Will this slowly become a blog of reviews on magically themed books? Yeahhhh, maybe. I have a type, and if you haven't noticed by now you've not been paying attention! This one is from a cluster of recommendations I got earlier in the year and am starting to get to now. I've been loading things up for conveniences sake on my Kindle, I mean, travel ease is the main reason but also because I don't always want to expand my library if I'm not going to read the books again. Having an e-reader certainly makes it easier to avoid wasting money and time on something I'll have no use for after reading and that leaves me with the option to buy a physical copy of it should it prove to be something I'd pick up again or lend out to friends. Imagine if you will, the elements that make up the aesthetic of this novel... think magical geisha? Who's that character from Final Fantasy...? Lulu. A mage character who dresses in a vaguely geisha-centric style, various hair pins and belts, big ole sleeves and the like. The brand of magic in this medieval age is mostly elemental, though non-specific - most people gifted with magic tend to be able to utilise the various elements to their advantage in a variety of ways. The most talented and powerful have their skills developed by Asha houses. Like the traditional geisha culture, young apprentices are taken and trained in magic and music, deportment and hosting, their particular skills setting them on loftier work paths. There does however, exist another kind of asha, a way cooler kind. *rubbing my hands together with glee* NECROMANCERS YOU GUYS. Dark Asha are known by a particular slur - bone witches. Asha in this universe seem to be mostly women, though many magically gifted have varying degrees of ability and this does include men. Some are healers, some infuse magic into clothing and accessories that anyone can buy, some fight magical creatures who come back from the dead again and again. Dark asha are in a unique position to get banish these beasties as they are able to command the dead. Daeva are already known in our own Earthly mythologies as traditionally supernatural entities with rather disagreeable characteristics. Daeva rise again and again and must be harvested of their bezoars, (masses that accumulate in the digestive tract made from indigestible materials), the source of the animals magic and strength. These can be used for magical purposes by asha. Daeva are dangerous to the general population and are responsible for a lot of death and destruction. Once harvested of their bezoars they are put to rest, but different daeva only stay down for a certain amount of time, thus needing to be harvested again. Only dark asha can perform these tasks, so although they are generally shunned and mistrusted because of the confusing mystery and perceived evilness of their talents, they are tolerated for the safety of the population, barely. Asha and the magically gifted are not rare, but Dark asha are almost impossible to find. There are maybe five in the known world and at the beginning of the book we come across a village girl with nothing magical to her name who discovers that her brother has fallen in his duties within the army. His body is returned to the family and during the funeral Tea freaks out and accidentally raises him from the dead. Death magic comes to her as easily as breathing, but because she has no idea what's happening, she lets the magic burn through her and ends up practically comatose. The thing about magic is that to other users, it's simple to sense unless heavily and purposefully warded so within days another bone witch strides into town to take over. She nurses Tea back to relative health and takes her as a prospective apprentice because to leave her unchecked could mean raising an entire grave yard when she becomes upset... For Tea, there is no other option but to learn how to control it and in using this power she discovers it feels as good you might imagine ecstasy would, powerful and utterly breathtaking. Chupeco writes this in a time-jump, back and forth format. We open up on future flashes, but most of the story takes place in Tea's past. Running these two story paths is proving tantalising and the constant allusions to new possibilities and old reasoning keeps the reader forging on to figure out how she has become the strange young woman of the future, or rather, the present.. At the end of the first book we have only the leg work laid for the blossoming story, we understand Tea's motivations and foster an interest in just how dangerously she is going to achieve her goals... I'm a bit annoyed that there's only one book out and that the next won't be available until next year some time. Surely this is one of the great banes of book worms and serial readers alike. UGH. GIVE ME MORE BONE WITCHES. They're a dying breed.
I loved this. It was rich in imagery, had new and old concepts twisted in imaginative ways, a compelling story and very diverse characters. Brilliant. 8 out of 10. It still lacks the horrifying grittiness I like in a fantasy or medieval story, but still very good nonetheless.
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If you haven't figured it out by now, I have a tenacious proclivity for anything to do with magic, fantasy, and all things out of the ordinary. I've been meaning to get around to reading this series for quite a while, as is the usual for me and also the general aim of this blog in terms of getting through my extensive To Be Read pile. Maybe a better title for the blog would have been "Getting Around To It"... In any case, here I am, breaking one of the rules and purchasing another book on my Kindle. That doesn't count as buying books, yeah? If I'm not buying a physical book, and I certainly I never specified as to it's form, I can get away with this technicality, correct? Sure. On we go, with my half price book. Right. London. You know it. Capital city of England, been around a long time. England! The birth place of King Henry the Eighth, the dude with all those wives, see also: Harry Potter. In this series, the London we know is one of several. A template so to speak, of four lands that are connected by magic doorways. Each London holds it's similarities mostly in shape and name only, they differ in culture, names, language, the kind of people that inhabit them... Technically they aren't just different version of London but different worlds that magicians have the power to travel between, and any coincidental similarities are mostly coincidental within the confines of the story, in name and magic only, and in certain replications across the worlds. For example, there is a tavern in the same place in each London, with different names, different layouts and different surrounding streets, but for all intents and purposes it acts as an anchor point between the cities. In the history of magic London's, the magic in one city - Black London, starts to feed on the people instead of the people making use of it. This imbalance grows and grows until the magic takes over the city and the people within, mind, body and soul. The other Londons fear the threat of this wild magic and the doors between are sealed off. Each world lays stacked against the next in a string - Grey London (ours, with the least magic), Red London (a bountiful empire flush with celebrated magic, a whole culture of its own), White London (a starving, brutal place filled with desperation), and then Black London, which falls to the brutal origin of magic and is sealed away, Schrödingers London, if you will. No one knows what happens to the world itself or whether there are still people alive there... What is clear is that travel between the worlds remains possible but only in the hands of the Antari. Antari are specially talented people, they are not a race, one Antari does not beget another, rather they are born with the ability like an extra gene. They cannot open doors for everyone, but can step through and keep a communicative link between the rulers of each land. In our recognisable London, King George the Third is in power - we're talking 1800's here, just to set the tone appropriately. In Red London, a rich royal family thrives, and from here our Antari protagonist comes. Kell is a Traveller, a blood magician with power over the relevant elements - fire, earth, water, air, and bone. He's part of the royal family without being related, a topic that has only been mentioned very briefly half way through the book, and is one of two remaining Antari left across the worlds. We have no idea what his origin is at this stage but I'm sure it will be revealed at some point due to his potential love interest, a thief named Lila who has aspirations that take her away from the dull streets of Grey London and catapult her into potential freedom and certain danger. This story will be more blood thirsty than you think, less childish than you might imagine, and full of gentle plot twists that keep an easily bored reader engaged. At the end of the first book, well, I'd say you could potentially read these as stand alone novels, though there is enough to be getting on with considering there are another two books. I'll read them, because I want to know if Lila becomes a dang pirate, I'm all about that life. 7 out of 10 for non-ground breaking ideas but decent writing and an interesting diversion! Remember a few months ago when I crapped all over a really bad book that I suffered through? Which time, you ask? I'm talking about that poorly written steampunk monstrosity that I spent actual money on. Ugh. Well, this book is the antithesis to that horrible garbage. Just last weekend I was strolling through a bookshop with a friend, whining about how I wish that there was some sort of Steampunk novel that didn't completely suck because I love the idea, I love the potential, but it always turns out really cliche and overdone. Thank the heavens. Thank you, Elise Kova. You've blended high fantasy with just the right amount of steampunk and given me something that's interesting, enhanced by the world of steampunk themes in a way that makes sense and isn't completely pretentious. It was not an easy feat. Also the cover art on the first book is pretty cool. Thumbs up, girl, YOU DOIN' IT. Am I biased on this topic because I have a deep and everlasting love for high fantasy? It's possible. My thinking on this is that it works so well specifically because it's been blended gently into an already tried and tested formula. This author knows how to write a beautiful turn of phrase and keep the reader engaged with the classic ploy of writing each chapter from the point of view of different characters: but there's only four and it doesn't get annoyingly confusing. Rather we encounter a dynamic and refreshing view point as events unfold from both sides of the differing peoples. You're going to think it's one thing at first and then it flips quickly, several times. The lands of Nova and Loom are curious, delightfully imagined and full of magic. When I say lands though... two worlds essentially lay stacked, one on top of the other. A weather anomaly separates them, layers of cloud and extreme winds making them difficult to traverse and effectively ensuring each land is unable to visit the other. Nova above is the domain of Dragons. Humanoid creatures not entirely unlike the widely known mythical beast, though more on the side of half-human, half-dragon - coloured skin, fangs and claws, magical powers - but no wings. The ways in which their magic manifests are as varied as our human talents, one could say. Some have the power to see in complete darkness, some are exceptionally strong, in some vary rare cases they are able to stop time. There isn't much information as to the format of their lands, though we know they live above Gods Line, the weather bank that keeps them sequestered above, blocking most of the sunlight from shining on the lands of Loom. I honestly couldn't figure out by the end of the book if they were magically floating lands or some sort of technological marvel. The land of Loom is populated by a humanoid race called the Fenthri, stocky, thrifty people whose society values hard work, technological advance and freedom. A few Dragons fall to their deaths through Gods Line and realising that there is something above them, completely unexplored, they create machines to solve the mystery, giving themselves the power of flight. Along with this development they discover the magic Dragons possess can be transferred into their own bodies as long as they transplant the organ where the magic is. Yes. This is super fucked up. But so is the king of the Dragons stealing technology, combining it with magic and together with his superior resources... declares himself emperor of both lands. The worst part of this is that he scrambles their societal structure to the point that they have no freedom to move outside strictly enforced guidelines that hobble them technologically, biologically, societally... they're under the thumb totally, and after one truly sensational revolt they are quashed and broken. Enter The Wraith. This book starts with something I truly love - a good heist. I love an old fashioned one, guns blazing, Bonnie and Clyde style. I cant get enough of a medieval one either, yeahhh pick those poorly crafted padlocks, slip some chancy powders made from berries into your targets wine to put 'em out for a few hours while you rob 'em blind. I go nuts for a good con and I have no idea where this compulsion comes from. The Wraith very nearly makes it out with her prize, has an excellent escape plan, when the smallest detail trips her up... it's abundantly clear that she is not like the others of her race. Each twist and turn during the heist is surmounted by the grace of her enhancements. Night vision, speed, but also incredibly clever planning and ground work, she's done her research and displays a general disregard for others that makes her pretty ruthless. Yes, she's stubborn as hell and you know she's going to have that rubbed in her face somewhere along the line. But all of a sudden, she's losing ground trying to escape her pursuers and barrels around a corner to find a mostly unconscious dragon trying to heal himself. She immediately steps up to carve out his heart to sell on the Chimera black market when his eyes flick open and he stays her hand. From this point on it's power struggle central! He quickly separates himself from the dragons pursuing her, offering a boon in exchange for his life. It's clear she has barely the time to consider but errs on the side of a potential future leg up. The rest of the story I will leave to you to discover. It's an excellent go at steampunk fantasy without being so over the top that a reader gets weighed down in all the details. Kova weaves a rich story and leaves out the unneccessary garbage. I'll give this an 8.5 and will definitely be reading the next one. I'm not really a Stephen King fan, I don't get my kicks from horror films, jump scares and bump in the night creepy stuff, so horror or thriller novels have never really tempted me. If it has a vaguely fantasy, science fiction or supernatural theme I AM THERE, but you know, that's not King's normal shtick. I did discover many years ago, that King does actually write some loosely fantasy stuff. I read The Eyes Of The Dragon when I was in high school and found it's high fantasy style to be absolutely to my taste, especially when you throw in a bit of regicide via poisoning. It seems that the land in which that was set actually relates directly to the setting of The Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger is the first book of eight and having finished it I finally allowed myself to do a little bit of googling. SPOILERS ARE THE DEVIL. Looks like the series is supposed to be one long novel, and the revised version of The Gunslinger that I read was published in 2003, but the original seed began in 1982. This series is older than me. The seventh novel was published in 2004 and there's an upcoming film starring freakin' Idris Elba - though this is not an adaptation but rather a sequel to the series. I started reading the book purely because I wanted to see the movie and now I find myself back-pedaling. I am going to end up spoiling the series for myself because I have no idea what's happening... Oh well I guess some journeys are published in a time jump format and I'm fond of those... This is a real weird magic western, my dudes. A magical, post apocalyptic, sword swinging, gun toting, western magic land with mutants and crazy people and some evil voodoo-looking, mind control nonsense. In the opening chapters we are introduced to a character of calm tenacity, a strangely familiar landscape and a gentle disconnect from the world we know. Oh, this is set on Earth, sort of. Most of his experience of the world is a different reality, some completely different land, but many of the words and sayings come from the culture of Earth we recognise. Carefully added words separate the Gunslingers world from some sort of duality, incorporated slowly and with just enough context to guess at the meaning. What's most apparent from the outset is that this guy has already seen some serious shit in his lifetime. He's on a journey of pursuit that he doesn't fully understand, and we barely come to grasp by the end of the book. The instant mystery surrounding his motives make him interesting and puzzling. He's a lonely figure with no friends, all spoken of in the past tense, and no family, revealed slowly as distant and likely deceased. Everyone he knew seems to be gone and he doesn't allow himself to ruminate too much, though for the purposes of the narrative he does play out scenes in his memory to give a better picture of his background. I say background, but really, we know next to nothing about him most of the way through. The gunslinger himself makes observations that are dreamy and then by turns matter-of-fact, taciturn and flat. You could almost comment that he holds no illusions about his place in the world but I think, and I'm guessing here based on everything I've read about this series and the impression I get of the character so far, that maybe his entire reality is an illusion. One thing is for sure, I love King's writing chops. "The wind moaned, a witch with cancer in her belly. Every now and then a perverse downdraft would make the smoke whirl and puff toward him and he breathed some of it in. It built dreams in the same way that a small irritant may build a pearl in an oyster.The gunslinger occasionally moaned with the wind. The stars were as indifferent to this as they were to wars, crucifixions, resurrections." I think I'm becoming a fan of Stephen King. Maybe. The thing is, nothing really happens in this book. The whole thing is a tease. He's after the Man in Black, playing a game of cat and mouse where we aren't sure at any point who the cat is and who the mouse might be. Things happen, he goes places, he journeys, he fights, kills, is kind, drinks with locals and then guns them down when they're possessed by the magic of the Man in Black. He encounters a young man, takes him under his wing so to speak, and eventually he catches up with his quarry. This doesn't turn out to be a rage fueled battle of aggression, though sure, he's mad as hell... They sit down to "palaver". He sits down with him and basically has his third eye blitzed wide open magically, expanding his understanding of the universe vastly but also, not at all. It's a subtle novel one moment and obvious the next with it's duality. I think that's important now, given the fact that I've done some reading about the series. I really don't want to encounter spoilers and I think that's also a ridiculous expectation considering the movie is about to come out. I don't know how I'll fare reading the rest of them if I'm essentially skipping to the end. For sure a few books I've read this year were first installments and I feel zero desire to continue the series, but those weren't adapted into movies starring Idris Elba and Matt McConaughey. If you don't know who Idris Elba is, you've been hiding under a rock and if you don't think McConaughey is a great actor then you've not seen True Detective and you absolutely should. There's a lot of uncertainty in finishing this and knowing that there's another seven of them, plus a short story and an impending movie. Will I bother finishing them? Probably not this year, but yes I think I will. Apparently if you can get through the first book and still find that your interest is piqued, then everything gets a whole lot more interesting in book two - The Drawing Of The Three. Overall, weighing content, tone, writing, character development... I'd give this a 7.5, it's actually pretty good. If you're looking for a great series, well maybe I can get back to you once I've read the rest! Look at this movie poster though, ooooooh. Book 20 in 2017 "Doing magic was like finally finding the words you'd been groping for your whole life." This was the third book in a series I didn't want to end. I know that this is a problem of mine when it comes to reading habits, and that's why I've made a list this year of the various series I need to finish. There's only one left on my list after this one, but The Magicians may be one of my favorite book series I've ever read. I know I've featured it before and I don't want to give up parts of the story line because you should read it, seriously. Read the trilogy, it's excellent. It is the adult solution to the Harry Potter longings of youth and to the endless and renewing world of Narnia left behind for more grown up lands. It's a magical boarding school crossed with a mystic hidden universe crossed with horrific loss, murder and abuse. It's like Stephen King got a whiff of the most delightful sides of magic and put his little hands in there and scrambled everything up and it is SO GOOD. Lev Grossman knows how to write despicable characters, lovable characters, flawed characters and utterly pitiable characters, sometimes fixing this all within the one individual. Quentin Coldwater, the essential protagonist of the series if often seen to be a pathetic idiot, but his arc is an interesting one. In the final installment, Quentin is once again rudderless and uninspired and we're waiting to see what he makes from the ruins of his life, trying to figure out why he's even been giving the gift of magic in the first place. He does come to find that he has a particular magical discipline, though he's rather underwhelmed by it initially. "Give Quentin a broken object and in his hands it woke up, as if from an unhappy dream, and remembered that it had once been whole." One of the things I appreciate most about Grossmans' writing style is that I still have to look up words occasionally. There's nothing like being an avid reader and stretching your memory banks to see if you've heard the word before, or if you can figure out what it means. These days, unless I'm reading some science fiction and it's some sort of technological or engineering term I'm pretty good with comprehension, but Lev's got my back yo, he's here to help me learn. Tranche - this is a French word meaning slice or portion. "A long, heavy tranche of cloud lay above the horizon, utterly still, its outline etched finely against the sky, like the silhouette of a breaking wave cut out of paper." Sangfroid - composure or coolness shown in danger or trying circumstances. "He wanted to play the game the way she had, but he had nowhere near the necessary reserves of sarcasm and sangfroid, so he wound up being honest." Quentin is trying to reconcile his ideas of the world with reality, yet again. He's in a constant state of flux, confusion and readjusting his expectations throughout the series and setback after setback seems to befall the poor guy. Mostly he reacts how you'd expect any socially petrified, intelligent loner to react - he's all over the place, he lashes out or freezes completely, behaves like a total idiot and a coward. If you're a human, you can relate. The series essentially follows along his journey of his growth or lack thereof, but you don't realise how important and all encompassing this is until very close to the end. He's been working towards it, and yes, he does figure out his place in the universe, he does figure out what he's good at and what he wants from his life. What he doesn't figure out is what the hell magic is for. "I still have no idea what magic is for. Maybe you just have to decide for yourself. But you definitely have to decide. It's not for sitting on my ass, which I know because I've tried that." "It was funny about magic, how messy and imperfect it was. When people said something worked like magic they meant that it cost nothing and did exactly what you wanted it to. But even with the things it could do, it didn't always do them right, and it always, always cost something... It was inefficient. The system was never air tight, it always leaked. Magic was decided imperfect. But the funny thing was that if it were perfect, it wouldn't be so beautiful." I found his personal journey to figure out who the hell he is incredibly interesting. Mind you, I'm not going to tell you what happens and I'm not going to assure you that he figures everything out, but he does get to a point where he figures out enough. He does enough, he makes up for some of his mistakes and carves himself out a comfortable niche in his universe that makes sense. Quentin is not the most typical hero, and that is what makes him such a great character. His flaws don't immediately make him likable, he makes dumb mistakes and is a selfish, childish man with no idea just how much of a whiny bitch he is but when he realises, he does as much as he can to make up for it, to make things right and never make the same mistakes again. Such a realistic expression of humanity is what I appreciate in a book, I don't feel like I'm reading a total lie... Apart from you know, the magic thing, which isn't real... But the people, yes. Mate, 10 out of 10 - do read if you like fantasy, magic, a bit of sci-fi, and not being sheltered from the harshness of reality. Title: The Magicians Land (Book 3) Author: Lev Grossman Published: 2014 Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult Pages: 401 Finish Date: 10/07/2017 I have been avoiding my literary responsibilities, and so, the next few posts with have rather approximate finish dates as I immediately lent out this book and life got RIGHT in the way! I'll be honest about this one though, I picked it up because it's pretty. That copper foil cover and lovely damask print got me good. I bought it because it's focused around tattoos and in my experience, that is one subject that seems permanently tarred with a negative brush. Mentions of tattoos in novels tend to run toward the rebellious - bikers, angry youth, punks and skin heads... So much of the history of tattoos is wrapped up beautifully in a rich tapestry of ritual, from Polynesian islands, traditional Maori and Samoan culture, the woad-wearing Picts also decorated with scarification, to Japan, the Samurai and the modern Japanese mafia. Modern day tattooing among the general population of my part of the world is not something explored in fiction in a particularly accurate way. I know that with a YA Fiction novel I'm taking a chance on something that could be terrible as it does have a tendency to be a bit trite or cliche but sometimes you've got to run that risk to find the good stuff! I didn't realise when I started reading this book that it was based off the authors experiences with Evangelical Christianity, which makes the progression of the story so easy to understand. Title: Ink Author: Alice Broadway Published: 2016 Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult Pages: 366 Finish Date: 20/06/2017 This book is a gentle introduction to questioning your surroundings and being critical of the society that's built up around you. In the same vein you've probably seen in dystopian novels over the last few years, it's a narrative that rubs it's shoulders against the likes of Divergent, The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner. At first it all comes across as creepily cheerful. Leora is blissfully unaware of how her culture has come into being and seems pretty happy unquestioning the mystery of it, considering the entire premise of everything she knows has come from a rather absurd fairy tale that seems very much out of place. As far as protagonists go, she's typical of the genre. Bland enough for the reader to imagine themselves instead, essentially oblivious enough to allow for a thorough exploration of the society at large as it changes and certainly capable of many things but choosing to be a passive participant in her own story for the most part, until she makes a few choices that leave her backed into a corner.
There's a strangeness to the way the community treats its dead and when I mention the general community I mean that the scope of the story never widens beyond the town lines except to mention the "blanks" beyond the wall. It's a walled in community of people who wear literally everything on their sleeves - tattoos are given from birth - your name, age as you grow, schooling, job choice, marriage, children, misdeeds and broken laws... everything that happens to you goes directly on your skin, so your entire life is right there to be seen by everyone. The author gives us a neat little fairy tale to explain away this madness, which always picques my interest. The way that morals, ethics and societal standards have always been passed down in fairy tales, stories, fireside gossip or entertainment, bardic efforts - these are endlessly fascinating to me and this tactic has been used strangely withing the confines of Ink. It seems a little fanciful given the stark nature of the overall tone. What really got me reading greedily at first was the way that death features. Upon death, ones body is flayed. Yes. You read right. Flayed. The skin is completely removed and turned into a book. Everything else is cremated, and your weird skin book is given to a council of "readers" who go through it, assessing your life based on your marks and weigh up whether your life is worthy of being remembered. It's a very Egyptian weighing of the soul ideology that seems so out of place is a walled off community born of a fairytale. The basic idea is that the so called blanks are dangerous because they do not wear their lives on their skin and are basically untrustworthy because you're unable to tell who they are or where they have been and that they are hiding everything about themselves - are you feeling this Big Brother, nanny state type vibe yet? Leora's father dies at the very beginning of the book, this is the catalyst through which she discovers that there are many things she doesn't know about her society. With the appearance of a public marking ceremony of a criminal whose head is shaved and marked with the image of crows - marking him as unworthy of remembrance after his death - this unlocks memories long buried. This marking of crows signifies a pretty despicable criminal and although they are allowed to hide this mark under their hairline for the rest of their lives, so that others will forget and they can continue to live in society at large, they are effectively stripped of an after-life. Those marked with crows will have their skin book destroyed and are not allowed to be remembered or spoken of again. As far as punishments go it's pretty final and fairly messed up. Eventually Leora discovers that her fathers skin-book is removed from public display during the weighing and judgement period and she begins to piece things together, suspecting that her fathers book has been edited - an act worthy of the crow mark. There is of course, a love interest, a mysterious boy who seems to know more than he's letting on and immediately has some sort of shine on her, after all, this is a book for young adults... Will my taste in books ever grow up? I mean, yes, this isn't the only sort of thing I read, if you've been following the blog. Though I have recently decided that Wuthering Heights is something I need to read and that's proving to be a rather more difficult book to get through than I expected. Having said that, in terms of rating Ink, I think I'd give it a six of ten. It was interesting, it was different, but it was also a bit same-y and gently riddled with holes as far as plot and motivation goes. A strange one, but definitely something I'd recommend to teen audiences. Friends, when I read a book that does not impress me, I'm unafraid to tell you it was crap. Is this one of those books? I wasn't sure at only three chapters in, but if it continued on in the same way, I might have to be breaking the news to you. I wont pretend I have the best taste in books or that I'm particularly well educated or discerning in the world of things you can consume with your eyes. People tend to trust my book opinions for the most part, however, and having said that, well, let's see what happens with this little piece of… fiction. I do read Young Adult novels, which I've capitalised because it is an actual genre of books that doesn't seem to narrow subject matter down to much more than "possibly trite stories about young people that could have a fantastic premise or make young adults feel as though they aren't alone". Spoiler alert, we're all alone... but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Having finished this book, I can tell you - it got better. It got better to the point that I actually got mad I didn't have the second one, and immediately purchased it on my Kindle so I could keep reading. Don't get me wrong, it's not a literary masterpiece but the characters become compelling once you get past the initial set up and world build, which Dennard does not have a talent for introducing, I'm sad to say. The basic premise of the books is pretty interesting. A world divided into nations, touched by witchery that some have and others do not, and if it isn't registered with the monarchy (and likely signalling that you have something the powers that be must have control of, equaling slavery) then you are automatically branded a heretic. Slavery, poverty, religious fervour are real, pressing concerns and the world has been quieted by a twenty year truce that's about to come to an end... Magic comes in various flavours and strengths. Mostly this is based on well springs of the elements - water, earth, fire, air, but further abilities exist in the vein of being able to tell when people are lying or things are being shrouded in secrecy, or even in the sensing of the interpersonal connections between people, nature, objects, blood tracking, human manipulation... By the time I'd written the above, I had finished the second book. My initial impression of the book is based on an introduction to the characters and world build that seems confusing, a little contradictory and frankly a bit cliche. The first scene we experience from the point of view of what becomes a love interest and major plot point, is based around a prince deciding he cant wait to get out of his formal clothing as a few decorative frills make him feel unmanly. I was reading this at my desk at work and this pissed me off more than it probably should have. I put the book down. My work mate asked me if I was ok. I was annoyed at the way these characters were being established when the whole premise seemed so promising. I realise this makes it sound like I do nothing at work but I'm a call center girl and I have time between calls sometimes to do some reading. I swear, I do work hard when there's work to do! Title: Truthwitch Author: Susan Dennard Published: 2016 Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult Pages: 416 Finish Date: 08/06/2017 Title: Windwitch Author: Susan Dennard Published: 2017 Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult Pages: 384 Finish Date: 10/06/2017 Ultimately, when you're reading standard fantasy YA fiction there's a lot of similar content to contend with and while there are cliche elements to the books so far, there's also a lot of curious interactions between the protagonists and the world around them. They are as close as sisters though polar opposites, and travel very different paths, hiding what they are from the world around them. There's a bit of classic mysticism involved, half-truths and suspicions abound. The characters, once you get a little way into the book, even out, flesh out and start to become interesting in terms of their motivations. The two girls who share the role of protagonist are total opposites. Safiya is the standard pretty blonde girl with good heritage, respect, a hot temper and a secret that threatens her entire way of life. She's an unregistered Truthwitch and is terrified of being enslaved to the sovereignty because her powers are so rare that she would be instantly made a tool of the crown. Her sister, for all intents and purposes, is a member of a Nomatsi clan, you might be able to guess they're essentially nomadic/gypsy type people, though she is an outcast among them. She's a level-headed Threadwitch, one who sees the connections between people, their relationships, their feelings. Eventually these powers grow into something else, a hugely relevant plot point. I know I'm being vague, but it's difficult to reveal things about the story line when so much of it is so relevant and spoiler-y! If you're one of those people who can devour young adult fiction at a rate of knots, then give these ago, you'll like them. I'll give it a six out of ten collectively, I think. Poorly explained foundations but it gets better. There must be something in my strange heart that resonates with a mean main character. Jorg of Ancrath (still no idea if that's pronounced like George or with a hard "G" - my inner monologue goes for the phonetic pronunciation) is actually and thoroughly a vicious, black-hearted cur. "In such circumstances, with a heavy blade that's sharp enough to make the wind bleed, you can swing in grand and vicious circles and your only care need be to ensure the weapon isn't locked into the corpse of your last victim. In many ways I had lived most of my life in exactly such a condition, swinging in all directions with no worry about who might die." Jorg is compelling. He is young and blood thirsty because so much horrifying shit happens to him at a young age. From birth he is a victim, not so much of circumstance but a victim of parentage and abuse. He refuses to play the role though, is taught not to care on the outside. This crucible forges a terrifying, clever young man and he rises to a position of power by sheer violence and widespread terror. What's most compelling about him is the way he lays things down for you. All his actions recalled with reason, his violence recounted not from a sense of pride but necessity. He understands pain, loss, fear, death, and he embraces them all as old friends. To never again fall victim he destroys his enemies completely, he does the unthinkable, and in the tightest of spots he makes split second decisions that always manage to surprise me. I like his unpredictability, underneath a mantle of assured violence. "Hurt spreads and grows and reaches out to break what's good. Time heals all wounds, but often it's only by the application of the grave, and while we live some hurts live with us, burning, making us twist and turn to escape them. And as we twist, we turn into other men." Title: Emperor Of Thorns (Book 3) Author: Mark Lawrence Published: 2013 Genre: Fantasy Pages: 434 Finish Date: 02/06/2017 The weirdest and best part of the way Jorg narrates is that he is incredibly insightful. A thoroughly destroyed man, we see him grow from childhood, but he never really changes. We are not particularly aware of him growing physically into a man, nor are we encouraged to think of him as being on any kind of journey to betterment. He is what he is, and that's what I think is the most attractive thing about this type of character. He does what he wants, whatever he thinks best, whatever whim he feels like following in the moment, though of course he does have grand designs and is often motivated by revenge or regret. He is refreshing, shocking, and ultimately... he is torturing himself every step of the way. The setting of the series is a fantasy based universe in Earths future - this is post apocalypse sort of stuff. Some kind of nuclear event has occurred on Earth and now we are so far in the destroyed future of our civilisation that we've gone medieval but there are hints of it everywhere - new forms of old names, defunct technology, Jorg even picks up a gun at one point, though he has no idea what it is or how it works beyond it being weaponry with a trigger. His journey is told in several parts, it is a time-jump and recollection kind of narrative, with effective but subtle cliff hangers at the end of most chapters - Mark Lawrence knows how to work a room. I will not spoil the end for you in case you decide to read this trilogy, but suffice to say that Jorg's path is an obvious one that his iron will does not deviate from... until the last second. I did not see that end coming. Bravo. GOOD PLOT TWIST LAWRENCE, GOOD PLOT TWIST. I've been reading this series for a few years. I started it thanks to the recommendation of a friend who also loves fantasy and medieval stories, but it has taken a long while to finish it. I did at some point get it confused with a different series of books, which is easy to do in this genre, but I have now knocked another series off my goal list. I'd give it a 7 out of 10. THIS IS NOT A REVIEW, FOLKS This, is a post full of stuff you can waste your hard earned money on. I love reading, I love books, I love everything that goes along with the world of print, including the awesome culture that springs up among bibliophiles, casual readers and people with a soft spot for pointless, although rad, bookish themed accessories. Spending a lot of time on the internet and having a full time job means I have just enough time and resources to spend money on things I probably don't need but I do like to show my interests in relatively subtle ways... I prefer to support small businesses where possible which means I shop on Etsy a lot, but I will include other sites in my list because there's a huge market for nerdy things if you've access to the internet and a bank account.
Bookish Pins It's quite likely that I have a problem with buying enamel pins, and while not all of the ones I have are related to books, I'm always on the look out. In researching for this post, I bought two. Crap. I mentioned Fable and Black earlier, their pins are on point, but there's literally a hundred different sellers I could recommend... The one's I've chosen to post today are very generic book related ones, but pick a fandom and run a search - you'll find so much is available! Here's a few favorites you can click on to take you straight to the page. I'm enabling you. Sorry, not sorry. Book Sleeves This is a whole new world, friends. Instead of leather bound books, we throw our paperbacks into our bags or the passenger seat of our cars, leaving them places we shouldn't and generally beating them up. There's something very satisfying about finding a well loved book, a little smudged, a broken spine, well thumbed edges... But now, now you can buy padded little jumpers for your books. There's a few different sellers nowadays, and I've pulled together a few good ones for your perusal.
Bookish Threads & Jewellery There are so many places you could get literary themed clothing. All over eBay, Etsy, little boutique stores, tiny Facebook ads (or is that just me?). Modcloth is a good one, they have all sorts of clothing, shoes and accessories for the bookish inclined. You can get any book entirely printed onto a scarf or t-shirt, and book prints and librarian styles are all the rage. There's a few great places dedicated only to literary gifts The Literary Gift Company - clothes, socks, mugs & candles https://www.theliterarygiftcompany.com/ Bookish Gifts - https://bookishgifts.com Litographs - customisable shirts and scarves - https://www.litographs.com/ Book Lover Gifts - clothing, accessories, home wares, posters - https://booklovergifts.com/ Random Acts Of Poetry - quotable notebooks at her Etsy Shop Literary Art Prints - Customisable jewellery, scarves and tote bags - check out her Etsy Homewares If you're still looking to spread some more lit love throughout your home, there's a million different things you can put in every room of your house but the kitchen is one of my favorites. I have a few magnetic word kits so I can make fridge poetry while I'm waiting for various things to boil or bake, and even when friends come round for tea they have a crack at making something up on the fly. Literary Gift Co. actually have Scrabble tea towels as well, which I tend to think would make me want to play rather than cook, but they're a very cute kitchen addition. I think that you may have enough cool stuff to be getting on with. It's simple enough to type some requests into the search bars of Google, eBay or Etsy and find some truly awesome stuff, and if the prices are something you don't love then you can either shop around, or just save up so you can surround your home space with literary themed joy. Let me know if you've found anything you really like with a bookish theme that you'd recommend to someone - bonus points for small businesses!
Let's talk about The Handmaid's Tale. Nowhere, and I mean absolutely nowhere, is there a picture associated with this book that does not strike you right in the kisser with it's unforgettable imagery. Every cover, every movie or tv still is bright and iconic. Once you've seen the red dress and the white face covering, you do not forget it or it's horrifying significance. When choosing online which cover I'd purchase for myself - because I did not want to borrow a version, I could tell that this would be a book to keep - I found the prettiest one I could find, as that's the kind of magpie I am. There's something so wrong, I'm realising after the fact, about finding the prettiest picture of female oppression you can find, but that's often what we do as women, to discount our own experience, to make our suffering seem less serious because of how much opposition we face in simply being believed. I don't really want to whip out a lesson in equality during this review, but suffice to say that this book makes you think about the state of things both politically and in your interpersonal relationships with other humans, and if it doesn't, IT ABSOLUTELY THE FUCK SHOULD, PLEASE GET YOURSELF A REALITY CHECK. When I begin a book I am drawn in. This likely happens in the book store, the cover strikes me visually or there's a little recommendation on the shelf. Often the genre will makes promises enough, but the opening pages are the most important. Some begin with wit, some with outlandish description, pulling you into a world unlike your own. The Handmaid's Tale begins slowly, quietly, every page calm, but underwritten by a mysterious element that takes almost too long to figure out. There's something not quite right from the outset. The realisation after meeting more handmaids - their names are ownership titles.. "Of" combined with a mans name. Offred. Ofglen. Ofwayne. Ofwarren. I'm not sure how I feel about that at this stage, only a few chapters in. I know the significance but not the reason, and the first chapters are scattered with such curiosities. This the first Margaret Atwood book I've ever picked up and I feel as though I'm in for a brain workout. Needless to say, as a woman this book was particularly horrifying. The Republic of Gilead, a dystopian future where the government is taken over by un-named militia, and the first thing to go? Women's bank accounts, women's jobs, finances, security, bodily autonomy, freedom. Women become property again, too quickly, too easily. However, there is such a hazy quality to Offred's experience that we are lulled into a sense of passive confusion. We are given only the details she can recall, and her real name is never revealed. She is never given an identity, only a past and a present. There is no guarantee as to her future. Only in the end do I come to understand a few things about the depicted events. Some sort of biological warfare is waged alongside the overthrowing of the current government. Men suffer from varying degrees of sterility and the birth rates across the country plummet. Handmaids are women plucked from many places, unmarried, un-wealthy, unlucky... broken and reformed as incubators. Their job is to bear children to the important men of the Republic of Gilead, to be surrogates to the barren wives of the new world leaders. Once a child is born, though many are deformed, she is reassigned to another leader for the next round, to see if she can do it again. Some still remember freedom, their old lives. Some choose to opt out of this bleak future with suicide, sabotage or escape. Some fully embrace the state of thing, as they recognise the complete brutality of the regime and the blatant futility of trying to resist. Hangings are common, no one is truly safe. Handmaids who stray from their masters, wives who kill the handmaid in her home out of jealously, or spite, doctors, scientists, nuns who refuse to abandon celibacy. There is little choice in life anymore. Only fear and duty. "I feel angry. I'm not proud of myself for this, or for any of it. But then, that's the point." When I come to the end of the book, Offred's tale is cut off at the climax. I yell into the quiet air of my empty house. "WHAT." It is not even a question. I don't understand. What follows after this blatant full stop and blank page is a section called "Historical Notes", dated the year 2195. As a charming speaker brings up this document, this tale, to a convention of well-to-do scholars, it becomes so very real where it simply wasn't before. Everything Offred describes along her journey is woven with quiet, safe shades of grey, despite the bright red iconography of everything that makes up a handmaid. Survival tones and warning lights. There's a quality of numbness that keeps back a sure panic about the state of things, ensuring that we drift with her, disassociated from the actual events as she recalls them in a mostly matter of fact way. No conversations, simply words recorded on a page as a transcript, emotionless. She does describe how she's feeling, an awful lot, don't get me wrong, but the overall tone of the construction makes it difficult to do much but experience with her and wonder in horror at how things could have reached such an awful state. Cutting off her recollection right at the most real moment when all eyes are suddenly on her, this shift in time and perspective made me finally slam on the breaks. I broke through the surface of that numbness and suddenly I was possessed by a need to be back with her in that mute place, to see her through whatever comes next. To experience the sheer terror of having nothing of your own, no way to fight back, no safe way to hold onto a rich, free past. "You are a transitional generation. It is the hardest for you. We know the sacrifices you are being expected to make. For the ones who come after you, it will be easier. They will accept their duties with willing hearts." It becomes apparent with the way the "document" is analysed at the end, that Offred has somehow managed to record her tale, that somehow... she escaped. The relief I feel at this discovery is minuscule. I am afraid of how easily this future could become reality in present day. Part of the appeal in reading this was the current political state of the world - anywhere you look this book is being touted as highly relevant in Trump's America. I don't want to call it Trump's America. It is not his, and he's doing a REALLY good job of fucking things up. Having read it, I can see the parallels, the possibilities, the potential for segregation, degradation, iron rule over women's bodies... This is a think piece that will probably always be sadly relevant. Title: The Handmaid's Tale Author: Margaret Atwood Published: 1985 Genre: Dystopia Pages: 479 Finish Date: 17/05/2017 The following online stores all have free worldwide shipping You can buy it here at Fishpond.com You can also buy it from Book Depository For UK based companies there's Wordery and Books Please This is a solid 9, folks. Put it in your eyes and your To Be Read piles. |
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