I reread the Black Jewels Trilogy, by Anne Bishop. It is one of my favorite series of novels, and is surprisingly fun and funny for books with some pretty dark subject matter (child abuse, sexual abuse, rape). It's what I refer to as "middle" fantasy-not really an epic, but not a light novel by any means. They are quick reads, which I always appreciate, and don't have a standard happy ending.

Read: 

Daughter of the Blood 1/1/08 Book 1 for the month/year

Heir to the Shadows 1/1/08 Book 2 for the day/month/year

Queen of the Darkness 1/2/08 1(d)/3(m)/3(y)

A Fresh Start

So, the title of this blog is 100% true. I read more than anyone I know. For example, I read 294 books last year. Really, I did. I wrote them all down. This year, I have decided to upgrade, and I plan on posting all the books I read this year right here, along with a short synopsis of each. So, get ready!