July 7, 2008 at 1:52 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
84. Callander Square by Anne Perry (Historical mystery) 256 p.
It’s been so long since I read this that my impressions have mostly faded, but I do remember enjoying it a fair bit. Callander Square is the second in Perry’s Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, which by now runs to over two dozen books. In the first book, The Cater Street Hangman, Charlotte was a middle-class, young living with her parents in Victorian London. By the end of that book, Charlotte has had many of her illusions about her feelings and her world shattered, and has managed to fall in love with the decidedly unsuitable Inspector Pitt. In this next book, Charlotte and Pitt have already been married for some time, which is a shame, since I would have liked to witness Charlotte’s family’s reactions to her marriage, as well as Thomas and Charlotte’s marriage and early days living together. Oh, well–maybe Anne Perry will go back and write that book someday.
In Callander Square, the bodies of two newborns are found buried in the park in the middle of an upscale London square, and it’s Pitt’s job to investigate. It’s quite possible that there has been no foul play, and that they babies were merely stillborn or died soon after birth, and that their mother, likely an unmarried woman, buried them there to avoid disgrace or dismissal. The babies’ mother may be a servant, but there is a possibility that she belongs to one of the wealthy, upper-class families living in the square. Charlotte and her sister Emily become involved, ferreting out gossip to help Pitt in his investigation.
Except for Perry’s usual abrupt ending, I enjoyed this book and found it a satisfying blend of mystery and historical fiction. Anne Perry really does her research into the period, and it shows; none of the characters’ behaviour seems anachronistic, and their thoughts, morals, and preoccupations are decidedly Victorian. It’s an author of rare skill who can write period characters who come to life and are true to their time, and yet are distinct individuals, each with his or her own beliefs and opinions.
There’s no need to read Anne Perry’s novels in order, since although there’s character development throughout the series, the books stand alone perfectly well. This book is a slight exception, since it’s the first of three which all feature prominently a family of recurring characters, the Balantynes, and the later books contain spoilers for the earlier. Callander Square, Death in the Devil’s Acre, and Bedford Square should not be read out of that order.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Pages read: 24,613
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Anne Perry, General Balantyne, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
May 27, 2008 at 2:50 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
81. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov (Science fiction) 224 p.
I was eager to read this sequel to Foundation, but I didn’t expect it to live up that book. And it didn’t.
Foundation and Empire is made up of two short novellas. “The General” takes place some forty-odd years after the end of Foundation. Although the Galactic Empire is dying, the visible decay on its periphery has not yet penetrated to its heart. A young, successful, and loyal general named Bel Riose targets the Foundation for Imperial conquest. It seems that another Seldon crisis is at hand, this time pitting the Foundation against the might of the still-powerful Empire.
Other than my complaint that, once again, Asimov seems to believe that women will never have anything of value to contribute to politics or history, “The General” is a pretty good story, but it lacks the force and excitement of the earlier stories. There’s a very good reason for that, but it made me glad that the story was fairly short (only 82 pages.)
“The Mule” takes place three centuries after the Foundation was first established. Quite some time has passed since “The General”, and the Empire is a dead husk. On the Periphery, a new power has arisen, known to followers and enemies alike only as the Mule.
Although “The Mule” is a much longer and better story than “The General”, it suffers from greater problems, too. From very early on, I found the identity of the Mule pathetically obvious. Even though there’s a partial explanation at the end for why no one figured it out, it’s still annoying. And as before, Asimov’s attitude toward women is profoundly disturbing, such that their presence in this part of the series bothers me as much as their earlier, unjustified absence.
Even with all its drawbacks, Foundation and Empire is well worth reading, an enjoyable return to the world of Foundation. It reveals more about Hari Seldon and the original Foundation project, and takes the plot in an unexpected new direction, setting the stage for the final instalment in the original trilogy, Second Foundation.
Pages read: 23,781
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Foundation, Isaac Asimov, SF Subgenre Challenge
April 29, 2008 at 4:47 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
66. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, or On the Segregation of the Queen by Laurie R. King (Historical mystery) 405 p.
I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defence I must say it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across another person in that particular part of the world in that war year of 1915. (5)
And so begins one of the most magical books I’ve ever encountered. I was eleven or twelve when my mother first put a copy of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice into my hands. Although we both liked mystery novels, we didn’t really share the same taste, so I knew that anything she thought I’d like was sure to be something special.
At the time, I’d never read any Sherlock Holmes pastiches, so my immediate instinct, on encountering him in a story not written by Conan Doyle, was not to run screaming from the room. A lucky chance, because The Beekeeper’s Apprentice is not like any other Holmes story. For a start, it isn’t really about Holmes at all.
The narrator and protagonist is one Mary Russell, a young Jewish-American feminist who, after the death of her family, is placed in the guardianship of her aunt, and goes to live with her on the Sussex Downs. A chance meeting with Holmes leads to a kind of informal apprenticeship when the great detective realizes that here, at last, is someone with an intellect to match his own.
Although ostensibly retired, Holmes is far from abandoning cases altogether. When Mrs. Barker, a neighbour, brings Holmes a problem, Russell gets her first chance to see her mentor in action, and manages a few deductions of her own. The case is classic Holmes, with government secrets and mysterious poisonings.
Russell’s next case is far humbler; as she herself remarks, the theft of “thirty guineas and four hams, even in those days of chronic food shortages, were hardly the stuff of Times headlines” (103). Despite the affair’s relative unimportance, she acquits herself with credit, and it isn’t long before a genuinely noteworthy case comes along. The six-year-old daughter of an American senator is kidnapped for ransom, and although her parents are willing and able (barely) to meet the kidnappers’ demands, what guarantee do they have that she will be returned alive once the ransom is paid?
That case, although critical in itself, is also a turning point for Holmes and Russell’s partnership. It gives both Russell and Holmes and new confidence in Russell’s judgement and abilities—something they desperately need when it is revealed that Holmes has a new and deadly foe.
I’ve re-read this book a dozen times or more, and I’ve always found something new to enjoy about it. It’s one of those few, perfect books to which I would unhesitatingly award a rating of 10/10, or would automatically place at the top of my list of favourites in its genre. Mary Russell’s voice is unique, and Laurie R. King uses her pitch-perfect ear for dialect and vocabulary to make her sound like a WWI-era Oxbridge intellectual. And I know I’m not the only reader who has been completely charmed by the English settings of the book, particularly King’s descriptions of Oxford. She has a real gift for making a place come vividly to life with history and atmosphere.
There’s so much more I could say about this book, but I’ll confine myself to this: I have rarely enjoyed any book as much as this one, there is no mystery novel I like better, and if you haven’t read this yet, you’re missing something special.
I’m going to be re-reading all eight Mary Russell novels this year, in preparation for the release of the ninth, The Language of Bees, in 2009.
Pages read: 18,973
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Decades Challenge 2008, Laurie R. King, Mary Russell
April 24, 2008 at 8:41 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
63. Foundation by Isaac Asimov (Science fiction) 285 p.
This was my first experience with Asimov. Of course I’ve heard plenty of good things about him, like that he was considered to be (along with Clarke and Heinlein) one of the Big Three of science fiction, and the Foundation series is supposed to be his best work, so I had high expectations for this book. Asimov didn’t disappoint me.
Foundation is the first of a trilogy exploring the fall of the Galactic Empire and the period that follows it. Hari Seldon, a brilliant psychohistorian, predicts the inevitable collapse of the 12,000-year-old empire within 300 years, followed by a 30,000-year period of anarchy before the rise of a second Empire heralds return of civilization. In an attempt to shorten this period, he devises a plan: two great Foundations will be established at opposite ends of the galaxy, on the distant planets of Terminus and Star’s End. There, scientists and scholars will preserve humanity’s knowledge throughout the coming dark age, shortening it to a mere 1,000 years.
The book is actually a collection of five short stories, four of which were originally published in Astounding Magazine. It opens with The Psychohistorians, in which were are introduced to Hari Seldon and his plan. The Encyclopedists takes place 50 years later, in the now-established community on Terminus, which faces its first outside threat, from the newly-independent kingdom of Anacreon.
Thirty years later, The Mayors sees renewed aggression from Anacreon, but this time a political solution won’t be enough to save the Foundation from invasion. The Traders shows the rise of a class of interplanetary traders, one of whom attempts to expand the Foundation’s influence through a few shady deals. The last story, The Merchant Princes, sees the shift from religious to economic power as the basis of the Foundation’s dominance in its sector of the galaxy.
Foundation is a very political book; not surprising, since it was inspired by Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It was a quick and absorbing read, and I am dying to read the rest of the series. I have only one serious complaint about the book: it contains no women.
Of course, classic sci-fi is probably the most misogynistic literary genre of the 20th century, and a dearth of women was pretty much to be expected from a political SF novel published in 1951, but I was still surprised. In the first four stories, not one single female character appears, in any capacity, nor is one even mentioned. In fact, the very existence of women is only referred to, offhand, in one story. In the fifth story, there are two female characters: a servant appears in one scene, although she never speaks and isn’t mentioned by name, and there are a couple of scenes where the arrogant, nagging, caustic wife of a planetary ruler browbeats and insults her husband. The lack of female characters is so marked that it actually threw me out of the story more than once. I don’t want to argue about whether this exclusion is justified or not, given the genre and time period in which the book was written, but merely to point out that the book is the poorer for it.
Asimov’s writing is so good in every other way that it didn’t impede my enjoyment of the book, or make me the slightest bit reluctant to continue the series.
Pages read: 18,156
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Foundation, Isaac Asimov, Sci-Fi Classics Challenge
April 22, 2008 at 4:44 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
62. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (Science fiction) 592 p.
I didn’t love Xenocide quite as much as Ender’s Game or Speaker for the Dead. Not to say that it wasn’t a complex, exciting, wonderful, challenging book, because it was all of those things. Unfortunately, I didn’t like several of the things that happened. They weren’t wrong for the story, but they annoyed me, as did many of the characters, even as they also engrossed me. I still stayed up late because I couldn’t put the book down, though. In quality, Xenocide is every bit as good as its two prequels, but for personal reasons, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much.
This book is a close sequel to Speaker for the Dead, and takes up pretty much where that book left off. Valentine, her husband Jakt, and their family are halfway to Lusitania, about to meet up with young Miro Ribeira. By the time they arrive, 22 years have passed, and the Lusitania fleet, sent by Stairways Congress to take control of, and probably destroy, Lusitania Colony, is less than a year away. Tensions rise between the sentients species on Lusitania, and some kind of xenocide seems nearly inevitable, although who will be the victims and who the perpetrators is somewhat less clear.
Meanwhile, on the far-distant colony world of Path, a 16-year-old girl named Qing-jao (”Gloriously Bright”) makes a decision that may seal the fate of more than one species.
Orson Scott Card is at his brilliant best in the world-building he does in Xenocide. Path is a simply fascinating place, one of the most original future societies I’ve ever read about. As usual, OSC is a master at combining small-scale human concerns with sweeping moral investigations and implausible but gripping scientific speculation.
(I went looking to find out which novel beat out Xenocide for the 1992 Hugo, since both Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead won the award in previous years. Turns out it was Lois McMaster Bujold’s Barrayar. Bujold is one of my favourite SF authors, and I even love Barrayar, which a lot of fans don’t, but better than Xenocide? Come on.)
ETA: If you pick this up, you’re better off not reading the blurb or the author’s note, since both of them give away plot details that would be more fun to find out in the course of the book.
Pages read: 17,871
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Cardathon Challenge, Chunkster Challenge 2008, Ender quartet, Enderverse, Orson Scott Card
April 18, 2008 at 1:58 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Young Adult Literature
60. Heart’s Blood by Jane Yolen (Young adult fantasy) 338 p.
You know how I said that the prequel, Dragon’s Blood, had a plot that was a bit too straightforward for a young adult novel, and that the conflicts were resolved too easily? Well, not so in Heart’s Blood. If anything, any faults lie in the opposite direction, with a plot I found a little difficult to follow, because it introduced new antagonists without explaining them very well. To a certain extent, that was okay, because the protagonist doesn’t really know anything about them either, so the viewpoint character, at least, is as confused as the reader. The story could still have benefited from more fleshing-out, though.
Still a fun read, though somewhat more traumatic an experience than the first book. Jakkin, now a master and dragon trainer, hasn’t seen Akki for a year, and doesn’t even know where she is. He’s tried his best not to think of her, but that plan is shattered when he and Akki’s father are approached by a senator, Golden, who informs them that Akki is in danger and Jakkin may be the only one who can help. In order to save her, Jakkin will have to infiltrate a rebel group. Although he cares nothing for politics, Jakkin would do anything for Akki, so he soon finds himself embroiled in various intrigues.
Like I said, this was a decent read, but unless the third book is much better, I don’t think this will ever be one of my favourite series. I still loved the bits about the dragons, though. I also liked the subtle changes to the prologue from one book to the next. Dragon’s Blood begins with an excerpt from vol. 1 of the twenty-ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Galaxiana (AAAL - BASE), the article on Austar IV (the world where the story takes place), and at first I thought that Heart’s Blood began exactly the same way. Some was the same, but some of the facts given were new, and the excerpt turned out to be from vol. 1 of the thirtieth edition (Aaabornia - BASE). I thought that was a very nice touch, and an interesting hint of some of the events later in the novel.
The Pit Dragon Chronicles are entertaining enough, but not as good as they could be, given the quality of Yolen’s writing and world-building.
Pages read: 16,897
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Jane Yolen, Pit Dragon Chronicles
April 17, 2008 at 9:19 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Young Adult Literature
59. Dragon’s Blood by Jane Yolen (Young adult fantasy) 292 p.
On Austar IV, a former prison planet, where humans breed and train dragons for the fighting pits, a 15-year-old bond servant named Jakkin is determined to be a dragon trainer himself one day. The only way to earn enough gold to buy out his bond and become a trainer is to steal a dragon hatchling and train it to fight in the pits.
This was a really fast read, even taking into account that it’s less than 300 pages long. That’s not a bad thing, since the smooth, easy prose and fast-paced plot are two of the reasons I got through it so quickly, but it could definitely have been made longer with a bit more detail or character development, or a slightly more complex plot. The story was a bit too straightforward for a young adult novel, and the main conflicts were resolved too easily. Those things made the story seem like one intended for a younger audience, though they didn’t diminish my enjoyment.
I loved Jannik’s dragon: watching it grow up, learn, bond with him. And Jannik was a good character, but I like his love interest, Akki, even better. She’s more mature and experienced than Jannik, which is very believable for a 15-year-old girl. And thank goodness, Yolen lets her be independent and stubborn without saying so explicitly, or calling her tough or wild or spunky. (Can you tell I gave up on a bad romance novel right before I started reading this?)
This wasn’t my favourite book ever, but I’m glad I read it, and I look forward to enjoying the rest of the trilogy.
Pages read: 16,559
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Jane Yolen, Pit Dragon Chronicles
April 16, 2008 at 11:22 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Young Adult Literature
56. Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (Young adult historical fantasy) 320 p.
I swear I only went book shopping to look for Xenocide, for the second time this week, but I came home with this and its sequel instead. (In fact, I made a third shopping trip today; still no Xenocide, but five other books, quite cheap.) I’ve always liked Wrede’s Dragons series, and I’d heard many good things about this series, and there were remaindered hardcover copies of The Grand Tour going cheap.
Sorcery & Cecelia is an epistolary novel with a twist: all the letters in the book were actually sent by the authors, to each other, and they didn’t set out to write a novel. They were just playing the Letter Game: two people (they don’t have to be writers) carry on an in-character correspondence. They chose to be two cousins, best friends Kate and Cecelia, living in England in 1817. An England just like the one in our world, except that magic exists, and witches and wizards abound. Early in her Season, Kate is nearly poisoned by a witch who mistakes her for the Mysterious Marquis. Meanwhile, Cecelia finds herself spied on by an elegantly-dressed young man, and her new friend Dorothea begins to have a rather startling effect on the gentlemen of the neighbourhood.
This is a really excellent young adult novel. The writing is quick and clear, and the characters are delightful. The book has a real sense of humour, with delicious absurdities in every letter. The tone, too, is wonderful—the book is dedicated to Austen, Heyer, Tolkien, and Kushner, and their influence (or at least the women’s) definitely shows in this comedy of manners. There’s something so delightfully gothic about the “Mysterious Marquis”, and the same atmosphere pervades the book. Not many modern authors choose to create that kind of atmosphere; the only one I can think of, funnily enough, is Lemony Snicket.
Anyway, if you like Austen, Heyer, or Kushner, as well as young adult novels, you’ll probably enjoy this. Not because it’s a rip-off of those authors, but because it has a similar sensibility. The plot and the characters, however, are all the authors’ own. And the characters, especially, are people I enjoy spending time with. Cecy and Kate are fabulous; intelligent and independent young women, but still believable as Regency ladies. Altogether a very satisfying read!
Pages read: 15,456
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Caroline Stevermer, Fantasy Classics Challenge, Kate and Cecelia, Once Upon a Time II, Patricia C. Wrede
April 15, 2008 at 2:01 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Young Adult Literature
55. Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale by Holly Black (Fantasy) 323 p.
I was going to wait for this to come out in trade paperback to buy it, but I was out looking for Orson Scott Card’s Xenocide last night, and stumbled across a used hardcover copy. It reeks of incense, not surprising if you know Seeker’s Books, the store where I found it, but it didn’t bother me once I got used to it. Better incense fumes than cigarette smoke.
Anyway. Ironside is the direct sequel to Tithe, but also stars one of the characters from Valiant. If you plan to read the series, you probably shouldn’t read this review, because it will inevitably contain spoilers for those first two books. Okay? Okay!
As usual, I found myself a little dragged down by the darkness of the atmosphere at the beginning. And just like the first two books, the story soon drew me in and made me forget why I’d ever been bothered by it. In this book, Kaye is still living with her grandmother in New Jersey, although her mother has an apartment in New York. At Roiben’s coronation, Kaye is goaded into making a declaration of her feelings for him, and is rewarded with an impossible quest: find a faery who can tell and untruth. Until she fulfils the quest, she cannot see Roiben again.
Meanwhile, Queen Silarial of the Bright Court is determined to gain control of the Unseelie throne, but is hampered Roiben’s hatred of her. Kaye and Cornelius do their best to help him, but they each have problems of their own to deal with.
I actually liked this the best of the series so far, although I can’t put my finger on the exact reason. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting more used to Black’s depiction of the faerie courts, so I feel like I have a better grasp of what’s going on. Or maybe the story she’s telling in Ironside just appeals to me more. I loved the shout-out to Emma Bull early in the novel, since the series clearly owes a great deal to War for the Oaks, even though there’s a lot that makes it unique. And as always, Black does a fantastic job of making faeries alien and strange in believable ways.
I really hope Holly Black will write more about these characters, although I’ve heard this will likely be the last book.
Pages read: 15,136
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Holly Black, Modern Faerie Tale, Once Upon a Time II
April 13, 2008 at 8:18 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
52. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (Science Fiction) 382 p.
I don’t know what to say about this book, because it’s so good, so wonderful, so human, in ways I don’t know how to articulate. But I’ll try.
Speaker for the Dead begins about 3,000 years after the end of Ender’s Game. It takes place on the small colony world of Lusitania, whose only human inhabitants are a small village of Brazilian-Portuguese Catholics. However, Lusitania is also home to the first sentient alien species humanity has encountered in the Bugger Wars three millenia earlier. Due to the time dilation effect of faster-than-light travel, Andrew Wiggin is still only 35 years old. When the call goes out for a speaker for the dead, he can’t resist travelling to Lusitania.
That’s a really inadequate summary, and it only touches on the plot, which, although excellent, isn’t at the core of the book. It’s the people and ideas that make Speaker for the Dead so special, that set it apart from other science fiction. OSC manages to explore some really compelling xenology and xenobiology (i.e. alien anthropology and biology), without sacrificing character development. Not all the people in Speaker for the Dead are human, but they are all interesting and complex and very, very real, because Card never takes the easy way out.
A good example of this is Bishop Pelegrino, the religious leader of the community. At first, he seems like the reactionary, righteous, slightly stupid Catholic priest recognizable from many other books, but Card is a better writer than to stop there. Although he does have these traits to some degree, they are far outweighed by his ability to be flexible, by his caring for his community, and by his compassion.
I love the world Card creates on Lusitania, because it’s just so interesting. The Piggies, of course, and the mystery of their society, but especially the human community of Milagre. I look forward to seeing more of both in the third book in the series, Xenocide. When I started this book, I didn’t think any sequel could come close to being as good as Ender’s Game, but I was wrong. As amazing as that book was, Speaker for the Dead somehow manages to live up to it. I can now number Orson Scott Card among my very favourite writers.
Pages read: 14,286
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Cardathon Challenge, Ender quartet, Enderverse, Eponymous Challenge, Orson Scott Card, Sci-Fi Classics Challenge
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