2009 November » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Thursday Tea: November 19 (Hood)

Posted by Anastasia on November 19, 2009 No Responses »

Nov 192009

Thursday Tea is a weekly meme hosted by yours truly. To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the answers to these questions: what tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together.

The book: After panicking this morning about what book to read, I eventually chose Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead. I’ve never read a Lawhead book before, even though I’m familiar with his Arthurian books, and I’m not altogether impressed so far.

I’m about 100 pages into Hood, and while the writing is fine I think it’s trying a little too hard to be clever. I could pretty much figure out which person corresponded to the Robin Hood myth already; I didn’t need the “look! It’s Little John and Friar Tuck” scene. It came off more like a “you’re too stupid to figure it out so I’ll explain because I’m so smart” scene, instead.

But other than that I have no complaints. It’s extremely exciting, at least, which is more than I can say for the last book I read.

The tea: I have forgone tea once more and dipped into the seductive realm of coffee, once again taken at the wonderful Satellite. It’s just regular coffee, but it’s very good.

Do they go together? Well, no. I’m almost entirely sure there’s no coffee fiends running around Lawhead’s version of England, and I’m not sure Robin Hood would drink coffee even if it was available. It just seems out of character, somehow.

What are you drinking/reading this Thursday?

Review: The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Posted by Anastasia on November 19, 2009 No Responses »

Nov 192009

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Publication: Viking Adult (August 11, 2009), Hardcover, 416pp / ISBN 0670020559
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating:
Find @ Amazon or IndieBound
Challenges: 2009 Pub Challenge (#8)
Read: November 2009
Source: Library

I decided to read The Magicians mostly because everyone’s been peeing their pants with excitement for it, and I thought it’d be a worthwhile read. I like urban fantasy! I like children’s fantasy books! And so I got it out from my library.

I’m not entirely convinced ya’ll should be ruining your underthings for this book.

Summary from Amazon:

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

I think I was expecting The Magicians to be something it’s not– namely, lighthearted– and also I kept trying to read it like a YA book when it’s definitely not a YA book. I think the main plotline (teenager goes to magical school and becomes a wizard) kept tripping me up, because it’s such a YA thing to have in a book. You know? So my own expectations and…lens? colored my reading of The Magicians and that’s probably why I didn’t end up enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

I did enjoy it, sure. Mostly. I liked the whole idea of a magical college, and I liked some of the characters (unfortunately I didn’t like Quentin), and the book has a really British vibe to it for some reason. It’s just that I had more problems with The Magicians than I expected, and I’m not entirely convinced my problems came from the fact that I kept trying to read it as something different.

For instance, I didn’t like Quentin, as I said. He’s more an anti-hero than a hero, which isn’t a big deal (I actually like anti-heroes) but I didn’t like him even then. I found him repugnant most of the time, and it was only towards the end that I felt any sympathy for him. I didn’t like Alice, his girlfriend. I didn’t like any of the other characters except maybe Eliot and that was probably only because he was gay and I naturally feel more inclined to like gay characters.

I enjoyed the first part of the book much more than the last parts. But the last parts were enjoyable in a different way than the first part were. The first part was exciting because it was a magical college, and the second part was enjoyable in a “omg this is really depressing” kind of way. I know I’ve said over and over again that I can’t stand angst, but at the same time I really enjoy it– in a masochistic kind of way– when books take something sacred to me and then break it somehow. So, The Magicians took the sanctity of children’s fantasy books and exposed the underlying crap that tends to lurk in them.

So, it was depressing, in the same way that all dashed hopes are depressing, but it was fun to read about, too.

The problem is that the two main parts of the book seem to much different from each other that it made The Magicians more schizophrenic then it should have been. Then too there were some plotlines that went nowhere– though the majority seemed to tie themselves up by the end, true. But some other things just sort of appeared and then fizzled out and I’m not entirely sure what purpose they served in relation to the overall story.

The writing– minus the characters and the plot, of course– was fine. I didn’t notice anything horribly wrong and it kept me reading until the end, didn’t it?

I can’t help feeling like maybe I’m feeling a little more harsh towards The Magicians than I should. Is it because I’m mad it’s not more YA-ish? Or is it because of something else? I’ve been reading some other reviews and they’ve mostly been saying the same things I’ve been saying in my review, so maybe I’m just overreacting.

I would definitely recommend giving The Magicians a thought it you think it’d be something you like. It’s an interesting take on the world of children’s fantasy while not being a children’s fantasy itself. I read in another review that The Magicians is supposed to be a satire of those sorts of books, so perhaps try reading it that way instead of like a YA book and you’ll probably be fine.

Maybe get it from your library before forking moola out for the hardcover, though.

Review: The Riddle (Pellinor #2) by Alison Croggon

Posted by Anastasia on November 18, 2009 No Responses »

Nov 182009

Riddle big The Riddle by Alison Croggon
Publication: Candlewick (August 8, 2006), Hardcover, 512pp / ISBN 0763630152
Genre: Fantasy, YA/Teen
Rating:
Find @ Amazon or IndieBound
Read: November 2009
Source: Library

Series: Book #1

I said in book one’s review that the story moved slowly but the fast, action-packed bits made up for it. In this book that’s no longer true, and I think it’s because it’s more focused on internal conflicts than external. There’s still some fight scenes, but I’d definitely say the majority of the action happened in Maerad’s heart and head.

Is that bad? Not really, and I actually think it made the story flow better than the first one. But on the other hand, Maerad is so much in denial about certain things that it takes her a while to realize what she’s doing to herself: the more she denies who she is and what she’s feeling, the more she’s locking away her Bard powers. It gets so bad she can’t even do magic for a while! She gets better, though, of course. But it’s a slow journey, and it’s not always an interesting one.

Summary from Amazon:

Maerad is a girl with a tragic and bitter past, but her powers grow stronger by the day. Now she and her mentor, Cadvan, hunted by both the Light and the Dark, must unravel the Riddle of the Treesong before their fractured kingdom erupts in chaos. The quest leads Maerad over terrifying seas and vast stretches of glacial wilderness, ever closer to the seductive Winterking — ally of her most powerful enemy, the Nameless One. Trapped in the Winterking’s icy realm, Maerad must confront what she has suspected all along: that she is the greatest riddle of all.

I still like this book. I like that it forces Maerad to look at herself deeper than she had been, and though she annoyed me sometimes with her unwillingness to just look at her actions and accept them for what they are, it’s understandable. And it actually does make for a good story– the best part for sure is when she finally breaks her shell around her heart and starts looking at herself like I wanted her to in the first part of the book.

But! Though the emotional journey with Maerad was nice, I also couldn’t help but feel like the book was sort of…deliberately trying to manipulate me in ways I didn’t want to be manipulated. See, I was already sympathetic with Maerad: I understood what sort of person she was and how she reacts to certain things. I didn’t need the book– okay, the author– to pile on this, like, teenage girl weeping into her diary kind of crap. It was just too much, and I think I said elsewhere that it was bordering on purple prose-ish.

(Like, I know Maerad’s sad because she thinks her brother died, okay? I don’t need her to go on and on about how the light of her life was extinguished, over and over and over again.)

I hope I explained that well enough because it really did bug me (though it seemed to slow down in the second half of the book).

The second thing that bugged me about this book was how it pretended certain people were dead when I knew they weren’t and that they’d pop back up again later. (They all died off-screen– never trust off-screen deaths.) By pretending they’re dead you get a lot of reaction from Maerad, of course, but it’s much less effective to me, the reader, because I know they aren’t dead. And because I know that it made the BIG REVEAL! at the end somewhat ridiculous. (But I was still glad there was a BIG REVEAL because that character needed to be revealed, okay. That character was my favorite character!)

So, in conclusion: a bit too manipulative, a bit slow, a bit emotional but still somehow satisfying. Though I do feel a bit exhausted, lemme tell ya. I’ve got the third book and I think the main character changes then, so I look forward to seeing how that is.

Other reviews: Reading is My Superpower | Books & Other Thoughts | In the Booley House

Book Trailer Tuesday: The Strain

Posted by Anastasia on November 17, 2009 No Responses »

Nov 172009

Book Trailer Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by me, Anastasia. It’s very simple to play along: find a particularly awesome book trailer, embed it in a post, then proceed to coo all over it. Or, y’know, talk about whatever you want to talk about. Why did this book trailer catch your eye? Why do you want to share it with people? Did it make you want to read the book? Why was it effective (or not)?

This weeks book trailer isn’t as viral as Sense & Sensibilities & Seamonsters, but it does have real people in it! Actors! Who can act! Also special effects! That are scary! (More exclamation marks!!!)

Watch:

By now ya’ll should know that I almost always love any trailer with a) real people and b) little-to-no text placed on top of a picture. This one isn’t real long, but I think it gives a good idea of what the book is about, don’t you? And it’s kind of interesting how it’s blurry in some places and sharp in others. I wonder if that’s alluding to something in the book? Or maybe it’s just trying to look old fashioned for some reason? What do you think?

What book trailer have you liked this week?

Review: Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese

Posted by Anastasia on November 17, 2009 No Responses »

Nov 172009

Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese
Publication: St. Culain Press (July 13, 2009), Paperback, 337pp / ISBN 0578032147
Genre: Fiction
Rating:
Find @ Amazon
Challenges: 2009 Pub Challenge (#7) / Countdown 2010 (2009 #9)
Read: November 2009
Source: Author

You should know two things before continuing on: 1) I was feeling sort of low this weekend because of a paper deadline coming up that I wasn’t ready for (and because of three other papers coming up that I’m not ready for), and 2) I was worried that Mercury Falls would turn out to be another Only Human i.e. somewhat boring and not as good as Good Omens, the penultimate book about humans, demons and angels in a comedic setting.

So imagine how happy I was when 1) Mercury Falls cheered me up enough to let me basically finish that paper and 2) it’s enough like Good Omens to be enjoyable but it’s dislike Good Omens enough to not be a total ripoff.

Summary from Amazon:

Years of covering the antics of End Times cults for The Banner, a religious news magazine, have left Christine Temetri not only jaded but seriously questioning her career choice. That is, until she meets Mercury, an anti-establishment angel who’s frittering his time away whipping up batches of Rice Krispy Treats and perfecting his ping-pong backhand instead of doing his job: helping to orchestrate Armageddon. With the end near and angels and demons debating the finer political points of the Apocalypse, Christine and Mercury accidentally foil an attempt to assassinate one Karl Grissom, a thirty-seven-year-old film school dropout about to make his big break as the Antichrist. Now, to save the world, she must negotiate the byzantine bureaucracies of Heaven and Hell and convince the apathetic Mercury to take a stand, all the while putting up with the obnoxious mouth-breathing Antichrist.

There are, of course, a lot of similar things in Mercury Falls and Good Omens. It’s kind of to be expected, what with the similar plotline and all, and besides the different superficial stuff– location, specific types of characters, jokes– it is pretty similar. It’s funny, it’s got interesting if somewhat non-original things to say about humans and angels (and demons), and it’s got footnotes. But! I think that while Good Omens maybe focuses more on the people involved with the apocalypse, Mercury Falls is more concerned with the whole situation that leads up to there being an apocalypse in the first place, and what that means for us humans.

The characters are nice, of course. I liked Christine, especially how she kept telling off angels and demons and whatnot. I didn’t like Karl, the Antichrist (but that wasn’t all to surprising). Mercury was an interesting sort of angel– kind of like what Aziraphale and Crowley would be if they were smushed together and then put into a statue of a Greek god– but he seemed more one-dimensional than anything else. Or maybe he was just meant to be an enigma? (Not like one of those sexy enigmas with an Italian care and fabulous hair. Just like a regular sort who makes goofy jokes and who has, er, silver hair.) But they all seem to take a bit of a backseat to the philosophical bits lurking beneath the surface of the text.

The plot is pretty much what you’d expect: human gets dragged into conflict between heaven and hell, human slaps them around a bit, heaven and hell rethink some things, apocalypse gets diverted because of encroaching paperwork. You know, the standard “omg the apocalypse let’s talk things over and/or blow each other up and then maybe we can keep it from happening” sort of thing. The fun stuff!

One thing I did notice was that there never seemed to be any rising action, er, thing. It seemed to stay like this for the most part: —

Instead of like this, I mean: n

I didn’t notice until the middle but there aren’t a terrible lot of action bits in Mercury Falls. It seemed to stay more toward the philosophical discussion side of things, with occasional running away and teleporting elsewhere. Is that bad? Maybe, maybe not. I wasn’t ever bored, if that answers your question. I suppose I was too busy laughing and waiting to see how the apocalypse would get diverted, exactly.

Okay, wait. I think I’ve done that thing where I’ve made something sound worse than it is, and Mercury Falls is not bad. It’s great! It’s really well-written and way more relevant for today than Only Human, and I loved picking out the different pop culture references. Though the characters weren’t always effective, I still liked following them around and seeing how they’d fix the mess they’re in. It’s really interesting to have a dull, actually really disgusting Antichrist who reminds me of one of those dude who lives with a doll-woman instead of a real person. I like it when angels go against the angel grain, like Mercury does, and it makes me laugh when supernatural beings act exactly like people stuck in cubicles must do (Office Space, set in heaven!). Mercury Falls made me smile all day, and I truly enjoyed reading it.

Is it anything new? Not really. Was it really enjoyable? Did it cheer me up a lot? Will I probably reread it alongside other books that make me feel good? Yep! And so I definitely recommend this if you need something to lift your spirits. Or maybe even if you’re wishing there was more Good Omens-type things available!

Oh, small note: Mercury Falls is self-published, but the only formatting issues I noticed were a few missing quotation marks, which seemed to have moved themselves into the wrong place in some dialogue formatting. It’s rather surprisingly well made for a self-published book (and cheap, too)! So don’t be afraid to give it a shot.

Other reviews: Book Junkie | Reading for Sanity | Musings

Challenge completed! Arthurian Challenge 2009-2010

Posted by Anastasia on November 16, 2009 No Responses »

Nov 162009

Arthur Challenge Technically this challenge was supposed to end in March of 2010, but I blazed right through it. I should have known my obsession with Arthurian things would flare up again and I’d finish quickly, but, well. I didn’t.

Also, technically, there wasn’t a set amount of books to read, but I picked five and five I read. Here’s the final list:

1. The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp – Rick Yancey
2. The Seeing Stone (Arthur Trilogy #1) – Kevin Crossley-Holland
3. At the Crossing Places (Arthur Trilogy #2) – Kevin Crossley-Holland
4. King of the Middle March (Arthur Trilogy #3) – Kevin Crossley-Holland
5. The Winter King – Bernard Cornwell

I seriously cannot pick a favorite book, though I admit I liked every other book better than Alfred Kropp. I like the Kevin Crossley-Holland books because they’re poetic and use up every version of the myth it can. I like The Winter King because it’s more intense and realistic.

I’ve got a couple other Arthurian-ish books I want to read, including an actual Arthurian book or two (Perceval, for one). It’s just an awesome subject!

What’s your favorite Arthurian book?

Review: Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

Posted by Anastasia on November 16, 2009 No Responses »

Nov 162009

Castle Waiting big Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
Publication: Fantagraphics Books (May 31, 2006), Hardback, 472pp / ISBN 1560977477
Genre: Fantasy, Graphic Novel
Rating:
Find @ Amazon
Read: November 2009
Source: Library

I recently discovered a whole shelf full of graphic novels at the library where I work. I had no idea it was there! It’s hidden by comic book theory/nonfiction/etc books and I tend to skim over those kind of books, so I’m not too surprised I didn’t notice before…but I’m totally going to be haunting that section of the floor now. There’s a ton of good graphic novels there, including Castle Waiting.

(I’m getting much better at segueing into a review, don’t ya think? Maybe?)

Summary from Amazon:

A fable for modern times, Castle Waiting is a fairy tale that’s not about rescuing the princess, saving the kingdom, or fighting the ultimate war between Good and Evil — but about being a hero in your own home. The opening story, “The Brambly Hedge,” tells the origin of the castle itself, which is abandoned by its princess in a comic twist on “Sleeping Beauty” when she rides off into the sunset with her Prince Charming. The castle becomes a refuge for misfits, outcasts, and others seeking sanctuary, playing host to a lively and colorful cast of characters that inhabits the subsequent stories, including a talking anthropomorphic horse, a mysteriously pregnant Lady on the run, and a bearded nun.

The art in Castle Waiting is almost minimalist, but it’s extremely well-done and very pleasing on the eye. And there are lots of little things to notice if you pay a little bit of attention! For instance:
100_1362-cropped
Love the little smile!

Even better than the art, though, is the writing! It’s extremely fun, and I love the references to other fairy tales and books. Like! Green Eggs and Ham, Puss in Boots…bearded ladies! Though that last one isn’t really a fairy tale. But it’s still awesome! I don’t ever remember reading a story featuring a bearded women before, and Castle Waiting features several of them. The other characters are just as fun, especially Jain, a former Lady-with-a-capital-L who runs away to the castle to escape her horrid husband. She’s sassy and determined and brave, as are all of the women in Castle Waiting, actually.

My only complaint is that it doesn’t feel like a complete book. Each story in Castle Waiting is like a tiny glimpse into the overall world, and so they don’t necessarily have to follow a straight line from start to finish. That’s why it can start with a Sleeping Beauty story in pre-Castle Waiting times and then skip forward 100+ years, change main characters, and no one minds (or, at least I didn’t mind). But! Jain’s story seemed cut off. It starts with her running away, follows her to the castle where she gives birth to her kid, and then shows her life in the castle from then on. We get a bit of her background in a flashback sequence, but where’s the rest of her story? Her baby wasn’t her husband’s– so who’s the father? I’m really itching to know, and to not have that explanation in this volume is really irritating.

I THINK there’s more issues out there, but I’m not sure where to get them. This collection of Castle Waiting issues was published in 2006, and according to Wikipedia Ms Medley has been putting out more issues as of 2008. I’m for sure going to have to track them down, though, because I seriously want to know what else happens in the world of Castle Waiting!

If you like the sort of alternate take on fairy tales that people like Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean do, then you’ll really like this book.

Other reviews: Not Approved By the Comics Code Authority | Rebbeca Reads | Das Ubernerd