Book Review: The Gray Wolf Throne

The Gray Wolf Throne
Seven Realms: Book 3

Cinda Williams Chima
Hyperion, 2011

I enjoyed this installment of the Seven Realms series very much.  The pace was fast and exciting and the nuances of the characters continued to develop in interesting ways.  I particularly like the way that Chima is exploring the issue of Princess Raisa being pulled in all sorts of directions by both her friends and her enemies.  Chima has done a good job of showing how sometimes friends with agendas can be as challenging as enemies.

Raisa really grows into her own in this book, making decisions against the council of people around her – but not rashly.  She considers different opinions, makes her choice and stands for it, while trying to be diplomatic.  There are also some extremely satisfying moments, such as when she tells on particular suitor exactly what he can do with his arrogant and distasteful proposal.

The next volume The Crimson Crown is due out this October and I am excited to see where the story will go next.  I am hoping to get more of a sense of the wizards and their council as they are the group whom I understand the least and, perhaps, mistrust the most because of the Bayar family’s ambitions.

Book Review: The Exiled Queen

The Exiled Queen
Seven Realms: Book 2

Cinda Chima Williams
Hyperion, 2010

The Exiled Queen falls into the “school” or “training” type of fantasy story.  Harry Potter was primarily in that setting - other examples include the section on Roke in A Wizard of Earthsea; Kvothe’s time in the university in The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear; Alanna’s training in Alanna: The First Adventure; and many others.  “School” is a setting that gives the author a chance to train and develop their young protagonist, showing the reader their character, creating their friendships and rivalries and shaping their strengths and weaknesses.

One of the elements of William’s version of this tale that was different and fresh was that many of the characters entering the school were already connected to each other through friendship, enmity, or other bonds.  In many ways, it was less about them making new connections, then about how their old connections developed and changed through the course of their schooling.

Princess Raisa, disguised as Rebecca Morely, has the opportunity to broaden her education into tactics, history of warfare and cultural studies that were not available to her in the Fells – or were not permitted her.  She also has the chance to make friends with her unwitting guards, led by Amon.  He is the only one who knows who she really the Princess-Heir.  Williams is not very subtle that these experiences are going to make her a better queen and leader – or I suspect that she is going to have some very loyal guards once her troop finds out who they have been guarding.

Across the river in another school Han Alastair and his friend Fire Dancer, both under clan sponsorship, study magic.  Given Han’s propensity to get himself into scrapes his is perhaps the more exciting side of the story – particularly because his bitter enemies and rivals the Bayar twins are studying in the same year. Additionally, the instructors at the Mage school frequently have an agenda of their own, and Han finds himself being recruited from all sides.  This is somewhat amusing, as the reader is aware that Han is a player who has devoted himself to his own agenda and may slip and slide around other promises if they interfere.  Anyone who knew something of his background should be more distrustful of a sweet smile of agreement from Han.

The Exiled Queen was a fun continuation of the Seven Realm’s series.  It comprises a time for all the characters to prepare for coming events: build friendships, get training, decide on loyalties and gain power.  Again the pace is quick and the story stays interesting.  The narrative ends on a note of uncertainty, pointing the reader toward the next installment: The Grey Wolf Throne.

Book Review: The Demon King

The Demon King
The Seven Realms: Book 1


Cinda Williams Chima
Hyperion, New York, 2009


Chima’s YA fantasy novel was a fun and easy read – great for the bus ride to and from work.  It is the first in the Seven Realms series and does an excellent job of establishing the world of the Queen of the Fells and her contentious relationship with the Wizards who were once invaders to the land and the highland Clans from whose line the queens originally came and who were nearly destroyed by the invading wizards.  


The Demon King follows three main characters – Princess Raisa, the heir to the throne who is just coming of age, Hunt’s Alone/Han Alister a young ex-thief and street gang member, who discovers some startling things about his lineage and, to a lesser extent, Amon, son of the Queen’s captain-of-the-guards and childhood friend of Raisa.  The story follows the parallel discoveries the three characters make about their family secrets, the truth about old myths and legends and the way that their own lives are intertwined with each other and with the ancient story of Queen Hanalea who defeated the Demon King and created the Naéming which governs the relations of the Queen, the Wizards and the Clans.  


I enjoyed the clear prose, the crisp pace and the twists and turns of the story.  One minor gripe I had with it is that the time of Hanalea was a thousand years ago from when the story takes place, but if felt much more recent.  A thousand years of human history is a long, long time and cultures change a lot, even if they remember and still practice their old ways.  But other than that I enjoyed it very much.  While the novel was definitely the first in a series – the story arch is incomplete - it is still a satisfying tale and leaves me looking forward to continuing on with the next book The Exiled Queen.

The Night Circus and the 2012 Mythopoeic Awards

One of finalests for the 2012 Mythopoeic Awards is The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 2011).  If you have not had a chance to read this unusual and fascinating book,  I highly recommend it.  While I enjoyed the plot very much - Morgenstern juggles crisscrossing the plot through time, with a deft touch - the elements that particularly linger are the sensory details.  Descriptions of the fanciful circus displays are very vivid and left me feeling like I had personally been to the strange black and white tents of the Night Circus. 


In addition, it is being adapted for film - which I can only imagine has the potential to be an absolutely beautiful film if done right.  Put it on your summer reading list today!    

Book Review: The Heir of Night

The Heir of Night
The Wall of Night, Book One

Helen Lowe
Eos, 2010

"If Night falls, all fall."

This book is a compelling beginning to an exciting new series.  Lowe has created a richly realized world of great depth, and peoples it with interesting characters.  Her tale begins in a mountain keep in a harsh land where the Earl of Night, of one the Nine Derai Houses, keeps the unending vigil against the Darkswarm.  This horde of warriors, necromancers and terrible demons has been the Derai’s foes “across worlds and time,” yet a recent lull in the conflict has allowed some of the Derai to settle into complacency.  Additionally, the Nine Houses are split by past treachery, which has also split the warrior line from the priestly line – and anyone who shows the least bit of the “old powers” is exiled to the Temple.

However, now the Darkswarm have returned, and swords alone are not enough against them.  The Darkswarm are after Malian, Heir of Night, the Earl’s daughter.  She discovers she is a child of prophecy and a wielder of the old powers.  With the help of a young novice from the Temple, Kalan, she survives the first terrible assault of the Darkswarm, but she quickly learns that there are traitors among her people and that the rift between warrior and priest demands that she be sent away for her magical gifts.

The tale is fast paced and exciting, even as it weaves in the complex culture and family alliances, the vast legendary history of the Derai, and tantalizing glimpses of the other peoples which live on the planet Haarth.  Malian and Kalan must find a way to learn how to use their powers, stay out of the hands of the Darkswarm, understand the great legendary forces that are awakening around them – and perhaps find a way to unite their world.

Book Review: The Dragon's Path

The Dragon’s Path
The Dagger and the Coin Book 1

Daniel Abraham
Orbit 2011


“There are two ways to meet the world.  You go out with a blade in your hand or else a purse” (526).

The Dragon’s Path is the beginning of an interesting tale.  Following multiple viewpoints through a world that is preparing for great change, this particular story spent a little bit too much time on introductory elements and only got into the meat of the tale near the end.  The characterizations are very well done – rich, well-rounded and always an energizing mix of likeable and dislikable.  It is hard to get entirely comfortable with any of the characters, which fit the uncertainty and uneasiness of the world they live in. 

There are two main threads of the story, corresponding to the two “ways to meet the world:” one of commerce and the other of war.  Both threads contain characters who are growing into their worlds, coming from the isolation of childhood, education and obscurity into the arena of adulthood, application of learning and recognition.  The first thread of the tale starts with a doomed caravan guarded by an aging hero, Captain Marcus Wester, his lieutenant Yardem and a troupe of actors pretending to be mercenaries.  In the caravan is Cithrin, a young banker’s ward who has been charged with the task of smuggling a vast amount of wealth (in the form of silks, gems, spices and tobacco) from the city Vanai, which on the verge of war.  This particular strand develops the world of the commerce as Cithrin plunges into the risky and intricate world of banking, juggling issues of trust, honesty, legality, opportunity and necessity.  She becomes both betrayer and betrayed; pawn and free agent.

Similarly, the other thread of the tale follows Geder, who like Cithrin, is pulled to and fro by the events of his world, sometimes seeming to direct his own fate, other times fully at the mercy of those around him.  His tale is that of the sword.  He begins as the target of every joke made by his company, which is a part of the forces of King Simeon.  After they take Vanai, he becomes a convenient sacrificial lamb to one side of the political forces struggling to gain the upper hand with the King.  Yet from the moment he is given any sort of power, his choices keep unexpectedly changing his own fortunes, as well as the stakes of the whole conflict.
 

Abraham plays his cards very close to his chest.  Throughout the novel, I found myself uncertain as to where he was going with some of his elements.  It appears that Geder is shaping up to be the villain, but it is possible he will realize the danger of the road he has chosen.  It also appears that the pair of Cithrin and Marcus Wester will be in a position to stand against Geder and the sinister forces he has unknowingly loosed in the world.  However, Abraham kept me guessing through The Dragon’s Path, and I am sure he has some further reversals in the continuing tale.

Book Review: The King of Attolia

The King of Attolia

Megan Whalen Turner
EOS/HarperCollins 2007

It is advisable to read Turner’s series from the beginning, starting with The Thief (1998) and then The Queen of Attolia (2001), as her stories are very closely linked.  All three books are good, though I found The King of Attolia the most engaging as it contained a satisfying character arch and the reward of some of the elements she had built up in the previous stories.  In the first two books the protagonist is Eugenides, and the tale focuses on his adventures.  He is an interesting mix of learning and foolishness, cunning and artlessness, and always a sort of manic energy.  In The King of Attolia, the story is primarily told from the point of view of Costis, a young guard who becomes embroiled with the twisted workings of Eugenides’ schemes.  This view point works very well because having come to know Eugenides from the first two stories, the reader can see into or through some of the situations that have Costis confused, yet there is a freshness in seeing Eugenides through eyes that do not know him yet.

The plot centers on the layered conspiracies and politics in the court of Attolia and the slow unraveling and reveal as multiple players try to twist and turn things in their own way, only to slowly discover that they are all playing against a better player, in the person of their new King, Eugenides.  It is one of those tales that as it is unfolding I was so engrossed in the twists and turns it all seems entirely plausible, yet when I step back from it there is a sense that it is a little too pat, that Eugenides’ cleverness is a little too omniscient.  However, I did enjoy the journey very much and look forward to its continuation in A Conspiracy of Kings (2010), though, as it focuses on a different character, it may only have Eugenides in the background.
 

Book Review: The Name of the Wind

The Name of the Wind

Patrick Rothfuss
Daw (2007)

When I was given The Name of the Wind I felt a little bit daunted by its length.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy long books, but I have tried to read too many (fantasy) books that are massively long without having good enough pacing, plot and simplicity (or complexity) to sustain the page count.  I was very pleasantly surprised with The Name of the Wind.  Rothfuss has created a fascinating, complex world and an interesting and nuanced set of characters with which he deftly spins into a story that is at times humorous, sad, exciting, unexpected and always engrossing.

The book consists of multiple layers of stories – in the present the protagonist Kvothe tells the story of his life to the Chronicler who has come to coax it out of him.  This present is infused with a sense of gathering gloom as demonic creatures are discovered to be reemerging and tales of strange happenings filter down into the little village where Kvothe is tending an inn.  As his history unfolds, the mysterious layers of Kvothe’s life begin to emerge.  He is recognized at the beginning as a myth – a man who has faced the strangest things in the world, who is a magician, actor, musician, begger, storyteller and many more things just hinted at.  Perhaps it is this voyage of discovery that makes the tale so compelling.  Rothfuss carries the reader along in the creation of a legend, showing us at once how the life of this mythic character is far more mundane and yet just as astonishing and magical as the tales that are told of it.

Layered within the story of Kvothe’s life are legends of the world he lives in, and like his life sometimes they hold more truth than they seem, while other times they are illusions built upon an ordinary base.  They are interwoven so skillfully that I never lost track of what story I was in or how they were relevant to each other.

At times Kvothe seemed to know a little too much of everything – and, perhaps, given his dishonest tendencies, maintains the moral high-ground with too little effort.  Additionally, his love interest Denna, was a little too unreachable for me.  She was one of those female characters that fascinate the male character with her distance and elusiveness.  She is the flesh and blood personification of Dulcinea: “she’s made of flame and air,” and as such, she is too easy to idolize and doesn’t provide any counterpoint to Kvothe’s fantasy of her.  She could very well be all in his head, which might make her more compelling than as an intangible free-spirit with hints of tragedy about her.  However, this book is only the first in a trilogy and so there is still a chance for her character to become more fully realized in herself, and not just as a object of desire for Kvothe.

The next book, The Wise Man’s Fear, is coming out at the beginning of March, and Patrick Rothfuss will be in Seattle, at the University Bookstore.  My housemate, M, and I are planning on going to hear him talk.  I am eager to discover the next installment of this compelling story.

Book Review: Sorcery and Cecelia

Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

Patrica C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer

Graphia (September 1, 2004)

    If, as I do, you enjoy both fantasy tales and Jane Austen, this is a lovely little epistolary novel that captures some of both genres.  It follows the adventures of two cousins, one, Kate, who is having her season in London and the other, Cecelia (Cecy) who has remained back in the country.  Somewhat accidentally they become involved in the contretemps of some not so up-and-up magicians and the pair of young men who are the targets of their schemes.  The young men – the Mysterious Marques or Thomas Schofield and James Tarleton – are somewhat dismayed at the cousins’ contributions, but in the end the villains are thwarted with much witty banter along side.

    Don’t look for a serious consideration of what effect magic might have had on the history of England, as there is little exploration of how it works and how it affects society.  It is apparently a subject appropriate for woman to study as well as men, but again there is little discussion of that aspect.  However for a charming romp with two spirited heroines who keep their heads in challenging circumstances, this amusing little tale is quite enjoyable.  More than the plot I appreciated the amusing comments the cousins made to each other:  “I sympathize with your position, but I am very much afraid you have let your justifiable annoyance run off with your sense” (93) says Cecelia to Kate over her “sham” betrothal to the Marques.