Book Review: The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley

Verity Grey is hired by an eccentric archeologist obsessed with finding out what became of Romes lost Ninth Legion. He's sure it disappeared in Britain, on the ground he now owns, inf fact. Working with him is Verity's ex, her employer's daughter (and ex's current fling), and a handsome local archeologist who is initially elusive but very attractive. Verity is won over by her employer's enthusiasm, but not as thrilled with his evidence: He's basing his theories on a young boy's second site. Still, Verity agrees to stay for a time, and finds herself troubled by ghosts, fog, and the sound of horses galloping by at night in an area where no horses live.

The Shadowy Horses reminded me quite a bit of the Mary Stewart mystery/romance stories. This is both good and bad: It's good because I like Mary Stewart, and I have read all of her other books, so it was nice to find a potential read alike. It's bad because it wasn't quite a read-alike. Kearsley does some good atmosphere work, and the ghostly centurion, still on guard after all these centuries, and still trying to right old wrongs is a great character. There are also plenty of intrigues and troubles in the present-day crew, enough to make anyone nervous.

The trouble is, Verity Grey lacks some of the spunk of Stewart's heroines. Sure, they all end up turning to the nearest handsome male for help, but they usually don't quaver at the very first sign of ghostly chills. Grey's convinced there's a ghost, and terrified of it, well before there's any real evidence of any actual ghost. Also, I would have liked to see more archeology going on. Kearseley introduces Verity as a well-established, respected archeologist in her own right, but once she reaches the site, actual digging seems to give way to ghostly visitations, romance, and alleged second sight.

Ultimately, I found it fun, light reading, and I'm not sorry to have picked it up, but I thought it needed more oomph. I kept wanting Verity to assert herself more, to turn around when there were ghostly rustles, to show just a bit more backbone.

Random side note one: I think Kearsley also reminds me of Phillippa Whitney, but this is more a memory of some late, late nights reading Whitney's books during my high school years than any other real feeling. And, as those nights spent quietly reading, with no one else up, are treasured memories, I probably won't risk revisiting Whitney and discovering I don't like her any more. That, of course, risks not reading an author I would like now, but all the same, I think I'll let her be.

Random side note two: The Lost Legion caught my attention because of Andre Norton's The Last Planet, which really has nothing to do with the story here, but is one of my favorite books ever, and has had perpetual place on my bookshelves wherever I may be.

Other Reviews

A Book a Week This is where I first learned about it. Kiirstin Maki likes it loads more than I did, so you may want to read her review as well!

Melissa's Bookshelf
A Good Stopping Point
The Eclectic Reader
Lots more results from Fyrefly's Book Blog Search

Got a review I should include? Drop me a line and let me know!

Links of Interest
The Shadowy Horses on Amazon Gracious! It's a 2012 book! Here I was thinking it was written back when...whenever Mary Stewart was writing. I should look that up, I suppose, but Stewart's one of those writers whose just always been there on the shelves, you know? Something of a legend I'm not sure I'm ready to look up her bio and put her in the real world.

Anyway.

Susanna Kearsley's home page, where you can read her blog, catch up on her book lists, and generally find more stuff!

Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Jones books are always good, and they usually get better on rereading, so I was quite happy when I was able to download a copy of Earwig and the Witch from the library and do my reread via audio book. This is the first time I've listened to it, and Charlotte Parry does an incredible job. I ended up listening to it more than once because I wasn't anywhere I could change books--and that was fine with me!

Earwig and the Witch is a children's book for early readers just getting into chapter books, so don't expect complexity. Do expect fun, and a dose of Diana Wynne Jones eeriness. Earwig is an appealing, and almost entirely amoral kid who just wants her way. She is quite happy at the orphanage where she was left as a child because she has a number of people to boss around and figures no family can ever match that. When she's adopted by a witch and a very strange man (or demon? It's never really clear quite what the Mandrake is), she has to team up with the resident cat and do some quick thinking to get her own way.

Part of what makes the book work so well is that Earwig is basically a likeable child. She wants her own way, but she isn't mean about it: She has a good friend, she bargains well with the cat, and she's not out to cause trouble for its own sake. The other part is that Earwig usually does get her own way, through sheer strength of will, and that is incredibly fun. Her new house is pleasantly but not scarily spooky.



I am so sad that this is the last Diana Wynne Jones ever!

Book Review: Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Happy New Year! And happy old book--I'm still erratically and happily working my way back through McKinley's books.

Sunshine is one of Mckinley's Beauty and the Beast retellings, though it departs further from the tale than, say Beauty or even Chalice. In fact, Sunshine, the "Beauty" of the story tells the tale to Constantine, the "Beast" quite early on in the novel.

Sunshine is set sometime in the near, non-specific future, in a land where vampires, werewolves, triffids, zombies etc are entirely real and where a recent magical war has left scars across the land. It begins Sunshine is abducted by vampires and taken to a deserted mansion. Once there, finds herself allying with a vampire, Constantine, and has to learn to use magic she barely understands to survive a vampire war and takeover attempt. The trouble is: She hates vampires. Everyone hates vampires, and rightly so. They're predators and, unlike the other supernatural beings, there is no way of making peace with them or sharing the world with them. Sunshine is sure, and with reason, that if any of her other friends find out about the vampire, Constantine, they will never forgive her.

Sunshine has deeper world-building and is darker than most Mckinley, which is why it is both one of my favorites and one of my least favorites. I've read it before, but I'm still surprised by the amount of gore and despair that there is in the book₍₁₎. Also, I'm not a fan of vampires though for Mckinley, I'll make an exception, just as I do for Hambly. It's just that I keep managing to pick it up expecting a nice, quiet read like Beauty or Chalice and instead I'm immersed in this dark, tangled, dangerous, suspenseful novel wondering what happened.

There are significant alterations to the "Beauty and the Beast" story here. For example, Sunshine already has a perfectly good human boyfriend who stays steady, strong, and reliable all through, and Constantine is, and will remain, a vampire and that is a predator, even if a reasonably honorable one. The relationship Sunshine and Constantine have can't really be described as romantic, either. Also, this one is, as I've mentioned already, very much a suspense-veering-toward horror story. There are monsters out there and they have to be fought, often violently, and it takes all of Sunshine's courage and then some to face them.

Like Mckinley's other Beauties, Sunshine has a real-world passion that keeps her grounded in the middle of all the insanity. Hers is baking: She is the Cinnamon Roll Queen, maker of Sunshine's Eschatology and other deserts. There are lavish, loving descriptions of baking that I could lose myself in quite happily.

I'm sure I will be reading Sunshine again, and I can't help wishing there were a sequel. I like Rae/Sunshine, the heroine and I love her world. I want to find out what happened to the Blaise family, to find out how the humans win (We will win, right?) in the end, and to see what becomes of Sunsine as she furthers her studies of the magical, and to find out more about Mel, and to meet all of the coffee shop folk again. Mckinley is quite, quite definite about the absence of sequels, and the book does end quite well in its own right, and the loose ends are the perfectly respectable sort of loose ends that imply that, yes, there's a world out there, and it's still going, but the author hasn't chronicled all of it, and it works just fine. I'm greedy, that's all.

---
(1) This really shouldn't surprise me. I have read Deerskin which is one of the more visceral descriptions of the aftermath of rape and incest I've ever come across. It is very, very good, and a book someone absolutely had to write, and I am never reading it again.

Other Reviews
Tales of the Marvelous
Love Vampires
The Eclectic Review

Links of Interest
Robin McKinley's Blog
Robin Mckinley's entry on why there will probably never be a sequel to Sunshine, so please stop asking
Sunshine on Amazon.

Book Review: Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Princess Ben : Being a Wholly Truthful Account of her Various Discoveries and Misadventures, Recounted to the Best of Her Recollection is the story of how Princess Benevolence learned to become a proper princess and saved her kingdom in the process. Ben is a slightly spoiled child living happily with her parents. Then, they are killed and she finds herself heir to the kingdom and subject to the queen's kill-or-cure re-education and makeover process. She rebels, runs away, and eventually figures out how to actually be a princess.

By the end, it's kind of charming: I enjoy a good tale of hidden passages, mysterious passages, secret magic lessons, and (possibly) dragons. The political intrigue finally comes into focus and starts to matter, and some mysteries are cleared up. There are even hints of an eccentric castle here: The magic room only gives lessons when it wants to, it only lets her open the book to certain pages, and it insists she clean it.

The trouble is Princess Ben spends about three-quarters of the book being a nearly intolerable brat. I knew she'd straighten out eventually, that was the kind of story it is, but she took far too long. Even once she starts learning to use magic, she spends most of the book using it for small, selfish things. I mean, she sneaks around and steals stuff rather than learning useful things. The one Useful Thing she does overhear, she has to have explained to her later in words of one syllable, and even then she doesn't actually do anything about it until much, much later in the book.

I only managed last long enough to reach the charming bits it because a) secret passages and b) It was on my MP3 player and I was busy. Also, I had a hard time believing that the, by all appearances, politically savvy queen could come up with such a stupid re-education program. I could believe in one Ben wouldn't like (there was not much she would like at that point), but not one that featured such an inept tutor.

The pseudo-archaic dialog bothered me too. I can only handle so many inverted sentences at a time, and "wherefore" is not an old-fashioned way of saying "where." It really isn't.

Verdict? Only for the truly die-hard Princess fans. Tuesdays at the Castle is a much better eccentric castle book with a much more congenial set of orphan heirs.

Other Reviews by other reviewers some of whom liked it rather more than I, and some of whom did not:
Teen Book Review
Small Review
Pica Reads
The Story Siren

Book Review: The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

I like a good fairytale mashup, and this one is very good. Hines goes back and draws on the Grimm version of the fairy tales, complete with the stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet to fit the shoe and the birds attacking at the wedding, and updates and blends them together to tell a new tale of intrigue and romance.

Cinderella has already won her prince. She is ready for a happy ending, and the marriage is happy. Adjusting to palace life, however, is proving challenging; she keeps having to repress the urge to clean things and having people remind her that she is supposed to be the one in charge is difficult. Then her stepsisters kidnap her husband and smuggle him over the border to fairyland. Now, she has to team up with Talia (Sleeping Beauty) and Snow (White) to get him back, battling magic, trolls, evil shadows, and political schemes along the way. She has to learn how to be in charge, how to handle a sword, and, hardest of all, when to be nice and when to go for the kill.

I picked up The Stepsister Scheme because I liked the title, and it proved a good call. The book is like its title: A little offbeat and fun. It's got some spy stuff, some neat fairy tale twists, some spunky princesses, a prince worth rescuing, and a complicated and interesting fairyland.

I've read the "innocent expecting a happily ever after learns its not that easy" before, and it's not my favorite plot, but there is enough else going on here to keep things new. Also, while Danielle has to learn to be a little more cynical, she helps Talia learn to be a little less so, so there's some balance there. Do be aware that, though I persist in describing this book as "fun" that doesn't mean it doesn't go some dark places. The story of Snow and her mother, in particular, is quite nasty and there are parallels there with Cinderella's stepmother. Hines is using the early Grimm stories as the basis for his tales and, as many people lately have been saying, these were not always "nice" or "pretty" in their details.

Verdict: Not up there on the "must hand it to everyone I know" level, but certainly on the "I want to read the sequels" list.


Other Reviews
Fantasy Book Critic
The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf and Book Review
The Good, the Bad, and the Unread

Links
Jim C. Hines' web page
@jimchines on Twitter

The Stepsister Scheme on Amazon.

Book Review: William Shakspeare's Star Wars--Verily a New Hope by Ian Doescher

I’m sitting here looking at William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher and wondering how to start a review that sounds anything like objective. And, you know, I can’t. I loved this book. I loved the idea so much that the book sat unread for a while because I couldn’t be sure the text would live up to the concept, loved it so much that the minute I finished reading it, I called one friend to tell her she had to read it before she talked to me again and then got online so I could rhapsodize about it with another friend who had read it.

So, now you know. I'm not objective; I'm in love.

Much as I liked the idea, I was a little wary when it came to reading the actual book. How well good could a simple retelling of Star Wars really be, in the end? Very, as it happens. The book isn’t a “simple” retelling, not even “simply” in rhymed iambic pentameter. It incorporates ideas from the prequels (and does it well), comments on fan debate, adds an extra layer of character to everyone, and generally turns Star Wars into a quite respectable Shakespearean play. Vadar has some villainous monologues, R2D2 adds some scorching asides to the audience, Luke is given a thoughtfulness not always evident in the movie (and make no mistake; I like Luke), and Han has a couple of thoughtful monologues.

R2D2's asides are an unexpected addition. To the other characters, he still beeps and boops (iambically), but he gives frequent asides to the audience, commenting on events and character, at one point stating

Although with sounds oblique I speak to them,
I clearly see how I shall play my part,
And how a vast rebellion shall succeed
By wit and wisdom of a simple droid.

Doescher continues to play with words in a very Bard-like fashion, sometimes mixing in a an altered line or two from Shakespeare's (other?) plays, teasing with references to Star Trek, or adding playful references to fan controversies, as when Obi-wan muses about what to tell Luke about his father, or when Han and Greedo confront one another and Han leaves with the aside,

And whether I shot first, I'll ne'er confess!

The chorus, meanwhile, provides commentary on what is happening, effectively filling in for the visuals not present. It works very well, and I do still hope someone actually acts this play and films it so I can watch this and Lucas' version back to back.

My copy of the book is bristling with bookmarks indicating quotations I really have to share, except I probably had better not or there won't be much book left for you to read.

I can’t close without mentioning Nicolas Delort’s illustrations. I thought the Elizabethen ruff in the book trailer was a nice addition to Vadar’s costume. Delort’s elaborate chain-mail version of the outfit (see the cover) is even better. His reimaginings continue to enliven the book: There’s Luke musing on the storm trooper’s helmet, Han facing Jabba, and (another favorite), Vadar looking at the smoking ruins of a model Death Star.

Is this book worth reading? Yes, if you like Shakespeare, if you like Star Wars, if you like literature, or if you enjoy laughing, it’s worth reading. Now I can settle back happily to wait for The Empire Striketh Back and The Jedi Doth Return, next year!

Now, for the third time, here's the trailer!



Links of Interest
Victoria Irwin reviews Ian Doescher for The Geek Girl Project
Quirk Books' page for Star Wars: Verily a New Hope.
Ian Doescher's Page

Other Reviews
Victoria Irwin's review on The Geek Girl Project.
Bookin' with Bingo
In Bed with Books
Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Did I miss a review I should have included? Let me know, either here in the comments section or by using the Contact Me link above.

Book Review: Chalice by Robin Mckinley

This is one I picked up while in the mood to reread (see my initial review here).

In Chalice, Mirasol, a beekeeper and woods-tender must learn to help run her segment of the country while trying to bring the lord of the land back from his near-total transformation to an inhuman priest of fire. She must also contend with political intrigues she barely understands. It is not made easier by the fact that, while she is a very good beekeeper, she was never trained in the rituals of her new status and has no training at all in politics.

Chalice is a leisurely read, perfect for a relaxed day. A lot of it focuses on Mirasol's daily life as she tends her bees, studies her new role, and tries to apply the things she used as a beekeeper to life as a Chalice--someone who comforts the land and sees to the people's daily needs.

This is one of Mckinley's many retellings of Beauty and the Beast, and it shares some of the traits with Beauty and Rose Daughter. As with those, the heroine has some special bonding to the land and, as with those, she has a mundane talent that helps keep her anchored in the magical world. Where Beauty/Honor loved her horses and her books, and Rose Daughter Beauty knew and loved roses, Mirasol knows bees and plant care, and draws both her magical and practical strength from their presence. In all three cases, the seemingly trivial aids in the large.

This is not to say the books are mere echoes of one another. They aren't, not by a long shot. Chalice stands up well on its own with hints of a long history and tradition that I was dying to learn more about. Much as I loved Mirasol, I also loved the land she lived in and I wanted to see more of it. I wish there were going to be a sequel! There's room for a sequel, but of course there never will be. McKinley never writes sequels--Except when she does--see Pegasus and Blue Sword (sort of)).

Other Reviews
Bookshelves of Doom
Erin's Bookshelf

Links of Interest
Chalice on Amazon
Robin Mckinley's home page. The spot where you can find out which book is coming up next and why the book coming out this year isn't the Pegasus sequel but another book entirely (but Pegasus II is coming, and I'm definitely planning on reading Shadows) and other such items. Also there's plenty on the absence of sequels, and some on gardening, and lots of footnotes.

Book Review: Fairest. Vol. 1 Wide Awake by Bill Willingham (Author) and Phil Jimenez (Illustrator)

Yes, I'm in love with this series!

Fairest: Wide Awake is another spinoff from the main series, but it's by Willingham himself, so it has the balance of fun and seriousness that the tale does so well, plus a good stiff dose of the multi-layered fairytale play: Ali Baba, the Snow Queen, and Sleeping Beauty are main players, and then there's a bottle imp.

It's a spinoff, but it is more closely tied to the main stories than some. I really, really, really don't recommend reading it until you're at least past Volume 16 of the main series, not if you don't want some more spoilers. In fact, if you haven't gotten that far and you do mind spoilers, you should probably just accept that Fairest Vol. 1 is awesome and skip the rest of the review, because there are going to be a couple of spoilers for Fables.

What's Fairest about?

It goes back to battle tactics in Fables. Remember how Sleeping Beauty's curse put everyone around her to sleep? The Fables used this against their enemy, taking her to a major city and having her prick her finger. She thus put an entire enemy city to sleep and was left there to keep them from waking. Later, soldiers were instructed to move and guard her carefully. The problem? There were two beautiful maidens found asleep in the city. Both were collected and left in the center of a camp. Now, a resourceful thief, Ali Baba, has found a bottle imp who leads him to the princesses. He wakes both. One is Sleeping Beauty, one is not. There could be true love ahead. There could be death.

The bottle imp really steals the show here. Oh, the thief and princesses are great, but the bottle imp is the one using his wits and words to shape the tale and he's fantastic. I love the fact that he really wants to be mischievous and cause trouble, but his orders mean he can't--at least, not mostly. This is also the first retelling of "The Snow Queen" I've ever liked.

Also, there is a really heart-breaking "Beauty and the Beast" story at the end. The volume would be worth it just for that.

I don't really recommend this for people who haven't been reading the main series; it will make you want to read the rest, and you'll go into the book with some major plot elements spoiled, but if you like the series, but are unsure about spinoffs, don't wait any longer. Pick it up!

Other Reviews
The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia
Book Banter
Fyrefly's Book Blog

Links of Interest
Fairest: Wide Awake on Amazon.
Bill Willihngham's website
@BillWillingham on Twitter
Phil Jimenez website

Book Review: Cinderella vol. 2 Fables are Forever by Chris Roberson (Author) and Shawn McManus (Illustrator)

Oh dear.

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I absolutely love the main Fables series, so of course I'm running out to pick up all the other books around it. Fables are Forever is something of a disappointment, even though it works with spy-Cinderella, whom I love, and has fun with genres and characters, which I also love.

Cinderella has to face off with "the Silver Slipper," an assassin foe from her past. Having this super-assassin turn out to be Dorothy Gale was clever, but other than that, there's really not much substance to the book. Dorothy and Cinderella try to kill each other several times over the years and in many different countries. There's no character development for either, and thus no real reason to like or dislike Cinderella any more than I already did. Dorothy is so one-dimensional that her evilness is more a matter of form than anything else.

There's some shallow discussion of the difference between a mercenary and a patriot, and who is more justified in which despicable actions, but it doesn't really go anywhere. It's not a case of either woman developing doubts, or of letting the reader explore the issue, it's just what a pair of spies chat about while they fight.

The art was...eh. I mean, it's not entirely out of character for Cindy to traipse around in the snow in a bikini, but surely even Fables get cold? Shouldn't she be blue and shivering, not svelte and appealing?

So, overall, this was a disappointment. I mean, it's not that it's especially ghastly, it just has a really, really high bar to reach, and it settles for being decidedly average.

Other Reviews
Back to Books
Comic Book Resources
Got a review I missed? Drop me a line and I'll include it!

Links of Interest
Chris Roberson's home page.

Book Review: Cinderella Vol. 1 From Fabletown with Love by Chris Roberson (Author) and Shawn McManus (Illustrator)

Yes, I read the Cinderella books out of order. This was sloppy of me, but I'm glad I did it.

Fables Are Forever had me just about give up on the Fables spinoffs. From Fabletown with Love has restored my faith.

For one thing, there is a lot more going on here. The Fables all work very hard at keeping their true nature hidden from the mundane world. Now, someone is selling magic items wholesale, and Cinderella has to figure out who it is and stop them before the world wakes up to the existence of real, and powerful, magic. She also has to deal with witches, a fairy godmother, and a handsome stranger who may or may not be on her side. In the meantime, her shoe-shop in Fabletown is being run by a disgruntled employee who wants to make changes of his own.

There are no deep character insights; perhaps Roberson is being kept on a leash in terms of development, but there's a bit from Cinderella's past, some amusing work with her assistant and his Fabletown problems, and enough variety of setting and plot to keep things fun.

It's not quite the heady amazing awesomeness of the main storyline, but it's good, and it's got the same sense of play that underlies them, the sense that the entire world is a treasure box of stories just waiting to be pulled out and played with.

Oh, and it takes place late in the series. If you mind spoilers, don't read it until you're through Fables: The Dark Ages vol. 12 of the main Fables arc. As best I can tell by the dates, you should be safe at that point. If anyone wants to give me a better estimate, send me an email. I really did tumble through the main series in record time, not keeping track of what went where, just so I could findoutwhathappensnext. This makes me enthusiastic, but not terribly helpful about specific volumes.

Other Reviews
Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' Reviews
Get Graphic
Fyrefly's Book Blog

Links of Interest
Chris Roberson's home page
Shawn McManus's home page.

Got a link or review I missed and should include? Let me know and I'll add it to the list!

Tales from Lovecraft Middle School by Charles Gilman

If you're the sort of person who likes rats mysteriously finding their ways into sealed lockers, thinks a heroic two-headed rat makes a fantastic addition to the cast, finds giant bugs in disguise deliciously creepy, and likes horror with a side helping of humor plus truly courageous and yet ordinary kids for main characters, and if you think throwing in  tentacled monsters,inter-dimensional portals, and secret plots makes things even more fun, then these books are for you.

In Professor Gargoyle Rob finds himself going to a brand new, beautiful school where he only knows a few of them--one of them Glenn, the school bully from his old school. An unexpected encounter with a multi-tentacled monster forces the two to join forces, and they find themselves becoming friends as they try to figure out just who the mysterious Master is and what his plans are. They are joined in the fight by Karina, a ghost now tied to the school, and an extremely intelligent two-headed rat, Pip and Squeak.  It's a delectable little snack with just the right balance of horror and humor.

In fact, it was so delicious that, after I finished gloating a bit over its wonderfulness₍₁₎, I sat right down and read The Slither Sisters at once, glad that for once I had the next book in the series on hand and didn't have to wait₍₂₎.

By The Slither Sisters,  the demonic forces are trying to take over the school by winning the election for student council president--and it makes sense, in context, that other-dimensional creatures are after a middle school. Rob and Glenn are learning the hard way that anyone and everyone might be a monster in disguise, making it hard to find allies in their fight against the otherworldly evils.

In Teacher's Pest, Rob finds he has trusted someone he shouldn't, and now he and his friends have to figure out how to stop his plans to expand the Master's plot to take over the world. Also, there is an invasion of bugs at the school. This time, they are ordinary-sized, but there are gargantuan numbers. Rob isn't sure how they fit the Master's plot, but he knows it isn't good. Trust continues to be a problem, and though he and his allies (including the school librarian, yay!) have found a way to combat the creatures individually, it isn't enough for wholesale combat.

I adore these books. They're perfect slices of fun and spookiness--and, yes, Lovecraftian mythos (The series' title and the mention of tentacled creatures likely gave you a clue or two there). The pacing is perfect, keeping things moving while giving enough information about this strange, spooky world. Also, the characterization is strong. I tend to be a little leery of "the school bully can be your best friend" stories, but there's plenty here to motivate Glenn and Rob's new partnership and move it on into friendship. Karina's a good character, too, dealing with the difficulties of being a ghost, trying to fight the person who is responsible for her death, and dealing with just plain boredom from being stuck at the school alone on long weekends. Pip and Squeak are far more delightful than a two-headed rat ought to be.

Also, the physical books are things of beauty. They are just the right size to hold, and they have covers that change as you move them. On one angle, you'll see the nice, friendly teacher or student. On the other, the darkness below is revealed. I don't entirely like the way these feel to the touch; they're a little unpleasantly scratchy, but the cover illustrations are worth it.

And, of course, there's a great trailer for the series, complete with spooky, Gothic music:



--
(1) I may have hugged the book and done a little jig in the room. There were no witnesses. I definitely have run around telling people about it.
(2) I keep promising myself that I'm going to review series decently and in good order instead of blasting through them. But these were good. Also, they were short. Nice, tasty, snacky things. Just one wasn't going to happen.

Links of Interest
The Lovecraft Middle School website
Professor Gargoyle on Amazon
The Slither Sisters on Amazon
Teacher's Pest on Amazon.
Substitute Creature (coming Sept 24, 2013) on Amazon.
Substitute Creature on the Quirk Books site. You can get a good look at the cover there as it changes.

Book Review: Fables: Werewoles of the Heartlands by Bill Wilingham (Author), Craig Hamilton (Illustrator), Jim Fern (Illustrator)

This is outside of the Fables main plot, for the most part, and I'm glad this is far from the first Fables book I picked up. I love the series in general (see the understatement there? See?) but this one--eh.

Bigby is looking for a new home for the Fables, traveling through the Midwest. Along the way, he stops at a town full of werewolves, and they both want to worship him and to kill him. There's a certain amount of backstory here and hints that it will tie into the main story later, but on its own, it's a fairly generic fight story. Honestly, it reminded me of Wolverine in his more incomprehensible honorable modes than anything else, and Bigby usually doesn't (No dead girlfriends, for one thing). It's just lots of fighting and "you're not worthy to be a wolf"-ing, and some explosions, and the undoing of a rather good short story included elsewhere.

There's some plotting and counter-plotting going on in the town itself, but all the fighting ends up rendering everyone's plans moot, and I knew too little about any of the characters to really care which side came out on top anyway.

This is a shame because under ordinary circumstances Bigby is one of my favorite characters, and I was super-excited about the book that featured him. I was hoping for more detective work, as in Legends in Exile, or more of his history, perhaps.

Willinham does include an essay about his real visit to the real Story City at the end, and I enjoyed that. Verdict? Check this one out from the library, read the essay, and politely return the book. Then read, or reread, the Fables proper.

Other Reviews
Fyrefly's Book Blog
Other Reviews found through the book blog search engine
Did I miss a link I should include? Let me know and I'll add it!

Links of Interest
Bill Willihngham's website
@BillWillingham on Twitter.

Book Review: Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

Countown City is another brilliant addition to the Last Policeman trilogy. It is still a mystery, and still noir, but the apocalyptic elements are coming more to the fore than they were in The Last Policeman. The asteroid is closer, and the social order is increasingly breaking down as more and more people "go Bucket List," trying to get in the last few dreams before the asteroid hits.

Henry Palace, however, has always wanted to be a policeman, and he still wants to, even if he no longer officially has the job. This time, he takes the job of finding a missing person in a world where missing people are taken for granted. As before, Winters is playing with the noir tropes: There's the lady in distress, a mysterious organization, guns aplenty, plenty of tough-talking folk, and a detective who just won't quit. There's also an asteroid due to hit the earth in seventy-seven days. The lady in distress is Henry's former babysitter. The guns are being gathered and hoarded by survivalists, some of whom are trying to stay alive until the strike, some of whom hope to make it in whatever "aftermath" a large (dinosaur extinction large) asteroid will leave. The detective who won't quit isn't just sticking to it until this particular case is solved, he's staying on the job until the end of the world.

As with The Last Policeman, the novel is multi-layered. There is the mystery at hand, finding a missing man in a world where everyone takes people going missing for granted. Then there is the second mystery, the one I suspect will take the front in book three, what are Nico's allies up to? And beyond that is the mystery of human behavior: How do people live when the world is coming to an end? When there is a known expiration date and no hope of survival? Who stays on the job and who leaves? Why? What happens when there aren't enough people staying? Is there room for mercy in a world that is ending?

Countdown City is darker than the first book, with more chaos to come in the third book, but still with hints of humor, word play, and friendship. As he goes about his work, Henry mentally catalogs ways people refer to the coming asteroid "The current environment," "these days;" there are no adequate descriptors. Winters has a knack for creating characters you care about and cheer for, even in circumstances when there is no way to have a happy ending, ultimately--but where the reader (like many of the characters) keeps hoping anyway. It's highly readable, highly recommended.

And, yes, there is plenty of material for philosophical discussion. In fact, if ever a book cried out for a book group, Countdown City does. Why am I not getting into deep philosophical discussions here? Well, I've only read it once so far, and I have to admit: It was a pretty quick "Whathappenesnext!" sort of page-turning read. Later, sometime, I'll sit down and read it a little more slowly. It does make me happy that some of the people staying on to the end are librarians and doctors. They, it seems, are doing what they wanted all along.

Other Reviews
Jenn's Bookshelves"
Rhapsody in Books
LargeHearted Boy

Links of Interest
My review of The Last Policeman
Ben H. Winters' website.
@BenHWinters
The Last Policeman on Amazon
A Q&A with Ben Winters
A Look at Concord and the Last Policeman

Got a link or a review I should include? Contact me or let me know in the comments!

Book Review: Floors by Patrick Carman

Young Leo and his father are the maintenance crew for The Whippet, an eccentrically designed hotel full of surprises. Not only are the rooms oddly themed (the cake room, the cave room, the room that's a giant pinball machine), and not only is there a duck pond on the roof, there are hidden floors. With its amusement-ride elevators, building-high slides, and an eclectic complement of live-in guests, it's pretty much paradise for a boy. There are only two problems: Leo's father is still mourning his mother and, a more immediate threat, the hotel's owner has disappeared and the manager is aiding outsiders in a hostile takeover.

If he is to save his home, Leo has to figure out a series of odd clues, find unexpected levels to the hotel, and beat a series of strange, and sometimes dangerous, challenges sent through a series of mysterious boxes. He enlists the help of the new doorman, the housekeeper's son, and the two become fast friends as they fight for their home. He's an engaging character, and the story of his learning to make friends and grow is part of the fun.

The breakout star for me was the hotel. The Whippet is a wonderful strange building. Although not sentient in its own right, it was designed by a truly zany inventor and reflects his personality. It is inhabited by designer robots like Blop, a little robot who was designed to socialize and desperately wants to, but turns out to annoy his audience who routinely asks him to be quiet. Probably the person who knows it best is the duck, Betty, who leads her flock, and sometimes Leo, through the chaos.

I am pleased that there actually did turn out to be a reason behind the zany challenges and the cryptic clues. I am growing increasingly impatient with cryptic clues that are cryptic only for the sake of complicating matters rather than because anyone has any reason to phrase them oddly, so this was a plus for me. Other readers may be less concerned about this.

Floors isn't Deep Literature, it's pure, whimsical fun. I recommend it for light reading or for leaving casually lying about for kids (or adults) to stumble upon.

Reminder: Floors II: 3 Below is already out and Floors III: The Field of Whacky Inventions comes out next month, September 2013.

Other Reviews
The Book Zone (For Boys)
Good Books and Good Wine
Literate Lives
The Book Swarm

Links
Patrick Carman's home page.

Floors on Amazon

I listened to and enjoyed the audio version, read by Jesse Bernstein (Hurray for Downloadable audio books at the library!)

Got a review I should link to? Another link I should add to the list? Contact me or leave a note in the comments and let me know.

Book Review Fables: The Great Fables Crossover by by Bill Willingham (Author), Matthew Sturges (Author), Russ Braun (Illustrator), José Marzán Jr. (Illustrator), Mark Buckingham (Illustrator), Andrew Pepoy (Illustrator)

The Great Fables Crossover is getting its own min-review because it's something of an oddity. I loved Fables, and I was devouring them as quickly as I could, but then I hit volume 13 and was thrown back.

You see, it mostly departs from an ongoing, rather urgent arc in Fables, to tell its own story. It's clear from bits and pieces here and there that the big tale is still continuing, but now there's another danger: Someone is trying to rewrite the world and in this case, that is entirely literal. If Kevin Thorne gets over his writer's block and decides what revisions he wants to make, the world we know will become an entirely different place. Jack discovers the danger and comes back to warn the Fables who set out to stop him, despite the way Thorne keeps writing difficulties for them.

This is a crossover with Jack of Fables, which I have yet to read. In many ways, I think it's more of a Jack story than a Fables tale. The good news is, I enjoyed the humor in the Jack of Fables Books. There is a visit by all of the genres incarnated as characters to offer the would-be reviser advice, and they're great. Fantasy, especially, is a wispy, elvish sort who keeps wanting everything turned into an epic while science fiction proposes manly battles. So: I will have a new series to follow, and that is good.

The bad news: The Great Fables Crossover comes smack in the middle of the battle with the Dark One and diverts everything onto a completely different path. I read it while saying "But what's happening with the Dark One? What are they going to do?" and the like. I suspect that for me, and for any beginning Fables reader, it will be better on the second read, and maybe after I've read the Jack of Fables series and learned more about the Literals.

Really, if you're plowing through the books for the first time, you may want to set this aside to read while you're waiting for Fables 19 to come out.

It does get bonus points, though, for having a fantastic fighter whose place of power is the library. YES!

My review of the Fables series as a whole is here.

Reviews
Fyrefly Books
BookBanter
Back to Books

Got a review I should include? Drop me a line and let me know!

Links of Interest

The Great Fables Crossover on Amazon.

Book Review: Fables by Bill Willingham

First, a confession: I lied up there in the title.

This is not a review. It's a rave, or perhaps a gush.

I fell head over heals in love with the series with volume one, Legends in Exile and proceeded to scramble through the books as fast as I could get my hands on them, with no pauses for rational thought, review, or evaluation₍₁₎.

I'm not being even remotely, slightly, or at all objective when I tell you: Don't make my mistake and leave these on the shelves for a rainy day sometime. Read them.

Read them all.

Now.

Oh, and try to make sure you have at least the first few volumes on hand when you start, so you don't have to wait between books, ok?

The basic premise is that the Fables, characters familiar to us from fairy tales, legends, myths, and novels from around the world, have had to flee their various worlds. Their foe, known for several books only as the Adversary, has driven them out, leaving only a small refuge in ours. As a result, characters who normally would be enemies or have nothing to do with one another, have had to find a way to live with one another in our world, and to hide themselves from us: Whatever they look like, they are all immortal (but not invulnerable) and often magical, and they can't risk us ordinary mortals, or mundanes, discovering them. They also want their Homeland(s) back, somehow, some day, and there are a number of magical threats other than the Adversary to trouble them.

I took a few notes on Legends in Exile, which is noir, fairy tale, and fantasy all mixed together. Rose Red, Snow White's sister, has been murdered, and the sheriff, the Big Bad Wolf, has to find the killer. Willingham knows how to use the various tropes he calls on well and has made the modern-day embodiments of famous fairy tale characters into strong characters I can root for. It's a fantastic mystery with unexpected turns, plenty of humor, some darkness, and a great resolution. It's also a fantastic opening for a series that never after that sticks to a single genre.


Different Fables volumes tackle, legend, fairy tale, spy story. They tell tales of survival, of revenge, of new beginnings, of unexpected endings, of triumphant love, and failed love, and friendship, loyalty, and betrayal, and pardon. Fair warning: They can be sweet, and they are often funny, but they can also be sad. While he doesn't have George R. R. Martin's legendary bloodthirstiness, Willingham is quite ruthless about character deaths. There are some real blows in the series.

As far as I can tell, each volume accomplishes that difficult feat of being readable as a stand-alone (I confess, I actually read volume 8, Wolves first) and as part of an arc. And then, the overall story accomplishes an even more difficult feat: It finishes out one arc and starts another while still going strong, and then moves forward to still another, without forgetting the consequences of prior acts. Am I addicted? Oh yes, I'm hopelessly, haplessly, and wonderfully addicted.

Part of the fun is the way Willingham plays with the details: The Beast's curse, for example, waxes and wanes for much of the series. If he and Beauty are having a good day, he's a handsome prince. If they're arguing, he gets more beastly looking. The Big Bad Wolf is the wolf of Red Riding Hood fame. He's also the wolf who huffed and puffed and blew the little pigs' house down, and how and why he came by that power is another tale entirely, one told through several different volumes.

I can't gush enough about the series' general awesomeness. My only real complaint is that now I'll have to wait until volume 19, and then probably through 20. Oh well. I guess I can reread them in the meantime, perhaps a little more slowly so as to savor them (Who am I kidding? It'll be at least a couple more reads before "slow" even starts to be an option).

--
(1)Ok, one pause. The Great Fables Crossover is getting its own, separate review later this week; it's a crossover and that makes it--odd.

Reviews
Fyrefly reviewed them properly, one at a time.
If you have written one or know one I should include, let me know and I will add the link.

Links of Interest
Bill Willihngham's website
@BillWillingham on Twitter.

The Books on Amazon--which also gives you a list of the volumes in order
That said: Visit your local library! Seriously. Libraries are awesome.

Fables: Legends in Exile
Fables: Animal Farm
Fables: Storybook Love
Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers
Fables: The Mean Seasons
Fables: Homelands
Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days)
Fables: Wolves
Sons of Empire
Fables: The Good Prince
Fables: War and Pieces
Fables: The Dark Ages
The Great Fables Crossover
Fables: Witches
Fables: Rose Red
Fables: Super Team
Fables: Inherit the Wind
Cubs in Toyland
Fables 19 coming out in December 2013

Book Review: The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

The Last Policeman isn't good; it's brilliant.

It begins when Detective Henry Palace is called in to investigate a dead man found strangled in the nearby McDonald's bathroom. Almost everything points to suicide: With the end of the world only six months away thanks to an oncoming asteroid, a lot of people are killing themselves. On the other hand, there are hints that it might be murder, and Henry is determined to investigate.

There's a wonderful layering of mysteries here. There is the central mystery: Did the man found dead kill himself, or was he murdered? Wrapped around this is another question: Why hunt down a (possible) killer when the world is going to end in six months anyway? And somewhere to the side, gradually gaining more importance, is the question of what has happened to Henry's sister's husband, whom she is determined to find.

It sounds extraordinarily depressing, which is why I didn't read it at first, but oddly, it's not. It does get dark, and there are promises of darker things to come: People are scared, some are killing themselves, some are running away to try new things, no matter who it hurts. There's also no indication that any of the attempts people are making to save themselves will work: The asteroid won't swerve, there's no sign of any adequate preparation for this kind of strike. In the middle of this, though, there is also a tale of people moving on, of them doing their jobs despite the disaster. Henry's own motives may be a mix of altruism and an attempt to keep himself sane in the middle of a crazy situation, but he's still out there, working, caring, and fighting, and so are other people whatever their mix of motives.

The plot pacing and development is impressive. Any one of the three main plotlines would be enough to keep the story going on its own. There are enough red herrings and odd angles to each of the two primary cases to keep the reader guessing, and enough tension in the interpersonal relations to make a fine end-of-the-world story. Together, they were a rich, wonderful, read. It's also the best kind of genre mix: noir wound around science fiction in the finest of blends.

Now I have to read book two, Countown City, and quickly! Then I shall wait anxiously for book 3. I love falling in love with a series.

--

Other Reviews
Jen's Bookshelves
Reading on a Rainy Day
Chamber Four
Rhapsody in Books

Links
Ben H. Winters' website.
@BenHWinters
The Last Policeman on Amazon

And the book trailer:



As an entire sideline: What do you guys think of book trailers? I partly like them and I partly hate them.

I like them because, yes, they catch my attention, they're interesting. I hate them because they make me feel like watching the TV show or movie, not like reading the book. I like TV, but it's not the same as a book, not by a long shot!

Book Review: The Dark Crystal : Creation Myths Vols. 1 & 2 by Joshua Dysart (writer), Alex Sheikman (Illustrator), Lizzy John (Illustrator) and Brian Fround (Illustrator)

Creation Myths are, as one might suspect, the prequel to the movie The Dark Crystal. I was skeptical about the idea at first: I'm not terribly fond of tie-ins as a general rule, but it turns out that these fit the movie very well, both in tone and content. The world is created, a great mother watches over everyone, and then outsiders come and are welcomed. Do they deserve the welcome? Or does the suspicion of one person doom them? How did the Crystal come to break? And how did the Skeksis and Mystics get separated in the first place? Creation Myths gives the backstory to the movie, and they fit the tone, mood, and look very well.

There were were a couple of points I thought the myth lapsed; early Thra appears to have been a near-paradise, but there are also hero tales of people freeing others from evil dictators, so it clearly wasn't perfect. The distant, mythic feel to everything also means I never truly got attached to any of the individuals, not even the singer, Gyr, who travels through most of the second book, but then, fairy tales as such aren't about getting attached to the individual. They're more about the world they portray, and Creation Myths understands that very well.

The tales are lovely little fairy stories, but the real beauty here is the illustrations. They are lavish, beautiful chances to revisit the splendors of The Dark Crystal world and to see things that the filmmakers couldn't afford to show us, things like Aughra's full orrery. There are villages and seas and strange animals, and it is a wonder to behold.

Recommended for anyone who loved The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth or any of Henson's more mythic work.

Reviews
Creation Myths Vol. 1 on Goodreads
Creation Myths Vol. 2 on Goodreads

Did I miss a review I should include? Drop me a line and let me know!

Links of Interest
Remember when I mentioned I'd started watching publishers? I haven't quite made up my mind yet, but I think Archaia Entertainment is going to turn out to be one of them. They do publish such a variety of interesting stuff, and their books are also beautiful physically. They have lovely, smooth covers and are easy to hold, and great illustrations.

Dark Crystal: Creation Myths vol. 1 on Amazon
Dark Crystal: Creation Myths vol 2 on Amazon

Book Review: Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

Tuesdays at the Castle was delightful.

The kingdom of Glower is an unusual place, one where the rulers are chosen not by their lineage but by the kingdom's castle which allocates rooms and room space based on how much it likes people and has been known to eject the undesirable all together. It's a peaceful place, generally, but now it is running into trouble: The king and queen have been attacked and are assumed dead. The castle, though it appears to still care for the princes and princesses, can't or won't eject the royals and advisers from other kingdoms who have come to "help" run the kingdom while Rolf, the heir apparent, is in his minority. Worse, the royal children find that even their own councilors aren't to be trusted.

I love eccentric, sentient buildings, and the castle of Glower is an excellent eccentric. It never speaks (I'd probably find that creepy), but displays its preferences by providing for those it likes and stinting those it doesn't. It also provides the children with hints and nudges through the supplies it gives them (a phrase book, for example, so they can understand enough to know what their enemies are plotting) and by providing them with a hidden room to hide when their enemies want to use them as hostages. It generally acts as a sort of beneficent, if occasionally baffling, guard and guide, up until the point where it ends up in trouble itself and needs Celie, Rolf, and Lilah to help it.

The Glower children and their castle-aided plans to keep their kingdom were great, and I enjoyed their sibling relationships. They have a good, loving bond, but can also irritate each other, even when the kingdom is in danger, and I found that quite believable. Celie, the youngest, and the castle's special favorite, was especially endearing: She's spunky, inquisitive, and clever, but not so much so that she's unbelievable.

The castle itself is the star though: I'd have loved a few more chapters of ordinary, non-threatened life just to see how it thinks. I'm definitely going to read Wednesdays in the Tower now.

Additional reviews:
Charlotte's Library. I read Tuesdays at the Castle because of her, in fact.
Reviews found through the book search:
Jen Robinson's Book Page
A Patchwork of Books
More through Fyrefly's book blog search.

Other links of interest:
http://www.jessicadaygeorge.com/ The author's home page.
Jessica Day George on Facebook.
Tuesadays at the Castle on Amazon.

The Hour Before Morning--Kickstarter

Remember back when I interviewed Arwen Spicer about her movie The Hour before Morning (You can click the nice link if you don't)? We had a nice chat about filming in quarries, various sources of inspiration, and the plot.

In a nutshell, The Hour Before Morning focuses on the struggles of three prisoners Elek, Jenchae, and Meravyn. "On board a spaceship taking them to their deaths, they have only the length of the flight to make sense of their lives, if they can. Their story takes place against a backdrop of struggle between the Ashtorian conquerors and the Sama people who resent being forcibly “civilized” and want their worlds back. There is a deep hatred between the two peoples and a long history of struggle in which the questions of right and wrong are not easy to answer."

The Hour Before Morning is on Kickstarter where, Arwen says, the movie

has raised $1278 on Kickstarter! Can you help us get all the way to $5000 by July 7th? We have a wide range of rewards for contributors, including a copy of the novel, the movie, and credit in the film, among others.

Contributing is easy. Just click "Back this project" and check out through Amazon.com We need to raise the full amount to get a penny of the funding, so please help us get there if you can.

Check out our Kickstart page here

Please spread the word! And thanks in advance for helping us out with this movie. It's been a labor of love for all of us!

Find out more about it and see images, trailers, and clips on the Hour Before Morning Facebook page.