May 24, 2007 at 7:48 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Canadian Literature, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
44. Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay (Fantasy)
I adore Guy Gavriel Kay; I really do. Ten novels so far, and the lowest rating I’ve ever given him is 4/5 (for The Summer Tree,) because the man just writes so well. I know I’ve said this before, but one of the best things about Kay is how obviously he cares about his characters, all of them, even the villains. Not only enough to make them real people with real problems and emotions, but enough not to make bad things happen to them just for the sake of advancing the plot.
Fifteen-year-old Ned Marriner is spending two months in Provence with his father, famous photographer Edward Marriner, while he works on his latest book. He’d be having a great vacation, missing two months of school and excused from his exams, except that his mother, a doctor, is working with Doctors without Borders in Darfur. In the cathedral of Aix-en-Provence he and his new American friend, Kate Wenger, meet a strange man in a leather jacket—a man who is a part of a very old story. As the past begins to bleed through to the present, Ned finds himself unwittingly drawn into that story.
I thoroughly enjoyed Ysabel. Not as much as The Lions of Al-Rassan or A Song for Arbonne, but certainly as much as The Last Light of the Sun. In fact, like the latter, it seemed somewhat simpler than Kay’s earlier work, possibly because both are told primarily from the perspective of adolescent protagonists. Which is not to say that teenagers lead less complex lives than adults in Kay’s books, but that they themselves are less likely to see the world that way. I think that it’s this telling of the story from their point of view that results in a less nuanced narrative than in Kay’s more masterful works.
Still, what’s less complex from Guy Gavriel Kay is just this side of awesome from anyone else.
Books read: 44/100
Pages read: 12, 450/25,000
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Guy Gavriel Kay
January 4, 2007 at 5:45 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Favourite Books, Fiction and Literature, Mystery and Suspense, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
So, I had a pretty good Christmas. I got to see many of my aunts, uncles, and cousins for New Year’s, and I got great gifts from my family (and gave some pretty good ones myself, I think.)
My aunts and I watched Million Dollar Baby on New Year’s Eve, and I absolutely loved it. I didn’t think I would, because boxing is ahead of only wrestling in the list of sports I find too awful to watch. Some of the scenes were too violent for me, but there weren’t many of them, and the rest of the movie more than made it worthwhile. Hilary Swank really deserved that Oscar, as did Morgan Freeman, who is one of my favourite actors. Clint Eastwood was also fabulous.
I’ve also read a surprising number of books lately, some of them very good. The past few years, I haven’t had as much time for personal reading as I used to, and when I have read purely for pleasure, it’s generally been very undemanding genre fiction, by authors I already know and enjoy. Not that those books have all been of low quality, but they haven’t been earth-shattering, for the most part.
So here’s what I’ve been reading (without spoilers, for the most part):
Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
Despite a few problems I had with the story, this novel had the most important thing I look for in my recreational reading: pure readability. I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it, and I was never bored or tempted to put it down. I have to admit that my choice of reading is generally escapist; I’m more interested in the quality of the journey than with the destination. It’s nice if a novel can teach me something, about the world or about myself, but first and foremost, it has to entertain me. Probably why I like fanfic so much.
I’ve come to realize that I love stories about other cultures. The descriptions of early 20th century Japan were probably the biggest reason I loved this book. I’ve heard that the movie isn’t very good, but I’d be interested to see it anyway. At least the costumes and sets are probably good enough to be worth paying $5 to rent it.
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Amir grows up in Kabul, Afghanistan, and for most of his childhood his friend and personal servant is a boy his own age, Hassan. Amir watched Hassan being raped and does nothing to stop it, and his guilt and shame over his cowardice and his failure to help his friend leads him to drive Hassan away. It isn’t until many years later that he gets the chance to atone for his actions.
Okay, this is definitely the best book I’ve read lately. No wonder it’s a best-seller. The narrator, Amir, is entirely believable, and a convincingly flawed human being, while still be sympathetic and likable. Again, the portrait of Afghanistan is fascinating, although not as much as the relationship between Amir and Hassan. I was surprised at some of the turns in the plot, although once they happened it was easy to see that the evidence was there all along.
And boy, did those kites sound like tremendous fun.
Guy Gavriel Kay, The Fionavar Tapestry
GGK is pretty much my favourite fantasy writer, perhaps because he mostly writes historical fantasies which are more history than fantasy. I started The Summer Tree twice, and gave up both times within about 50 pages. The same thing happened with The Lord of the Rings; it took seeing The Fellowship of the Ring in the theatre, and being desperate to know what happened next, that made me finally read the trilogy. High fantasy just isn’t my thing, I guess, but it was very disappointing to find that GGK might have written books I didn’t like.
You can imagine how excited I was when I picked up The Summer Tree in late December and found myself caught up in it, so much so that I stayed up all night to read The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road as well. I still don’t think they’re nearly as good as his other books. You can definitely see how his writing has improved over the years, as well as how he’s moved farther and farther away from fantasy. Tigana still has a very high-fantasy feel to it, in A Song for Arbonne the feeling is noticeably less but still present, and it is pretty much lost by the time you get to The Lions of Al-Rassan and Sailing to Sarantium/Lord of Emperors. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his later novels are my favourites (with the exception of The Last Light of the Sun, but that has more to do with its being more simplistic than his other novels, with almost a YA feel to it, which may stem from many of the main POV characters being teenagers.)
Slightly stupid side note, but it was nice to read a book (partly) set in Toronto, and right at U of T, too. It’s somewhat surprising how much of a difference it makes when some of the action takes place in places you actually know. Yay for GGK being a fellow Torontonian!
George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (abandoned unfinished)
I read this because I read so many raves of GRRM’s work that compared it to GRK’s; a lot of the latter’s fans seem to love GRRM’s A Song of Fire and Ice series. Having now read about half of A Game of Thrones, and abandoned it, almost certainly for good, I can see why people make the comparison, although I think their work is similar only on a very superficial level. Essentially, A Game of Thrones is an epic political drama. Like GRK’s books, it has a large ensemble cast, with a number of POV characters. Unlike Kay, Martin seems to make his characters subservient to his political intrigue, which takes away any interest I might have felt in the plot. I find Martin’s characters mostly either so unlikeable, stupid, or boring that I couldn’t care less what happens to them, or so likely to die that I don’t want to get attached to them. There are a few exceptions, Daenerys Targaryen in particular, but there’s not enough focus on them to make slogging through the rest worthwhile. I agreed with a lot of the things Russ Allbery says in his review, although my opinion of the book is much worse than his.
In fact, I found that I disliked A Game of Thrones for much the same reason I dislike soap operas: too many unpleasant people, and a neverending story that bores me to tears. It’s a shame, because Guy Gavriel Kay is one of the few authors I know who’s never had even a mediocre book, much less a bad one, and it would be nice to find an author to match him. Sadly, George R.R. Martin is obviously not going to be that author for me.
I am confirmed in my opinion that no one handles a large ensemble cast and shifting POV with the mastery that Guy Gavriel Kay so consistently displays.
Andrew Greeley, The Priestly Sins
Like pretty much all of Greeley’s books, I found this readable without being particularly memorable. The most significant thing about it is that Greeley himself is a priest, which makes the portrayal of Catholic church hierarchy interesting, to say the least. Although all it takes is five minutes listening to the Pope to realize that the Catholic church, in its higher echelons, can be wildly disconnected from the experiences of ordinary North Americans…
Laurie R. King, The Art of Detection
The new Kate Martinelli novel, and definitely my favourite so far in this series about a lesbian police detective in San Francisco. The parallels to Locked Rooms were many, the Sherlock Holmes theme was a delight, and I found the story-within-a-story just as compelling as the characters did, which made the whole novel just that much better. Pure entertainment for mystery fans, and despite my interest in the recent event in San Francisco, I really didn’t see the ending coming. My only complaint is that there could have been more about Kate and Lee’s relationship, and I definitely felt a lack of interaction between Kate and Al - it felt like Kate was practically flying solo on this one. The mentions of Jon and Sione’s relationship were a nice touch, one I was looking forward to and which I would have been disappointed to miss.
Mary Renault, The Friendly Young Ladies
Extremely disappointing. I really like The Charioteer, despite the fact that I generally avoid reading any of the scenes with Andrew in them because I dislike him so much. This book definitely didn’t match up. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and there was only one scene that even vaguely had the brilliant touch that makes the party scene in The Charioteer so amazing (I’m thinking of the conversation between the older sister and the doctor, which is pretty funny, but which certainly can’t carry the whole book.) Also, not having lived through the period Renault wrote about, or anything like it, I often find her ideas about homosexuality impenetrable, more so in this book than in The Charioteer.
Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky
Not as good as the main Discworld novels, which isn’t surprising, since the Tiffany books are more oriented toward children. I also didn’t find it as good as its prequel, The Wee Free Men, but it wasn’t a disappointment. Worth reading if you like the Discworld series, and definitely not the place to start if you’ve never read them.
Terry Pratchett, Mort
Wasn’t very impressed. Mildly entertaining, but does nothing to change my opinion that the City Watch books (including The Truth and Going Postal, which sort of are but not really, and Small Gods, which isn’t at all) are Pratchett’s only truly brilliant Discworld novels. Oh, for more of Vimes, Vetinari, or Moist von Lipwig! Although I do admit that Granny Weatherax and Nanny Ogg have their charms, as well…
Edeet Ravel, Ten Thousand Lovers
A somewhat pointless story, entertainingly and informatively told. The background about Israel and Hebrew is fascinating; the main characters and the plot, not so much. Basically a girl-meets-boy story; the fact that the boy interrogates suspected Palestinian terrorists for a living (in a state where interrogation often equals torture) turns out not to be very important to the plot, which ends up being about nothing very much. Despite how that makes it sound, this isn’t at all a pro-Israel novel, nor is it anti-Palestinian. Like I said, interesting for its view of Israeli society, and for its linguistic analysis of Hebrew vocabulary, but deficient as a whole. Still, worth reading if you have a few spare hours.
Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife vol. 1: Beguilement
The first volume of a duology, and so much inferior to her other books, even The Hallowed Hunt, which was itself a disappointment. The world-building didn’t interest me much, and the climax of the action came less than 60 pages into the 355-page novel. The rest is a fairly mediocre romance, and the couple dealing with objections from her family. The second volume promises to deal with…objections from his family. I’m curious enough (and enough of an LMB fan) to read the second book, but not enough to look forward to it. This story was apparently split in two by the publisher for economic, rather than literary, reasons, and I think it was highly unnecessary.
So, yeah. Not so much boring as unexciting, and pretty pointless.
Laurell K. Hamilton, Mistral’s Kiss
LKH, why do you keep writing this pointless, stupid crap? And more importantly, why do I keep reading it?
I really, really need to just never read any of her books again. But I know I will, because I can’t kill the faint hope that one day she’ll regain some remnant of the talent she once had.
On a less book-related note, my dad, who is a contractor and woodworker, just brought my roommate and I an elliptical machine that ones of his clients was getting rid of. It’s fairly small and light, and so much easier than going to the gym. It looks like I’m going to have to make some New Year’s Resolutions.
Currently reading: Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran; Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace. Neither is doing much for me so far, unfortunately.
Tags: Andrew Greeley, Arthur Golden, Discworld, Edeet Ravel, George R.R. Martin, Guy Gavriel Kay, Kate Martinelli, Khaled Hosseini, Laurell K. Hamilton, Laurie R. King, Lois McMaster Bujold, Mary Renault, Merry Gentry, Terry Pratchett, Tiffany Aching, Wide Green World
April 16, 2006 at 11:47 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
Just after Christmas, I read Lois McMaster Bujold’s Paladin of Souls. I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as her Miles Vorkosigan books. When I found the next in the series, The Hallowed Hunt, at my favourite discount bookstore, I did buy it, even though I didn’t think I would like it any better than its prequel, and I was proved right.
Earlier this week, I found the first book in the series, The Curse of Chalion (in hardcover), for $4 in a used bookstore. Since I already had the next two in hardcover, and it was so cheap, I bought it. I am so glad I did. CoC is so much better than either of its sequels. It had an exciting and interesting plot with that special LMB spark to it, just like the Vorkosigan novels. Why couldn’t PoS and HH be as good?
Meanwhile, I also found copies of some Guy Gavriel Kay books I’ve been looking for: Tigana and The Last Light of the Sun. I’d already read, and loved, Sailing to Sarantium, Lord of Emperors, and A Song for Arbonne, so I was eager to read more of his work. I read Tigana in a single day, and loved it. I kind of want to save LLotS until I can find a copy of The Lions of Al-Rassan, which is the only one of GGK’s historical fantasies that I don’t own, but I’m not having any luck with it. Still, I feel like I should savour the last two of his books, because who knows how long it will be until he publishes a new one?
Sometimes I wonder why I like GGK’s historical fantasies so much (besides the entertaining plot and great writing, that is.) They’re inevitably bittersweet and somewhat angsty, which I don’t always enjoy. I tend to avoid stories that might make me cry, or that include character death or tragedy of some kind, especially if there’s no happy ending. Books, fanfic, even movies - for me, it’s all about escapism. GGK’s books tend to affect me emotionally in a way that a lot of stuff that I read doesn’t.
Tags: Chalion, Guy Gavriel Kay, Lois McMaster Bujold
November 14, 2005 at 1:31 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay (Historical Fantasy)
To be counted as a truly great sequel, a book must not only meet but also exceed the expectations raised by its prequel. Lord of Emperors does this incredibly well. The pace is more intense than the in Sailing to Sarantium, and the events have wider-ranging consequences.
I truly loved Lord of Emperors; it’s one of those books that I know I’ll read over and over again.
[spoilers]
I was devastated by Lord of Emperors, albeit briefly. I really didn’t foresee anything that happened. The death of Valerius was upsetting, but not nearly so much as the destruction of the Crispin’s mosaic. It’s rare for me to identify much with book characters, but I cried about the mosaic. I was furious with Leontes; I wanted to hit him in his stupid, smug, self-righteous face. I knew exactly how Crispin must have felt. Such is Guy Gavriel Kay’s talent.
Like Crispin, I had forgotten Gisel; I was upset at Styliane’s triumph and worried about Alixana, and I overlooked her, just as everyone else did. Although I felt for Crispin, and even for Styliane, I couldn’t really regret her death. The end of Lord of Emperors was very satisfying. I badly wanted Alixana to survive, but I hadn’t really expected her to. Her reunion with Crispin was an unforeseen pleasure.
[/spoilers]
Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors are definitely on my top ten list.
Tags: Guy Gavriel Kay
November 14, 2005 at 1:31 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay (Historical Fantasy)
It’s been a long time since I read a book that I enjoyed quite so much. I was surprised at how much I liked it, but maybe I shouldn’t have been. After all, it is historical fantasy, combining two genres that I tend to enjoy very much.
Guy Gavriel Kay does amazing things with words; he really does. I was crying along with one of the characters during the prologue. Not that the book (or its sequel, Lord of Emperors) was particularly sad, but when the characters were upset, I was, too.
Kay also manages his huge cast of characters very well. A lot of authors make the mistake of using a large cast and a number of converging plot lines as a way of creating false suspense. Anyone who’s read anything by Mary Higgins Clark will know what I mean: there are six or eight characters whose stories are being told, and as soon as one approaches a climax, the author switches perspectives, leaving the reader with an annoying cliffhanger. Kay doesn’t do that. Rather than having competing plots, he uses each scene to build up a true picture of the main events of the novel, giving his story richness and depth. Rather like a mosaic, actually.
[spoilers]
The book is set in Sarantium, Kay’s fantasy/historical version of sixth century Byzantium. The protagonist, Caius Crispus, is a Rhodian (read: Roman) mosaicist whose wife and children have died in a plague. Much of the book tells of his journey from his home in Batiara to Sarantium; though he does not, as one might expect from the title, travel by water.
Instead, since it is too late in the year to travel by sea, he begins to walk to Sarantium, on a path that will take him through the sinister forests of Sauradia, in the company of a magic bird.
[/spoilers]
When I first bought Sailing to Sarantium, I decided not to read it until I could find the sequel in a matching edition. After I read it, I was glad that I already had Lord of Emperors. The thing I liked most about books was how easily I fell into the world they created; I was so absorbed that I finished both books in one afternoon. I just couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.
Tags: Guy Gavriel Kay
September 18, 2005 at 10:29 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
Curling up with a good book (or ten) when you’re sick, that is. On Wednesday I had a sore throat, marking the onset of my annual fall illness. Not for me winter flu, or spring and summer allergies. Friday was particularly miserable, shivering in the rain and on still-air-conditioned public transit, with a headache from the congestion in my head. Luckily, my cold has mostly passed. All that remains is a runny nose, lingering congestion that makes is difficult to breathe at night, and a bad cough which, if it follows my yearly precedent, will stay with me until Christmas.
I can only be glad that I don’t get sick more often than once a year. The stress of a bad cold on top of the usual scramble of the first week of classes is bad enough; being ill during exams would knock me flat. Luckily, I have plenty of great authors to help me while away a lazy Sunday.
I just finished reading Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sailing to Sarantium and its sequel, Lord of Emperors. They were very good. And incredibly…sad. I spent practically the whole second book in tears. Feeling sick and miserable might have something to do with that, but still. I’m definitely going to have to check out his other books.
Speaking of new favourite authors, I finally got around to reading some Lois McMaster Bujold. I enjoyed her first two books (Barrayar and Shards of Honor) so much that I’ve been reading everything else of hers that I can get my hands on.
The Miles Vorkosigan series is my favourite, but so far everything she’s written has been excellent. Ethan of Athos was a particularly pleasant surprise. From reading the summary on the back cover, I was rather expecting a relationship between Ethan and Elli Quinn. I was delighted to be proved wrong.
I finally finished Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which I started reading nine years ago. By the time the third book, The Amber Spyglass came out, I had forgotten what happened in the two previous books and knew that I’d have to start again at the beginning. I’m glad I did, although I didn’t love the third book as much as I’d been expecting.
To tell the truth, I think Will and Lyra’s relationship disappointed me. I was hoping they would get together, but when they did, it just wasn’t…right, in some way I can’t define. I was pleased by the two angels being lovers. Very surprising, that. Or at least, I was surprised now. At age twelve, the nature of their relationship would no doubt have passed completely over my head.
I’m enjoying all my courses, so far. I haven’t had much reading yet, though, so…we’ll see.
Tags: Guy Gavriel Kay, His Dark Materials, Lois McMaster Bujold, Philip Pullman, Vorkosigan Saga
