Title:  Gardens of the Moon
Author:  Steven Erikson
Publisher:  Tor Books
# of Pages:  489

Book One of the Malazan Book of the Fallen

Amazon review available here.

Rating:  8/10

Favorite Line:  "Every god falls at a mortal's hands.  Such is the only end to immortality."

From Booklist
In the first of a projected 10 volumes of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, the Malazan Empire is up to its eyebrows in the intrigues of mage Anomander Rake and his sorcerous minions, the Tiste Andii. The empress Laseen pursues her grisly ambitions with the aid of the Ninja-like Claw assassins, but Erikson focuses on the grunt-level fighting of military engineers Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his Bridgeburners and the field-grade mage Tattersall, who are more than ready to go home, when the empress commands a battle in and around the Free City of Darujhistan. Erikson portrays this hurly-burly--something very like the Lord of the Rings' Battle of the Pellenor Fields--from the perspective of those who had to get out of the way of the charges and exchanges of spells and sometimes died anyway. It remains to be seen whether Erikson's excellent writing will carry through nine more volumes of this gritty, realistic fantasy in the manner of Glen Cook's Dark Company series. Wager on fantasy readers' robust appetites, however.

Well, if you like epic fantasy full of magic, war, violence, action and political intrigue, then Erikson is your guy.  I have heard a lot about this series on a fantasy board I frequent, and I decided to take the plunge and buy the first three books (of a projected 10) on bookcloseouts.com.

The first half of the book was slow-going.  I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  In fact, even in the second half, I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  You are dropped in the middle of the action in a massive war, surrounded by mages using some sort of "warren" of magic that you don't understand, and then you meet about 25 major characters.  It's thoroughly overwhelming and I really was ready to give up the book.

However, people say that the book gets better, and even if you don't like the first one completely, the series gets better and better as you continue.  So ... I perservered.  Around page 250, things began to click.  And then I read about 200 pages in one day, after taking well over a week to get to the half-way point of the book.  When this book picks up, it really picks up.  Finally, I realized what the plot of this PARTICULAR book was, rather than trying to figure out the plot of the entire series.  And I realized which the "important" characters were.  And I began to really care about what was going on.  So that when I finished Gardens of the Moon, I immediately picked up the second book in the series, Deadhouse Gates, and am currently reading that one.  (Yes, it's good, too.)

Comparative to George R. R. Martin?  I can see where that idea comes from.  Epic fantasy with massive political intrigue.  At any rate, I think people who enjoy GRRM would also really like Erikson, if they were to give him a try.  He's difficult at the start.  For me, GRRM wasn't difficult to get into at all.  Right from the start of A Game of Thrones, I was sucked in.  So Erikson perhaps requires more commitment and effort- but I think he's worth it.  And I think I now have another series to get sucked into and awed by.

Tags: epic, fantasy, malazan
Current Mood: geeky

Title:  The Grail and the Ring
Author:  Teresa Edgerton
Publisher:  Ace Books
# of Pages:  About 450

Rating:  6.5/10

From Booklist
This sequel to The Castle of the Silver Wheel has the vice of not being terribly intelligible if you don't know the first book; indeed, it practically demands a genealogical chart. Otherwise, it's a fine exploration of the situation that arises when a kingdom comes under a curse and an heir must be found to do penance for his father's sin--but nobody knows what the sin was or where the heir is! Gwenlliant and Tryffin, wed at the end of the first book, are now exploring the full range of their powers and becoming deeply involved in the search for the heir. A well-told tale that captures the Celtic faerie atmosphere in all its beauty and confusion.

This is the second book in the Chronicles of Celydonn trilogy.  It was a little bit harder for me to get into than the first book in the series was, though I can't really say why.  Again, the hero and heroine spend most of the book apart from each other.  Based on this, I don't find the romance between them as easy to understand as that between the hero and heroine in most of Edgerton's other novels.  The book has, as always, excellent world-building and plot development, and Edgerton really does (as stated above by Booklist) seem to have a great grasp on Celtic atmosphere.  The story had many faeries and fey characters, but I don't think the character development was particularly great.

And maybe that's why this trilogy doesn't hit me the way that Edgerton's other books do.  It is epic fantasy, so the characters perhaps can't be as fun as those in Goblin Moon or The Queen's Necklace.  But I thoroughly enjoyed Ceilyn and Teleri in the first Celydonn series, and they were in an epic fantasy setting as well.  Only those two clearly grew through the series, and one could see the influence of the one side on the other.  In this series, that isn't so apparent.

However, a Teresa Edgerton book is always a nice companion for an evening, and the book was interesting and plot-driven, though not so exciting as to make me want to jump up and get the last book in the series off the shelf.  Though this might also be because after that one, I'll have no more Edgerton books to read until her next book is published ...

Tags: epic, fantasy, romance
Current Mood: devious

Title:  The Castle of the Silver Wheel
Author:  Teresa Edgerton
Publisher:  Ace Books
# of Pages:  About 300

Rating:  7/10

The first in Edgerton's Chronicles of Celydonn trilogy, this book picks up very soon after the Green Lion Trilogy ends.  It also includes several of the same characters- mainly, Tryffin and Gwenlliant.  Sadly, no summary is available on Amazon.com!  The story centers around a young married couple, Tryffin (21 at the start) and Gwenlliant (12 at the start), and the start to their life together in Mochdreff.  Mochdreff is a principality that is currently without a ruler, and Tryffin is sent there to act as guardian until one of the heirs is old enough and strong enough to take power.  Once there, however, he and his friends are pitted against a magician who clearly wants Tryffin dead, and power in Mochdreff for himself.

Unfortunately, for much of this book, the two protagonists (Tryffin and Gwenlliant) seemed to spend much of their time apart!  This isn't such a big quibble when one considers that Gwenlliant was only twelve at the time of her marriage and therefore, a "romance" developing might have been more disturbing than sweet.  We do see both characters- and a great many secondary characters- become much more well-rounded individuals than we might have had they been always together.  The plot itself is pretty straightforward- there is no real mystery or suspense, as we know for most of the story exactly who the villain is.  However, this book also gives a lot more information and background for some of the plot threads that were involved in the Green Lion trilogy, especially that involving Tryffin's family history.

Edgerton's main skill, in my opinion, lays mostly in her amazing ability to build a fantasy world.  Again, the chapters are prefaced with enticing and delicious fragments from Celydonn history and folklore- all of which help populate the world further.  I read this book while waiting for yet another delayed flight to take off from O'Hare, and the time passed much more swiftly because of it.  Enjoyable and fun to read, I look forward to reading the next two books in the series.

Tags: epic, fantasy, romance
Current Mood: apathetic

Title:  Swords for Hire
Author:  Will Allen
Publisher:  Centerpunch Press
# of Pages:  168

Rating:  9/10
Amazon review available here.

Favorite line:  "Sam, where on earth did you find this uncouth, unpredictable man?" said Melinda.  After a brief pause, Sam said, "Uh, right here."

From Centerpunch Press:

A new national award-winning book, Swords for Hire is a funny, exciting story about the adventures of a young farm boy named Sam Hatcher, who lives in the ancient Kingdom of Parmall. Sam has lived a simple life on the farm with his parents, but all that changes the day he turns sixteen. He meets Rigby Skeet, a wisecracking guard, and the two uncover a plot that has captured the true king in a dungeon, where he is guarded by the very scary "Boneman."

They embark on an exciting search for King Olive, who was betrayed by his evil—and very strange—brother. Along the way they encounter evil guards, a magical sorcerer, and a beautiful girl being held captive. The story is somewhat similar in style to William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.

Aimed towards children (and probably great to read out loud), the novel was written by Will Allen in 1979, just months before dying of cancer.  The book was published posthumously twenty-two years later by Allen's brother and has been keeping people entertained ever since.

This book was a lot of fun!  It's short, witty, and so entertaining to read!  A satirical take on the epic fantasy novel, the two bumbling heroes meet charlatan sorcerers, skeletal villains, power-hungry lords, lovely maidens and deposed kings- all in less than 200 pages.  The book's humor is easy for children to understand, but also universal enough for adults to chuckle along.  A great book to read with kids, or to read on your own if you have a few spare hours.

Tags: fantasy

Title:  Daughter of the Blood (First in the Black Jewels Trilogy)
Author:  Anne Bishop
Publisher:  Roc
# of Pages:  412

Rating:  8/10
Amazon Review available here.

Favorite line:  "Do you think me such a fool that I don't recognize what she is, what she'll become?  She's magic, Cassandra.  A single flower blooming in an endless desert."

From Amazon.com:
Anne Bishop's debut novel, Daughter of the Blood, is like black coffee--strong, dark, and hard on delicate stomachs. Within the Blood (a race of magic-users), women rule and men serve, but tradition has been corrupted so that women enslave men, who seek to destroy their oppressors. Female children are violated before they can reach maturity; men are tortured and forced to satisfy witches' sexual appetites.

Bishop's child heroine, Jaenelle, is destined to rule the Blood, if she can reach adulthood. Her power is hidden; her family believes her mad. Saetan, High Lord of Hell and most powerful of the Blood males, becomes Jaenelle's surrogate father and teacher. He cannot protect her outside Hell, where he rules. She refuses to leave Terreille, risking herself to protect or heal other victims of violence. Can Daemon, Saetan's estranged son, keep her safe from the machinations of the evil High Priestess? Or will he lose his battle to control his destructive urges and endanger her?

This book is probably my first foray into "dark fantasy."  It is very, very dark.  And somewhat disturbing.  It is also very hard to follow at the start- for the first hundred pages or so, I had no idea what I was reading about.  I didn't know what was going on, there was so many characters (all of which seemed to be related), and everyone seemed to have some sort of masochistic or sadistic leanings.  I was pretty much ready to set it aside and not read any more.

But I perservered and after the first quarter of the book or so, things started to click.  In my opinion, it should not take 100 pages of a 400-page book for a reader to finally get a sense of where she is in a novel.  But fantasy writers have huge worlds to build, and usually take three books to tell a story, so I suppose in that case, it isn't that much of the overall story that you spend in confusion.

I really enjoyed the story, once I understood what was going on.  It is really different than the fantasy I have read till now.  I'm sure the overall themes of fantasy novels will eventually come out, but presentation is everything, and Bishop has me believing that her story is different.  The main female characters (at least, the good ones) are interesting and three-dimensional.  The men seem a bit more stilted to me, but I have a feeling that they will evolve over time, given more time on air.  The story itself- well, I'm not sure what is going to happen, but I have a feeling it will be big :-)  And the setting is where the magic really comes into play.  Oh, how I wish there was a MAP provided in this book!  It would be much easier to figure out what was going on and where everyone was going.  Not just of the various cities, but also of the other dimensions or "threads" or whatever it is that these people travel through.  Bishop throws you right into a completely alien setting, but it is so richly-detailed and fascinating that you want to catch every little nuance she provides.  If the plot develops nearly as much as the setting does, then I have a feeling this trilogy is definitely worthy of the acclaim it has received.

Tags: black jewels trilogy, dark fantasy, epic, fantasy

Continuing to change my formatting until I find one that I like :-)

Title: Paladin of Souls
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Publisher: HarperTorch
# of Pages: 496

Rating:  9/10

Favorite line:  "Instructing you, sweet Ista, would be like teaching a falcon to walk up to its prey.  It might with great effort be done, but one would end with a very footsore and cranky bird, and a tedious wait for dinnner.  With a wingspan like yours, it's ever so much easier just to shake you from my wrist and let you fly."

From Booklist:

The eagerly awaited sequel to The Curse of Chalion (2001) continues the story of the world of Chalion, though not strictly of Chalion, after Iselle and Bergon have defeated one lot of enemies and celebrated their wedding. Paladin of Souls focuses, however, on Iselle's mother, Ista. Three years free of the madness that kept her imprisoned in her family's castle, Ista is finally released from her last remaining duties by the death of her mother. She undertakes a pilgrimage, but doesn't get far before she is overtaken by trouble, sorrow, need, and a host of other adversities. Chalion is in trouble again, thanks to the plots, counterplots, machinations, and follies of men and of gods, and Ista is perforce on the front lines. Bujold couldn't characterize badly if threatened with a firing squad, and what really keeps one turning the pages is the fascinating cast of characters--not that the plot is anything to sneeze at. Only dedicated addicts of Bujold's Vorkosigan saga will be miffed that she has given us this book rather than that sf series' next installment, for Bujold is also head and shoulders above the ruck of current fantasists as well as science-fictionists. Roland Green

I get tired of writing out the plot summaries of books, so now by using someone else's (which is usually better), I can get straight to my own personal responses!

I really enjoyed this book.  Perhaps not quite as much as its predecessor, but that is a small quibble.  I think Bujold is a master of writing likable female characters.  Not every author can do this (in my opinion, hardly any author can do this).  But Bujold manages to give us a lady who is past 40 and thought crazy, and make her independent, strong and just a good person.  None of that emotional baggage that many women carry around in fantasy novels.  Ista is not emotionally weak by any means, but she also isn't the American Gladiator of the female half of the species.  She's just ... someone you'd want to sit back and get to know.

That's not to say that there isn't a completely obnoxious female in the story- there certainly is.  But luckily, she is portrayed as being obnoxious and it's ok not to like her.

Paladin of Souls spends a lot of its time debating religious theory.  This is really interesting most of the time, but it also can go straight over your head.  There is a lot about sainthood again, as there was in The Curse of Chalion, and the real powers of a god.  I think Bujold would just be a very interesting person to sit and discuss theology with.  There are so many fascinating ideas in her head, and the way she puts them down onto paper to create a viable story is really quite a feat.

The language also is excellent- I had trouble choosing my favorite quote.  The imagery is well-done, the plot moves along well, and we do get a very brief glimpse of the happy lives of characters in The Curse of Chalion.  If you read the first book, you'll most likely want to read the second!

Tags: epic, fantasy, historical fantasy, religion

Title: Elantris
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor Books
# of Pages: 489

Rating: 8/10

Favorite Quote: "Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity."

I heard so much about this book from two people whose opinions I highly respect, that I had to pick it up and read it. Epic fantasy in one volume? Sign me up!

Elantris takes place in Arelon, a land which, until ten years ago, was ruled by demigods from the city of Elantris- people who had been ordinary until the day the Shaod took them and made them extraordinary. Ten years ago, however, Elantris mysteriously fell, and the gods, rather than being silvery, magical beings, began to resemble something like lepers who would not die. Prince Raoden, heir to the throne of Arelon, is taken by the Shaod just before his wedding. Thrown into Elantris to rot away the rest of his life, he instead tries to make a productive society in the city. Meanwhile, the wife he’s never met, Sarene, arrives in Kae, capital of Arelon, to find herself a widow and the city under the dual turmoil of an ineffective king and a foreign religious leader attempting to convert the country. Sarena and Hrathen, the Fjordell religious leader, clash time and again, one trying to save her culture and the other trying to save the souls of Arelon.

Sounds like the sort of plot many fantasy authors would spin out over a trilogy, at least. But Sanderson does it in one book, and that in itself is worthy of a high rating! There are flaws in the book- sometimes the humor seems a bit too forced, and some of the characters are stereotypical and one-dimensional to an extreme. But this is Sanderson’s first novel, and I think he will be a strong figure in fantasy novels to come.

Tags: epic, fantasy, historical fantasy, magic, romance

Title:  Daughter of the Forest
Author:  Juliet Marillier
Publisher:  Tor Books
# of Pages:  400

Rating:  4/10

Meh.  I don't know why this book got such great ratings on Amazon.  I thought it was distinctly like many other romance novels- though I suppose the added dimension of having six swans for brothers added a little to the plot.

I read this book for a Fantasy book group- the theme for the read was Fairy Tale Retellings.  Daughter of the Forest is a retelling of an Irish fairy tale in which seven siblings are put under a curse by an evil stepmother.  The six brothers are turned into swans, only to return to human form at midwinter and midsummer, from dusk till dawn.  The youngest, the seventh and a daughter, escapes.  But to save her brothers, she must keep utterly silent and weave them shirts made of starwort, a very painful plant.

She sets out to do this, going through harrowing experiences including rape in complete silence.  And then she is found by an Englishman, who takes her back to his village and of course, promptly falls in love with her.

I bet you can guess the ending :-)

I'm not one to bash romance at all- I love it when it's done well.  But here, both the hero and the heroine are too perfect.  Neither of them seems to have any faults, and they go through that whole dance of "I am in love with you and you are in love with me, and I THINK that you are in love with me, but I'm going to pretend that you are not for the majority of the book, and then we can have a huge misunderstanding until the last few pages or so, when all comes to rights."

In a way, it's a good thing I didn't really care for this novel- there's one trilogy, at least, that I won't feel compelled to read!

*************************************************
Title:  The Curse of Chalion
Author:  Lois McMaster Bujold
Publisher:  HarperTorch
# of Pages:  512

Rating:  10/10

Amazon review available here.

Favorite line:  "Maybe you couldn't save yourself.  Maybe you had to take turns saving each other."

This, on the other hand, is a series I definitely plan on continuing.  The Curse of Chalion is one of Bujold's few and more recent forays into fantasy.  She is more well-known for her science fiction adventures featuring a man named Miles with a very hard to spell last name.  I have read none of these, but I hear that they are outstanding.  So maybe some day, I'll give sci fi a try.  Maybe ;-)

The Curse of Chalion is the first in a loosely-related trilogy, followed by Paladin of Souls and The Hallowed Hunt.  If the sequels are as compelling as the first book (and rumor has it that they are), then they are well worth purchasing.  Bujold's novel centers around a down-on-his-luck Lord Cazaril, who goes to a former employer to find work in the scullery and ends up being employed as a princess's tutor instead.  He goes with the princess and her lady-in-waiting (two utterly likeable yet strong female characters) to the capital city, where he finds out that the entire royal family is under a curse, and that he must do all he can to save them from it.

It seems a fairly basic storyline, but when you add in Bujold's AMAZING detail, it fleshes out to something pretty impressive.  She has developed the religion of Chalion, especially, very vividly- she even has her characters argue theology with each other in ways that really go above my head but are utterly fascinating to contemplate.  For example- saints are not people who do work for the Gods, but are merely people who allow Gods to do work through them.  Interesting theory, no?  And that is only one such conversation- she fills the book with these, and the religion is so fascinating that I wouldn't mind reading one of the religious texts often mentioned in the book.

Along with the exciting gods and goddesses of Chalion, the human characters are worthy of your time and effort to get to know them, and the plot is well fleshed-out and entertaining.  Two thumbs up!

********************************************************
Title:  Howl's Moving Castle
Author:  Diana Wynne Jones
Publisher:  Eos
# of Pages:  336

Rating: 10/10

Amazon Review available here.

Favorite line:  "I think we should live happily ever after."

I'll make no bones about it- I LOVED this book.  Absolutely and completely.  It is fun, humorous, entertaining and delightful reading.  Aimed at young adults, and made into an enchanting anime movie (with a somewhat different plot), it really hits home for everyone.  How many authors would write a story about a girl enchanted to become a 90-year-old woman and a vain, self-absorbed man in his 20s who is attempting to flee people asking him to do work?  One author took this task on, and the result is excellent.

Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three sisters and therefore is destined to lead a dull, uninteresting life.  That changes, however, when the Witch of the Waste puts a spell on her that makes her look like an old woman.  Sophie then leaves town and heads for the moving castle owned by the wicked wizard Howl and sets herself up as his cleaning lady, finding that he is not quite so evil as he is made out to be, but that he is extremely narcissistic and pigheaded instead.

Chaos, as they say, ensues.

For a book geared at young adults, there are a great many lessons taught by this book.  The "inner beauty" lesson.  The importance of masks and how they make it possible for you to act differently than you normally would.  How doing what you think is a good deed can really actually hurt you in the long run.  The book has the added bonus of great one-liners, a compelling romance and loveable characters.  I have the sequel to this book (Castle in the Air) as well, though I hear the main characters of Sophie and Howl do not play such a prominent role in that book.  That's ok- I'm sure I'll snatch the book off my shelf as soon as possible, anyway.

Tags: fairy tales, fantasy, historical fantasy, romance

Title:  Queen of Swords
Author:  Judith Tarr
Publisher:  Forge Books
# of Pages:  464

Rating:  DNF

Wow, yet another "Did Not Finish" for a book that I would think to be right up my alley!  And, judging by the rave Amazon reviews (5 stars almost the entire way), I'm pretty much the only person who didn't enjoy this book.

Queen of Swords takes place in 12th century Jerusalem and revolves around Queen Melisende, who I'm sure was fascinating in real-life but who seemed very flat in the book.  The book mostly focuses on a fictional female character named Richildis, who travels to Jerusalem from France in search of her brother.  She finds her brother, but ends up liking Jerusalem far too much to return with him to France.  And so they stay and make a life for themselves in the city, going on Crusades, coming to understandings with individual Saracens (but not, of course, the entire Muslim population) and being the reader's witness to many important events.

Really, the making of what one would think to be an interesting story.  I was certainly looking forward to it, as I know very little about the time period.  But ... it didn't do it for me.  I read about 300 pages and then I started skimming, and then I started paging through, and then I just stopped.  Maybe it will be your kind of book- but it wasn't mine.  I do have another book on the Middle East from about a century later ... hopefully, The Book of Saladin will be more to my liking.

********************************************************************************

Title:  A College of Magics
Author:  Caroline Stevermer
Publisher:  Starscape
# of Pages:  480

Rating:  5/10

Eh.  This book failed to rock my socks, too.  It was a light, enjoyable read (and, I suppose as it's geared towards a younger audience, that might be all it wants to achieve.  Though I'll blow that theory to the wind in my next review), but nothing to write home about.  Though, clearly, it is something to write in the blog about.  I think Stevermer is a fun author, especially in that she writes in a historical fantasy setting that I adore.  This one takes place in early 1900s France.

Stevermer reminds me a bit of Teresa Edgerton, whose writing I adore (see my comments on The Queen's Necklace in an earlier post).  But I don't think she's quite at Edgerton's level of entertainment for me.  Her story was fairly interesting, the characters were fairly likeable, and the setting was fairly well done.  Again, eh.

************************************************************************
Title:  His Dark Materials Trilogy
Author:  Philip Pullman
Publisher:  Del Rey
# of Pages:  N/A - Three books in the series

Rating:  8/10

Review for The Golden Compass available here.

Well, it isn't often I'll read a full trilogy all in one setting!  But I did it for this one.  Though I must say that I lost steam as time went on and after starting at a sprint, I finished at a bit of a hobble.

This series is aimed at younger readers- probably around middle school or so.  But holy cow, does it tackle adult subjects.  Readers tackle everything from armored polar bears to string theory to atheism.  We follow a plucky 12-year-old, Lyra, and her friend Will (who appears in the second book, The Subtle Knife) as they travel through alternate universes and attempt to fix every world they come across and save it from - unless I read the books COMPLETELY wrong - God.

Yes, Pullman's books are based on the premise that Adam and Eve did not commit a sin of guilty pleasure in the Garden of Eden, and that the teachings of Christianity (and many other religions) are wrong.  Rather, Adam and Eve were acting very naturally but God (or "the Authority" as the force is called in the books) won a terrible battle and since that time, humanity has been plunged into a frenzy of guilt and hypocrisy that only Lyra and Will can save it from.

Very intense, I know. 

Would a sixth grader understand these references?  I don't know.  I think sixth graders nowadays are reading far more intense books than I ever did at that age.  But whether a sixth grader would get them or not, I certainly did, and it made for a very interesting reading experience.  I am aware that these books offended many religious groups.  That is to be expected.  It's very ironic, really, as the idea presented in the book was also rejected by the religious figures Pullman includes in the story.

I thought the series started out remarkably strong.  I LOVED the first book.  The third book disappointed me.  It seemed to have so many random parts to it, and so many holes left unplugged (also ironic, if you read the series) that I couldn't really reconcile myself to the ending.  It felt as though I was missing a book somewhere.  But I'm not.

So, some points docked there.  But this author thinks BIG.  For that alone, this series is worth a read.  It is the sort that will keep you thinking, and arguing, and mulling for quite a while.  And really, that's what books SHOULD do, along with adding enjoyment value to your life, of course :-)

Tags: fantasy, feminist, historical fantasy, medieval, religion, romance, war

Whew, August is off to a very intense start (well, 2/3 of the way through the month isn't a start, I guess). The first book is about death, the second about dying gods and the third about goodness only really knows what :-)

Title: The Mercy of Thin Air
Author: Ronlyn Domingue
Publisher: Washington Square
# of Pages: 336

Rating: 10/10

Amazon review available at: http://tinyurl.com/ef7gv

My cousin Sudha recommended this book to me and then kindly lent me her copy. I wasn't sure I wanted to read it, as it seemed to be sort of a rehash of The Lovely Bones (another book I really like). And there are some similarities yes, but this book is excellent in a way completely its own as well.

The story is told from the point of view of Razi, a young woman who died in late 1920s New Orleans. She had been a renegade girl with a mission- she wished to be a doctor and believed very strongly in women's rights, especially regarding birth control. She had wonderful parents, a loving grandmother, a great friend, and had the good fortune of meeting her one true love before she died by drowning in a pool.

But *was* it good fortune that she spent time with her one true love? This book smashes right into the quaint saying, "It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all." Is it, really? What happens to the person left behind? To the one who loved you so fully and completely that when you are taken away, he is left utterly bereft and life never seems to compensate for the loss?

This novel examines this question in the most heart-rending way, using amazingly beautiful language. We follow Razi as she skirts around a couple, seventy years after her death (in the 1990s-2000s). This couple, Amy and Scott, seems perfect. But we slowly come to realize, as Scott does, that Amy feels she lost the love of her life before marrying Scott, and that she has never gotten over this.

And we have smaller, painful glimpses of Razi's love Andrew, and see how Razi's death affected him. And we hold our breath, wondering if this is the fate that awaits Amy.

This book is very moving- trying to do it justice would only make me sound trite. The poetry of the words alone is enough to bring you to tears. Highly, highly recommended.

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Title: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: Harper Perennial
# of Pages: 480

Rating: 8/10

I must admit that the dock of two points on this book might have a great deal to do with my not understanding all of its nuances, rather than to any lack on Gaiman's part.

This was my first reading of a Gaiman book, and I certainly plan to read more. I'm very glad I did this one as a buddy read with Nichole (livejournal ID: wizardsheart) because it was great to have someone to bounce thoughts and ideas off of, while doing the reading.

Gaiman uses this novel to confront the question: What happens to a god when people stop believing in him? A very interesting question, and one which leaves a lot of room open for interpretation. Terry Pratchett took a stab at answering the question in his excellent novel, Small Gods.

Gaiman combines his answer to the question with  treatise on America, a land where nothing is holy ("This is a bad place for gods.") and consequently, gods are brought over and then abandoned in due course.  Therefore, the Old Gods (Odin, Kali, tribal gods, and the like) must do battle against the New Gods (Media, Technology, etc.) for the soul of America, both sides attempting to use the protagonist of the story, Shadow.

A pretty intense subject matter, don't you think?  And Gaiman handles it very well- there are side stories that describe life as a god in the US, that introduce us to all sorts of mythology.  There is the main story, in which we are bombarded with countless references to who knows how many cultures and religions.  We see tourist hot spots of the Midwest (including The House on the Rock, which I have actually visited at least a handful of times).

And, while doing all that, Gaiman manages to deftly weave a very entertaining story.

So why, you might ask, did this book not receive 10/10?  Well, not every book can achieve such a rating (though I think I give high ratings, in general, as I don't finish books I don't like).  And while I think the story itself was great, and the concept fantastic, I think the execution left a little to be desired.

The book is very tight at the start, and even through the middle.  But then it seems to lose focus, and I'm not entirely convinced that it ever fully regains itself by the end.  I also think it's the sort of book that you probably appreciate more with each reading, since it's one that cries out for a re-read, if you have the time for it.  And if you have the ability to possibly read more about different world religions before the time for a re-read comes.  Overall, I prefer Pratchett's more humorous and still very effective approach to Gaiman's.

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Title:  The Unicorn Hunt (The House of Niccolo, Book #5)
Author:  Dorothy Dunnett
Publisher:  Vintage (Reissue)
# of Pages:  656

Rating:  9/10

It seems impossible to rate a Niccolo book lower than a 10 mostly because of the sheer MASTERY of the time period Dunnett has (which I feel I have conveyed sufficiently in previous entries- look below for further gushing).  And really, this one is amazing, and I feel like it's my favorite of the series so far- though I say that with each subsequent book- and yet I'm giving it a 9/10 only because I feel like Dunnett went slightly over the edge in terms of drama.

She seems unable to write a book in which her heroes do not suffer tremendously or in which her female characters do not leave a lot to be desired, in terms of kindness or common sense.

However, in this book we are introduced to the wonderful Katelijne (Kathi) Sersanders, who gives me faith that Dunnett does realize that girls can be great people, too.

In this fifth volume of the eight-book Niccolo series, we see Nicholas engaged in war with his new bride, Gelis van Borselen, and trying to determine if Gelis gave birth to a son- and if that son is his.  Additionally, Nicholas is once again fighting a trade war, searching for his lost gold and simultaneously trying to exact revenge on the St Pole clan in Scotland.

A man who can multi-task, our Nicholas.

I don't know why I bother to include the Niccolo books in my reviews as I never give anyone enough information about the plot to go off of.  You really must start at the beginning.  And enjoy the (very long, very dramatic) ride :-)

Tags: america, death, fantasy, historical fiction, medieval, religion, romance
Current Mood: accomplished