Yzabel / February 28, 2015

Review: The Death House

The Death HouseThe Death House by Sarah Pinborough

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Toby’s life was perfectly normal . . . until it was unravelled by something as simple as a blood test.

Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House; an out-of-time existence far from the modern world, where he, and the others who live there, are studied by Matron and her team of nurses. They’re looking for any sign of sickness. Any sign of their wards changing. Any sign that it’s time to take them to the sanatorium.

No one returns from the sanatorium.

Withdrawn from his house-mates and living in his memories of the past, Toby spends his days fighting his fear. But then a new arrival in the house shatters the fragile peace, and everything changes.

Because everybody dies. It’s how you choose to live that counts.

Review:

(I got a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

I resent the comparison with The Fault In Our Stars, because The Death House was more readable: Toby, for all his faults, wasn”t so insufferable, probably because he behaved like a somewhat surly, but all in all normal teenager. And Clara was enjoyable, with a positive look on what happened to her, even though she knew how all the kids at the Death House were doomed to end.

I wouldn’t deem this the best novel ever. It left me wanting for more explanations. However, as a character study, at least for the main ones, it fairly hit the spot for me. The children and teenagers in that strange house all had to cope with their fear (and prospect) of dying in their own ways, andI thought we got to see quite a few interesting examples. Ashley, the believer kid who finds strength in the Bible and tries to share it with others. Toby, retreating into himself and pretending he doesn’t care, yet still takes very much care of the younger ones. Louis, both extremely intelligent, though still a child in many ways. Will, all innocent and carefree, thus hiding his fears from himself. Clara, who had to live to her parents’ expectations, and oddly enough was somewhat “freed” by the house. Jake, disguising his own fear behind his bully attitude.

Those were interesting portrayals, and through their interactions, we got to see how days and nights were spent in that microcosm that so much looked like a boarding school of sorts, yet was anything but—shadowed as it was by the mysterious sanatorium that none of the kids ever got to see, only hearing about it, only knowing one of them had been taken there when they discovered that child’s belongings being gone in the morning. And the presence of the Matron and the other silent nurses only made the pressure worse.

True, not much happens in terms of plot-twists during the largest part of the novel. It was still a nice read nonetheless. The ending was a 50/50: part of me expected it to be different, more original… but at the same time, the other part thought it couldn’t (and shouldn’t, anyway) have been otherwise.

I didn’t rate this book higher because in the end, too many things weren’t explained, and they kept bothering me, try as I might to ignore them. The “Defective gene”, for starters, was rather sketchy. How came the kids displayed so many different symptoms, and what was it suppose to lead to? Would it turn them into monsters of sorts, as was hinted at a couple of times? The kids were isolated like freaks, carried away in vans by men in dark suits, as if to protect the world from them; in my opinion, this would have warranted more than a few vague hints about the exact nature of the Defectiveness.

The same applied to the nurses and to their behaviour, especially considering a specific twist. Why would they hide it, and try to hush it? Out of fear it would go public? An actual reason would have been nice here.

Also, most of the twists were fairly obvious. It may be just me, I don’t know. I just guessed pretty early where they were leading.

One aspect of the book I can’t decide about were the other kids. While the characters I listed abover were indeed interesting, the rest were more like cardboard figures (even Tom, who got to share Dorm 4 with Toby and the others), which was weird in such a close space where I would’ve expected everyone to know everyone else. However, this fitted Toby’s tendency to close his eyes on his surroundings, and increased the feeling that each child was on his/ her own, and that at the end, they couldn’t afford to care about the others, only themselves.

Overall, I was leaning towards “I like it”. However, the lack of explanations, and the somewhat bland figures of the nurses and some of the kids, left me feeling that something was missing.

Yzabel / February 11, 2015

Review: Unhappenings

UnhappeningsUnhappenings by Edward Aubry

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

When Nigel Walden is fourteen, the UNHAPPENINGS begin. His first girlfriend disappears the day after their first kiss with no indication she ever existed. This retroactive change is the first of many only he seems to notice.

Several years later, when Nigel is visited by two people from his future, he hopes they can explain why the past keeps rewriting itself around him. But the enigmatic young guide shares very little, and the haggard, incoherent, elderly version of himself is even less reliable. His search for answers takes him fifty-two years forward in time, where he finds himself stranded and alone.

And then he meets Helen.

Brilliant, hilarious and beautiful, she captivates him. But Nigel’s relationships always unhappen, and if they get close it could be fatal for her. Worse, according to the young guide, just by entering Helen’s life, Nigel has already set into motion events that will have catastrophic consequences. In his efforts to reverse this, and to find a way to remain with Helen, he discovers the disturbing truth about the unhappenings, and the role he and his future self have played all along.

Equal parts time-travel adventure and tragic love story, Unhappenings is a tale of gravely bad choices, and Nigel’s struggle not to become what he sees in the preview of his worst self.

Review:

(I got a copy from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.)

3.5 stars, rounded to 4. I quite enjoyed it overall.

This novel is a tale of choices gone wrong, of moments that could’ve been but had to be sacrificed, of events that still left a sad taste even though they weren’t that bad at first sight. It’s a tale of time travellers that are doomed to meet each other coming from different directions, one gradually gaining insight he wouldn’t have had if the other hadn’t allowed him to grasp them first, and conversely. It’s also a tale of love both doomed and stronger than everything. A rather odd mix, but one that I found intriguing and entertaining.

Time travel here isn’t exactly the main focus, although it’s the main means. Some of the motivators could be easily seen as self-centered and selfish—and it isn’t lost on the characters, who admit it themselves at one point or another. One of the interesting sides of the novel, apart from the science fiction aspect, is that it challenges human nature in several occasions, and you easily find yourself wondering: “What decision would -I- have made, in such circumstances? Can I really blame this character for wanting that?” The scientific concepts behind time travel are never really explored in depth, but somehow, it doesn’t really matter. At least, it didn’t matter that much to me, because more important than that were the people, the decisions they would make, and how they would manage to cheat the space-time continuum in order to get what they wanted—or had to do to prevent something really bad from happening.

(Granted, when I say that scientifically, time travel wasn’t explored a lot, it’s not exactly true. We don’t get explanations about how the modules work, but the reasoning behind the travels, behind echoes of people being left in the timeline, seemed believable and interesting.)

Another nice part of the book is how it appears as a puzzle, and as a reader, you have to piece things together. Something mentioned in the very first chapters will make full sense only 150 pages later, yet when it finally does, you realise you were right in paying attention.

On the downside, the explanation behind the unhappenings was perhaps a little too simple to my taste, in that I actually wanted to see more of, let’s say, what was causing them. Due to the first person point of view, that “adversary” was painted in more dark shades than light ones, and I’m left wondering if things were supposed to unfold the way they did, or if there wouldn’t have been yet another way, less dark. I also thought that a few things went too fast towards the end (a certain person breaking down, for instance, as this felt just… bizarre), and that the whole Project might have deserved being mentioned more than just in passing.

Nigel at times seemed somewhat callous—not an unexpected nor unforgiveable trait considering all the unhappenings; only a few events were brushed over (e.g. his feelings regarding his parents), and it was sometimes hard to decide whether he did things out of love and forced himself not to think of the impact on himself, or had just lost the ability to “feel”. I guess it’s not exactly a defect, as the context justifies it, but at some moments I appreciated it, and at others I didn’t. Same at the very end with Helen, whose decision was… I don’t know, both understandable and “why on Earth did we do all that for if it was for things to come to -this-?”

However, as said at the beginning of my review, I enjoyed the story nonetheless. It probably also deserves to be revisited to see if I haven’t missed anything between the lines.

Yzabel / February 8, 2015

Review: Red Queen

Red QueenRed Queen by Victoria Aveyard

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood—those with red and those with silver. Mare and her family are lowly Reds, destined to serve the Silver elite whose supernatural abilities make them nearly gods. Mare steals what she can to help her family survive, but when her best friend is conscripted into the army she gambles everything to win his freedom. A twist of fate leads her to the royal palace itself, where, in front of the king and all his nobles, she discovers a power of her own—an ability she didn’t know she had. Except . . . her blood is Red.

To hide this impossibility, the king forces her into the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks her new position to aid the Scarlet Guard—the leaders of a Red rebellion. Her actions put into motion a deadly and violent dance, pitting prince against prince—and Mare against her own heart.

From debut author Victoria Aveyard comes a lush, vivid fantasy series where loyalty and desire can tear you apart and the only certainty is betrayal.

Review:

(I got a copy from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

3 to 3.5 stars. I mostly enjoyed this book, but I wish some aspects had been more developed, and I can only hope they will be in the next installment. (Which I would gladly read.)

The weak points, first:

– In general, the ideas and world-building weren’t too original. The novel is very close to many dystopian YA novels, with typical elements: class divide, a war, a group of rebels, the love triangle (square?)… In all fairness, had I not already read several books with similar plot devices, this one would have felt better for me, so who knows, it might not be such a problem for another reader.

– The world itself suffered from the (also typical) “pocket-universe” syndrome: everything seems to happen in an enclosed space, with just a few hints to other countries. I couldn’t help but wonder about those neighbouring governments and the rest of the planet, as well as the deep reasons to the war, and how Reds and Silvers came to be. It was easy enough to accept that “this is not our world, so these two races are just something that I can see as normal”; but it would still have been nice to get a better grasp on the larger picture, all the more because Mare got lessons about this, so it would’ve been a good place to insert some more information (without falling into the info-dumping trap, that is).

– The romance subplot, with a love triangle, or even a love square. I understand that parts of this subplot were not what they seemed to be; however, the potential romance, the love interests, didn’t strike me as believable, and rather out-of-the-blue in general. I didn’t feel any chemistry between Mare and either of the guys, and so that specific aspect of the story seemed forced and contrived.

– Sometimes the characters and their motives were too one-sided. I’m thinking of Evangeline specifically, with her Queen Bee attitude that, in my opinion, wasn’t really justified: Mare was never a threat to her position, and Evangeline already knew where she stood and that what she had would remain hers, so while mere contempt may have been logical, such open animosity wasn’t.

However, Red Queen also has several good points going for it:

– In spite of the typical, cliché sides, the author still managed to make them hers and to develop an enjoyable world. I liked the various powers displayed by the Silvers, and the many possibilities they offered.

– The roles of the main characters: they aren’t so clear-cut as they appear at first, and even though I admit I could sense a particular twist coming, I was still nicely surprised when it happened, in a “aha, YES, I knew it!” way. There was a lot of double-thinking and potential betrayal going on behind the scenes, and this was great.

– The political side of the romance. It explains a lot of things.

– Although the aforementioned romance left me cold, I liked that Mare wasn’t merely “the girl torn between two boys, wondering who to choose”. That aspect was a rather minor one, and mostly she placed her opinions, her aims, her conviction first. She wasn’t just passive and helpless while The Guys did all the work, and she took matters in her own hands. Granted, some of her decisions may be seen as naive; on the other hand, such naivety was also understandable, since Mare had never been schooled in court politics, and was ripped away from her world and family to be thrown into very different surroundings. Being alone, feeling isolated, wanting to clutch at the people who showed kindness: that was understandable.

Not a perfect novel, but not a bad one either.

Yzabel / February 5, 2015

Review: The Mindtraveler

The MindtravelerThe Mindtraveler by Bonnie Rozanski

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

What woman of a certain age doesn’t sometimes look upon her life and wish she could go back and do it all over again?

With more of her life behind her than ahead, Margaret Braverman, a physicist teaching at a small college, cannot help but regret the things she never quite got right. Most important among them was the tragic ending of her romance with her brilliant colleague Frank, something she has never gotten over. Then there is the prospect of restoring the respect of her colleagues after that unfortunate incident where she set her hair on fire. And, of course, it would be glorious to get even with that mean-spirited, conceited, womanizing Caleb Winter.

Fortunately, after years of experimentation in the back room of her lab, Margaret has finally built a time machine. The key, she discovered, is in teleporting not the body but the mind. And so, at 5:03 p.m. on May 3, 2012, Margaret teleports her mind to her 1987 self.

Though her body is that of a 35-year-old, the narration and point of view is that of her older self. “60″, as she calls herself, feels everything but can’t move a muscle. All she can do is to passively witness what she lived once before, and, until she figures out how to influence things, nothing is going to change.

Review:

(I got a copy from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

2.5 stars. Mixed feelings here.

On the one hand, it was permeated with a mellow, nostalgic atmosphere that I found pleasant. Not because of the events that unfolded in the past—some of those raised serious matters, like destroying a family, the glass ceiling, what it meant to be a woman in a place dominated by a patriarchal hierarchy. Because of how Margaret saw the past through the eyes of her younger self, with the hindsight of 60 years of life. As she was basically a silent passenger in the back of 35!Margaret’s head, she could easily reflect and contemplate on that world she didn’t remember accurately, and relive these memories in a way that would allow her to treasure them (seeing her parents again, for instance).

The ending was in part predictable, in part surprising (the twist with the student, all making sudden sense when you think about it), in part unavoidable, and I liked the latter aspect: I don’t think I would’ve wanted a too well-wrapped ending, with nice ribbons around. The one the author chose to go with seemed to fit Margaret’s character better than a “quieter” one.

A huge downside for me was the “silent passenger” side of the plot. For about 70-75% of the story, 60!Margaret can’t do much more than lift a few fingers, which forces her in an extremely passive role (somewhat reminiscent, though, of what 35 had to go through: “be a nice girl and shut up when it comes to the important stuff”—the echo wasn’t lost on me). It made up for a very awkward transition when she suddenly finds herself doing so much more, and as a result, the last chapters felt disconnected and in a hurry. It would’ve been more seamless if she had gradually started to do more, perhaps while her younger self was asleep/unaware of her “passenger”.

The romance aspect I could’ve done without. It wasn’t a breaker because it was romance, but it tended to obfuscate Margaret as a person who could make a life for herself—as in,” who cares about academic recognition and a whole career, as long as I can have The Man?” (This clashed with Margaret’s views on life, with her way of always deciding for herself, even if that mean making a bad decision, with her aims of becoming a researcher and getting tenure, etc.) This is why, I think, I’m glad the ending was what it was, and I can’t help but wonder what she would do afterwards: enjoy the good or moan about the bad?

As for the characters themselves, mostly they weren’t that enjoyable, unfortunately, either because they were greedy, sleazy or cowards, or just not impressive. This is humanity in a basket, I suppose, but a few more positive people to balance it out would’ve been nice. The mellow/nostalgic side of the novel would’ve made a stronger impression on me, too, if I had had a better feeling for them.

Not a bad novel, all in all, and the concepts and ideas it raised were definitely interesting. Unfortunately, in the end, it remained in the “just OK” category for me.

Yzabel / February 1, 2015

Review: Gears of Brass

Gears of Brass: A Steampunk AnthologyGears of Brass: A Steampunk Anthology by Jordan Elizabeth

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

A world like ours, but filled with gears of brass, where the beating heart is fueled by steam and the simplest creation is a complex clockwork device.

Within this tome, you’ll find steampunk fairy tale re-tellings, as well as original stories that will send your gears turning.

Welcome to the steampunk realm, with eleven authors guiding your path.

GEARS OF BRASS is a steampunk anthology published through Curiosity Quills. Within the pages, you’ll come across clockwork inventions and steampunk-ified fairy tale retellings. Eleven authors will guide you through worlds filled with airships, top hats, and corsets.

Review:

(I got a copy from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.)

2.5 stars, as on average the stories ranged from “it’s OK” to “I like it” for me, but not more—which is too bad, because, well, steampunk? How come I didn’t like this more!

My problems with this anthology were some cases of bad editing (spelling mistakes), but mainly the fact that most stories left me with a strong feeling of unfulfilled expectations. As soon as I’d get into a plot, and get excited about it and how it might pan out, the story ended, somewhat unresolved. As if the authors had so much more to say, but were constricted by imposed length, and had had to find in a hurry a “witty” punchline to give to their tales.

(Speaking of tales, quite a few stories were retellings of fairy tales, so if you like those, you’re going to be happy. Same if you like plots where human nature is denounced as dark, twisted, and not so close to redemption.)

On the bright side, the authors featured here all seem to have a vivid imagination, and plenty of good ideas in store for novellas or even novels. I could easily see half these short stories expanded, especially Zeus’ Fire, Time Spun Souls and The Key Girl (the latter had excellent bases, but went much too quickly to my liking).

My favourite ones:
* A Clockwork Dollhouse – in my opinion, the best wrapped and fulfilling of all.
* Zeus’ Fire – Greek mythology and steampunk (although it didn’t feel “British”, owing to the language).
* Clockwork Wolf – Little Red Riding Hood revisited.
* Lana’s End – selfish protagonists are selfish!

In other words, I was disappointed in the anthology itself, but I definitely wouldn’t mind checking some of the authors’ longer works, as I believe they can do good things when given longer formats to develop their ideas, worlds and characters.

Yzabel / November 25, 2014

Review: The Glass Magician

The Glass Magician (The Paper Magician Trilogy, #2)The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

Three months after returning Magician Emery Thane’s heart to his body, Ceony Twill is well on her way to becoming a Folder. Unfortunately, not all of Ceony’s thoughts have been focused on paper magic. Though she was promised romance by a fortuity box, Ceony still hasn’t broken the teacher-student barrier with Emery, despite their growing closeness.

When a magician with a penchant for revenge believes that Ceony possesses a secret, he vows to discover it…even if it tears apart the very fabric of their magical world. After a series of attacks target Ceony and catch those she holds most dear in the crossfire, Ceony knows she must find the true limits of her powers…and keep her knowledge from falling into wayward hands.

Review:

(I got a copy courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Again, an easy and fast read, much like the previous installment, but had not I already gotten a copy through NG, as mentioned above, I doubt I would’ve read it.

Some parts of the book were still pleasant. I still liked the idea behind the magic, and the more prominent use this time of Gaffers and their powers—seriously, working with mirrors, travelling through them, using them to spy on or find people? That’s awesome! It would have remained awesome if the rules of magic in that world hadn’t been broken in a snap of fingers at the end, and in a way that just any apprentice would probably think of at some point in his/her career. And who got to stumble upon it? Ceony.

Ceony this time just plunged deep into Too Stupid To Live territory, taking actions that a character as smart as she’s supposed to be would have immediately thought twice about. So, sure, she came prepared… but clearly not enough. And she definitely did not think through all her moves and what they may imply for other people. Not wanting to endanger more people is a very fine motive, only not when it ends up achieving exactly that.

As in the first volume, some historical elements were too out of place: she’s supposed to be of a struggling, working class-like background, but her father would take her to fire a gun when she was younger? This doesn’t scream “poor family background” to me, not in London at the end of 19th century. Other jarring elements included Ceony’s take on skirts and other views of women as creatures made to cook and take care of men:

“Langston didn’t seem to notice—he thought the tomatoes alone were a treat, and Ceony determined the man needed to get married right away. She wondered if Delilah could be coerced into dating him.”

This might have worked for another character. Not for a young woman who’s shown to act in daring ways, affirms her right to stay with her current master even though some may disapprove, wants to decide her own fate, and so on. Which is one of the problems I had with the romance in the first book: centered around the man, who was everything.

Speaking of the romance: still not convinced, all the more because of that weird chapter from Thane’s point of view, thrown among all the others narrated in Ceony’s, in which he thinks about his feelings for her. Less cooking this time; more fussing over things that seemed to spring out of nowhere (the allergy, for instance). Also, more blushing.

As for the villains, I found them paper-thin (pun totally intended). Grath and his fellow magicians would have been impressive in other circumstances, and their powers and cunning should have been put to better use. Instead, I never got to really understand their motives. Freeing Lira? All right, but what about a bigger plan, why have they been such targets for years (except for Excision, of course)? And Saraj. Why should the resident psychopath be Indian, and depicted in such a blatant display of “Danger: here comes the tall, dark stranger, so of course he must look suspicious, and of course those suspicions were well-founded”?

Decidedly, this isn’t working for me. (Nor is the cover, which is nice, but doesn’t look like anything that was in the book.)

Yzabel / November 23, 2014

Review: Unborn

Unborn (Unborn series)Unborn by Amber Lynn Natusch

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

Born into mystery. Shackled to darkness…

Khara has spent centuries discovering everything about the Underworld―except her place in it. But when she’s ripped from her home, solving the riddle of her origins becomes more important than ever. With evil stalking her through the dark alleys of Detroit, she finds salvation from an unlikely source: a group of immortal warriors sworn to protect the city. Khara needs their help to unravel the tangled secrets of who and what she is—secrets many seem willing to kill for. But time is running out, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer necessity binds her to an arrogant fallen angel.

Can their shaky alliance withstand that which threatens her, or will her soul fall victim to the unholy forces that hunt her―those that seek the Unborn?

Review:

(I got a copy courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

I shall be honest and say that I was one inch from DNFing this one. About four or five times. I trudged on because I felt I owed the book a review, since I had requested it, but I just can’t recommend it. Instead, I shall thank the local bus system and this past week’s early work shift, because they provided me with reading time at something-too-early AM, which made itall the more bearable.

I seriously wanted to like this. Roots in Greek mythology. A ward of Hades, snatched from the Underworld. The idea behind the treaty between Hades and Demeter, providing an interesting diplomatic explanation to Persephone being allowed to go back to her mother for six months every year. Khara’s origins, being the daughter of a kickass god, in spite of his usual shortcomings. Well, grantd, Detroit was kind of cliché—it seems like the Bleak City of Bleakiness of Doom for anything horror or supernatural—but hey, whatever, as long as it works!

Only it didn’t.

My very first gripe, and unfortunately one that lasted for the whole novel, was Khara’s narrative style, which I can only decribe as stilted and “trying too hard”:

Our destination was on the far side of the mob before us, and I cringed at the thought of having to navigate through them all, their sweaty stench already offending me from where I stood. Without time to relay those concerns to Kierson, he took my hand and pulled me behind him as he cut his way through the mass with ease. Though I was loath to admit it, there was something strangely appealing being surrounded by the dancing horde, swallowed up in their debauchery. I had not expected to find it so amenable.

I’ll acknowledge it tried to stray from basic, bland prose (because a book is urban fantasy, paranormal, young adult, etc. doesn’t mean its writing has to be dumbed down, for sure). However, by doing so, it achieved the contrary, making everything feel heavy-handed—all the more because dialogues, too, were in the same style. All the characters spoke in very similar ways, at odds with their surroundings, their usual places of dwelling, the kind of lifestyle they lived. I just can’t envision any son of Ares speaking like this:

“No,” Drew replied with an ounce of hesitation. “I have made the decision to hold off on that for now. He has his hands full out east. I see no reason to burden him with this as well, especially when there is nothing to report other than her existence. What he is dealing with has potentially far more disastrous implications than learning he has a sister. I do not think he needs a distraction to derail his focus.”

And Khara’s narrative remained like this all the time, even during fight scenes. So maybe, just maybe, her upbringing in the Underworld would have made her a wee mite uptight, but… No, not even that would really justify it.

I also couldn’t bring myself to care for Khara. Making her the a daughter of a war deity could at least have warranted a few nice traits. Natural ability for fighting, a mind cut for strategy, being world champion at chess… Whatever. But mostly, she remained passive and useless, observing everything, barely feeling a thing (well, that’s how her narrative made me feel, that is). The girl standing in the middle, the one that has to be protected and saved because she barely fends for herself, in spite of claiming she has spent centuries in the Underworld surviving her lot of blows. The one all the guys around fight for—thankfully not as a love polygon, since most of them are her brothers, but they still came off as “you’re the girl and so you stay here and when we tell you not to move, you don’t move.” She alleges her ability might actually be to “stay out of trouble”. Then here’s what she does:

“Stay close, and always behind me.”
[…]
I walked toward the voices, wanting to see just how the situation would play out. Would whatever creature Kierson pursued let her go, or would he face the wrath of my brother? Furthermore, I had a strange desire building within me that demanded to see just what the assailant was. I had not seen the evil that I had been so constantly told of since meeting Drew and the others. Curiosity got the better of me.
Just as I rounded a thick concrete pillar, I could see the three of them, though light was still scarce. A thin and sickly looking man held the young girl, her face cupped in his hands, mouths nearly touching. The second I stepped into view, his hollow, empty eyes snapped directly to me.
And they never left.

Excuse me for not quite believing that, Khara. Also, for questioning centuries’ worth of understanding ability:

“You are not going anywhere, especially not until we know more about why you came here in the first place. […] If you’re finally feeling rested, you should join us.”
“But you said to stay right where I am…”
He laughed heartily.
“Not literally right where you are. I meant I would feel better if you stayed with us.”

I just… I just can’t. Sorry.

I’m not even going to touch the romance here; no chemistry whatsoever between Khara the Bland and typical Tall, Dark and Dangerous Guy. Or how the psychopath who’s been trying to own Khara for centuries is brushed aside as a threat from the beginning, before someone finally starts to remember that maybe, just maybe, he should be kept in their computations. You know, just in case.

This novel was definitely not for me.

Yzabel / November 17, 2014

Review: Stormdancer

Stormdancer (The Lotus War, #1)Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary

One girl and a griffin against an empire.

Griffins are supposed to be extinct. So when Yukiko and her warrior father Masaru are sent to capture one for the Shõgun, they fear that their lives are over – everyone knows what happens to those who fail the Lord of the Shima Isles. But the mission proves less impossible and more deadly than anyone expects. Soon Yukiko finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in her country’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled griffin for company. Although she can hear his thoughts, and saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her. Yet trapped together in the forest, Yukiko and the beast soon discover a bond that neither of them expected.

Meanwhile, the country around them verges on collapse. A toxic fuel is choking the land, the machine-powered Lotus Guild is publicly burning those they deem Impure, and the Shõgun cares for nothing but his own dominion. Authority has always made Yukiko, but her world changes when she meets Kin, a young man with secrets, and the rebel Kagé cabal. She learns the horrifying extent of the Shõgun’s crimes, both against her country and her family.

Returning to the city, Yukiko is determined to make the Shõgun pay – but what can one girl and a flightless griffin do against the might of an empire?

Review:

More like 2.5 stars. Very, very mixed feelings here. I sort of enjoyed it, but…

I liked the second part better, in part because I’m not too fond of treks in the wilderness/mountains, and also because of the more complex political layers I could sense in it. Also, Yukiko had to grow up, from the sulking girl of the beginning to one who finally understood that things weren’t always what they seemed—and grow up she did.

More problematic was the balance when it came to the Japanese influence: I constantly felt it was either too much or too little. The first 100 pages or so contaid a lot of exposition/descriptions, clearly intended for people who don’t know that culture; however, as soon as you know just a little, it’s already too much. It’s worth for the language as well. My knowledge of Japanese is very limited (2 hours/week for, what, two semesters?), but it was enough for me to notice all the glaring mistakes and weird approach. For instance, “shima” means “island” (among other things—you can’t tell without the kanji), so “the Isles of Shima” is, uh, “the Isles of Island”, which is definitely weird. Another example: when characters, who’re supposed to speak “Japanese” (and we’re made to feel like they do, it’s too close in influence to pull the “it’s only inspired by it” card), end up translating expressions. There’s no way Buruu, linked to Yukiko’s mind, would need her to translate an expression like “arashi no ko”. So, for me, it was really troubling, and I’m positive such words could have been translated for the readers without having to resort to such devices.

My other problem with the novel came from some of the secondary characters, who weren’t given enough spotlight, or were given too much for plot-device reasons. First, Aisha, who looked so promising, looked like she could’ve done and been so much more, and then… nothing. Second, Hiro, whose part was important, but whose influence in the firs two thirds of the novel sprung just out of nowhere. I would wonder: “Why is Yukiko thinking of that guy with green eyes? She only talked to him for five seconds at the beginning of the book.” It was like insta-love fuelled by nothing.

On the other hand, there’s ground for a lot of interesting things in terms of world-building, and in how the blood lotus flower and the environmental problems play a part in Shima’s setting. I may pick the second book at some point after all, to see what becomes of this world.

Yzabel / November 12, 2014

Review: The Body Electric

The Body ElectricThe Body Electric by Beth Revis

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

The future world is at peace.

Ella Shepherd has dedicated her life to using her unique gift–the ability to enter people’s dreams and memories using technology developed by her mother–to help others relive their happy memories.

But not all is at it seems.

Ella starts seeing impossible things–images of her dead father, warnings of who she cannot trust. Her government recruits her to spy on a rebel group, using her ability to experience–and influence–the memories of traitors. But the leader of the rebels claims they used to be in love–even though Ella’s never met him before in her life. Which can only mean one thing…

Someone’s altered her memory.

Ella’s gift is enough to overthrow a corrupt government or crush a growing rebel group. She is the key to stopping a war she didn’t even know was happening. But if someone else has been inside Ella’s head, she cannot trust her own memories, thoughts, or feelings.

So who can she trust?

Review:

(I got a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

I had planned on reading Across the Universe ages ago, yet never got to it. Instead, I got to this one—which, from what I understand, very loosely alludes to the former. I can confirm, in any case, that not having read Beth Revis’s trilogy won’t be a problem here: the present novel is a standalone, and previous knowledge isn’t mandatory to follow its plot. Although I guess that, like me, you’ll miss a few Easter Eggs.

The story follows Ella, a girl from Malta, who struggles daily to come to terms with how sick her mother is, struck with a degenerative disease for which there is no cure. The only “cure” so far has been developed by Ella’s father; unfortunately, his death put a stop to any improvement in that regard. As a way of relieving some of her pain, Ella’s mother (a scientist as well) has created the Reverie, a system that allows people to relive their best, happiest memories in a dream-like state. But what’s been used so far as a recreational machine only has the potential to be so much more, especially after Ella realises she can link to a “dreamer”, and enter his/her Reverie to spy on and/or manipulate it.

We’re given to see the world through Ella’s prism, which is at times a narrow one, focused, as mentioned above, on what’s left of her family, and also her best friend Akilah (when they manage to communicate with each other, because the other girl is currently serving in the army). Information and world-building are thus done little by little; it’s a method I tend to prefer to large info-dumps, so depending on a reader’s preferences here, it may be a very good thing, or a problem. What I can say: I didn’t feel it difficult to get the bigger idea, even though there were moments I would have want to learn just a little more about the rest of the world, most specificically the “secessionist”, possibly “terrorism-infested” countries. This aspect made the novel feel like your average YA dystopia, but somewhat seemed both exploited and left on the side of the road at the same time.

I found Ella’s quest in general interesting, raising many questions regarding who you can trust, how can you be sure you can trust them, who is who, whether conscience resides in the brain or in the body or is yet something even more impossible to grasp. There were a few nice twists in the book about that. I just regretted the scientific aspect behind those, behind the technologies developed, wasn’t given more of an explanation—I’m not particularly a hardcore fan of hard-science SF, but I like having a little more meat on the bones, so to speak.

Another good thing about Ella: she wasn’t the average girl-falls-for-boy YA heroine. When an unknown, handsome but somehow dangerous-looking guy grasps her wrist to “warn” her about something, she doesn’t fall for his looks, she doesn’t immediately trust him: no, she punches him, which is a reaction far healthier than a lot of crap I’ve read in novels with similar characters. She looks for him for answers, but she does so knowing she may have to betray him afterwards; she’s ready to use him, not because she’s deeply manipulative, but because she’s wary, and aware that if she doesn’t do it, she might fall into a trap. After all, she doesn’t know him, while he keeps claiming the contrary: isn’t that fishy? Those reactions don’t necessarily make for a very likeable character at first, but they seemed to me definitely more believable than girl-falls-in-love-in-five-minutes. (Also there are tinges of insta-love, but they make sense… only explaining why would mean revealing too much.)

About the writing: the author delivers compelling chapters, and avoids the typical pit traps of weird metaphors (I’ve seen my share of those in YA lately…) and purple prose. This works pretty well in a no-nonsense way, and fits with the science fiction aspect.

The last chapters play a little too much on convenient happenings, which spoilt a little my enjoyment of the book. But overall, while not exceptional, I liked it. I’d deem it a 3.5*.

Yzabel / November 9, 2014

Review: The Paper Magician

The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician Trilogy, #1)The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

Review:

(I got a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Enjoyable as a fast read, but with a few things that prevented me from enjoying it more. I’d give it 1.5 stars.

Because I like talking about good things first: the magic. Granted, it could have been more developed, but I could still get a good enough idea of the possibilities it offered, and of the restrictions imposed by bonding to one material, and one material only. As Ceony discovered what being a Folder involved, I couldn’t help but try to find uses of my own for it: what could I do with paper, could books and stories be used for something else than illusions, and so on. When something spurs my imagination, it’s always good. Paper magic just looked so beautiful. Moreover, I shall confess to a personal (and somewhat perverse, I think) fascination in general with magic linked to the use of flesh, and there were such magicians in there, which made me go all “Yessss! Here it is!”

Another thing I liked was the tone and atmosphere, somewhat whimsical, somewhat innocent, allowing me to discover Ceony’s new life in a “fresh” way. That was a very pleasant side to this novel. The paper dog was just adorable—just like it was a good example of what Folding magic can achieve.

The second part of the book, in which Ceony had to navigate Thane’s heart, left me with mixed opinions. To me, it was both interesting and boring. Fairly interesting in how it dealt with having to face a person’s love and hopes, but also darkness and regrets, in order to find a way out; but boring because the antagonist had struck me as more aggressive in the beginning, and seemed to take her sweet time in there. And I’m still not sure why exactly Thane’s heart was such a prize. For some ritual? Just out of spite? Maybe the answer lies in the second book. I don’t know.

I had a lot of trouble empathising with Ceony. While I could understand her disappointment at being assigned to Folding instead of Smelting, I also thought her pretty whiny in that regard, considering how lucky she had been getting into magic school for starters. Folding over Smelting every day, girl, if this is the key to a better life than what you could expect otherwise! Fortunately she came around at some point, but there were still a few moments when I wondered why a character shown as hard-working and resourceful (she graduated within one year, the shortest time possible) couldn’t wrap her mind faster around all the possibilities. Sometimes, the magic almost felt “wasted” on her.

As for the romance: not impressed. Unrequited, with too many things about the guy. In the end, I didn’t feel like I had gotten to know Ceony that much, as if she only came second. Though her backstory came out now and then, it was always kept at a distance compared to Thane’s, and it was too bad. The girl had her lot of hard experiences, which should have shaped her… yet they didn’t seem to be part of her as much as thrown in there like an afterthought. The rest revolved about Thane. (And Ceony blushed all. the. time. Alright, alright, red-haired people often have fair skin and I suppose fair skin tends to blush, but it was really tiresome after a while.)

Last but not least, the way the (alternate) historical period was tackled was a bit muddled: for quite some time, I wasn’t even sure when exactly the story was set. Quite a few elements looked and sounded too modern for something that, all in all, was supposed to be the early 1900s, and apart from some names, the place did not exactly “feel” like London at the turn of the previous century, either.

Despite those problems, I’ll still read the second book (if only because I also got it from NetGalley, and think I therefore owe it a review), but I hope I’ll like it better.