Melusine (or The Virtu or The Mirador) Giveaway
Dec
06
2008

It’s the end of the year again which means I’ve been thinking a lot about my favorite books I’ve read this year. I’m going to do a giveaway of four of my favorite books from this year (new copies, that is, not mine – no way am I parting with these ones!). New giveaways will be announced on each Saturday in December with a deadline of 11:59 PM of the following Saturday for entering. Winners will be announced the day after the deadline.

This week’s book is Melusine, the first book in Sarah Monette’s The Doctrine of Labyrinth series (review). All three books in this series about the wizard Felix Harrowgate and the assassin Mildmay are excellent with exceptionally well developed characters, but my favorite is actually the second book The Virtu (my #1 favorite book of the year). I liked Melusine almost as much, though, and that’s definitely the place to start, so that’s my choice for giveaway #1! Plus Monette did an amazing job of writing from the first person perspective of an insane character in this particular book.

Warning: I would not recommend this book to anyone offended by bad language, rape, sexual content, and/or homosexuality. Monette is one of those authors that writes by asking herself what the worst possible thing she can do to her characters is and then does it – so it’s not a light, happy story but is rather dark.

Edit: I am changing this contest to any book in the series. So if you already have Melusine and want The Virtu, you can choose to get The Virtu instead. Or if you have both but don’t have The Mirador, you can get that one if you win.

Contest Rules

To enter, send an email with the subject “Melusine” to fantasycafe AT novomancy.org. Please include your mailing address. Addresses will only be used for sending the book out quickly and all messages will be deleted once the contest is over. If you already have this book but want either The Virtu or The Mirador, please specify which of these two books you would like instead.

The contest is open to anyone. One entry per person is allowed.

Entries for the contest will be accepted through 11:59 PM on Saturday December 13. The next contest will be announced sometime that day.

Good luck!

Hope’s Folly Book Trailer
Dec
05
2008

The book trailer for Hope’s Folly, the third book in the Dock Five/Gabriel’s Ghost series by Linnea Sinclair, is on her site. It will be released in February of 2009. I am so excited about this book! The first two books in this science fiction romance series, Gabriel’s Ghost and Shades of Dark, recently made it to my favorite books list and I’ll be reviewing both of them soon. Until then, let’s put it this way… I couldn’t put down the last half of Gabriel’s Ghost and once I finished it, I wanted more so badly that I rushed out to the bookstore to get Shades of Dark just a couple of hours later. By the time I went to bed that night, I was halfway through that book and in the end, I loved it more than the first one. Those are ones I’ll be definitely be rereading.

The third book will be about Philip Guthrie, a character from the first two books. Although I’m looking forward to Hope’s Folly, I am going to miss the two main characters from the first two books since they are really what made me love the series so much. Even so, I’ll be going to the bookstore to get that one the day it comes out.

Review of All the Windwracked Stars
Dec
05
2008

All the Windwracked Stars
by Elizabeth Bear
368pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 8/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4/5
Goodreads Rating: 4/5

Elizabeth Bear’s latest novel, All the Windwracked Stars, is the first book in The Edda of Burdens trilogy. As a big fan of her Promethean Age series as well as A Companion to Wolves (co-written with Sarah Monette), I was very much looking forward to this book. While I did not enjoy it quite as much as the other novels, it was still very good with a fantastic backstory steeped in Norse mythology.

The tale begins with the end of the world. The dead bodies of the children of the Light are buried under the falling snow – all except for the smallest one, the historian and poet Muire, who ran away instead of facing her fate with her sisters and brothers. Muire returns after the battle, where is she is found by the badly injured Kasimir, the last remaining valraven whose Valkyrie rider is among the fallen. The two keep each other alive throughout the night, and the next morning Kasimir chooses Muire as his new rider, despite her protests that she is unworthy because of her cowardice. However, Muire leaves him once he is healed, fearing the changes he underwent as he was forged into a metallic steed of war in preparation for the world to come.

Approximately 2300 years pass and the world is decaying once again. Two hundred years before, a mere two cities remained and now the final city is beginning to ebb, kept alive only by the efforts of the Technomage. Muire has survived throughout the years and now resides in this last city, Eiledon. One night she encounters a dying man and chooses him, which gives her some of his memories and a desire to avenge him. In doing so, she realizes that one of the tarnished children of the Light still walks the earth in these final days and determines to find this ancient enemy.


All the Windwracked Stars is one of those books that is not clearly science fiction or fantasy but some of both, although it felt more like a fantasy book to me. The setting is in a future more technically advanced than ours and when the second chapter mentioned humans using their science to destroy themselves, I expected it to have more emphasis on the destruction of the world by its residents than it actually did. There was more emphasis on the mythological elements and magic and the book reminded me very much of a fairy tale with its lyrical prose and the complete immersion in a fantastic world that is not entirely our own. Magic occurs all the time but it just seems to fit and is shown instead of being over-explained.

As with A Companion to Wolves, which also was based on Norse mythology, a lot of difficult to pronounce Nordic words are thrown around without a lot of explanation on their meaning, if any. Personally, I enjoy this style and find looking up details on the background of the various terms to be a part of the fun of reading a book by Bear, but some readers may find it jarring to encounter expressions such as “waelcyrge” and “einherjar” regularly. Usually there is enough context to get the general idea, though.

All the Windwracked Stars is not a light, mindless read, although it is not a particularly difficult book, either. It does require some attention since it is not as straightforward as many novels and does not always spell everything out (and contains a lot of unfamiliar terms, as mentioned previously). I suspect this is another one that would still be interesting to reread and that I’d catch many subtleties that I missed the first time around.

The characters are good but not great, which is mainly why I did not enjoy this book as much as the other books I have read by Bear. Reflecting on it, I liked all the characters – just not as much as some of the ones in her other books (even though the characters in A Companion to Wolves other than the main character and his wolf were not well drawn, I very much enjoyed those two). Kasimir, the valraven, was my favorite. His rejection by Muire immediately after the death of his previous rider made me feel badly for him, especially since he chose to serve her and did it so gladly. Muire’s yearning for redemption was interesting and I did enjoy reading about her. There were a couple of other characters who had their own chapters but fewer of them than Muire, a gigolo and a cat-person in the service of the Technomage. The animal-people in general were fun to read about and the Technomage’s view of their obedience or disobedience – that, as their creator, it was her own failing if they displeased her.

The writing is gorgeous and the opening lines really drew me in to the story. Actually, the entire first chapter had this wonderful cataclysmic yet melancholy feel to it when it described the end of the world and Muire and Kasimir’s survival. The next two or three chapters, which took place far in the future, had a different tone completely and did not keep my attention quite as well. However, after that, I could hardly put the book down.

All the Windwracked Stars is not the strongest book by Elizabeth Bear, but it is still a very good story. I definitely look forward to reading the rest of the series.

8/10

Read an Excerpt

Other Reviews:

Review of The Court of the Air
Nov
28
2008

The Court of the Air
by Stephen Hunt
592pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 5/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.51/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.16/5

The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt is the first book set in the Jackelian World. The next book that takes place in this world, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, is currently available in some countries including the UK. The Rise of the Iron Moon, the third book, will be released in the UK in February 2009. All the books feature different sets of characters, and The Court of the Air has a definite beginning, middle and end that makes it work as a stand alone book.

Teenage orphan Molly Templar, who has always have a gift with machines, lived in a poorhouse until one day when she was sold to the madame of a nearby brothel. When her first client attempts to murder her, she escapes and returns to the only home she ever known to find that many of her childhood friends in the poorhouse have been murdered. Molly realizes someone is targeting her specifically for some reason and flees to the underground with the help of an old friend.

Oliver Brooks has lived with his uncle since both of his parents died when he was young. For a time after his father died, he lived in the mysterious feymist until he was found. Those who spend time in the feymist tend to gain magical powers so Oliver is regularly tested to ensure he does not have any. Although he always fails to prove he has any supernatural abilities, he is always regarded with deep suspicion. If he was to exhibit signs of having magic, his actions would be controlled by a collar or he may be sent to an asylum, like the man he knows as the Whisperer who visits his dreams regularly, claiming Oliver is the strongest of them all.

One day Oliver returns home to discover his uncle has been murdered — and the authorities believe that Oliver is responsible. With the help of Harry Stave, a man of ill repute visiting his uncle, Oliver leaves his hometown and embarks on a great adventure.


The Court of the Air is a difficult novel for me to review because it is not at all a bad book, but it did not appeal to me personally. The beginning of the book had me intrigued with a world of humans and steammen (sentient machines) and a country in which the king was not honored but had his arms cut off and rotten vegetables thrown at him to discourage him from oppressing his people (it’s good to be the king!). I was curious about Molly’s innate knowledge of steammen and how Oliver’s powers would manifest. Yet the more I read, the less interested I was in what happened.

My favorite books are those in which the characters come alive and seem very real to me, and this novel was more about plot and less heavy on characterization, which is definitely one reason why it did not work for me. Neither Molly nor Oliver ever seemed to grow as characters – both of them seemed shallow with surface traits such as being an orphan or having a specific power. Although both characters developed new abilities, they never seemed to undergo any personal struggles or developments as individual people. As the story progressed, more characters were introduced and less focus was given to the two main characters and many of the new characters seemed interchangeable to me. I never felt I had any reason to care about any of the people in the story so I was never particularly invested in the end result.

The pacing was somewhat uneven and the book was far longer than I thought it needed to be to tell the story. It would begin to get more interesting then it would introduce a new character or set of characters and I would lose interest again. These additional viewpoints were necessary for keeping readers informed on various perspectives on the conflict throughout the world but it seemed like too many characters were introduced too late in the story.

The writing was not at all poor and at times it could be rather clever. The different types of societies in the novel were also rather well done and I did like the steammen (I have a weakness for AIs as characters).

The Court of the Air is an inventive book that I’m sure would appeal to many other people. However, since I did not care deeply about what happened to anyone in the story, it did not hold my attention.

5/10

Excerpts:

Other reviews:

Review of Skyfall
Nov
23
2008

Skyfall
by Catherine Asaro
336pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 7/10
Amazon Rating: 3.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.63/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.88/5

Although it is the ninth book released in Catherine Asaro’s Saga of the Skolian Empire series, Skyfall is the first book in the series chronologically. The books in this series have won numerous awards, including the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2001 for The Quantum Rose. These novels are generally considered to be science fiction romance and contain a blend of space opera and hard science fiction. Skyfall was heavier on the romance side and lighter on the science fiction side than the other two books I have read in this series (Primary Inversion and The Radiant Seas). I would recommend newcomers to the series begin with the first published book, Primary Inversion. While it was very entertaining, I thought Skyfall was significantly weaker than both this novel and its sequel.

Roca, heir to the Skolian Empire, has just realized that her son Kurj plans to start a war. He sent her on a mission with only his people for protection and she has been delayed from returning home. She knows this is no coincidence since the council of the Skolian Empire will soon meet to vote on whether or not to go to war with their enemies, the cruel Eubian Traders. If Roca is not available for the council session, Kurj will cast her vote in her absence and there is a good chance the results will be in favor of the war. Desperate to prevent many of her people from dying, Roca escapes from her bodyguards and manages to get a flight to the planet Skyfall. In a couple of days, Roca will leave with a supply ship scheduled to stop at the planet and surprise Kurj by ruining his scheme.

Shortly after Roca’s arrival on Skyfall, the bard Eldrinson rides to the port, abruptly hauls her up in front of him, and brings her back to his castle. Roca protests at first, but she is intrigued by Eldrinson’s strong telepathic abilities which are similar to her own and ends up agreeing to visit him for one day. One day turns into two when a severe snowstorm hits and soon Roca is stuck on Skyfall until the next supply ship stops on the backwater planet – which could be months away.


Skyfall is a very straightforward, easy to read novel. The science in this one is slim and limited to infodumps on Roca’s internal computer that performs various useful functions such as regulating her temperature and helping her to learn languages quickly instead of focusing on theories as in The Radiant Seas.

The characterization in this novel is also somewhat thin compared to the others with the exception of Kurj, who is the type of complex and conflicted character I always enjoy reading about. His chapters were my favorites in the entire book. Roca is a much more passive and perfect heroine than her daughter Sauscony and therefore not as interesting. Our heroine looks like a 20 year old in spite of her 50+ years of age (which is not unusual for Skolians but adds to the character’s aura of perfection), is drop dead gorgeous, kind, loved by just about everyone, and peaceful. She is very much the stereotypical female character, and even though there is an explanation for her willingness to be kidnapped by Eldrinson, it makes her seem like a helpless woman unlike the strong, determined Sauscony. Roca was likable but she did not seem unique or very well fleshed out.

The writing in this one also seemed more awkward than other books, partially because there were a few infodumps but also because much of the dialogue was stilted. This was to demonstrate the fact that Eldrinson and Roca did not actually speak the same language and did not always communicate clearly through spoken language in spite of their empathic/telepathic bond. Although it was not without merit, this did get annoying at times.

It may sound like I did not enjoy this book, but I actually could hardly put it down and the pages flew by. It was definitely fun to read, but it certainly was not as good as the other books in this series that I have read. I did find it interesting to read about the details of some of the events mentioned in the other novels even if I had a basic idea of how the story would end.

Skyfall is not the best book in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, but it is a worthwhile read for learning more about events a generation before the Radiance War.

7/10

Reviews of other books in this series:

Primary Inversion
The Radiant Seas

Update
Nov
07
2008

It’s been rather quiet around here since I’m reading a long book right now (The Court of the Air) and haven’t had much time for reading. I’m about 2/3 of the way through it now. Last night I read one of the Malazan novellas so I’d have something to review but I’m not sure if I’ll have time to do so over the weekend since I’m going to be doing some freelance work then. I’m hoping to get in some more time for reading soon, especially since I’m only 4 books away from completing the 50 book challenge. After The Court of the Air, it’s on to All the Windwracked Stars and The Jackal of Nar, most likely followed by either Schismatrix Plus or some space opera (depending on how close to December it is by the time I’m done).