Guest Post: Michael J. Sullivan on Fantasy Tropes
Nov
16
2011

Today I am pleased to have a guest post by Michael J. Sullivan on the topic of fantasy tropes. I just reviewed his Theft of Swords yesterday and found it a very enjoyable traditional fantasy. In this post, I think Michael makes some really good points about tropes in fantasy and what people often mean when they say they are tired of fantasy tropes. I hope you enjoy it, too, and thanks to Michael for stopping by today!

Michael Sullivan

 

Hello, my name is Michael J. Sullivan and I want to thank Kristen for having me here today.  For those that don’t know who I am I wrote a six-book series called The Riyria Revelations. The series has been picked up by Orbit (fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group) and they are releasing it as a trilogy: Theft of Swords (Nov 23 release – although print books are already in bookstores), Rise of Empire (Dec 15), and Heir of Novron (Jan 31).  The best way to describe this series is traditional epic fantasy and Kristin asked me here for my take on using tropes in fantasy.

I guess I should start out by talking about tropes in general just so that we are all on the same page. Some people think tropes are clichés (which are stereotypes and trite) but in reality a trope is something that is familiar in the mind of your audience.  I write traditional epic fantasy, fantasy that I loved as a child, so there is a nostalgic quality to a lot of what is in The Riyria Revelations.

There have been times that I have heard fans of the traditional fantasy novels lament the repetitive themes and exhausted archetypes of the genre. They say they are tired of the same old hero-vanquishing-evil and want something new, something more real, more believable. To me sounds like someone saying they love chocolate, they just wished it wasn’t so chocolaty and that it tasted more like vanilla.

Part of the problem comes in that people say there is no such thing as a truly original idea, and every book borrows from ones that have gone before. It’s a valid point, and one that really can’t be argued with. But here’s the thing…it’s all about how you execute your story and what you bring to the genre. When I look at Harry Potter it has some of the most standard themes in the genre. Think about it…he’s an orphan…destined for greatness…there’s an ancient evil trying to destroy the world…and Harry must defeat it.  This has been done hundreds maybe thousands of times in the past and yet, for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the Potter series because the way in which Rowlings told the story was so enjoyable.

My thoughts are that I don’t think people hate to read the same type of story, they just hate to read bad stories. There are an infinite number of ways to combine old ideas to create new books. If the plot is good, if the reader cares for the characters, if the setting feels real, then it doesn’t matter that at its root is something you’ve seen before. In truth the fact that it is familiar is one of the things that makes it feel so welcoming…like your favorite pair of shoes or a beloved sweater. They are comfortable, and inviting and you like being with them. That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing to me.

Of course, not all people will feel the same way, and that’s a good thing because variety, is as they say, the spice of life. If you do like something that has a familiar feel but breathes some fresh new air I hope you’ll look into my Riyria Revelations and if you do give it a try, please drop me a note and let me know what you think. My email is in the books and there’s nothing more that I love then hearing from people who have given me some of what is most precious to them…there time and thanks once again Kristin for inviting me to post.

Review of Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
Nov
15
2011
Theft of Swords
by Michael J. Sullivan
692pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 7/10
Amazon Rating: 5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.25/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.52/5
 

Theft of Swords contains the first two books in the Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan, The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha. These books were self-published, but the series was recently picked up by Orbit Books, who are publishing the books in three volumes each released about a month apart. Theft of Swords is scheduled for publication on November 23. Rise of Empire, containing Nyphron Rising and The Emerald Storm, will be released in December. The final two books, Wintertide and the never-before-released Percepliquis, will be on sale in January 2012 as Heir of Novron.

The Crown Conspiracy introduces the thief Royce and the warrior Hadrian, the men comprising a famous duo of thieves known as Riyria. The two are masters of thievery and manage to consistently perform difficult jobs, some even considered to be outright impossible.

This reputation gives them the opportunity to earn a lot of money when a desperate man asks for their help with stealing a sword. He has been challenged to a duel by Count Pickering, a renowned swordsman who has only lost once. Since the only time the count lost was when he did not have his usual sword, this man believes his only chance of surviving the duel is making sure the sword isn’t available for the fight. Hadrian feels sorry for the man and rather likes the idea of taking a job that will help somebody out instead of the usual jobs that involve petty bickering between nobles. However, Royce requires some convincing because the job needs to be done in a short enough timeframe that he won’t be able to spend some time doing background checks and verifying the man’s story.

Hadrian convinces Royce to take the job with him and the two find the sword exactly where the man said it would be along with a dead body on the floor. To make matters worse, they notice a crown that fell off the head attached to the dead body, realize it is the king, and decide it’s best to leave immediately. Before the two can leave in all haste, they are discovered, accused of murder, thrown into prison, and sentenced to death by the prince. Fortunately for them, the princess Arista knows they are innocent and devises a scheme to get them out of there along with her brother, whom she suspects will be killed next, in return for embarking on a mysterious quest for her – a quest that will unravel a conspiracy and just may save the kingdom.

Avempartha takes place two years after the events of The Crown Conspiracy. It’s a new adventure that also starts when Hadrian and Royce are hired to steal a sword, this time to kill a beast that is destroying a village. While it is a new story, it also builds on the previous book and further exposes the depths of the forces conspiring to change the kingdom.

Theft of Swords is a very traditional fantasy story with elves, dwarves, thieves, warriors, wizards, royalty, and nobles. At least in these first two books, it’s not a series that tries to be realistic or plausible or tones down its characters by limiting their abilities. These are characters who are among the best at what they do, perhaps even are the best there is, making the outcome of some events rather predictable. It’s also easy to figure out much of what is coming since some of the hints are not at all subtle (for instance, there was a revelation in the second book that I knew was coming ever since chapter 2 of the first book). Writing a more conventional story that utilizes common fantasy tropes like this can be a difficult thing to do since it requires creating a plot and characters engaging enough that readers don’t get bored and dwell on how they’ve read similar books before. While I do have some reservations about these books, I also think they completely succeed as one of these more conventional stories that still manages to be very entertaining.

Focusing on two thieves as the main characters keeps it very fun, and Royce and Hadrian have a great rapport with each other. They work well together, but they also have a contrast in their personalities and balance each other nicely. Royce is more pragmatic and not much of a people person, but Hadrian is more idealistic and empathetic (and my favorite character in the books). While Royce tends to be into jobs for the money, Hadrian aspires to the warrior ideal of the fair fight and doesn’t really like the fact that he is a thief. They are somewhat stereotypical fantasy characters, but they are also such a great duo to read about with their mischievous ways and snappy banter. As the books continue, more is being revealed about their pasts as well and I am finding myself really interested in learning more about them, even when I suspect I know a lot of what’s coming next.

In general, more was revealed about the world, the different political groups, and the mythology/history of the realm in the second book with the definite feeling that much more will come in the following volumes. I love this technique in a series – not knowing everything right up front and having bits and pieces gradually come together more in each book.

While there is some great humorous dialogue, my main reservation is the writing. It’s written in a very simple style, which certainly fits with this sort of story, a fun adventure book that doesn’t take itself too seriously. However, if the writing is going to be plain, it should also be seamless so one is concentrating on the story being told and not the writing and that wasn’t always the case. There are times, mainly in The Crown Conspiracy, that the sentences in descriptions do not flow together very well and were a bit clunky because of this. Sometimes the sentences strung together were all very short and started very similarly or even the same way:

 

He turned over on his back and wiped his eyes. He had not slept well. He felt stiff and groggy, and the cold morning air chilled him to the bone. He sat up, dragged a large hand down the length of his face, and looked around. [pp. 99]

There are also times where the descriptions were far too detailed for the information being conveyed. For example, there was a section describing the simple room someone lived in but it described it in much more detail than necessary to get the point across. In Avempartha, the awkward sentences and amount of detail had improved and I wasn’t stopping to take notice of these as often although something still seemed a little off and stilted sometimes. The main issue I had with the writing in Avempartha was unnatural exposition in the dialogue. Some information is necessary for readers, but the amount of details given in these sections also made me stop to think about how the characters wouldn’t be talking to each other this way about subjects they’d already both be familiar with.

There is a bit of a dearth of female characters in the book with only two who are present enough to be worth mentioning, but the ones who are there are strong women. They are somewhat constrained by the patriarchal society they live in, but they are also independent. The princess Arista is a very smart, competent woman, and she’s the one who sets events in motion to rescue her brother, Royce, and Hadrian from the plot against the crown. She is viewed with suspicion by many people due to having studied at the university and learning a little bit of magic, but she is also gradually being allowed more opportunities to exercise her power and is shown to be very intelligent. Similarly, Thrace in Avempartha is not appreciated due to being a woman in a man’s world, but she also rises above these expectations and is the one who goes out and seeks help when her village is threatened. (She does more than that as well, but to go into that would be a major spoiler!)

While the writing was a weakness, Theft of Swords works very well as an escapist story. It’s not unconventional or particularly unique as a fantasy, although it is starting to reveal a bigger story in the second book. Yet it is entertaining and it manages to keep the plot and characters engaging enough to make the fantasy tropes fun and nostalgic instead of irritating and stale. When I reached the last page, I found myself really eager to find out what happens to Hadrian and Royce next.

My Rating: 7/10

Where I got my reading copy: Review copy from the publisher. (I also picked up a signed ARC at BEA, but I read the finished copy.)

Read an Excerpt

Other Reviews:

The Leaning Pile of Books
Nov
13
2011

This week brought two review copies and one ARC. One of these books is one I cannot wait to read, but I’m not so sure the other two are really the books for me. As usual, I’ll mention them anyway just in case they are books you are interested in and want to check out!

Saints Astray by Jacqueline CareySaints Astray by Jacqueline Carey

This is the sequel to Santa Olivia, which I rather enjoyed (review). Jacqueline Carey is an immensely talented author and I was quite amazed by just how different Santa Olivia was from Kushiel’s Dart and the Naamah series. I am really excited about reading this one and am planning to start it just as soon as I finish the book I’m reading now.

Saints Astray has a release date of November 22. The first chapter is available to read online.

Fellow orphans, amateur vigilantes, and members of the Santitos, Loup Garron-the fugitive daughter of a genetically engineered “wolf man”-and Pilar Ecchevarria grew up in the military zone of Outpost 12, formerly known as Santa Olivia. But now they’re free, and they want to help the rest of the Santitos escape. During a series of escapades, they discover that Miguel, Loup’s former sparring partner and reprobate surrogate brother, has escaped from Outpost 12 and is testifying on behalf of its forgotten citizens-at least until he disappears from protective custody. Honor drives Loup to rescue Miguel, even though entering the U.S could mean losing her liberty. Pilar vows to help her.

It will take a daring and absurd caper to extricate Miguel from the mess he’s created but Loup is prepared to risk everything… and this time she has help.

Darkness Falls by Cate TiernanDarkness Falls by Cate Tiernan

This is the second book in a young adult series, the Immortal Beloved trilogy, and it follows Immortal Beloved. It will be released in January 2012.

Nastasya has lived for hundreds of years, but for some reason, life never seems to get any better. She left her spoiled, rich girl life to find peace at River’s Edge, a safe haven for wayward immortals. There, she learned to embrace River’s Edge, despite som drama involving the sexy Reyn, who she wants but won’t allow herself to have. But just as she’s getting comfortable, her family’s ties to dark magick force her to leave.

She falls back into her old, hard partying ways, but will her decision lead her into the hands of a dark immortal? Or will it be her first step to embracing the darkness within her?

Immortal Rider by Larissa IoneImmortal Rider by Larissa Ione

This is the second book in the Lords of Deliverance series, following Eternal Rider. It’s spinoff series continuing after Demonica, another paranormal romance series by New York Times bestselling author Larissa Ione. Immortal Rider will be on sale on November 22. An excerpt is available to read online.

The signs are everywhere…disastrous world events. Evil rising up, unleashed upon the innocent. The prophecies were there…but no one listened. Until now. The time has come for those who can either usher in Doomsday…or prevent it. They are here. They ride. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Arik Wagner, a soldier with the U.S. Army’s paranormal unit, the R-XR, kissed a girl and liked it. And then he went to hell as punishment. Where he’s spent weeks being tortured…and plotting revenge.

Limos, Horsewoman of the Apocalypse, isn’t your average girl. She’s immortal, dangerous, and her fiancé is Satan himself. In a moment of weakness, she gave in to her desire and kissed Arik, triggering her fiancé’s wrath – and his claim on her. In order to save Arik, and the world, Limos must make a dangerous pact with her recently turned evil brother, Pestilence. A deal that might just cost her her soul…and her heart.

Review of The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin
Nov
11
2011
The Kingdom of Gods
by N. K. Jemisin
584pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 7/10
Amazon Rating: 4.1/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.25/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.98/5
 

The Kingdom of Gods is the third book in the Inheritance trilogy by N. K. Jemisin. The first book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, was nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy awards. In my opinion, the next book The Broken Kingdoms was even a little stronger. The Kingdom of Gods was one of my most anticipated books of 2011 given that I loved the first two novels in the series and N. K. Jemisin is one of my new must-read authors because of that.

While each of the books in this series does have a different main character and stands alone to an extent, the events of each book do influence the next one. There will be spoilers for the previous two books in this series in this review.

The Kingdom of Gods takes place approximately 100 years after the end of the previous novel and is told from the perspective of Sieh, the god of childhood and the oldest of the godlings. Sieh is still unable to forgive Itempas and feels betrayed when he spies on Yeine with Itempas and realizes she has forgiven him. Once he cannot stand watching them anymore, Sieh flees to Sky where he meets two six-year-old Arameri twins, Shahar and Dekarta. The young boy and girl are oblivious to what Sieh is, but when he returns a year later to meet with them, they have figured out that he is the trickster god. However, this does not stop Shahar from treating Sieh with disrespect and angering him – nearly costing the life of either herself or her brother.

Instead of killing one of the children, Sieh impulsively changes his mind and the twins remind him that he promised them one wish. Since they are not sure what they want to wish for, Sieh agrees to meet them again in one year. One year later they wish for his friendship, which also angers him until he realizes they have no selfish motives for wanting the friendship of a god. Children cannot lie to Sieh, and they really just are two lonely kids who desire his friendship. The three swear an oath bound by blood, but something goes horribly wrong. Eight years later, Sieh awakens to find he’s grown into an adolescent and is mortal. Even worse, neither Yeine nor Nahadoth know what happened or how to reverse the changes in Sieh, and both Sieh and Nahadoth are too stubborn to seek the help of Itempas, the one god who may be able to help.

While I did enjoy reading The Kingdom of Gods, it didn’t impress me as much as the first two books. There are some things it does very well, and in some ways I appreciate it more than the first two because I do think it’s the most ambitious book of the three. After all, it’s told from the point of view of a godling, it ties together and builds on the previous books, it’s the longest and most sprawling in the series, and it involves many of the gods. With this, it also provides a better understanding of the various gods, their natures, and their history. It has a larger scope than the first two books, and in having so much more in the book, I thought it didn’t quite succeed in living up to the main strengths of the first two books – a focused storyline told from an intensely personal and riveting perspective.

At the beginning, I was very drawn in by Sieh’s voice as he reminisces about Yeine. His deep loneliness was heartbreaking, as was his knowledge that he was not one of the three and never could be. The opening paragraphs in the first chapter, which showed Sieh’s awareness of his audience as he poked some fun at the first two books and the reader’s perception of time was delightful:

 

There will be no tricks in this tale. I tell you this so that you can relax. You’ll listen more closely if you aren’t flinching every other instant, waiting for the pratfall. You will not reach the end and suddenly learn I have been talking to my other soul or making a lullaby of my life for someone’s unborn brat. I find such things disingenuous, so I will simply tell my tale as I lived it.

But wait, that’s not a real beginning. Time is an irritation, but it provides structure. Should I tell this in the mortal fashion? All right, then, linear. Slooooow. You require context. [pp. 5]

As in the first two books in the series, N. K. Jemisin employs a casual, conversational tone where it seems like the narrator really is talking to you personally. I love this style, and I love how it sets up Sieh’s personality instantly in this book. Right away, he doesn’t quite seem trustworthy and he seems to look down on us mere mortals, too. He’s not quite omniscient, though, as some of the plot deals with Sieh’s inability to remember a past event and there’s a lot of mystery between that and Sieh’s inexplicable loss of immortality.

Although I was drawn in very early, it didn’t maintain that level of interest soon afterward. Mostly, that’s because it took a while to get to the heart of the main conflict, and I just wasn’t invested in the characters enough to be compelled by the more personal story. Once the plot started to reveal it was more than just Sieh’s problem of mortality and his relationship with the Arameri twins, it got a lot better. However, I did find my interest waning at times before it got to the bigger picture, which isn’t something that happened with the first two books. Later parts were stronger, though, and it did have a very memorable, emotional ending that partially made up for some of the wandering earlier, especially since it did all come around full circle into a satisfying, fitting conclusion that worked well with the beginning. (That said, the end was abrupt and over rather quickly – but it had that personal, emotional punch I wanted and expected  from a book in this series.)

The main reason my interest waned for a bit was Sieh himself and the time spent with Shahar and the other Arameri. I’m a bit conflicted about Sieh as a character. He’s an interesting character to read about, but I also felt like he encompassed too much to the point where he seemed inconsistent. Perhaps it’s just because he’s the only one of the godlings who gets a perspective or because he’s the most ancient, but he didn’t seem as definable as the original three or any of the other godlings we meet. Nahadoth is chaos, Yeine is balance, and Itempas is stability. Sieh is called the trickster, the prankster, the child god. He embodies the qualities of childhood – a flair for mischief and impulsiveness. He’s also shown to occasionally be a trickster who schemes behind the scenes, but I had trouble seeing him that way once I was inside his head. Sieh is not prone to subtlety and most of the tricks we see him do are more childish pranks, like changing the runes for warmth on a toilet seat to cold. I have some trouble reconciling this personality with a trickster, someone I think of as being more subtle with bigger schemes, particularly considering this book’s emphasis on the nature of the gods and how they must be true to these natures.

In particular, Sieh’s scenes with Shahar also didn’t entirely work for me. There were some events that took place later in that story that proved important, but I just never really understood why Sieh cared at all for Shahar. He’s a god, albeit a lonely one who can sympathize with her own loneliness, but it seemed odd to me that he’d become so attached to her. She pissed him off and she’s an Arameri, a group of people he hates on principle as they enslaved him. Furthermore, she just didn’t seem particularly extraordinary in spite of her status as heir. On the other hand, I could completely see why he’d care about Deka, who was endearing. Deka actually did seem special – a dreamer who was very obviously intelligent and had some unique qualities and had a lot of chemistry with Sieh. In fact, Deka was my favorite character in the book aside from some of the gods.

Speaking of which, the various gods were the best part of the book. Through Sieh’s eyes, we learn a lot more about their history and how their natures work. Once more of the gods got involved, it added a lot to the story. Yeine and Itempas, much to my surprise, were my favorites. Yes, the same Itempas who was despicable in the beginning, but who changed in the second book – the same god who is the opposite of change, but who does so very slowly – is one of my favorite characters in the series now. At the end of the book is a very powerful scene, and the brief memory of Itempas’s reaction is the part that was most affecting.

In spite of being my least favorite book in this trilogy, The Kingdom of Gods had enough strengths that I’m certainly glad I read it. It faltered at times with some slower parts and I did have some problems with Sieh’s character. Yet the writing, world, the theme of change, and the other characters were all very well done. It also had a memorable conclusion that worked very nicely with the book’s opening, and the note it ended on tied in wonderfully with the beginning.

My Rating: 7/10

Where I got my reading copy: Review copy from the publisher.

Read Excerpts:

N. K. Jemisin also wrote an interesting character study of Sieh, but there are some spoilers for The Kingdom of Gods in it:

Reviews of other books in this series:

The Leaning Pile of Books
Nov
06
2011

This week brought 2 review copies, although I’ve already covered one of them since this is a finished copy of a book I have received as an ARC. If you are interesting in learning more about Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan, I’ll direct you to this post on books snagged at this year’s BEA. I started it this week and should be reviewing it pretty soon, though! I’m 100 pages in now and am having a lot of fun with it so far.

And the other book is…

The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney SchaferThe Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer

This is a fantasy debut novel and the first book in a new series, The Shattered Sigil. I’ve been hearing great things about this book since it came out this year and it has been on my wish list for a while. So when a publicist contacted me about reviewing it, I couldn’t resist that opportunity. It’s about a smuggler and it just sounds like so much fun. Plus I haven’t read nearly enough debuts this year (I’m considering dedicating next month to fantasy debut novels for that reason – I still haven’t read Indigo Eyes by Fel Kian or Low Town by Daniel Polansky or Miserere by Teresa Frohock, all of which look great!).

An excerpt from The Whitefire Crossing is available online. The second book in the Shattered Sigil series, The Tainted City, will be released in 2012.

Dev is a smuggler with the perfect cover.  He’s in high demand as a guide for the caravans that carry legitimate goods from the city of Ninavel into the country of Alathia. The route through the Whitefire Mountains is treacherous, and Dev is one of the few climbers who knows how to cross them safely. With his skill and connections, it’s easy enough to slip contraband charms from Ninavel – where any magic is fair game, no matter how dark – into Alathia, where most magic is outlawed.

But smuggling a few charms is one thing; smuggling a person through the warded Alathian border is near suicidal.  Having made a promise to a dying friend, Dev is forced to take on a singularly dangerous cargo: Kiran. A young apprentice on the run from one of the most powerful mages in Ninavel, Kiran is desperate enough to pay a fortune to sneak into a country where discovery means certain execution – and he’ll do whatever it takes to prevent Dev from finding out the terrible truth behind his getaway.

Yet Kiran isn’t the only one harboring a deadly secret. Caught up in a web of subterfuge and dark magic, Dev and Kiran must find a way to trust each other – or face not only their own destruction, but that of the entire city of Ninavel.

Review of Fox & Phoenix by Beth Bernobich
Nov
03
2011
Fox & Phoenix
by Beth Bernobich
336pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 5.5/10
Amazon Rating: 3/5
LibraryThing Rating: N/A/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.8/5
 

Fox & Phoenix is the first book in Lóng City, a new YA fantasy series by Beth Bernobich. It was published earlier this month (hardcover, ebook, audio book) and follows the events of the short story “Pig, Crane, Fox.” This story was originally published in the anthology Magic in the Mirrorstone and can be read for free on Smashwords. As there are spoilers for this story in the book, there will also be spoilers for it in this review. I do recommend reading the story before the book since I think knowing what happened before helps set up the novel.

Once upon a time, Kai won a contest thrown by the king by granting three impossible wishes. The prize was a lot of money and marriage to the princess Lian, who it turned out wanted to go study politics at the university instead of getting married. For the third impossible wish that made him the winner, Kai got the princess her heart’s desire. He and the friends who helped him got the monetary reward and the friendship of the princess. They should have lived happily ever after.

Instead, nothing has turned out as Kai expected. He didn’t get the girl he liked, Yún, who had been second in command in his street gang and aided him on his quest. In fact, even though they’re both now studying magic as apprentices to Kai’s mother, they’ve become further apart and hardly talk anymore. Plus Kai finds being an apprentice is dreadfully dull.

Then Kai’s mother disappears without a trace. When Kai becomes concerned and goes looking for her, he is visited by the king of the ghost dragons. The whole city has heard that the king is sick, but the dragon tells Kai he is dying and that the Princess Lian must come home. Since Kai is her friend, the ghost dragon is counting on him to travel to Phoenix City and retrieve her. Kai is confounded by this request, but he’s not foolish enough to argue with any sort of dragon, especially a king, so he sets out to bring Lian back to Lóng City.

In “Pig, Crane, Fox” a very traditional sort of fairy tale is given a few key differences. The quest Kai undertakes is very conventional: the three impossible tasks that must be completed in order to win a fortune and the hand of the princess. Yet Kai doesn’t achieve these tasks through superhuman cleverness and individual achievement. It’s a team effort and it takes help from his friends for him to attain his goals – in particular, he couldn’t have won the contest without the help of Yún, the girl he liked who was instrumental in getting him the title of prince that got him into the palace . Furthermore, even though Kai does the tasks and wins, he and the princess Lian do not fall in love and mutually agree not to marry. Kai likes Yún, and the princess isn’t interested in marriage but is instead interested in education and learning how to be a good leader someday. This contest was all her father’s idea and in the end Lian exerts her independence and leaves home to go to school. It ends on a rather happy, promising note with Kai learning the truth about just how much Yún and his mother both aided him and the appearance that Yún may like Kai.

At the beginning of Fox & Phoenix, Kai is much more jaded, especially concerning fairy tales:

 

Once upon a stupid time, I liked fairy tales.

Ai-ya, what’s not to like? The poor kid from nowhere wins the jackpot, while the tilt-nosed snobs get turned into gargoyles. Or worse. But you know what? All those stories stop right there. They never mention what comes later. How your gang changes. How your best friend doesn’t end up as your one true love. And they never tell you how your heart’s desire might be a dangerous thing.

Or, in my case, just so damn boring.

This opening had me completely hooked and excited because I loved this idea of taking a character who used to enjoy fairy tales, then lived one, and found out that he didn’t live happily ever after. However, while there are some great ideas in this story I loved, I felt like it fell short in its execution. It never managed to engage me, even though I can appreciate some of the concepts and basic characterization put into the book. The story itself just never really managed to pull me in or make me care about the people involved. Part of this may have been because I was really expecting it to follow up more on the fairy tale gone wrong. While there was a little bit about that, it was really more of a new story about a quest to save a king than an exploration of fairy tales like the short story was.

It also had some rather uneven pacing. The beginning was strong, but then once Kai got his quest, it got bogged down in preparations for his journey and the actual trip to Phoenix City to find Lian. While I do think this is fitting with the idea that being part of a fairy tale isn’t all fun and games, it also didn’t make for very captivating reading. Once Kai got to Phoenix City, it got a lot less dull but it ended up feeling too long for the amount of story within, largely because of that chunk describing the time between the assignment of the quest and the actual arrival at Kai’s destination. There were times at the beginning and closer to the end that I found interesting, but it never made me feel like I just had to keep reading and find out what happened next.

One aspect of the story I did enjoy was how the characters were handled. They weren’t complexly drawn, but I did like how the main character wasn’t the smartest apprentice or the kid who was best at everything. Yún was actually the one who was smart, competent, and capable, and Kai was the one who took his studies less seriously and messed up more. In fact, I think most of the characters in the book had more maturity and awareness about the world than Kai did. I also liked that while it did what many YA books do in regard to having Kai’s mother absent as a character, she also still emerged as an important player – and in my opinion is the strongest, most incredible character in the entire story.

The world with its magic flux, animal spirits, and Chinese influence is compelling, but I also would have liked a few more details on how it worked. While I am glad there were not infodumps explaining it constantly, I did want to know more about the animal spirit companions in particular. Each character had one, and they usually appeared while the person was still very young. Kai having a pig spirit to talk was completely fun, but I found myself wanting to know much more about these companions – where they came from, what their purpose was, and how they came to be a companion for a specific human. Perhaps this will be explored later in the series.

Fox & Phoenix is full of some great concepts from its angle on fairy tales to its characters and its basic world structure, but it falls short in its execution. Despite some interesting ideas and a decent storyline, it never quite manages to be engaging with that special spark that made me want to know more and keep reading. While it had a strong beginning and a good ending, the middle really dragged, making it much longer than it needed to be for the story that was told. It was an ok book with some decent parts, but it’s not one that has me excited about the series like Beth Bernobich’s other novel Passion Play (which I thought was very readable and compelling despite some flaws and has me really curious about the next book).

My Rating: 5.5/10 – I keep going back and forth between “ok” and “somewhat good” because I felt like most of it was just ok, but there some aspects of the book I admired.

Where I got my reading copy: ARC from the publisher at the request of the author. (Quotes are from the excerpt on the author’s website since I never use quotes from unfinished copies of books.)

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