‘Chills’ is incredibly leaden for a tale of horror. It is more like a clumsily-written technical manual in describing a town’s descent into terror. No‘Chills’ is incredibly leaden for a tale of horror. It is more like a clumsily-written technical manual in describing a town’s descent into terror. Not a lot of style or innovation in this mundane gorefest.
A strange cult, the Hand of the Black Stars, unleashes a monster which begins to murder many people living in a New England town called Colby. Jack Glazier, homicide detective, calls in Kathy Ryan, an expert consultant on the occult. The murders apparently are necessary to create a key to open a door into a place beyond this universe. There be more monsters, or something, behind the locked door. I only got to chapter seven, so, whatever.
Merged review:
‘Chills’ is incredibly leaden for a tale of horror. It is more like a clumsily-written technical manual in describing a town’s descent into terror. Not a lot of style or innovation in this mundane gorefest.
A strange cult, the Hand of the Black Stars, unleashes a monster which begins to murder many people living in a New England town called Colby. Jack Glazier, homicide detective, calls in Kathy Ryan, an expert consultant on the occult. The murders apparently are necessary to create a key to open a door into a place beyond this universe. There be more monsters, or something, behind the locked door. I only got to chapter seven, so, whatever....more
Voices’ by Ursula K. Le Guin is book two in the Western Shores trilogy, but I think it can be read as a standalone despite a couple of the characters Voices’ by Ursula K. Le Guin is book two in the Western Shores trilogy, but I think it can be read as a standalone despite a couple of the characters having been in the previous novel in the series. For those interested, start here with book one in the series: Gifts.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Ansul was once a peaceful town filled with libraries, schools, and temples. But that was long ago, and the conquerors of this coastal city consider reading and writing to be acts punishable by death. And they believe the Oracle House, where the last few undestroyed books are hidden, is seething with demons. But to seventeen-year-old Memer, the house is a refuge, a place of family and learning, ritual and memory--the only place where she feels truly safe. Then an Uplands poet named Orrec and his wife, Gry, arrive, and everything in Memer's life begins to change. Will she and the people of Ansul at last be brave enough to rebel against their oppressors?
A haunting and gripping coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of violence, intolerance, and magic, Voices is a novel that readers will not soon forget.”
Orrec and Gry were children in ‘Gifts’. The book described their coming of age just as in this book Memer Galva’s coming of age is described. All of these characters are part of the same world, although in different geographic areas. Orrec and Gry were raised in the hills in the North, in small villages. Memer is raised in the port city Ansul south of the hills where Orrec and Gry were raised. However, Orrec and Gry’s childhood had a lot of violence and horrendously patriarchical rules built into their culture. Memer’s childhood, which occurs years after Orrec and Gry’s, was affected by the destructive annexation of the defenseless city Ansul by the Alds, an overly-religious warrior culture of the desert, seventeen years previously.
The Alds are determined to find the Night Mouth which they believe is situated somewhere in Ansul. The Alds believe books and writing are infested with demon magic, and the Night Mouth is where the demons live. They think Ansul is swarming with demons and witches and wizards because Ansul has libraries. In Ald culture, women are all slaves, but in Ansul women are free to be anything they want to be. At least, they were until the Alds invaded. Especially offensive to the Alds is everyone in Ansul knows how to read and write. When the Alds are finished killing half of Ansul’s population, raping, burning buildings, and destroying all of their gods’ shrines, art, and statues, the next thing they do is ban the teaching of reading and writing, as well as all dancing, and the worshiping of the hundreds of Ansel’s gods. The Ald believe in a single god, Atth, the burning god. They do not permit the people of Ansul near where they are bivouacked nor do they enter many of Ansul’s buildings to do their work because they consider non-believers “unclean.” The whole point of their invasion of Ansul is to kill everyone who they believe is evil. But the elites order their soldiers to keep many of the surviving unbelievers alive to enslave, rape and rob, which of course, is done often to the utter bafflement and dismay of the true-believer rank-and-file soldiers and priests. The rank-and-file are free to abuse the surviving population as they will, though, which they do.
Memer is a “siege child”, the result of rape. (Apparently, raping unclean women is ok, gentler reader, as it is in many real-life religious theological governments.) Her appearance is that of being an Ald, although she has been raised culturally as someone from Ansul. Her grandfather, the Waylord (seems like the Waylord’s duties were that of being a mayor) is tortured by Alds for many months because they are certain he knows where the Night Mouth is. Of course, gentle reader, there is no such place. His body is broken and crippled. He is stripped of all of his duties as Waylord. But he never tells them of the library which is hidden in a secret cave linked to his house.
The Waylord teaches Memer to read and write, which she hides from everyone else. She also disguises herself as a boy, which enables her to travel everywhere in the city. She meets Ald boys, whom she discovers are lonely, longing for friends, or for sex with the nasty prostitutes they have heard exist in Ansul. She tries to stay clear of the priests, who are cruel and vicious.
Is it better to compromise, to convince the Alds trade and tolerance would be a better strategy in handling a conquered race without any armies, or should all of the Ald be killed in revenge, if the people of Ansul, who far outnumber the Ald soldiers, ever gain the upper hand? What do you think, gentler reader?
I think the novel has a lot of layers and nuances. I loved it, if not the Alds. Although in theory I should be an adult having grown-up intelligence and experience since I am old, an amateur watcher of the wisdom of democratic governments in the ways of statecraft after decades of living through the politics of the USA and reading about theocracies, I honestly don’t know if I’d opt for working with/for the invading theocratic enemy or not to stay alive? To hopefully moderate their views? To secretly work against them when I could? I love reading, gentler reader. I am also a woman, gentler reader, who lived through the eras of American suppression of all female rights until around 2000. I could not suppress my rage about not having the same rights as American men at all. A culture that burns books to enforce not just censorship but because of a theological point of view that reading is evil, idk. I own hundreds of book I love…....more
I have read quite a few of Riley Sager’s novels and I loved them all. But I did not love ‘The House Across the Lake’. Well, I was enjoying it as long I have read quite a few of Riley Sager’s novels and I loved them all. But I did not love ‘The House Across the Lake’. Well, I was enjoying it as long as I thought it was a thriller. Then I read the chapter that begins on page 268. First, shock at the twist! Then the next astonishing reveal….. I hoped it was a some sort of con game being played out. Then, I felt growing dismay. Oh well. I know lots of people enjoyed the book, and I did too. Until I didn’t.
I have copied the book blurb:
”It looks like a familiar story: A woman reeling from a great loss with too much time on her hands and too much booze in her glass watches her neighbors, sees things she shouldn't see, and starts to suspect the worst. But looks can be deceiving...
Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to her family's lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake.
Everything about the Royces seems perfect. Their marriage. Their house. The bucolic lake it sits beside. But when Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she discovers the darker truths lurking just beneath the surface of the Royces' picture-perfect marriage. Truths no suspicious voyeur could begin to imagine--even with a few drinks under her belt.
Like Casey, you'll think you know where this story is headed.
Think again.
Because once you open the door to obsession, you never know what you might find on the other side.”
I did enjoy the mystery, finding the book hard to put down until the ending.
(view spoiler)[I couldn’t believe so many characters could so quickly accept what they learned about Len, Casey Fletcher’s husband. I mean, all of Casey’s neighbors in a few seconds, basically, were like, “Oh, ok then. I believe in the paranormal story, no problem.”
Len is a serial killer, and Casey intentionally drowns him instead of calling the police - twist one gentler reader. The second twist which takes everyone by surprise is that the lake is a magic one which releases drowned victims’ souls back into the world, who thereafter can pass into someone else through a kiss.
Oh, and incidently, Tom Royce believes instantly that Len possessed his wife Katherine Royce. Tom was trying to kill his wife for her money by poison before Len possessed her. But after Len possesses Katherine, which Tom figures out and believes happened, instead of going ahead with his plan to kill Katherine/Len as he planned before he discovered she was possessed, he ties her up for several days instead. Wtf. Why didn’t Tom simply poison her/Len and be done with it? His plan to disappear Katherine would work whether Katherine was possessed or not. (hide spoiler)]
The book is very well written until the last third of the book. The ending is too hurried, it lacked the character development which imho would have helped, and it had what was to me a big plot hole....more
I enjoyed the romantasy ‘Divine Rivals’ by Rebecca Ross! It is book one in the Letters of Enchantment series, and it ends on a cliffhanger. Noooooooo!I enjoyed the romantasy ‘Divine Rivals’ by Rebecca Ross! It is book one in the Letters of Enchantment series, and it ends on a cliffhanger. Noooooooo! Thankfully, I belong to Amazon Unlimited, and this series is available to me!
Those of you who have read my other reviews already know how much I am repelled by the plots of most romance genre novels. And sidebar, a lot of domestic reads. However, lately some of these novels that have been recommended to me are winning me over. I am discovering, unlike Harlequin romances I attempted in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and some of today’s, many 21st-century authors are managing to infuse romances with genuine female heroes and very human men who go on adventures (fusing romances into fantasy, or mysteries, or science fiction plots) in which they mutually participate. In the past, romances were mostly like a Disney Sleeping Beauty movie, even when the girl was a lawyer or some other professional. Today, romances actually have the women take the lead like women do in real life, in solving a crime, or in saving a life. She is written as a character with a real substance and talent, a key player. The male protagonists don’t stare at her breasts and admire her figure unless they are bad guys! The good ones see the woman as a competitor or a talented member of the team, falling in love with her as a worthy strong-minded talent first, her prettiness second. These are the kind of YA reads I WANT to read!
I have copied the book blurb:
”Goodreads Choice AwardWinner for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2023)
When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.
After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.
To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.
Shadow and Bone meets Lore in Rebecca Ross's Divine Rivals, an epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.”
I couldn’t put it down! The novel is quick-moving and well-written. Despite that the action is taking place in the middle of a war, the book avoids unnecessary blood and gore. ‘Divine Rivals’ leans into the world of cozies, but it is just a slight tipover. This novel maintains enough realism about war, injuries and death for readers to be worried for the characters, and not only the main ones. The gods are not yet fully seen yet in book one. I suppose they will walk on the stage in the next book....more
‘I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons’ by Peter S. Beagle has romance, comedy, and surprisingly, graphic violence. There are also a lot of dragons of differe‘I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons’ by Peter S. Beagle has romance, comedy, and surprisingly, graphic violence. There are also a lot of dragons of different sizes, colors and types. The small ones live inside walls, the large ones outside or in caves. Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax, or Robert as he prefers to be called, is a dragon exterminator as was his father before him. However, Robert hates his job killing dragons. People consider the small ones vermin. He likes the little dragonlets who live in the walls of castles! But the job helps keep a roof over the head of his mother and his brothers and sisters. His family helps him hide the four dragonlets - Adelise, Fernand, Lux, and Reynald - he has kept as pets from customers, or as Robert prefers to call them, engagés.
I have copied the book blurb:
”From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Unicorn comes a new novel with equal amounts of power and whimsy in which a loveable cast of characters trapped within their roles of dragon hunter, princess, and more must come together to take their fates into their own hands.
Dragons are common in the backwater kingdom of Bellemontagne, coming in sizes from mouse-like vermin all the way up to castle-smashing monsters. Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (who would much rather people call him Robert) has recently inherited his deceased dad’s job as a dragon catcher/exterminator, a career he detests with all his heart in part because he likes dragons, feeling a kinship with them, but mainly because his dream has always been the impossible one of transcending his humble origin to someday become a princess valet. Needless to say, fate has something rather different in mind…”
When King Antoine of the Castle of Bellemontagne knocks on the door of the Thrax cottage with the request for Robert’s exterminator expertise, the Thrax family is eager for Robert to accept the job. Robert is not very eager for the job but he knows better than to refuse the king!
Princess Cerise is of age to be married, and many princes from many lands have come to the castle to ask for her hand. But it is only Prince Reginald of Cornivia who has captivated her! She is unaware he did not stop by the castle to ask for her hand. He is traveling with his valet Mortmain, hoping for adventures when he accidentally meets Cerise at a stream near the castle. Reginald was hoping to rest and eat at the castle, that is all. However, despite the misunderstanding, eventually Reginald and Cerise are betrothed.
But Reginald still needs to prove to his father King Krije that he is brave and noble. The best way to do that is to kill a big dragon! Robert is asked to lead an expedition to a dragon’s lair. Robert is concerned none of gentle folk who have come along on the hunt know what they are doing. Only Robert has seen how dangerous a dragon can be! The others seem to think a dragon hunt is no more of a problem than killing a deer.
And then there is the wizard everyone thought was dead. He isn’t, and he wants revenge…
‘I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons’ is not a story I expected from Peter Beagle after having read The Last Unicorn. This story feels as if it were mostly meant for middle-schoolers as the targeted audience, but certainly not sensitive ones! Because the main characters see unexpectedly horrible deaths and the utter wickedness of others, they all begin to reassess their roles created for them by either the expectations of their parents or what they believed they wanted.
I feel the author also could not decide on the tone of his book - sometimes it is a tongue-in-cheek dramady, other times it is a dark fairy tale about young adults coming to terms with who they really are and what they actually want from life. I was reminded of Peter Pan, actually. I also felt some scenes were really not finished adequately (?), with some of the action being confusing to me. Still, I enjoyed reading this book....more
‘Nettle & Bone’ by T. Kingfisher is my number one favorite fantasy read of this year! I LOVED THIS BOOK! Get it now, gentler reader! You won’t be sorr‘Nettle & Bone’ by T. Kingfisher is my number one favorite fantasy read of this year! I LOVED THIS BOOK! Get it now, gentler reader! You won’t be sorry, I guarantee it! Unless you don’t like modernized and comedized dramatic fairy tales…
“Marra had grown up sullen, the sort of child who is always standing in exactly the wrong place so that adults tell her to get out of the way.”
Marra is the main character, a hero, although she is entirely unaware of this. I have a calico cat who is also like the above description, but Marra grows out of her childish sullen attitude unlike my kitty. She was the third girl in her family, the third Princess, which means to everyone in her father’s castle she was a spare. Marra’s royal family rules the Harbor Kingdom, a very small and not very powerful kingdom. She has two older sisters, Damia and Kania. Damia was a child of their father’s first wife, the oldest. Kania is two years older than Marra. Kania and Marra had the same mother, the current Queen of the Harbor Kingdom.
Being a spare, Marra is sent away to a nunnery, but not to become a nun. She cannot marry anyone because the three girls have the duty to marry whomever their parents say. As princesses of a weak kingdom, it is even more important their marriages be political ones, meant to keep the kingdom safe from attack and takeover. The Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom are particularly interested in taking over the Harbor Kingdom because of the harbor.
Damia is forced to marry Prince Vorling of the Northern Kingdom. The alliance protects the Harbor Kingdom from invasion by the Southern Kingdom. But Prince Vorling is an evil husband, violent and hot-tempered. Damia’s first son would be King of the Northern Kingdom one day, her second boy would be king of the Harbor Kingdom. If she can survive her husband’s brutality. Or childbirth. But everyone knows the Northern Kingdom is protected by powerful magic from a powerful and ancient fairy godmother. The royalty of the Northern Kingdom cannot be harmed by invaders. The Harbor Kingdom also has a protective fairy godmother, but she is, well, a bit of a scatterbrained twit. When the sisters were born, she blessed them only with good health. Ok then.
Marra is a novice of Our Lady of Grackles.
”The services for Our Lady of Grackles were short. The goddess—or saint, no one was quite sure—did not care for complex theology. No one knew what she wanted, only that she was generally kindly disposed toward humans. “”We’re a mystery religion,”” said the abbess, when she’d had a bit more wine than usual, “”for people who have too much work to do to bother with mysteries. So we simply get along as best we can. Occasionally someone has a vision, but she doesn’t seem to want anything much, and so we try to return the favor.””
I have copied the book blurb:
”Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Best Fantasy (2022)
This isn't the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince. It's the one where she kills him.
Marra never wanted to be a hero.
As the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter, she escaped the traditional fate of princesses, to be married away for the sake of an uncaring throne. But her sister wasn’t so fortunate—and after years of silence, Marra is done watching her suffer at the hands of a powerful and abusive prince.
Seeking help for her rescue mission, Marra is offered the tools she needs, but only if she can complete three seemingly impossible tasks: —build a dog of bones —sew a cloak of nettles —capture moonlight in a jar
But, as is the way in tales of princes and witches, doing the impossible is only the beginning.
Hero or not—now joined by a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar—Marra might finally have the courage to save her sister, and topple a throne.”
Marra, in leaving the convent, meets cute with three wonderful characters.
The dust-wife, nicknamed Lady Fox, is willing to help after Marra completes three tasks - build a dog from bones, sew a nettle cloak, and capture moonlight in a jar. Marra does this! She names the dog Bonedog:
”He was a good dog. He had excellent bones and even if she had used too much wire and gotten it a bit muddled around the toes and one of the bones of the tail, she’d think that a decent person would stop and admire the craftsmanship before they screamed and ran away.
“”No accounting for taste,”” she murmured.”
The dust-wife’s speciality is talking to and controlling dead people. She never believed Marra would be successful in completing the tasks. But when she completes the three tasks, Lady Fox agrees to help. The first thing the dust-wife does, though, is help heal Marra’s hands, bloody from sewing the nettle cloak and the bones together.
””Saints and devils,”” said the dust-wife. “”Open wounds in the blistered land. Hold still.”” She got down a jar from the shelf.
“”Is it bad?”” Asked Marra.
“”It would probably kill you in a week or so,”” said the dust-wife, bending over her hands. “”You’d get a taste for human flesh first, though, which would be exciting for everyone…oh, don’t look so stricken.”” She unstoppered the jar. Marra smelled honey, but the liquid that the dust-wife dabbed onto her wounds was red as fire.
““What is it?””
“”Rust honey. Made by clockwork bees.”” The dust-wife rubbed it into the joints of Marra’s fingers, muttering words that Marra couldn’t quite make out. Eventually she sat back. “”That should do it. Tell me if you get the urge to take a bite out of someone, though.””
The dust-wife, who is carrying a hen possessed by a demon on her walking staff, takes Marra to the goblin market, where they meet Fenris. They buy him with a tooth. Fenris is an ex-knight, who fell asleep in a fairy fort. He is depressed and suicidal. He is ashamed of past, which is why he went to the fairy fort, hoping he would be killed. Instead, he became enslaved.
””Fenris,”” said the dust-wife. She snorted, looking over at Marra. “”So you built yourself a dog and found yourself a wolf. If a fox shows up looking for you, we’ll have a proper fairy tale and I’ll start to worry.””
“”Why?”” Asked Marra. “”If I’m in a fairy tale, I might actually have a chance.””
“”Fairy tales,”” said the dust-wife heavily, “”are very hard on bystanders. Particularly old women. I’d rather not dance myself to death in iron shoes if it’s all the same to you.””
. . . . .
“The silence grew again. Marra wondered what he was thinking and what he made of them. A shy nun and an old woman who communes with the dead.”
The Harbor Kingdom’s fairy godmother, Agnes, is willing to help Marra on her quest of freeing her sister from Prince Vorling. But the little group of adventurers are not much impressed with their first sighting of Agnes. Agnes knows Marra is someone she had blessed, but doesn’t remember her name. When she is told Marra is the Princess of Harbor Kingdom:
”Agnes’s mouth fell open. “”Oh,”” she said in a much different voice. “”Oh. You’re…oh.”” She looked down at Bonedog, and her eyes widened. “”Oh.”” She wiped her hands on her skirt, leaving stains. “”I see. You…ah. You should come in. Maybe tea?””
“”Tea would be a kindness,”” said the dust-wife, inclining her head.
They all followed the godmother into the cottage. It was cluttered but not dirty, the windows large and streaming with light. Agnes hurried to put the kettle on.
The uselessness of it all struck Marra like a blow. This was the woman who had given them all a gift of health and said that Damia would marry a prince. And meanwhile Vorling’s godmother kept the entire kingdom wrapped in immortal magic, warding off enemy curses and usurpers to the throne. “”We should go,”” said Marra in an undertone. “”She won’t be able to help us.””
Nonetheless, they are off on their quest to rescue Marra’s sister! Needless to say, everyone becomes good friends. However. But. They have to face a very very evil Prince and a very very powerful fairy godmother.
At the end, my eyes were filled with tears of joy. Seriously!...more
If Dilbert, the office nerd from the eponymous comic strip, was working for a top-secret English organization (called The Laundry) which specializes iIf Dilbert, the office nerd from the eponymous comic strip, was working for a top-secret English organization (called The Laundry) which specializes in tracking down Lovecraftian critters and Old Gods who are escaping from other dimensions into our own, you’d have the personality and life of main character Bob Howard, narrator of the Laundry Files series. ‘The Fuller Memorandum’ is the third in author’s Charles Stross’ alternate universe science fiction/horror/fantasy series. Howard is a computer geek who has by necessity learned special skills of magic in addition to those of a computer technician. Besides being a whiz at math and computer programming, he now knows a lot of magical spells and the art of dispelling demonic Cthuloid attacks.
Howard is not happy about this, but he doesn’t have a choice in working for The Laundry. In the first book, The Atrocity Archives, he accidentally almost destroyed an entire English city by creating a magical computer algorithm. So. He was given a choice - work for the good guys of The Laundry, or die, or something. Because he activated a portal, he demonstrated he had the talent The Laundry needs. This talent made him dangerous to be loose in the world without any knowledge or training about his skill set. Besides, in the second book, The Jennifer Morgue, he falls in love with another Laundry employee, Dr. Dominique (Mo) O’Brien.
There is an American and a Russian spy department which also deals with the Old Gods and the various magical monsters who invade our universe. Everyone in these national organizations try to play nice together, but, you know, nationalist pride of place in defeating horrific stomach-turning monsters.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Bob Howard is taking a much needed break from the field to catch up on his filing in The Laundry's archives when a top secret dossier known as The Fuller Memorandum vanishes - along with his boss, whom the agency's executives believe stole the file.
Determined to discover exactly what the memorandum contained, Bob runs afoul of Russian agents, ancient demons, and the apostles of a hideous faith, who have plans to raise a very unpleasant undead entity known as the Eater of Souls...”
It's in the book of rules for agents of The Laundry that officers keep a classified journal of their assignments, thus Howard’s narration. This is a good thing, gentler reader. The horrors of Howard’s job, both human- and monster-caused, puts his life in exciting jeopardy every time he must go into the field. Not to mention the awful rules of corporate life which drain the mind of energy because of the time-sucking horrors of required expense and activity reports, and attendance at Human Resource meetings, with which many of us can sympathize. We readers would never know about the terrors going on behind the screen of what we think of as ordinary life, or the bravery of the secret agents of The Laundry otherwise, if not for these books! You go, Bob!...more
‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka was a surprise for me! I was pleased by the literary excellence of the writing even while at ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka was a surprise for me! I was pleased by the literary excellence of the writing even while at the same time I also was shocked and saddened by its subject. I knew nothing of Sri Lanka before I picked up this book.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to the photos that will rock Sri Lanka.
Ten years after his prize-winning novel Chinaman established him as one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors, Shehan Karunatilaka is back with a “thrilling satire” (Economist) and rip-roaring state-of-the-nation epic that offers equal parts mordant wit and disturbing, profound truths.
When I pick up a Booker Prize winning novel (‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ won in 2022), I do so with some trepidation. One never can tell what kind of horror is about to be revealed! I am not talking about the genre category of horror, gentler reader. A Booker winner can have either a difficult writing style or subject, and often both. I’ve learned to expect the story will be either intellectually or literally challenging to read because of its postmodern construction or that it is deceptively dull with domestic concerns for awhile. (I hate domestic fiction, generally.) Then, WHAM! The world-building, the characters, or the plot will suddenly be turned upside down and inside out, everything different from initial expectations, even while often at the same time I have found myself becoming slowly more and more astonished, and full of admiration, for the literary flourishes or literary muscularity of the prose. Reading a Booker Prize-winning novel is like eating a new ice cream flavor - one doesn’t know whether it will be tasty or too weird to swallow.
Frankly, as my literary explorations of different genres and prize winners have continued for many years now, Booker winners are becoming my favorites. Pulitzer winners can be surprisingly pedestrian sometimes, dully conventional even if full of literary symbolism. But Booker winners, they all seem to be especially witty and fresh even when involving age-old or fast-fashion topics. I still am often frustrated by the lack of connection to the characters in literary prize-winning novels, because characters are often created to be pointy spears revealing Humanity in its convoluted worst states of being more than to be living breathing persons in prize-winning novels.
I did not think I would be emotional on finishing ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’, but I unexpectedly am. Despite the book’s brittle satirical tone, sometimes a savage spew, with nearly constant spitting outrage over Sri Lankan’s political corruption and violence, I am feeling elegiac, lost, hurting. Why can’t people be better than they are? Why do parents and political leaders sacrifice their children’s and citizens’ happiness and future because of their own personal ambitions? I’ve read other novels that cover the same ground as does this one, but unexpectedly the main narrator Maali has gotten under my skin. I cannot stand the ‘you’ perspective normally either, but in this case I hardly noticed after awhile. Poor Maali. Poor us. Eternally ever so....more
Guess what, gentler readers? Some in the Republican Party have banned dictionaries from many schools! Dictionaries! Yikes.
” Dictionaries were removed Guess what, gentler readers? Some in the Republican Party have banned dictionaries from many schools! Dictionaries! Yikes.
” Dictionaries were removed from library shelves in a Florida school district last year as part of an investigation of more than 1,600 titles for mentions of “sexual conduct” that could violate a 2023 state law.
Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus for Students, Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary, the American Heritage Children’s Dictionary and other titles were pulled from schools in Escambia County, Fla., where officials are reviewing books for compliance with the law’s prohibition on materials with “sexual” content.
Also investigated were the World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places, the World Almanac and Book of Facts, and other reference books on topics including science, mythology and the Bible, according to a list published by the school district and circulated this week by PEN America, a free speech group that has sued the school board over the removals.
The review of the dictionaries is a small piece of the larger book ban uproar in Escambia. The district, home to more than 50 schools in the panhandle, began pulling books for review after Florida in May passed H.B. 1069, which also prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for 8th grade and below.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his allies hailed the law as expanding “parental rights in education,” and have claimed that “pornographic and inappropriate” materials were being placed in schools. -Washington Post
The Republican Party officially wants American children to grow up without knowing or how to spell proper English and maybe, how to read....more
‘Silver Nitrate’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a fun and wild trip! Eventually, anyway. The author not only writes well, her characters and the story are‘Silver Nitrate’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a fun and wild trip! Eventually, anyway. The author not only writes well, her characters and the story are engaging and interesting. That is a good thing, because the occult mayhem doesn’t really start until the last third of the novel. But while the book held my attention, it is truly a story that is more about the process of revealing a mystery than it was about building thrills or a sense of horror until near the end.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Best Horror (2023)
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film--and awakens one woman's hidden powers.
Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.
Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.
Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.
As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.”
‘Silver Nitrate’ takes such a very long time to begin the creepy paranormal activity that I began to think this book was like the ghost-hunter TV shows where there is nothing spooky found but a rotting house falling apart at the end of the show, or like the “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You” cartoon where it always was a criminal pretending to be a ghost or monster, unmasked by the final scene. It is very good read nonetheless.
I have to admit I am surprised this novel was a Goodreads nominee for Best Horror! I think the horrors of Mexican Gothic by the same author truly reach the top levels of scary and horror! However, I enjoyed reading ‘Silver Nitrate’! I knew silver was an original component of early films, but I never made the connection between the magic of watching moving pictures “come to life again [on the screen] like flowers in water” and the usual trope of silver being a magical mineral in many critter myths such as the werewolf, or in many tales about silver-wearing or silver-avoiding sorcerers and other beings welding magical powers.
‘Artie and the Wolf Moon’ by Olivia Stephens is a middle school graphic comic. Artie Irvin, a young Black girl, has a number of conundrums going on in‘Artie and the Wolf Moon’ by Olivia Stephens is a middle school graphic comic. Artie Irvin, a young Black girl, has a number of conundrums going on in her life. She is occasionally bullied by a clique of White kids because she gets good grades. They also harass her over her photography hobby.
But she has new problems after she discovers Loretta Jones, her mom, a forest ranger, unexpectedly changing from a wolf to a human! Artie has so many questions!
I have copied the book blurb:
”After sneaking out against her mother's wishes, Artie Irvin spots a massive wolf—then watches it don a bathrobe and transform into her mom. Thrilled to discover she comes from a line of werewolves, Artie asks her mom to share everything—including the story of Artie's late father. Her mom reluctantly agrees. And to help Artie figure out her own wolflike abilities, her mom recruits some old family friends.
Artie thrives in her new community and even develops a crush on her new friend Maya. But as she learns the history of werewolves and her own parents' past, she'll find that wolves aren't the scariest thing in the woods—vampires are.”
The graphic novel is well drawn and family-oriented. It is written to be appropriate for middle-schoolers to read. It bored me, but I think it entirely a good, and fun, read for young children. It subtly teaches and shows how kids might handle various difficult social situations alongside the vampire/werewolf war. But ultimately, it is about forgiving family members and oneself, and acceptance....more
‘The Lightening Thief’ by Rick Riordan is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which consists of 6 books at the moment. Appar‘The Lightening Thief’ by Rick Riordan is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which consists of 6 books at the moment. Apparently, there will be a seventh novel in 2024. I think the fact the book is a bestseller, and that it has a special, more expensive, art edition in addition to the regular paperback, speaks to its popularity.
Reviews on Goodreads are mixed. It seems to me that the intended audience is middle-school kids, which may be why reviews are all over the map. I believe if I had read this when I was twelve years old, I would have demanded that I get the entire series! I thought it a fun adventure and an interesting, if very young teen, modern reboot of the Greek myths. The Ancient Greek gods and goddesses are real! And some are living in Manhattan….
There also is a bit of what has become common in young teen novels, those annoying (to me) teaching moments that emphasize by just being yourself you might find you have surprising talents or strengths. However, I believe the exciting adventures of Perseus (Percy) Jackson will overwhelm any underlying or overt messages. I’m not sure if any knowledge of the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses is necessary, but I suspect yes. I also don’t know if some Harry Potter fans will be able to make the adjustment from that dark fantasy series to the Ancient Greek myths that the adventures of Percy Jackson are based on.
Twelve-year-old Percy is a demigod, but a young undeveloped one. He has powers which are appropriate to the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses and critters of Olympus. However, his human mom is currently married to a human, Percy’s stepfather. As a result of growing up with his awful stepfather and abused mother, Percy has daddy issues. His real father is the god Poseidon. But unfortunately, Percy’s mom never told him about Poseidon, or the fact Percy is a demigod, or that sooner or later Percy’s other magical Olympus relatives would come looking for him, and that some of them would hate him. Ancient gods and goddesses have a lot of ancient feuds, grudges and jealousies which have been going on for millennia!
Percy needs demigod training which he hasn’t been getting in an ordinary human middle school. After all, he wasn’t even aware he is a demigod - until the Furies show up trying to kill him….
I have copied the book blurb:
”Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him.
When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea.
Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.”
I liked the book and I think I will be continuing with the series, eventually. I need something to counter the usual dark horrific murder mysteries and adult literary masterpieces full of sad multidimensional commentary about real life I usually indulge in....more
Book one in The Poppy War trilogy, ‘The Poppy War’, is an almost literary historical fantasy covering a lot of the same themes as what were in Moby-DiBook one in The Poppy War trilogy, ‘The Poppy War’, is an almost literary historical fantasy covering a lot of the same themes as what were in Moby-Dick or, The Whale!
Yes, gentle reader, I said ‘Moby Dick’. Don’t let the author’s use of 21st-century idioms in all of the characters’ dialogues throw you off. I thought this fantasy novel is masquerading as typical Young Adult fantasy fiction only at the surface. It really is high-end historical literature which is taking on the task of encouraging some deep thinking about social issues.
‘The Poppy War’ is on the surface a book about the life of young war orphan Fang Runin, ‘Rin’, who climbs up out of poverty and the lower classes and gender expectations by becoming a warrior. Her foster family, shopkeepers who are also illegally selling opium on the side, raise her as an unwanted child, putting her to work as a hired servant. Eventually, the family intends to sell Rin when she is fifteen years old as a wife to a husband. But Rin is determined to change her aunt’s plans to marry her off to some elderly man for sex and cleaning house, perhaps nursing him in his old age. She plans to educate herself and gain social capital by earning a scholarship to an elite military college, Sinegard, primarily because it is the only college in the country that is free to those who pass a tough entrance exam called the Keju. She begins studying under a tutor, Feyrick, when she is thirteen years old. She is driven by rage because of mistreatment as much as by ambition.
Used as the guide for the scripted action in the novel, which is set in a magical ancient world of gods and shamans, sword and martial arts warriors, Emperors and Empresses, is the real-world twentieth-century war between Japan and China, as well as some of the real-world colonialism imposed on China by European and American nations. The author has renamed all of the real-world places where the war actually occurred in China, Japan and Taiwan. She set the time that the actual war happened back a thousand years. Instead of the anonymity of killing with guns and bullets and tanks and airplanes which actually happened, the author’s fictional warriors fight up close, mano a mano, in hand-to-hand combat with swords and martial arts. To me, the death and destruction of war is awful no matter with what technology it is being fought with, but there is without question heightened drama in a fight to the death between two, and only two, combatants.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Best Fantasy (2018), Nominee for Best Debut Author (2018)
An epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic.
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.
But surprises aren’t always good.
Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.
For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .
Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.”
‘The Poppy War’ is definitely an epic historical fantasy, an operatic drama of social competition and warfare, graphic mass killing, friendships and betrayals, lust for power, cultural shaping of one’s personality and understanding of how the world works, and how social constructs (taught and instinctual) determine unjust prejudices and what is a hero. I think the author has also quietly slipped in themes about patriotism and how it is created (and expected), too.
I was struck by how Rin was expected to, and was trained up to, having loyalties and social behaviors in accepted patriotic and social class pathways, and to never ever express her rage at (or even feel vengeful) or act against those countrymen who have unjustly oppressed her. Despite how China’s upper classes, aka the Nikara Empire, maintain artificial social walls by controlling access to education and wealth, (view spoiler)[ and who had destroyed her birth family and ethnic culture by setting them up for the invasion of Japan, aka the Federation of Mugen (hide spoiler)], she is required to emotionally adore and support the Nikara empire. Despite that as a female she is barely acknowledged as a person of value in the culture of her adopted country, she is expected to feel a patriotism for that country which would prefer to make of her an uncomplaining slave and baby producer to a husband and force a proscribed life on her that is not of her choosing. Rin destroys her womb by using a drug, believing the having of a womb will define her and thus hold her back in her ambitions. Even her best friend advises her to accept her adopted country as is whatever its failings and its maintenance of the horrible social prejudices against her and other cultures (even attempted genocide by the country’s rulers), to choose turning the other cheek, to choose saving lives no matter what the provocation over revenge and hate. Easy to say, especially if one has never felt the physical beatings, the unjust social redlining restrictions, the lack of access to education and opportunities to better oneself, and social rejections of those who think they are superior to you because of your gender or race or skin color or speech accents. Yet any perceived lack of patriotism and obedience from the oppressed classes of any country causes deep outrage and more overt and supposed justification for social ostracism and punishments from all the artificially created classes in any country.
Just saying. Right? Right?
It seems to me the author shows Rin undergoing several intellectual evolutions in regards to her views on spirituality, heroes, class prejudices and political awareness as the book progresses. At first, she is a naive sixteen year old, only wanting to advance herself socially. She is seeking a way to have autonomy and social acceptance and she thinks that can happen through education and military service. By the time she is fighting a war as a soldier she is a young adult, a fully trained martial arts fighter who has learned quite a bit about how the elite classes maintain their artificial social superiority over others. Education was not the stepping stone to the prosperity she hoped for because in the eyes of quite a few elite members her skin color and accent continue to deter full acceptance of her participation in upper society. Also, scholars, mentors and leaders are not the cohesive group of wisdom she expected. However seeing the horrors of war resets a number of her priorities and ambitions.
Some reviewers thought a few of Rin’s experiences were written in a ham-handed and overly graphic fashion, especially the scenes of war and genocide, and rape. I got the feeling some of these reviewers somehow wanted the author to present military actions in warfare with genteel discretion and offscreen violence. I am personally uncertain as to how such a genteel performance of writing can be accomplished in a novel of which one of the points in writing the book is expressing how violent and terrible war is. There were some who were shocked at the “adult” nature of the story, having been “led to believe this book is a YA read.” I am very confused by this comment, which appears to show some definition of YA reads I am not familiar with - some of the books with the most graphic violence I’ve read in the last decade have been designated and accepted as YA, and they have also sometimes been intelligent and almost of literary quality the same as ‘The Poppy War’.
I intend to read the next two books in this series! I loved it....more
‘Flowers for the Sea’ by Zin E. Rocklyn is a gothic novella told by a pregnant narrator, Iraxi, trapped aboard a ship carrying the remnants of the pop‘Flowers for the Sea’ by Zin E. Rocklyn is a gothic novella told by a pregnant narrator, Iraxi, trapped aboard a ship carrying the remnants of the population of her village. Apparently the ocean waters have risen so high that living on land is not an option any longer. Worse, there are monsters, Razorfangs, in the water. They kill people.
Iraxi is in conflict with everyone on the ship. She did not want to be pregnant, but the others aboard the ship insist she keep the baby. None of the other women have carried a baby to term so far, but Iraxi is clearly going to give birth to Hirat’s (?) child. Hirat commands on the boat. Hirat raped her. Before the rising ocean destroyed their village, before they went to the boat, she had refused to marry a prince because she was in love with a boy from her village. Her obstinacy cost the village prestige. The prince had her whipped. While she was swimming, her family home was set on fire and she lost her entire family - father, mother, brother, sister. She was burned in trying to save her family. She hates everyone on the ship, including her lovers, the boy she had loved, and the new one, a man on the ship who takes her. She is full of rage. Her dreams are of the Razorfangs and her family. She wants to die.
Razorbacks threaten the ship. The people aboard have no affection for Iraxi, her only value is her pregnancy from Hirat. What will happen to her when the baby is born?
The writing is amazing!
Quotes:
”Hope has no place on this vessel of death and disease, aimless and everlasting in its path. We’d fled the soil once it was clear the waters’ appetite for it was insatiable. Sand dunes and lowlands were not enough. Walls of stone and brick, huts of cay and blood all torn away in the teeth of the rising tides. Hills were worn away. Plateaus topped. Mountain peaks mere posts in the shimmering endless road.”
”I turn from him, hoping to capture fruit, only to grasp at disease. In seconds the entire copse is gone, shrunken and hugging its remains against a tiny patch of charred soil. Behind the dead copse lies my house. What had started as a hut built by the broad back of my grandmother grew by my father’s hands into a cottage, sprouting a second story when me, then my sister, then my brother were born. My sister and I shared quarters the size of my room on the ship. Back then, I’d complained of suffocation. Now, I choke on the emptiness.”
”From above, a bird thrice the size of our finest vessels, black enough to blot out the sun, casting a chill over my entire being that makes my very soul tremble. Bright, marble eyes stare down at me, the same purple of those tendrils swirling in the hard glass globe of the orb. It opens its beak and releases a caw loud enough to draw blood from my ears.”
”I allow the heat of my fury wash over me, let it empower me, my limbs nearly floating with it, my heart pounding in my chest —my child hot within my womb. It moves angrily, scraping at my innards, shifting everything out of the way.
Then stills.
I feel no pain. My fury numbs it.”
”We are the floating dead.
The power gears have been silenced, the quiet bleeding throughout the belly, and each deck is lit rather infuriatingly with small clusters of candles. The yawning dark beyond that dreadful moldering sheet.”
This is a furious narration by a furious narrator! The language is powerful and evocative. The story is one of nightmare and magic, loss and revenge. It is a perfect choice to read anytime, but especially for the month of October when Halloween is coming…....more
‘The Prey of Gods’ by Nicky Drayden describes a very different South Africa than the one most readers are familiar with! It is one inhabited by old go‘The Prey of Gods’ by Nicky Drayden describes a very different South Africa than the one most readers are familiar with! It is one inhabited by old gods. Fortunately, there weren’t many of these old gods, who are terrifying. Except then a new party drug becomes available which has a strange effect on some of its users…
I have copied the book blurb below:
”In South Africa, the future looks promising. Personal robots are making life easier for the working class. The government is harnessing renewable energy to provide infrastructure for the poor. And in the bustling coastal town of Port Elizabeth, the economy is booming thanks to the genetic engineering industry which has found a welcome home there. Yes--the days to come are looking very good for South Africans. That is, if they can survive the present challenges:
A new hallucinogenic drug sweeping the country . . .
An emerging AI uprising . . .
And an ancient demigoddess hellbent on regaining her former status by preying on the blood and sweat (but mostly blood) of every human she encounters.
It's up to a young Zulu girl powerful enough to destroy her entire township, a queer teen plagued with the ability to control minds, a pop diva with serious daddy issues, and a politician with even more serious mommy issues to band together to ensure there's a future left to worry about.”
The chapters alternate between the narration of six characters, Muzikayisi McCarthy, Sydney Mazwai, Riya Natrajan, Nomvula, Wallace Stoker, and Clever4-1. All of these folks are undergoing very interesting times personally. Sixteen-year-old Muzi is being pressured by Papa Fuzz to undergo an age-old Xhosa rite he feels much fear to do. Sydney, a sadly diminished goddess due to lack of human worship, is wondering how to hide the tortured bodies of her victims who have been feeding her with their pain. Riya is a pop singer with a diagnosis she is hiding from everyone that will eventually end her career. Ten-year-old Nomvula has an unloving mother, Sofora, who is considered mentally broken by her village. Sofora is getting worse and abusive. Wallace Stoker’s mother wants her son to be an important man, a politician, but he has a very secret desire to be a woman. Clever4-1 is a robot who has woke up, but he worries he might be decommissioned if it becomes known to his owners.
The characters are on individual journeys that unexpectedly intersect with the others. When they do meet each other, it is explosive! They each realize “I gotta be me!” even if it means personal extinction.
I have come to expect in reading YA fantasy, especially one involving characters who are coming of age unaware of what talents they have, certain common elements involving heroism and evil-doing. However, I thought this book uniquely written and satisfyingly fast-paced. It is a very entertaining thriller! The chapters are short, which did disappoint me to a minor degree. I would have liked, well, more, more! Oh well....more
‘Hell Bent’ by Leigh Bardugo is book #2 in the Alex Stern series. It cannot really be understood unless book #1, ‘Ninth House’ is read first. Unfortun‘Hell Bent’ by Leigh Bardugo is book #2 in the Alex Stern series. It cannot really be understood unless book #1, ‘Ninth House’ is read first. Unfortunately, ‘Ninth House’ is necessarily an infernally in-depth introduction for half of the novel to how paranormal magic works in this accursed universe Bardugo has dug up from the subterranean depths of her imagination. However, the characters drew me on to finish the book, and I be damnably happy with the series after all!
I liked ‘Hell Bent’ a lot more than ‘Ninth House’! I thought it fun to read because there are a lot of fiendishly shocking surprises and diabolically mind-blowing twists.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell in #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo's Hell Bent.
Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.
Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.
Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.”
Startling turns in the plot, especially new powers suddenly given to Alex, promise to make book #3 even more devilishly better than the previous two books in the series! I can tell it’s going to be a beastly difficult wait for its publication!...more
‘The Jennifer Morgue’, #2 in the Laundry Files series by Charles Stross, is another mostly-Lovecraftian-monster-fantasy-masquerading-as-a-hard-science‘The Jennifer Morgue’, #2 in the Laundry Files series by Charles Stross, is another mostly-Lovecraftian-monster-fantasy-masquerading-as-a-hard-science-fiction/spy novel! Interested readers should start with book #1, The Atrocity Archives.
Bob Howard is more nerd than spy, but he has a set of mathematical/computer-science skills, and luck, the England’s top secret Capital Laundry Services (sort of like MI5, only they fight monster threats that have invaded Earth from another universe) finds invaluable. It turns out solving certain mathematical algorithms and theorems open portals between universes. Critters that people think of as demons and tentacled monsters, and other kinds of physics that work like magic, will leak into our world from these portals, usually by accident, when our Earth mathematicians are innocently messing around with maths. When Howard accidentally was messing around with maths, he almost wiped out a city. Instead of being arrested, he was offered a job he couldn’t refuse to work with Capital Laundry Services. He is a trained computational demonologist, an occult practitioner who can summon spirits.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Bob Howard, from The Laundry, secret UK agency against evil forces, narrates boarding yacht of Ellis Billington for Gravedust device that talks with dead. Ellis plans to raise Jennifer Morgue, monster from deep sea, rule world. U.S. Black Chamber sends lethal Ramona Random, in conflict with her bosses. Includes: Pimpf tale - Bob in virtual game; Afterword; Glossary.”
The above is all true, but it is stunningly brief. Ramona Random isn’t human, but a sea-creature entity with a demon inside of her. For resolving the assignment of stopping Ellis Billington in his nefarious schemes that Howard is on in this novel, he must be entangled with Ramona. He REALLY doesn’t want to be entangled (mentally joined). She kills people after having sex with them because her demon needs to eat dead people.
The Black Chamber is an American cryptanalysis agency, a super black agency dealing with occult intelligence. They are forcing Ramona to work with Howard. She REALLY doesn’t want to be entangled with Howard.
Ellis Billington is a bad guy who wants to take over the world, or something like that, using the Jennifer Morgue, which is a, a, a, well, something between a seacraft or ship and a living beast-creature with unimaginable powers. It’s stuck in the bottom of the ocean. The Laundry and the Black Chamber are desperately trying to stop Billington from grabbing it, but he is rich and is somewhere on a super-yacht in the ocean. He also knows about and has quite a collection of dark magical technology.
Complicating things, Howard has a girlfriend, a brainy scientist, Dr. Dominique (Mo) O’Brien, whom he met in ‘The Atrocity Archives.’ Since Ramona is genuinely beautiful, Howard finds himself attracted to her. He doesn’t want to mess up his relationship with Mo, but, for old-gods sake, he is aware of Ramona’s, *ahem*, states of arousal, and unfortunately, he is entangled, which means he feels what she feels! Plus, Mo has been so busy, gone on seminars a lot….
After some death-defying adventures, Howard is noticing a lot of the things happening to him are exactly like what happens to the character of James Bond in movies. Coincidence? No, not, gentle reader.
At the back, a short story called ‘Pimpf’ is included. It involves an intern that Howard is assigned to take care of, and to show how things work in The Laundry. Unfortunately, Howard leaves the intern, Pete Young, alone for only a few minutes with a mechanistically-enchanted computer video game…..
‘The Marrow Thieves’ by Cherie Dimaline is a dystopic fantasy about the future. It is not a science fiction as some would have it. Despite that it is ‘The Marrow Thieves’ by Cherie Dimaline is a dystopic fantasy about the future. It is not a science fiction as some would have it. Despite that it is well-written, and that the characters are three-dimensional people readers will care about, I thought the world building of a North-American enterprise to harvest the marrow of Native-Americans for injections into White people so that their ability to dream would be restored idiotic. I think the story is meant as an allegory based on Native-American culture and the real history of the attempt by White North Americans to destroy Native-American societies. Stealing dreams from a person (or a culture) to enrich or help oneself to the detriment of the original inventor. Plundering a culture, plagiarizing.
I am in somewhat of a quandary as to what rating I feel the book should have from me. The writing is 5 stars. The characterization is 5 stars. The action is 5 stars. But the basic premise? Too silly for me. Omg, what do I rate a terrific book with a silly, completely without any basis in real science, or human nature, actually, basic idea? It isn’t a satire or a tongue-in-cheek book, but it is playing everything straight up.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks.
The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream.
In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands.
For now, survival means staying hidden … but what they don’t know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.”
Frankly, if I took the premise of this book seriously, if White people lost their ability to dream, and North American indigenous people could still dream and had the means of dreaming contained in their marrow, many people would have commoditized the marrow rationally and cruelly, even in the end times of civilization caused by pollution and global warming.
I am aware many readers of my review will believe me treading into completely insane territory, but the main premise of the book should have played out in the cruel exploitation of indigenous people being bred like animal stock, being made to live as long as it was possible to get marrow, imprisoned for this purpose by White people. People with marrow with curative powers would make the possessors more valuable alive than dead. Marrow is a renewable commodity if handled correctly after all.
Breeding indigenous people who possess a valuable commodity in their genes is more likely to happen imho, than killing them as is done in the novel and as White people actually did to them historically in the real world out of greed for their land. If what we are doing is imagining what people would most likely do given human behaviors in current and past societal norms and science. After all, laboratories can breed people today, more or less, perhaps with a high percentage of miss more than hitting the mark, with the more admirable characteristics of the human body if society could accept it.
Today, we do intentional breeding of chickens, turkeys, pigs, horses, minks, dogs, cats, fish and cattle, to name the most common breeding ventures. Many of these critters are artificially inseminated for the purposes of slaughtering their offspring later for food or goods, or for bragging rights by owners of genetically perfected or beautified or cutified animal offspring, a fact the general public does not really want to know, think or read about.
The author could also have developed ‘The Marrow Thieves’ along the lines that indigenous people could become wealthy by selling their precious bone marrow to White people. The book would have had to have a new title, obviously.
However, the more believable plot would most likely be the premise of enslaving (it wouldn’t be called that) indigenous people for breeding purposes because North American indigenous people don’t have the population and perhaps, culture, to properly defend themselves against the vast numbers of economically capitalist White people, comparatively speaking.
It is a fact White people in North America successfully murdered, at minimum, 95% of the indigenous people of North America through every means White people could think of. It took 200 years, but White people succeeded in making a culture almost disappear completely. Why did they murder the indigenous people? Partially because of prejudices, but mostly because White people wanted to steal North America from them. White people wanted the land to live on, and eventually monetize for themselves, cutting out the original owners.
In the novel, global warming and the polluted earth are background to the action. Many scientists have been measuring and determining the facts of global warming because of air pollution since the 1970’s (I was alive and a reading adult of magazines and newspapers in the 1970’s - I am witness to this fact of mid-twentieth century scientific discovery and warnings). It is also a fact that a majority of ordinary non-scientist Humanity today does not either believe the science, or they do not want to do the sacrifices of lifestyle today for the survival of tomorrow’s generations of Humanity. Present-day Humanity wants to enjoy itself, or just plain survive anyway they can, now, and pass on the problems of global warming to the future generations to live with.
I am still left with the problem of how to rate this well-written, well-meaning YA novel. I am in sympathy with the author, but the plot is completely without any foundation in typical human behavior. Imho. To me, it is as nonsensical if White people of the future decided that balancing and bouncing on their heads would be a better mobility option of survival instead of walking around on two legs. Sorry. I can’t stretch my ability to believe in the above impossibility of White people loving an idea that throttles moving forward for staying alive OR personal gain. Killing the golden goose laying the golden eggs goes against White culture 100000000%. Monetizing the marrow of indigenous people, taking a body product which is reproducible over and over, given time to grow back if the producer is kept alive? Believable. If the science of extracting valuable marrow from people’s bones exists even after the world has gone to shit environmentally, and pollution has given White people kind of a destructive brain cancer of a sort that can be cured by the marrow of indigenous folk? Monetizing the marrow is WAY more likely, and that means keeping the source of the marrow alive and minimally healthy, whatever it takes.
I know, I know. Too cynical. Dark and bleak, that’s me....more
‘Strange The Dreamer’ by Laini Taylor is a beautifully written and imaginative fantasy! There aren’t enough superlatives in English to describe the lush world-building, or the vivid emotional dramas. This book filled every space in my head and heart with the scent and colors of exotic flower gardens, the sweetness of plums, the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, the paintings of Eugene Delacroix, and winged sculptures of Icarus. The book ends in cliffhangers, but many mysteries are resolved, too. I am definitely continuing on to the second novel, Muse of Nightmares
I’d prefer the reader discover the exotic land of Zosma and the mysterious city of Weep like I did, picking up the book without knowing what adventures the lowly librarian, Lazlo Strange, the main character, has, but I have copied the book blurb:
”The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.
What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?
The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?
Welcome to Weep.”
This novel has a lot in common with Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy with operatic emotion and conflict. The book is even more, though, since it also is about powerful gods playing with ordinary people the same as in the story of Job from the Bible, fate, horrific slavery, stifling society conventions and the soaring freedoms of dreams come true. It’s about wondrous magical powers that degrade into poisonous corruptions, love, hate, life and death, as well as about the lives of commoners and aristocracy. Social strivers climb ladders to wealth and respect any way they can, including dropkicking personal morals aside. There are enormously sweeping emotions of love, beauty, pain, and grief, chapter after chapter. But the writing is, over all, what truly makes this fantasy novel phenomenal, the engine driving the beautiful artistry of the story.
I find myself craving a fantastically arty graphic novel, or better yet, an animated movie like “Avatar”, to be designed by the best artists, based on this gloriously imagined, dramatic fantasy novel. It must have symphony music written by Hans Zimmer, of course.
Although the book is primarily a romantic one, it is a Romance in the sense of:
“Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. In most parts of Europe, it was at its peak from approximately 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism, clandestine literature, and paganism.” -Wikipedia
There also is:
Sturm und Drang, (German: “Storm and Stress”), German literary movement of the late 18th century that exalted nature, feeling, and human individualism and sought to overthrow the Enlightenment cult of Rationalism. - britannica.com
I enjoyed the artwork in ‘Fire and Blood: Being a History of the Targaryen Kings of Westeros’ by Archmaester Gyldayn of the Citadel of Oldtown, aka GeI enjoyed the artwork in ‘Fire and Blood: Being a History of the Targaryen Kings of Westeros’ by Archmaester Gyldayn of the Citadel of Oldtown, aka George R.R. Martin, best. They are black and white drawings by Doug Wheatley, but lovely just the same.
The book is a fictionalized history (part I) of the Targaryens. It starts with the beginning of the family’s takeover of Westeros, from the first King Aegon Targaryen, Conqueror of Westeros, to Aegon III, the Broken King’s reign, on the Iron Throne. ‘Fire and Blood’ relates the how and why of the Targaryens leaving Valyria and moving to Dragonstone. Aegon the Conqueror was born on Dragonstone in 27 BC (Before the Conquest). The history stops at 136 AC (After the Conquest).
There are some interesting tidbits I gleaned:
-the new HBO show, ‘House of the Dragon’ is happening mostly about when Viserys I is on the Iron Throne (103 AD). Near the end of season one, the war between Aegon II and Rhaenyra is starting. This show is 300 years before ‘Game of Thrones’. -a bit of what dragons are like and how they are tamed is told here and there -(view spoiler)[most of the dragons died during a terrible war between Aegon II and Rhaenyra (hide spoiler)] -(view spoiler)[the last Targaryen dragon died during the Broken King’s reign (hide spoiler)]
George R.R. Martin gave an interview to Dan Jones in London, which is reprinted in back of the book. Some of the interesting things Martin said:
-he started writing ‘Game of Thrones’ in 1991 -he didn’t have this huge fictionalized genealogy at the start - it grew as he wrote -the map of Westeros is actually the map of Ireland turned upside down with changes -he got things wrong as he wrote the other books in the series, but fans are quick to set him right for corrections in the new editions -he used as templates for his fictional history of Westeros actual real-world histories: the War of the Roses; the Crusades; the Albigensian Crusade; the Hundred Years War; and the history of Scotland
There is a family tree of the Targaryen’s, thank the Seven!
I was interested to read ‘Fire and Blood’ because the book fills in some of the backstory for the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series (start here - A Game of Thrones), ‘Fire and Blood’ is supposed to be something like a history textbook written by a Westeros Archmaester, with some dialogues included by reputable sources that have been “verified.” Maesters in this fantasy series are seemingly equivalent to the Catholic monks of the medieval era in our real world. ‘Author’ Gyldayn adds in a few stories which are considered unsubstantiated gossip, so this book isn’t entirely dry as, well, a textbook.
I do not recommend reading ‘Fire and Blood’ straight through like a novel! Unless you are that kind of bookworm, you know, the kind who gets hot and excited and feeling just gotta/needy-to-know when reading textbooks, especially history textbooks (ok, I kinda have been there). Or you are that reader who has to finish every read you’ve started of every kind, no matter what, maybe even the cereal boxes that you’ve started at the breakfast table (when I was a kid, I did this). But in this case, I was simply curious enough to read ‘Fire and Blood’ since I loved the ‘A Song of Fire and Ice’ books and the HBO show.
Frankly, the new series, ‘The House of the Dragon’, is continuing to be on my watchlist currently because it has a LOT more dragons. The characters are not really drawing me in. So far. Bite me.
Personally, I do have a DNF stack now, where I have given away books (or returned to the library) that I definitely will NEVER finish, and some I hope to pick up and try again later, maybe, if I feel like it. I changed my bookworm reading habits because I got more old with more broken down body bits, like eyes going watery and bifocally and a touch of cataracts. Plus, ticktock. Time is running out. ☹️
I read ‘Fire and Blood’ on an occasional basis. Because I bought this at Apple Books, I was notified by them that another Martin book, The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One was newly published, and would I like to get it? Fool that I am, I did. Why am I a Fool? Shut up. Anyway, I read both ‘Fire and Blood’ and ‘The Rise of the Dragon’ together, once I realized they were almost the same read, even if having different art drawings. Skimmed ‘The Rise of the Dragon’, actually. It is the duller of the two books to read.
Ok, then. ‘The Rise of the Dragon’ is ‘Fire and Blood’ redone but more concise, using much the same info as is in ‘Fire and Blood’. There are paragraphs exactly the same, but a lot of the scandals and rumors descriptions in ‘Fire and Blood’ are gone or extremely compressed down into a sentence. However, there are gorgeous color drawings, entirely new ones, that are not at all in ‘Fire and Blood’. Even in an ebook, they are gorgeous! ‘The Rise of the Dragon’ is probably a better buy as a coffee table book. But I like looking at the dragons, even if on my phone, passing the time… ...more
aPriL does feral sometimes
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