Yzabel, Author at The Y Logs

Yzabel / September 9, 2015

Review: The Secrets of Blood and Bone

The Secrets of Blood and Bone by Rebecca Alexander

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Venice, 16th Century.
Having undertaken a mission of the upmost discretion, occultist and scholar Edward Kelley finds the answers he seeks are more perilous than can be believed, and his ultimate salvation means confronting the darkest deeds of his past.

England, 21st Century.
Running from her past and hiding from her future, Jackdaw Hammond buys a new home in the middle of nowhere. But her fresh start is threatened by a wild magic similar to her own. The legacy of Edward Kelley remains, and with their fates inexorably entwined, the battle for Jackdaw’s soul has just begun.

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

I had quite liked the first book in this series, but I didn’t enjoy this one as much. Perhaps because the pacing felt too slow, and the book to long for what it had to say? Either it would have worked better as a shorter read, or it would have deserved to be expanded on, developed more.

The format pretty much follows the same one as in the first book, interspersing the contemporary plot with one involving Edward Kelley again — this time in Venice, where he’s looking for information for the Dannick family, not realising he’s about to stumble upon another, dangerous family, as well as meet old acquaintances of the not-so-pleasant kind. The Dannicks in turn play a part in Jack’s and Sadie’s lives, too, as the two girls set into the cottage of a dead witch and gradually discover what really happened there.

There are very interesting ideas and questions raised here, all the more after reading The Secrets of Life and Death. Jack’s and Sadie’s fates as “borrowed timers” obviously tie into the whole matter of having to feed on blood to survive, and what it involves and implies: would Jack become a monster by doing so? Would she suffer side effects? Can she, Maggie and Felix afford to let Sadie try this too, even though her health is failing and she’s not likely to last as long as Jack has, even with the circles and potion?

However, while those points are indeed raised, not many answers are brought, and there’s only slight progress towards the end to explain what may be happening. Sure, this sets the backdrop for a third novel, but considering that not much happens in this one, all things considered, I think such developments could very well have occurred here instead. Not necessarily through Jack herself: more about Felix’s research, the people he met (Gina, Ivanova…), would have been nice as well.

The same is worth regarding Sadie. There’s something going on with her and the garden at the new cottage, and it was brushed upon rather than given the weight it deserved. It felt like Sadie was mostly meant to be the Damsel in Distress again, and this made her potential role and importance… somewhat less potent.

As for the two families, the one in Venice and the one in England, I didn’t find them so convincing as antagonists, and I think this is due to how little we actually see them “in action as villains”. There’s more telling than showing when it comes to the Dannicks — the other one seemed a little more convincing… although the bit about them at the end left me wondering how such a change came to be. Details were needed here as well in my opinion, after what the Kelley chapters allowed me to see.

Conclusion: a novel with interesting elements, but too shy in exploiting them.

Yzabel / September 8, 2015

Review: Write Your Novel

Write Your Novel! From Getting Started to First Draft by Maggie James

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

Have you always longed to write a novel? In Write Your Novel! From Getting Started to First Draft, I aim to inspire you with the confidence to do just that. With this book, I’ll be your cheerleader, your hand-holder. We’ll work on your mind-set, find sources of support, and deal with procrastination issues. I’ll help you carve out the time to write and together we’ll smash through the excuses that are holding you back.

What else? Do you need help in finding ideas? Worried where to start? Unsure whether writing software is right for you? Confused how to plan your novel? No problem! We cover all these issues and more. Every section ends with an action plan so you’re raring to go!

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.]

3.5 stars. Short and to the point, although on a basic level: in other words, this will likely be a useful and motivating read if you are quite new to writing and/or looking for motivation, but will not bring anything new to someone who’s already studied several books about writing in general.

I think the author liked putting up this guide together, and you can feel it, as she puts the finger on exactly what one should take into account when writing a novel. Battling procrastination, finding a writing software (links are provided), not letting anyone kill your desire to write, how to start looking for ideas, the “hero’s journey”, planning or not planning, writing environment, self-publishing, advice about adverbs and active/passive voice, etc… A lot of aspects are covered, along with examples from the author’s own stories, thus allowing to actually see how her thought processes went and how she got from her initial ideas to the finished novels.

(Side note: the author mentions the Scrivener sofwatre, as well as NaNoWriMo, a yearly “event” that has personally motivated me a lot in years past. For anyone who’d like to take part in November, “winning” (completing 50k words) entitles you to a 50% discount to buy Scrivener. It’s a great software, and the discount makes it dirt cheap.)

As said above, while it’s probably nothing new to someone with experience in that regard, this book’s main interesting feature, in my opinion, is that it covers a lot of essential things to keep in mind. Someone with very little knowledge can easily start from any chapter, motivate themselves, then expand and look for more resources later, using this basis to delve deeper—either using the links provided by the author, or researching on other websites and in other books. As for more experienced writers, since it’s a short read, it can still be useful if you’re finding yourself into a writing slump and are looking for a nice reminder about how to get back to work.

A more developed version would definitely be a good addition. As it is now, I’d say 3*stars for me, but 4* for someone who hasn’t started writing yet and needs to find a good place to start.

Yzabel / September 3, 2015

Review: Armada

Armada by Ernest Cline

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.

But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.

And then he sees the flying saucer.

Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.

No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.

It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley and Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

I loved Ready Player One by the same author, and I was rather worried about this one: reviews were extremely mixed, and I kept wondering whether I’d like it or not. In the end, while I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did RPO, I still managed to like it. Which doesn’t mean it’s not without faults. Basically, for me, this was all a constant game of “good!” and “but…!”.

Armada plays with a lot of tropes, from beginning to end. The video games-addicted kid living in the memory of a father he never knew, and who suddenly finds himself an ace in a top-secret military organisation where his gamer skills are of the utmost importance. Games used as training (more about this later). The hot gamer/hacker chick. A handful of mavericks saving the world. Faceless aliens threatening humanity. The same aliens’ strategy resembling so much that of a video game.

The downside is that, in a way, the novel also feels like some kind of wish-fulfilment, and this always tends to ring a bit silly. Unless this is another subverted trope? It’s difficult to tell. Another issue may be the way the novel ties into specific works, namely Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card . Although I didn’t read it, I know enough to see the links, and the same goes with movies mentioned along the way. It’s acknowledged in Armada, but I can’t make up my mind whether it’s homage or “borrowing too much”, so to speak. And then, there are all those “geek culture” references that are OK for a while, yet become burdensome in the end. They were more justified in RPO, because of the nature of the game itself and the hints the players had to decipher; here, they tether between “hey, funny”, “I don’t get it” and “you didn’t need to explain that”. (In other words, the balance is very thin between references readers may miss, references that are understandable and in the right places, and references that are likely to make one roll their eyes.)

The story itself could’ve been more original; on the other hand, it could also have been *less* original. All in all, it was interesting along the pattern it followed, if you like such patterns. Good call on some characters’ part to wonder about the aliens’ real goal. Also, the stakes are real. People do die in this book. The invasion leaves destruction in its wake, and the gamers have to quickly wake up and realise it’s not a joke, it’s not a game anymore. The way they’re quickly thrown into this new reality, brought to this realisation, was a “good” thing, as it made the threat more real. But! At the same time, the twists were fairly predictable. Or was it on purpose, to fit into the mould of tropey alien invasion stories?

Speaking of the characters: likeable enough, but nothing to write home about. Zack was probably too serious for his age, and the others didn’t left much of an impression. Nice and forgettable. I wish I could’ve gotten to know them better, see more of them, as it would have made more of an impact when X or Y got into trouble during a fight against the aliens, and so on. (And yet, again, I have to wonder: isn’t this also part of the private jokes contained in the novel—a bit like red shirts? Tricky, I tell you!)

2.5-3 stars, in the end, to even out things between all these “buts”. I didn’t dislike it, *but* I didn’t love it the way I had expected to. It had good ideas, *but* were they homage, playing on tropes, or just using existing works to build without too much effort? The characters were likeable, *but* very cardboard-like too. And so on. You get my drift…

Yzabel / September 1, 2015

Review: Demon Road

Demon Road by Derek Landy

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

The mind-blowing new supernatural thriller from bestselling author DEREK LANDY, creator of international sensation Skulduggery Pleasant.

Full of Landy’s trademark wit, action and razor-sharp dialogue, DEMON ROAD kicks off with a shocking opener and never lets up the pace in an epic road-trip across the supernatural landscape of America. Killer cars, vampires, undead serial killers: they’re all here. And the demons? Well, that’s where Amber comes in… Sixteen years old, smart and spirited, she’s just a normal American teenager until the lies are torn away and the demons reveal themselves.

Forced to go on the run, she hurtles from one threat to another, revealing a tapestry of terror woven into the very fabric of her life. Her only chance rests with her fellow travellers, who are not at all what they appear to be…

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Mixed feelings here, as some things I definitely liked, and some others rather bored me.

(For the record: I have never read anything else by Derek Landy, so I cannot compare with his Skullduggery Pleasant series. I guess it’s for the best, as I can judge this book as standing on its own, then.)

There’s a fair share of good ideas in this novel. The strange bodyguard with an even stranger car that definitely sends bad vibes (and digests people). Deals with a Demon, a real one, that doesn’t like being cheated and will demand rather gruesome things in payment (not just souls: it’s also in how they’re harvested). Characters able to transform in demonic creatures. The Road itself, carrying them onto weird paths and into weirder encounters. Little towns that look so nice at first, yet quickly reveal their true colours. Serial killers and creepy doll houses. A wooden witch that has her own human quality in spite of all her wrongdoings. Blood and gore and fighting—and the author doesn’t shy away from those, nor from offing characters, I’m not saying which ones.

There’s dark humour, too, sometimes in dialogue, sometimes in situations or descriptions. It fitted well enough with the overall serious matter of Amber having to run from her parents, since they want to kill and eat her. Her parents. Who are great in their own ways, see the scene where they handle the school’s principal, and this is where, straight from the beginning, you realise that this family is definitely a screwed up one.

However, I couldn’t warm up more to this novel, for two main reasons.

The first was the plot itself, as it quickly assumed a repetitive form: get in the car, arrive in new place, look for information, get into dire straits, solve issue, get into car again, rinse and repeat. There were vampires (of the rather traditional type) and witches and killers, but… after a while, the pattern became monotonous, and I found myself sometimes skimming to get faster to the final confrontation.

The second was some of the characters. Milo was alright, and hilarious in his own deadpan ways, although there’s quite some room left for more development here. Amber… I couldn’t decide whether I liked her or not—I’m somewhat annoyed at the whole “dull, vaguely fat teenager that every other guy calls ugly, but who turns into a sexy demon” (what’s wrong with being just plain average, and why did she have to be called on it anyway?). As for Glen…. Uh, he’s the kind of character you will either find incredibly sweet and bubbly, or incredibly annoying from being too chatty—and also too stupid to live. After all, the guy ended up with a certain dark mark for basically just… nothing? Being an idiot? I just couldn’t stand him anymore after a while.

There’s no romance, though. No useless love triangle. If only for that, I am glad!

I’m still somewhat interested in this series, as the ending opens up on pretty gloomy and dangerous prospects, but this will be more the kind of novel I’ll borrow from the library, not buy. 2 to 2.5 stars.

Yzabel / August 30, 2015

Review: Mechanica

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home.

But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.

Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince . . . but realizes she doesn’t want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

An interesting retelling of “Cinderella”, in that it veers away from the traditional Happy Ever After being brough by Finding True Love. Not that love isn’t nice, but I’ve always found it a bit… lackluster, in that it feels like a deus ex machina—why would there be any need for resourceful, smart, brave characters, right, since Love is meant to care of everything in the end! So this novel was a definite good change of pace, with Nick/Nicolette/Mechanica basically doing things herself, laying down her own plans and acting on them to get her own workshop. She was determined to reclaim her own life, without waiting on Prince Charming to come to the rescue, and I particularly liked that she realised this and chose her own path when other characters tried to force her into that particular mould.

Last but not least, the story focuses on friendship as a possible form of “love”, which isn’t something that I’ve seen that often in YA books, which too often only consider the couple aspect. Yet love has so many variations, offers so many possibilities…

The world itself was also intriguing, with its mix of steampunk-ish science and faerie wares, with the Fae getting the short end of the stick after having seen their lands conquered by the humans. It was a shame these two civilisations couldn’t coexist peacefully, and it raises the question of whether this could’ve been possible or not, or maybe if one of the sides (or both?) deliberately tried to sabotage relationships. Nick’s recollection of her childhood, of the family’s housekeeper, of her mother’s works—mixing technology and possibly a bit of magic—gave quite a few insights into how things degraded.

However, while the ideas carried through this retelling are excellent, I couldn’t help but be bored at times, as the story progressed rather slowly without exactly more than the basic original plot. Nicolette’s thoughts were not always the most interesting, and even though a Cinderella is supposed to be a solitary creature, so to speak, isolated from the world because of her step family, this resulted in maybe just a little too much beating around the bush. I think more interactions with Caro and Fin would have spiced up things a little, especially considering the relationship that developed between these three characters. Genuine female friendship, and none of the insta-dislike of the other girl because here’s a rival? Hell yeah. On the other hand, the lack of interactions in general made a certain love story border more on insta-love than anything else (not to mention that it developed in Nick’s fantasies more than “in real life”).

The other major “negative” point for me was how so many threads were left dangling. I’m not sure at all if this book is supposed to be a standalone or not. If it isn’t, it wasn’t made clear enough. If it is, then these plot points should’ve been resolved. The Ashes, more specifically, remain a mystery. What about the king’s latest decision regarding Faerie? And while the latter was a good element to include, somehow more details about the Fey themselves would’ve been a nice addition (and nice opportunities for twists and turns): revolution, trying to break the embargo, whatever… Only it didn’t happen. Here’s to hope it will happen in a next volume…

3 stars for the empowering message delivered throughout (make your own life, love yourself, don’t wait on a man to save you), and because I like machines and trinkets. Nevertheless, as it was rather uneventful, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would’ve otherwise.

Yzabel / August 29, 2015

Review: Classic Human Anatomy in Motion

Classic Human Anatomy in Motion: The Artist’s Guide to the Dynamics of Figure Drawing by Valerie L. Winslow

My rating: [rating=5]

Blurb:

This highly illustrated reference book provides artists and art students with an understanding of human anatomy and different types of motion, inspiring more realistic and energetic figurative art.

Fine-art instruction books do not usually focus on anatomy as it relates to movement, despite its great artistic significance. Written by a long-time expert on drawing and painting human anatomy, Classic Human Anatomy in Motion offers artists everything they need to realistically draw the human figure as it is affected by movement. Written in a friendly style, the book is illustrated with hundreds of life drawing studies (both quick poses and long studies), along with charts and diagrams showing the various anatomical and structural components. This comprehensive manual features five distinct sections, each focusing on a different aspect of the human figure: bones and joint movement, muscle groups, surface form and soft tissue characteristics, structure, and movement. Each chapter builds an artistic understanding of how motion transforms the human figure and can create a sense of expressive vibrancy in one’s art.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

This book took me more than a month to finish, not because it was boring, though: because there’s so much to get out of it, and a couple of sittings just isn’t enough. Incidentally, it is definitely worth having a paper copy, as a PDF is not the most convenient format to use it to its full extent.

The author goes methodically through anatomical fundamentals, along with plenty of illustrations to show how bones, muscle and sinews “translate” into once put on paper. While this can be read from front cover to back, I think it’s not the best way to approach this book, and it will probably be much more interesting to start with a specific chapter, learn from it, and/or observe first the drawings and then read the anatomical “lessons” related to them. I had quite a lot of fun observing myself, trying to make a note on every detail (where a bone is apparent, etc.) and then compare with the written information (“so that’s why there’s this little justting parth ere: it’s [bone X]”).

Another interesting element is how some of the illustrations likens the body to objects (for instance, the condyles of the femur to a pair of casters): it provides another kind of reference, especially useful for people with a visual mind and who are more likely to learn from visual cues in general, as they can recall such references in order to draw those very parts later. Additional tidbits are provided, among which the reasons why this or that body part was named in such a way, something that in itself I always find good to know.

Last but not least, it one needs to understand processes to learn better, then this book goes exactly into that: if you understand how limbs are articulated, how muscles are tied to bones and then work together, how the vertebrae allow the spine to bend… then after a while, you can draw pretty much any position. And this, to me, is something I neglected for far to long, and wish I had realised sooner: to base one’s drawings on realistic information and then only find one’s style, instead of doing the contrary and learning from bases that aren’t necessarily strong enough.

In other words, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn seriously about how to draw the human body and be able to draw it later without using (many) models and references.

Yzabel / August 28, 2015

Review: Suspended in Dusk

Suspended In Dusk by Simon Dewar

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

DUSK
A time between times.

A whore hides something monstrous and finds something special.
A homeless man discovers the razor blade inside the apple.
Unlikely love is found in the strangest of places.
Secrets and dreams are kept… forever.

Or was it all just a trick of the light?

Suspended in Dusk brings together 19 stories by some of the finest minds in Dark Fiction:

Ramsey Campbell, John Everson, Rayne Hall, Shane McKenzie, Angela Slatter, Alan Baxter, S.G Larner, Wendy Hammer, Sarah Read, Karen Runge, Toby Bennett, Benjamin Knox, Brett Rex Bruton, Icy Sedgwick, Tom Dullemond, Armand Rosamilia, Chris Limb, Anna Reith, J.C. Michael.

Introduction by Bram Stoker Award Winner and World Horror Convention Grand Master, Jack Ketchum.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Not as horrific a I expected it to be, or maybe I’m just hard to scare, at least when it comes to what tends to spook a lot of people? This said, while none of the works here jumped at me as being absolutely striking, none was abysmal either, and it was still an interesting collection of stories—some closer to “traditional” horror (zombies, vampires…), and some mixing their scary revelations with elements appearing out of tales at first. Only at first.

The ones I liked best:

“Shadows of the Lonely Dead”, in which a hospice nurse can feel the impending death of her patients and take this darkness into herself, looking for a reason to this strange power of hers.

“Burning”: a store burns at night, but the people of the town do not seem eager to do anything about it, nor to worry too much about the people who live there. Not a traditional horror story, but one that plays on different horrors, unfortunately so close to our world that they’re made even more terrible.

“Ministry of Outrage”: a secret government body engineers situations to keep the masses in control. Made scarier by the fact it’s not even so far-fetched, in a conspiracy-theory kind of way.

“Digging Deep”: being buried alive is probably an atavistic terror for most of us. But being rescued may be even more terrible…

“Hope Is Here”: when a group taking care of homeless people also takes matters in hand, making sure that they have all the right candidates for their program.

“Negatives”: creepy abandoned theme park is creepy. Twins go to a derelict place to take pictures, and find out what’s on the other side of the mirror—and that dreams can so easily turn into nightmares.

“A Keeper of Secrets”: when a little girl meets a fae child in the attic, and starts whispering secrets to keep her new friend strong and alive.

“The Way of All Flesh”: this story about a man who comes into a small rural town has two elements that tend to fascinate me—small towns with not so innocent inhabitants, and a flesh-eating killer.

Other stories worth mentioning, even though they may not be the ones I’ll remember in the long term: “Fit Camp”, “Maid of Bones”, “At Dusk They Come”. Overall this anthology is a good pick, especially if you scare more easily than I do. 3.5 stars, rounded to 4.

Yzabel / August 27, 2015

Review: The Veil

The Veil by Chloe Neill

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Seven years ago, the Veil that separates humanity from what lies beyond was torn apart, and New Orleans was engulfed in a supernatural war. Now, those with paranormal powers have been confined in a walled community that humans call the District. Those who live there call it Devil’s Isle.

Claire Connolly is a good girl with a dangerous secret: she’s a Sensitive, a human endowed with magic that seeped through the Veil. Claire knows that revealing her skills would mean being confined to Devil’s Isle. Unfortunately, hiding her power has left her untrained and unfocused.

Liam Quinn knows from experience that magic makes monsters of the weak, and he has no time for a Sensitive with no control of her own strength. But when he sees Claire using her powers to save a human under attack—in full view of the French Quarter—Liam decides to bring her to Devil’s Isle and the teacher she needs, even though getting her out of his way isn’t the same as keeping her out of his head.

But when the Veil threatens to shatter completely, Claire and Liam must work together to stop it, or else New Orleans will burn…

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I’ve only read the beginning of Neill’s Chicagoland Vampires series, so I’m far from beginning an expert when it comes to her writing. Nevertheless, I definitely wanted to lay my hand on the beginning of this new series, as the premise clearly looked interesting.

And it is, both when it comes to what’s going on in New Orleans itself as to what’s happening behind, let’s say, other scenes as well. On the one side, the humans, trying to eke out a living in a city they don’t want to give up on and leave because, well, it’s *their* city, Veil or not. Containment as well as a couple of private contractors and other bounty hunters do their best to keep in check the resident Paranormals, stranded here after the Veil between their respective worlds closed during the war a few years ago. But are the “Paras”, as they’re nicknamed, so evil and threatening, or simply beings who mourn the loss of their own home?

I liked that things weren’t so black and white as they seemed at first. The Devil’s Isle is both a prison and a refuge, a temporary (or maybe not so much temporary) home, where angels, demons, fae and other creatures have to remain, cut from their magic and forbidden to use what’s left of it. As for Containment, it’s a very ambiguous organisation in its own rights: protecting humans, sure, but perhaps not doing as much as they could and should do regarding certain things. These things being notably the wraiths, humans sensitive to magic, whose powers were awakened by the ripping of the Veil, and who turn into mindless killing monsters after a while because of that very energy they were never supposed to touch in the first place. So once captured, they get locked up in Devil’s Isle… just as normal, still-human Sensitives are as well. And since they’re not allowed to do magic, they can’t expel what’s in them, and so they turn to wraiths, and… Not good, not good.

Pretty interesting for me, with the promise of hidden agendas, potential turncoats, unveiling of secrets, more knowledge about what’s going on behind the Veil, and so on.

However, what didn’t make this a better read for me were the characters: they’re merely “OK”, with a budding romance between Liam and Claire that felt somehow… typical of a lot of urban fantasy novels, without the added chemistry that would make it more palatable. These characters in general aren’t bad, just mostly sketched out rather than filled in, and as a result, I didn’t care that much about them. No special repartee and witty dialogue, no one particularly rising above the lot, so to speak.

The novel also felt more like an introduction than a real story, with a lot of it devoted to setting up the backdrop. It was good for world-building, but less good when it came to the plot itself, whose resolution came too fast after a few chapters I generally found less interesting.

I rate this book between “it’s OK” and “I like it”. I’d kind of like to know what happens next, yet more because of what briefly appeared behind the Veil, of what’s going to happen with Containment, than because of the characters themselves. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for now.

Yzabel / August 23, 2015

Review: The Gospel of Loki

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

With his notorious reputation for trickery and deception, and an ability to cause as many problems as he solves, Loki is a Norse god like no other. Demon-born, he is viewed with deepest suspicion by his fellow gods who will never accept him as one of their own and for this he vows to take his revenge.

But while Loki is planning the downfall of Asgard and the humiliation of his tormentors, greater powers are conspiring against the gods and a battle is brewing that will change the fate of the Worlds.

From his recruitment by Odin from the realm of Chaos, through his years as the go-to man of Asgard, to his fall from grace in the build-up to Ragnarok, this is the unofficial history of the world’s ultimate trickster.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I was quite keen on reading this one, but now that I’m done, I can’t help but feel that something was sorely lacking, and that the portrayal of several of the gods and goddesses wasn’t what I wanted to read.

Don’t get me wrong: different portrayals aren’t bad per se. They allow to shed another light on a character, to see a specific element in another way, to cast a whole other meaning and play with what is the “officially accepted” meaning, and so on. However, even though I’m fare from being a specialist in Norse mythology, I didn’t really understand some of the choices made here. For starters, what was wrong with Loki as a Jötunn (I’m not a proponento f Christian interpretations, so having here as a “demon” was definitely weird)? I especially couldn’t agree with the portrayal of Sigyn done here. I’ve always felt there should be more to her than what we know of, but seeing her reduced to a soupy housewife made half-crazed and happy to finally control his husband in the cave didn’t sit well with me. Granted, Loki made fun of all the gods and goddesses, only the way it happened with this one didn’t seem like an appropriate idea.

The tone of the story was somewhat light and funny in spite of the end of the Worlds it was bound to lead to, and highlighted Loki as a Trickster. The two episodes with Sleipnir and Thor disguised as a bride were particularly fun to read—I can never get tired of the latter, I guess. The gods and goddesses in general weren’t shown under their best colours, which here too fits with Loki’s point of view (being able to see the defects in people, himself included, and using them to his own advantage).

The “trickster tricked”, though, is another peeve I couldn’t shake off. Loki has always been a very ambiguous figure for me, not an evil one, so while his portrayal as being rejected because he’s a “demon” fits with his growing resentment (wouldn’t things have been different he had been accepted as Odin promised he’d be?), the end result looked more like a child being constantly thwarted and then whining about his fate, than a God bent on revenge for having been wronged once too often. This is not the kind of Loki I wanted to read about. He deserves more than that; his being tricked does happen (Útgarða-Loki being a good example), yet it quickly felt as if he always got the end of the shaft without never learning anything, and it doesn’t seem believable that a character like this one could be tricked from beginning to end.

I was probably also a bit annoyed by the omniscient view cast over the story, as it is told from Loki’s point of view after Ragnarök: I tend to grow quickly tired of structures of the “but the worst was still to come” kind. It didn’t help me to stay immersed in the narrative.

Overall it was a strange reading experience: when I was in it, it was alright, but every time I stopped, I had trouble picking the book again. It *is* pretty close to the Edda stories in some ways if you except the demon/Pandaemonium one, and probably this is both a strong and a weak point, as in the end, apart from being narrated by Loki, it doesn’t bring that much novelty or development to the already known myths. The Gods remain fairly one-dimensional, and while it was somewhat fun to read, I don’t feel like I’ll be opening this book again one day.

Yzabel / August 20, 2015

Review: The Gateway of Light and Darkness

The Gateway of Light and Darkness by Heather Marie

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

The battle of good vs. evil wages on for Aiden Ortiz in this final installment of the Gateway Series: The Gateway of Light and Darkness. With the Dark Priest defeated, and the Brethren of Shadows refusing to forfeit calling upon the Darkness, the Brethren are determined more than ever to discover a way to banish the Men of Light for good. And as the Dark Priest’s curse invading Aiden’s veins continues to take on a life of its own, he finds himself in a standoff between his own kind, and the Brethren that want to recruit him for all the wrong reasons. Accompanied by fellow Gateway, Julie Martin, and his best friends Trevor and Evan, seventeen-year-old Aiden prepares himself for the battle of his life.

Protecting those he loves, and learning to put aside his differences for his father in order to learn the ways of the Light, Aiden begins to realize that the thing endangering their lives might not be the threat of the Brethren alone, but the thing taking shape inside of him —readying to unleash itself upon them all.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I still like the mythology/back story woven into this series, but… but… Seriously, this trend of ain’t-telling-you-nothing-itis has to stop. I don’t know what it’d take. I don’t know why this is still considered a good idea. It’s not. It’s not building plot, it’s forcing it down into holes that aren’t even the same shape.

So basically, Aiden makes the wrong choices (some crossing into Too Stupid To Live territory) mostly because all the characters around him who have information don’t share it with him. And when he stumbles and falls, they get all “I’m disappointed in you”, “I told you so”, “I knew it”, “I’m sorry I falied you”. When they know very well that he *wants* to get rid of his curse. Their “help” in that regard, though, falls so far from the mark that it’s not funny. I don’t buy the belief that someone has to battle against darkness alone, and if they fail, well, then it means they were doomed from the start, weren’t they? No. Maybe people wouldn’t fall if they had just the right help. There are times when it’s too much for one person to tackle. In this book, it’s one of those times. (I also don’t buy “we did it for your own good”, because had this failed, whoops, they’d likely have killed him, too bad, son.)

I guess it was almost painful, seeing how this character had to go through it half-blindedly when it mattered most. The training his father gave him, the support he was supposed to have, were only part of what he needed. What he actually needed, he didn’t really get. Thus his mistakes and wrong choices. It didn’t help that Aiden didn’t open up much about Koren, what he felt for her, thinking he could still “hear” her, etc… but what else to expect? His tentative attempts at getting answers always ended up in closed doors. Many people would give up and clam up for less than that.

It didn’t help that the story was a little slow going, and peppered with events where more than one person shone through their wrong choices. Things picked up after the 70-75% mark, though, and the ending was more enjoyable. I would’ve liked this story more, I think, if its pacing had been more balanced in that regard, and if we had gotten to see more some of the secondary characters (Aiden’s parents, for instance, or Seth). What felt slow could’ve been more exciting if they had been given some more limelight.

Not terrible per se, but not more than “just OK” either for me.