The Leaning Pile of Books
Apr
17
2011

This week I’m excited about watching A Game of Thrones on HBO tonight – finally!  But first I’m going to talk about some books (yay!) and do some cleaning (boo!).  The OCD part of me also wants to decide what to read next since I just finished Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly, which was a great fantasy book.

For the books – this week brought 3 ARCs and 2 finished review copies.

The Uncertain PlacesThe Uncertain Places by Lisa Goldstein

I’d never heard of this book or author before I was contacted about reviewing it, and I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of either because they both sound fantastic.  Lisa Goldstein has been a finalist for the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award and has won the American Book Award for The Red Magician.  Also, first line from the press release:

 

What if magic existed — for a price — and fairy tales were as real as the Brothers Grimm, the Oxford English Dictionary, and the ’70s?

As you probably know, I love fantasy involving fairy tales and I also love the description about a family secret.

The praise section for the book also has quotes from Ursula Le Guin, Tim Powers, and Patricia McKillip.  Praise for the author has a quote from Diana Wynne Jones calling Lisa Goldstein “the perfect, born storyteller.”  After reading this, my anticipation level is pretty high.  I can’t wait to read it, but I’ll try to wait until it’s a little closer to its release on June 15 to read it.

An ages-old family secret breaches the boundaries between reality and magic in this fresh retelling of a classic fairy tale. When Berkeley student Will Taylor is introduced to the mysterious Feierabend sisters, he quickly falls for enigmatic Livvy, a chemistry major and accomplished chef. But Livvy’s family—vivacious actress Maddie, family historian Rose, and their mother, absent-minded Sylvia—are behaving strangely. The Feierabend women seem to believe that luck is their handmaiden, even though happiness does not necessarily follow. It is soon discovered that generations previous, the Feierabends made a contract with a powerful, otherworldly force, and it is up to Will and his best friend to unravel the riddle of this supernatural bargain in order to save Livvy from her predestined fate.

EmbassytownEmbassytown by China Mieville

I was fortunate enough to win an early copy of this from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.  Ever since I saw it in the publisher’s catalog last year, I thought it sounded like a very interesting book and have really wanted to read it.  Embassytown will be released on May 17.  Since the ARC requests reviews be posted after release date, I’ll wait until early next month to start it.

China Miéville doesn’t follow trends, he sets them. Relentlessly pushing his own boundaries as a writer—and in the process expanding the boundaries of the entire field—with Embassytown, Miéville has crafted an extraordinary novel that is not only a moving personal drama but a gripping adventure of alien contact and war.

In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak.

Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language.

When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties—to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her.

Sleight of HandSleight of Hand by Peter S. Beagle

This is a finished copy of this story collection, which I had received as an ARC a little while ago.  I’m hoping to read it over the next couple of weeks.  Although novels are more to my liking than short stories, I loved The Last Unicorn and was excited to see one of the stories was about Schmendrick.  Also, I’ve heard some very good things about this particular book.  I might even read it next, but I’m also considering reading some books by authors I haven’t read yet who will be at BEA now that the schedule has been released.

Abundant with tales of quiet heroism, life-changing decisions, and determined searches for deep answers, this extraordinary collection of contemporary fantasy explores the realms between this world and the next. From the top of the Berlin Wall to the depths of the darkest seas, gods and monsters battle their enemies and innermost fears, yet mere mortals make the truly difficult choices. A slightly regretful author and a vengeful-but-dilapidated dragon square off over an abandoned narrative; the children of the Shark God demand painful truths from their chronically absent father; and a bereaved women sacrifices herself to change one terrible moment, effortlessly reversed by a shuffle of the deck. Whether melancholic, comedic, or deeply tragic, each new tale is suffused with misdirection and discovery, expressed in the rich and mesmerizing voice of a masterful storyteller.

Born of ShadowsBorn of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon

This was one of those surprise books that showed up.  Since Sherrilyn Kenyon is a New York Times bestselling author, I thought it might be nice to try reading this book, but it is actually the fourth book in the League series.  I looked them up and it sounds like each book in the series features different characters, though, so I’m not surely how closely connected they are.  So if anyone has read these books, do they stand alone?  If not, would it be worth getting the first book to read?

Born of Shadows will be released on April 26 in hardcover and as an ebook.  The other books in this series are (in order) Born of Night, Born of Fire, and Born of Ice.

In a world where the League and its assassins rule, where betrayal and treachery are everywhere . . . the only survivors are those ones who are . . .

BORN OF SHADOWS

For Caillen Dagan, a defiant soldier of fortune, survival isn’t a right, it’s a brutal daily battle. Moving through the Ichidaian universe like a wraith, his brushes with the law and death are legendary. But when an act of rare heroism reveals his hidden birthright, he’s forced into a world much more dangerous and cold-hearted than the bloody streets where he was raised-one of obscene wealth and lethal politics.

Ferocious and determined, Desideria serves as an official bodyguard for her queen. Born of questionable genetics, she will do anything to prove herself worthy of the weapons she carries and the position she’s won by combat. But when she uncovers a ruthless plot to assassinate the queen and overthrow her country’s government, Desideria is caught in the crosshairs.

With assassination contracts out on both of them, Caillen and Desideria must learn to fight together or die alone. And if they fail, their governments will fall into the hands of an unimaginable evil.

City of the SnakesCity of the Snakes by Darren Shan

This was another surprise book, and it will be released on June 2 in the US.  It’s the conclusion to The City trilogy following The Procession of the Dead and Hell’s Horizon.  Supernatural crime sounds like it could be fun, but I’m not sure about reading the series just because there are so many other books that look more interesting to me.  If you’re read them, feel free to let me know what you think, though!

For ten years Capac Raimi has ruled the City. Created by the first Cardinal to continue his legacy, Capac cannot be killed. 

Then Capac disappears. His trusted lieutenant, Ford Tasso, suspects the mysterious villacs, ancient and powerful Incan priests. To Ford, only one man has the cunning to outwit such adversaries-Al Jeery, who has taken the guise of his father, the terrifying assassin Paucar Wami.

Al has no love for Capac and no wish to tangle with the villacs. Until Ford promises him the one thing he truly craves-retribution against the man who killed those he loved most and destroyed his life. Lured into the twisted, nightmarish world of the Incan priests, Al will learn more about the City than he ever imagined, and be offered more power than he ever desired.

But in the City, everything comes at a cost…

What Works: Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
Apr
12
2011

This is a new feature I’ve been considering doing for a while – talking about a small portion of a book and why it works (or doesn’t perhaps in some cases).  For my inaugural post, I’m going to discuss the first chapter of the book I am currently reading and why it works.  What it does so well is setting up the book as being not-quite your traditional high fantasy novel and really making the characters involved interesting immediately.  This book is Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly, which was recently re-released as an ebook after being out of print for a while (along with several other books by the author).  It was originally published in 1986 and is the first book in the Winterlands series. (Note: I’ve actually seen the publication date listed as everywhere from 1985 – 1987, but I went with the date listed on the author’s website.)

In the first chapter of Dragonsbane, we are introduced to two people who are not your traditional fantasy hero and heroine – and not just because they have two very common names that are easily pronounceable, Jenny and John.  First, we are introduced to Jenny, a witch of rather mediocre powers.  Yes, you read that right – Jenny is not the most powerful magic-user in the land but actually not very powerful at all.  She’s also 37 years old instead of in her teens or early twenties.  Nor is she beautiful or even particularly noble as is shown when she defeats some bandits no thanks to Gareth, her would-be rescuer.

When Gareth startles some bandits, Jenny is forced to fight them and feels obligated to use her magic to finish one of the dying men:

 

Jenny sighed, feeling suddenly cold and weary and unclean, looking upon what she had done and knowing what it was up to her yet to do. She knelt beside the dying man, drawing the stillness of her magic around her again. She was aware of Gareth’s approach, his boots threshing
through the dew-soaked bindweed in a hurried rhythm that broke when he tripped on his sword. She felt a tired stirring of anger at him for having made this necessary. Had he not cried out, both she and this poor, vicious, dying brute would each have gone their ways . . .

. . .And he would doubtless have killed Gareth after she passed. And other travelers besides.

She had long since given up trying to unpick wrong from right, present should from future if. If there was a pattern to all things, she had given up thinking that it was simple enough to lie within her comprehension. Still, her soul felt filthy within her as she put her hands to the dying man’s clammy, greasy temples, tracing the proper runes while she whispered the deathspells. She felt the life go out of him and tasted the bile of self-loathing in her mouth.

Gareth is rather disturbed by this, but Jenny accepts it even though she didn’t like it. As soon becomes evident, living in the Winterlands isn’t easy and it’s all about survival.  It’s complicated, this line between morally right and self-preservation.

When Gareth recovers from his shock over Jenny’s actions, he comes to the realization that as a witch Jenny should have done something far more spectacular such as casting fireball, blindness, or polymorph.  So he asks Jenny why she didn’t, to which she responds simply, “Because I cannot.”  It upsets her deeply to admit this:

 

Even after all these years of knowing it, she found the admission still stuck in her throat. She had come to terms with her lack of beauty, but never with her lack of genius in the single thing she had ever wanted. The most she had ever been able to do was to pretend that she accepted it, as she
pretended now.

At this point, I already like Jenny – she’s showing human complexity and doesn’t seem like a stereotypical heroine, gorgeous or a superwoman.

It turns out Gareth is on a quest: a dragon is in need of slaying so he has come to find the one man alive who is a true dragonsbane, Lord Aversin.  He’s heard all the ballads about how courageous and honorable Lord Aversin is so he’s rather disappointed to learn he didn’t kill the dragon by facing him with a sword but with a harpoon dipped in poison, followed by an axe.  Alas, his hero did things the way least likely to get himself killed rather than the standard, romantic method.  But surely he’s still as handsome and imposing as the ballads say?

Not exactly…  When Gareth meets John, Lord Aversin, he discovers he is unkempt, medium-sized, and wears spectacles.  Oh, and he’s standing in a bunch of mud next to a pigsty.

So much for our would-be hero’s romantic notions of dragon-slayers.  The poor boy faints.  (The blood loss from the wound he got in the battle probably had something to do with this, but it was still good timing.)

The entire first chapter of this book and the way it set up the characters really intrigued me.  Right now I’m about 50% of the way through it and am still really enjoying it.

Have you ever read a first chapter that really drew you in and made you want to know more about the characters like that?  Or, have you read Dragonsbane or any other books by Barbara Hambly?

Oops!
Apr
12
2011

I keep expecting this to happen since often when I close my Twitter while I’m working on a post, it ends up over the “Publish” button in WordPress.  A post I was revising for tomorrow just went up because of this.  I’ve removed it from the site, but of course it’s still showing up in my RSS feed.  Oops!  Look away, for it is unfinished!

In that case, I’ll try to put it up tonight instead of tomorrow.

Review of Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
Apr
11
2011
Deathless
by Catherynne M. Valente
336pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 8.5/10
Amazon Rating: 5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.5/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.34/5
 

Deathless by Catherynne Valente is a more modernized retelling of the Russian folktale about the death of Koschei the Deathless, often known as “The Death of the Immortal Koschei” or “Marya Morevna.”  It’s set in Stalinist Russia and is mainly about the aforementioned Marya Morevna, the woman who was sought after by both Koschei and Ivan in the story.  Deathless was released in hardcover toward the end of March and is also available as an ebook.

When she was six years old, Marya Morevna was first exposed to the “naked world,” the magic that other people did not seem to notice.  As she was sitting by the window, Marya saw a bird fall out of a tree and become a man.  This man came to her front door, saying he had come to marry the girl in the window, and left with her oldest sister.  Twice more Marya saw birds fall from their tree, turn into men, and take away her other sisters in order to marry them.  This left her waiting the day her own bird would come (and with a lot of curiosity about where exactly husbands come from).

As she grows older, Marya sees more and more of the magical parts of the world, meeting the domoviye of her household and Likho, the Tsaritsa of the Length of an Hour.  They all make mention of the coming of Koschei, and one day an owl drops out of the tree outside and turns into a handsome man.  This time Marya was not at the window to see it, and is taken by surprise when she answers the door to find Koschei come to take her away.  Yet she leaves with him, where she lives in his land and fights in his war against the Tsar of Death – at least until the day the inevitable happens and she meets her Ivan.

Ever since reading The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden, I’ve been a fan of Catherynne Valente’s writing and reading The Habitation of the Blessed cemented that belief in her skill as an author. She has a flair for gorgeous prose filled with imagery and imaginative, beautiful storytelling (and although her stories are not at all comedies, there are parts that exhibit a terrific sense of humor as well).  Although she has three (!) novels coming out this year and I’m looking forward to each of them, Deathless is the one I was most excited about since I love stories based on fairy or folk tales.  Also, I know very little about Russian folklore, so I was interested in learning more about these stories.  Although I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden by the time it was over, I did enjoy reading this novel, especially the first half.

Deathless was a little different from the other two books I’ve read by Valente.  While it contained the same creativity and wit I’ve come to expect from her work, the writing style was not nearly as elaborate.  The prose was still lovely, but it was less complex with less description and more dialogue than normal.  From the opening paragraphs in the first chapter, I was swept into it by the writing which was perfect for a fairy/folk tale:

 

In a city by the sea which was once called St. Petersburg, then Petrograd, then Leningrad, then, much later, St. Petersburg again, there stood a long, thin house on a long, thin street. By a long, thin window, a child in a pale blue dress and pale green slippers waited for a bird to marry her.

This would be cause for most girls to be very gently closed up in their rooms until they ceased to think such alarming things, but Marya Morevna had seen all three of her sisters’ husbands from her window before they knocked at the great cherrywood door, and thus she was as certain of her own fate as she was certain of the color of the moon. [pp. 15]

There are also some reoccurring patterns throughout the novel that I loved, particularly “long, thin” and the importance of the number three.  There are several times when a part of the story is told with three almost identical but slightly different parts, which lent well to keeping it feeling like a fairy/folk tale retelling.  Throughout the story the number three remained significant – from the marrying off of Marya’s 3 sisters to the 3 birds; to the 3 tests Baba Yaga made Marya undertake and her 3 friends she asked for help in each; to Marya’s meeting her 3 sisters later in the story.  Plus the story had 3 central figures: Marya, Koscshei, and Ivan.

While Deathless is technically a fantastic novel and I very much appreciated it, I had no emotional connection to any of the characters in the story.  Because of this, I didn’t love it the way I wanted to or felt it really deserved, especially later in the novel.  For the first half of the story, I was quite enchanted by Marya’s youth and glimpses of the magical parts of the world as well as her relationship with Koschei.  She had sort of a love/hate relationship with him – she did seem to truly love him but she also despised him for what happened to all the girls who came before her.  Yet even though he was a liar who tried to tell her there were no other girls, I also felt like he was not exactly unlikeable – he was the Tsar of Life, and as such he was what he was.  I loved the three tests Baga Yaga gave Marya to see if she was worthy and how Marya handled them.  I also loved Marya’s friends in Koschei’s realm. However, once Marya actually married Koschei I felt some of the magic from the first half of the story was gone.  This is actually perfectly fitting with the story since it’s true that at the point the awe and wonder of the discovery of this “naked world” was wearing thin, but it remains that my favorite part of the book was this sense of wonder the first half had.  In the second part, Marya became a harder woman involved in a war, and although I loved the fact that the story always must unwind a certain way (in this case with Ivan coming for Marya), I wasn’t as riveted by the story after Ivan arrived.  This is not to say I didn’t like the latter half of the story, just that I found myself loving the first half and not as absorbed in the second one.

Overall, Deathless is a darkly beautiful novel that keeps the feel of a folktale retelling with the repetition of the significance of three.  Its prose isn’t as densely ornate as other novels by Valente, but it still retains its elegance and the novel has the same clever artistry her work is known for.  In spite of my admiration for this, it never elicited the emotional response I like to have when I read a book or made me truly care for the characters involved.  In addition, I wasn’t as enamored by the second part of the novel as the first, which I thought was fantastic.  However, these hindrances to my total adoration of Deathless are fairly minor – and just prevent me from giving it the 10 I would have given it if these were not the case.

My Rating: 8.5/10

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

Read an Excerpt

Read about the Origin of the Novel

Other Reviews:

The Leaning Pile of Books
Apr
10
2011

This week I got the rest of my birthday books from the UK and one ARC.  The ARC is one I actually already had (Eona by Alison Goodman) and just mentioned not that long ago so I won’t include a photo and description here this week. I’ll be reviewing Eon, the book that precedes it, soon anyway and will hopefully be reading and reviewing Eona soon as well. Now that some of the busy events of the past couple of weeks are over, I’m hoping to get both that Eon review and the Deathless one up this week.

Castle in the AirCastle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

This is the first sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle, which I recently read and very much enjoyed.  I’m looking forward to reading it even though Sophie and Howl aren’t the main characters since it sounds fun.

Abdullah was a young and not very prosperous carpet dealer. His father, who had been disappointed in him, had left him only enough money to open a modest booth in the Bazaar. When he was not selling carpets, Abdullah spent his time daydreaming. In his dreams he was not the son of his father, but the long-lost son of a prince. There was also a princess who had been betrothed to him at birth. He was content with his life and his daydreams until, one day, a stranger sold him a magic carpet.

In this stunning sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones has again created a large-scale, fast-paced fantasy in which people and things are never quite what they seem. There are good and bad djinns, a genie in a bottle, wizards, witches, cats and dogs (but are they cats and dogs?), and a mysterious floating castle filled with kidnapped princesses, as well as two puzzling prophecies. The story speeds along with tantalizing twists and turns until the prophecies are fulfilled, true identities are revealed, and all is resolved in a totally satisfying, breathtaking, surprise-filled ending.

A Tale of Time CityA Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones

This particular book is out of print in the US, which would be why my husband ended up getting a copy from the UK.  I can’t find the cover I have anywhere (not even Goodreads has it and they always have my covers!), which is too bad because I think it’s the nicest cover of any of them.  This is the Diana Wynne Jones book my husband thinks I should read next – it’s one of the ones he already had but wanted to replace for me to read since it was so old and worn out.

Time City – built far in the future on a patch of space outside time – holds the formidable task of overseeing history, yet it’s starting to decay, crumble …. What does that say for the future of the world … for the past … for the present? Two Time City boys, determined to save it all, think they have the answer in Vivian Smith, a young Twenty Century girl whom they pluck from a British train station at the start of World War II. But not only have they broken every rule in the book by traveling back in time – they have the wrong person! Unable to return safely, Vivian’s only choice is to help the boys restore Time City or risk being stuck outside time forever…
March Reading
Apr
05
2011

So close to 5 books this month, missing it by just one day!  The past couple of weeks have been busy, but I’m hoping to get back to writing my review of Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente soon.  Especially considering I’m going to have another new review to write before too long at the rate at which I’m going through Alison Goodman’s Eon – I’m starting to think I’m going to be very glad to have Eona around when I’m done.

Books read in March were:

The Lens and the Looker by Lory Kaufman (Review)
The Native Star by M.K. Hobson (Review)
Badass: The Birth of a Legend by Ben Thompson (Review)
The Hero Strikes Back by Moira J. Moore (Review)

Favorite book of the month: The Native Star.  It really didn’t sound like something I would have picked up from the description – and I probably wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been a Nebula nominee and if I hadn’t been hearing such good things about it – but I’m very glad I did.  I had so much fun with it and I loved the two main leads and their relationship. I cannot wait for the sequel, The Hidden Goddess, to be released later this month.

What did you read in March and what did you think of the books you read?