Book Review: The Dalemark Quartet

For some reason, I didn't discover the wonder that is Diana Wynne Jones until my twenties. My first book of hers was Howl's Moving Castle (which I adored, obviously), and I went on to devour the Chrestomanci novels, Fire and Hemlock, and a handful of others. (I fully intend to read all of her books—I haven't yet, though, as I enjoy discovering them in stages and because it will be super tragic when there aren't any left.)

On one of my DWJ kicks circa 2006 or so, I started reading the Dalemark Quartet, and partway through got distracted and had to return them to the library unfinished. This past fall in two different used bookshops I found matching versions of the Quartet broken up into two volumes, and took this as a sign it was time to read them for real!! And so I did!

The Dalemark Quartet is comprised of CART AND CWIDDER, DROWNED AMMET, THE SPELLCOATS, and THE CROWN OF DALEMARK.

The genius of these books is that the first three are set in the same world and reference the same landscapes and mythology, mostly centering around the god-like figures known as the Undying. CART AND CWIDDER and DROWNED AMMET are set in the same time but follow two completely different heroes. THE SPELLCOATS dips back into Dalemark's prehistory. THE CROWN OF DALEMARK brilliantly ties the threads of the previous three stories together, whilst adding the additional element of time travel. You guys, it's NUTS. Amazingly, marvelously, beautifully NUTS.

But I'll try and make more sense here.

CART AND CWIDDER follows Moril, the youngest son of a family of traveling Singers. He inherits his father's cwidder (a lute-like instrument), which is supposed to have belonged to one of the Undying, a famous ancestor who used the cwidder to move mountains (among other things). Moril finds himself caught up in the North/South conflict that plagues the country of Dalemark. Includes: siblings. music. tragedy. magic.

DROWNED AMMET follows a new character, Mitt, who lives in the South and throws his lot in with a bunch of misguided wannabe revolutionaries who are unhappy under the rule of the (admittedly extremely terrible) Earl Hadd. He winds up in a boat with two grandchildren of that very Earl, and the three have adventures at sea including encounters with two of the mysterious Undying: Old Ammet and Libby Beer.

THE SPELLCOATS, as previously mentioned, takes us into Dalemark's prehistory, and is told using a super interesting story-device: the protagonist, Tanaqui, is weaving the story into two rugcoats. This book follows a rambunctious and stunningly-characterized group of five siblings on their journey down an ancient river. It sheds more light on the mysterious Undying—even explaining a few of their origins—and introduces the evil, undead mage Krankredin. This is the only book written in first person and it definitely feels very different from the first two.

THE CROWN OF DALEMARK is the culmination of the first three books. It rejoins Mitt, who eventually meets up with Moril (hooray!!) as they journey with a group of people following Noreth, a young lady who claims to be the daughter of the oldest of the Undying, the One, and therefore the rightful heir to the long-absent crown. Flash-forward to two hundred years later, and we're introduced to Maewen, a lovely freckled and thoughtful heroine who gets sent back in time to take Noreth's place on the journey to find the crown. There's a twist near the end that for some reason I wasn't expecting but I dearly, dearly loved (and found was completely perfect when I thought back on the story). The way DWJ ties everything together is brilliant and satisfying. It makes you go oh!!!! and want to scramble back to the beginning of the series with your pencil so you can underline everything that you didn't know was important!

This series probably isn't for everyone. DWJ definitely doesn't spell everything out for you—it gets confusing at times, and you have to sit and ponder for a bit to reconcile all her threads you think at first she's left to dangle. As I've grown used to with her books, her endings are never quite ENOUGH. She seems to end two scenes too soon, which make her stories linger on in your mind in a way I don't think they would if she gave her readers just a little more. CROWN definitely had more of an ending than the first three, but it still left me desperate for a fifth volume that doesn't exist. The world she created in Dalemark is so rich and deep—so much only hinted at, so much life teeming under the surface. These books are brilliant and thought-provoking, tragic and deep and funny too. Highly recommended if you don't mind a bit of a think!

Which reminds me…… it's definitely time to reread the Chrestomanci series…

Once Upon a December…

Wellllll I kind of fell off the blogosphere for a while there. Sorry about that!!

My November disappeared somehow and I'm sorry to report I didn't finish NaNoWriMo this year. I made it to 30K and decided the story wasn't ready to be told… then wrote 7K on a pet project, then got distracted with Thanksgiving and a visit from my BEYOND ADORABLE 10-month-old niece. It just wasn't to be this year, but that's all right! Sometimes books need to percolate a little more, and I think that's definitely the case with this one.

Other than that I've been keeping busy eating (anyone else have THREE Thanksgiving dinners?), sewing (making some cute handmade things for Christmas), reading, and pondering an upcoming revision. Oh and watching Doctor Who. Last week's episode BLEW MY MIND. Just ask my husband. Sooooooooo excited for the finale tomorrow!!!

Anyhoo, hope you all are having a lovely start to your December!!

What I've Been Reading Lately:

WINTER, Marissa Meyer's exceptional conclusion to the Lunar Chronicles. I laughed, I cried, I squeed, I melted into a puddle of feels—the ending was everything it needed to be and more! 

A CURIOUS TALE OF THE IN-BETWEEN, by Lauren DeStefano. A bittersweet, lyrical, haunting, absolutely exquisite story about a girl who can see ghosts. Piercing and so beautiful!

MAGONIA, by Maria Dahvana Headley, which starts out like a John Green novel and turns into this lovely strange hypnotic fantasy about sky ships and bird people. I loved it immensely.

Book Review: A Circle of Salt

A CIRCLE OF SALT, by E. J. Weaver

I was completely swept up in this book. It has lovely, lyrical writing, gorgeous imagery, and a wonderful, old-fashioned feel that reminded me of George MacDonald.

E. J. Weaver does an amazing job weaving together Russian fairy tales into a compelling narrative about proud Vasilissa, one of the Folk cast out of the Summer Realm and forced to live among humans.

I was completely fascinated with how NON-human Vasilissa is at first: she shape-shifts into a horse and a fish. She raises towers from the ground. But she finds herself slowly caught up in the affairs of certain humans who she meets and helps along the way, even while she's being hunted by the terrifying Koschei, the Deathless. Koschei is the servant of the witch Baba Yaga, who wants to use Vasilissa to open the door to the Summer Realm…

The book is broken into sections instead of chapters: Vasilissa the Proud, Sivka-Birka, The Fisherman and His Wife, etc., and each section is a mini-story in and of itself, following the thread of Vasilissa's long sojourn in the human world. The stories are steeped in beauty and terror and joy, sorrow and longing, but love and hope, too.

A CIRCLE OF SALT kind of broke my heart, a little, but in a good way. Read it on a rainy afternoon with a big cup of tea and a cat nearby for snuggling if you get too teary.

You can find it on Amazon HERE.

What I've Been Reading!

So I promise a proper update post when I finish my edits (soon, I hope!!), but for now, here are the last several books I read!

ORPHAN QUEEN, by Jodi Meadows

Started out a little slow for me, but then I got swept up in the action and the AWESOME that is Black Knife, and I ended up thoroughly enjoying this.

Reminded me of a cross between CROWN DUEL and JACKAROO, two of my all-time childhood favorites.

Really, really interesting use of magic, too.

Warning: ends on a traumatic cliffhanger.

***still biting nails***

CRUEL BEAUTY, by Rosamund Hodge

I had such an interesting experience reading this book.

I started it last year and put it down because I wasn't really connecting with the story… But then, on the high recommendation of PRACTICALLY EVERYONE, I picked it up again and started over.

I really didn't like the beginning.

And then I got interested.

And then I got invested.

And then I LOVED IT.

And then I was SUPER SCARED that things were going to go horribly wrong.

And then my mind was blown.

I read the last twenty pages with my eyes open wide making traumatized noises and holding my breath (just ask my husband).

The ending was perfection.

AUGH MY HEART.

So, so good.

ILLUSIONARIUM, by Heather Dixon

I really enjoyed this! Parallel worlds, airships, illusions, a one-eyed airman who's a little full of himself, siblings, almost-siblings, impossible odds and difficult choices and racing against the clock… I haven't read a YA solely from a (nerdy! Scientist!) male MC in a long time, and really loved his perspective.

I do wish we could have had a peek at more parallel worlds than just the one, and by the end I was so exhausted by all the escapes and captures and more escapes and more captures that I kind of needed a nap. :)

But overall, a great book. I hope she writes a companion novel, because there's lots of interesting things she could still explore!!


So, that's what I've been reading. Next up, VICIOUS, by V. E. Schawb!

Book Review: The Lunar Chronicles

Over the last few weeks I've had the immense pleasure of reading through the first three volumes of the supremely talented Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles: Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress.

You guys I love them so much!!

Here's why they're awesome:

They're fairy tale retellings that fit together in an overarching original plot that's compelling and fascinating and kind of brilliant.

 Cinder starts off as a fairly standard Cinderella retelling—except the title character is an Asian cyborg mechanic living in New Beijing and the prince is about to become emperor of the Commonwealth 'cause his dad is dying from the plague that's ravaging the world. Oh yeah, and this crazy moon queen with brainwashing powers is trying to take over the planet. Cinder does a brilliant job of staying true to the original fairy tale (ball and glass slipper and everything!), all the while laying groundwork for a bigger story that leaves us clamoring for more by the end.

Scarlet is fascinating. It's a Red Riding Hood retelling (wolf and grandmother and red hood and everything), while still continuing the story and plot lines begun in Cinder. The book unfolds by alternating Scarlet and Cinder's stories, until, eventually, you begin to see the threads that connect them…

Cress is Rapunzel—stranded in a satellite orbiting earth. This book kicks it up a notch higher, because now we have three interconnected stories and main characters to keep track of, all fitting in to the mounting plot begun in Cinder. And somehow Marissa Meyer manages to still keep true to the story elements of the original Rapunzel fairy tale: an isolated tower, an evil witch, lots of hair, wandering in the desert… Cress is a captivating strong heroine in her own right, with a different personality than either of our other two leading ladies. And that ending! AHHHHHH!!!!!



Now to pick up Levanna's story in Fairest, and patiently await the release of Winter in November (AUUUUGHHHH Where is the TARDIS when you need it???).

And just for fun, here's some of the random thoughts/reactions I had while reading the books.

[MILD SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE SERIES YET]

Thoughts while reading Cinder:

Cinderella is an Asian cyborg! Cool!
This book is gonna be so fun and… WHAT WORLDWIDE PLAGUE??? Oh.
Iko = hilarious.
Aw she's friends with her younger stepsister.
The VW is the pumpkin coach! Pumpkin coach!
What the… TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE CRAZY MOON PEOPLE.
Okay, I'm calling the twist three chapters in.
I heart Prince Kai.
WHAT THE CYBORG DRAFT WHY.
PEONY WHY :'( :'( :'( :'(
Evil stepmother is evil.
QUEEN LEVANA IS SO INTERESTING AND CREEPY.
Ahhhh I spy Rapunzel!
The ball the ball the ball!
THE FOOT IS THE GLASS SLIPPER AHHHHHH
Wait, this book continues on? ahhhhhhhh **grabs for Scarlet**


Thoughts while reading Scarlet:

Oooh we're in France.
Aw her grandmother is missing.
Scarlet is super kick-butt. I dig her piloting skills.
Whoa Wolf is creepy. But hungry? And kind of sweet?
Captain Thorne HAHAHAHAHA
KAI'S JEALOUSY OF CAPTAIN THORNE = :-D
IKO IS A SPACESHIP IKO IS A SPACESHIP
I'm getting Star Wars vibes AND I LIKE IT.
POOR KAI POOR KAI POOR KAI POOR KAI
Cinder, go to Africa SHEESH
Ahhhhhh Scarlet and Cinder are connected!
These wolf people are so weird/creepy.
Wolf is good, right?
Wolf is not good.
Wolf is good?
THE TRAIN SCENE ***heart***
The underground lab scene!! :-( :-( :-( :-(
They are totally Lunar. They've got to be.
THEY **ARE** LUNAR I KNEW IT!!!
Ackkkk Grandma!!! :-( :-( :-( :-(
YAY EVERYBODY TOGETHER!!!!


Thoughts while reading Cress:

Oh. My. Gosh. I LOVE THIS GIRL.
This girl is me.
This girl is so me.
Literally, this girl is EXACTLY LIKE ME, over-active imagination, uber emotional and idealistic…
Oh I just want to hug her.
She and Thorne are totally gonna hook up.
HA SHE HAS A CRUSH ON HIM.
Ack! Contact!
No Sybil!!!!!!!!
Scarlet! Wolf!!!!! :-(
Whoa! The desert! The blindness! HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT THE BLINDNESS?
Thorne totally = Han Solo.
I would react EXACTLY THE SAME AS CRESS if I had to march through the Sahara. OMG I love her so much.
Nooooo misunderstanding!
FINALLY EVERYBODY IS TOGETHER IN AFRICA… except for… :-( :-( :-(
SAD WOLF IS SO SAD. :-( :-(
Whoa first mention of Winter! *intrigued*
"It starts with kidnapping the groom." YESSSS I HIGHLY APPROVE OF THIS PLAN!
SCARLET!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHERE IS THE NEXT BOOK I WANNA READ WINTER'S STORY RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!

Reading and Writing and Pitching, oh my!

Good afternoon, my lovelies!

It's been a semi-eventful couple of weeks since my last post.

Firstly, and possibly MOST exciting, I pre-ordered The Winner's Crime, and my amazing indie bookshop called me up FIVE DAYS before it's technical release to tell me it had come in! So I managed to score the bestest book of 2015 early!

Reading at a tea shop in Flagstaff 

Five days early!!

I had a busy weekend (went up to Flagstaff with the hubby and found SNOW and wore SWEATERS and it was so so lovely) and only managed to read in snatches and pieces, but finished on March 3rd with my heart shattered and my mind blown and a major book hangover.

I cannot WAIT for book 3 but I have to, alas.

In the meantime, I kind of had to make up an ending in my head so I would be okay with the horrendous cliffhanger.

IT WAS REALLY SERIOUS, YOU GUYS. My word. But the book as a whole was exquisite and beautiful and heart-pounding and frustrating and shocking and AMAZING. I can't wait to reread it when I've recovered a little. And then maybe I'll be able to write a proper review. For now all I have to say is: READ THIS SERIES. You won't regret it (okay, you WILL, but only because it's just that heart-wrenching).

I'm still revising revising revising, and making fairly good progress with my fairytale retelling. My word count has swelled now to 74,688, and will probably grow even more by the time I'm done. I've had to add another whole chapter; now I have 24 instead of 23. Currently I'm in chapter 11, so nearly halfway. Struggling to build the relationship between my main character and an enchanted creature right now… I think I'm slowly getting there!

My self-inflicted finish date is April 23rd—I want to get this thing off to beta readers before my husband and I leave on our trip back east. I think I can do it!

Participated in the Twitter pitch contest PitMad yesterday and got……… nothin'! But that's okay. My book seems to be more of a traditional querying type creature than a contest one (I've certainly garnered more attention querying than I have in the spatter of contests I've entered over the last few months!). And in any case, it led me to develop what might be my favorite pitch for THE WHALE AND THE TREE of all time:

Talia was supposed to become empress—NOT get banished from her homeland, betrothed to a random boy, and drawn into the mythical saga of nine gods and an immortal tree.

So there you have it! What do you think?

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I'm off to see my new little niece on Sunday. Can't wait.

Happy writing! :-)

These Broken Stars

I finished These Broken Stars last night, and I'm not sure what to do with my feelings. Does anybody else have thoughts? I need to know if I'm the only one left feeling kind of unsettled… There was an aspect of it that disturbed me and I can't quite get it out of my head! Very, very unique book. I thought I knew where it was going but I DEFINITELY DID NOT. Lovely writing and well-drawn characters and fascinating world. Good first read of 2015!

In other news, I'm preparing to revise my novel! Gonna revisit some revision techniques I used a couple of years ago, and see how quickly I can whip this thing into shape. Can't wait to make it better!!

Cheers, all, and happy weekend!

Favorite Reads of 2014!

Here, for your general perusing, is a spattering of reviews for some of the books I read and loved over the past year, complete with if-this-book-was-a-movie ratings (not all books listed here were published in 2014, it's just when I read them).

Sorrow's Knot by Erin Bow

I read and adored Erin Bow's Plain Kate a few years ago, and one of my first reads this year was Sorrow's Knot. This book is PHENOMENAL. It's exquisite and fresh and beautifully, beautifully written. It's filled with poignant, well-drawn characters and a wonderfully realized world. It's eerie and sad and lovely and terrible. It will make you cry. It will creep you out. It will make your heart beat faster. It will make you FEEL ALL THE THINGS. Just sit down with a cup of tea and a box of kleenex and read it NOW.

If this book was a movie I'd rate it: PG-13, mostly for sadness and creepiness (I know they don't rate movies for things like that, but whatevs, I do!)

 Ultraviolet and Quicksilver by R. J. Anderson

Ultraviolet begins with the instantly-intriguing line: "Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her." A completely fascinating book, the story starts in a mental hospital, where Alison is trying to come to grips with how and why Tori disintegrated before her eyes. Everyone thinks she's a murderer, and crazy. Hence the mental hospital. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll stop my review there. Suffice it to say, this is the kind of book that begins one place, and takes you somewhere amazingly wonderful that you were not at all expecting by the end. Intriguing and lovely and filled with well-drawn, unique characters. Its companion novel, Quicksilver, is also quite good, but I can't say a thing about it without ruining Ultraviolet. In any case, do yourself a favor and go read these books NOW.

If this book was a movie I'd rate it: PG-13, for some disturbing subject matter.

Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardou

I gotta say it was super smart of me to wait until all three books were out before starting this series! I adored Shadow and Bone—the story was intriguing and well-written, and I thought it had ABSOLUTELY PERFECT PACING. Seriously, it left me in awe. I LOVED the third-person prologues/epilogues in all three books (the one at the end of Ruin and Rising had me in tears!!). I thought both Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising were a liiiiiiitle slow in the beginning, but once they picked up, BOY DID THEY PICK UP. You should have heard the noises I was making in the last quarter of Ruin and Rising. Oh. My. Gosh. From GoodReads I've gathered that the ending to R&R was kind of divisive. Myself, I thought it was COMPLETELY PERFECT, though you can bet your sweet patootie I was experiencing Extreme Trauma and ALL THE FEELINGS. I really enjoyed this series, and look forward to re-reading it. (I realize none of that is actually a review. Sorry. Just read the series, okay??)

If this book was a movie I'd rate it: PG-13, for violence.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente

I adored this book. It read like a modern-day classic, was inventive and beautifully written, and was filled with endearing characters and amazingly-quotable sections. It follows the exploits of a plucky girl named September, who travels to Fairyland with the Green Wind and has lots of adventures, including meeting an adorable dragon who man-or-may-not be part Library.

If this book was a movie I'd rate it: G, and you'd better believe I'd be first in line to see it!!






If I Stay by Gayle Foreman

I thought this was a really special, beautiful book, and liked it a lot better than The Fault in Our Stars, which I also read this year and kind of occupies a similar space in my mind (YA books about death, I guess). Gayle Foreman does a masterful job weaving in non-sequential flashback sequences into the main story (I've dubbed her the Flashback Queen), and her writing is beautiful. She really makes you feel things. I also enjoyed her refreshing portrayal of a loving, close-knit family, and thought she absolutely nailed the classical music aspects of the story. I haven't seen the movie yet, but it's on my list.

If this book was a movie I'd rate it: PG-13 for strong language and some mild sexual content (I'd bet real money they cleaned up a lot of the language for the actual movie.)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lani Taylor

I don't normally read angel/demon books, (generally I find the concept deeply annoying), but this one intrigued me—I got a mix of Howl's Moving Castle and The Bartimeus Trilogy vibes, and absolutely tore through the pages. The story and characters were fascinating, and I loved the world-building, the details, the magic system. I loved Brimstone, the teeth-collecting wish-giver, I loved the creepy-but-fascinating idea of revenants. I loved Karou's spunk and her friendship with Zuzana. I loved the idea of the star-crossed romance, and really enjoyed the flashback sequences, though the actual romance happened too fast for me. I needed a scene or two more of establishment before the OMG-I-love-you-more-than-breathing-I'm-gonna-risk-everything-for-you-because-you're-so-hot thing happened. It was just a little bit too much love-at-first-sight, and I needed more to make it believable.

Still, an enjoyable read overall (and that ENDING!!). I'm partway through the second book, and will let you know my thoughts by the end of the trilogy. :-) 

If this book was a movie I'd rate it: PG-13, for sexual references and content, and some language.

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkowski

I read a lot of awesome books this year. This one is my favorite. It felt like it was written specifically for me, and I already read it twice and I need more people to read it so I have someone to discuss it with and AHHHHHH THE SEQUEL DOESN'T COME OUT TILL MARCH!!!!! Ahem. Anyways, it's filled with intrigue and a slow burning romance and music and duels and rebellion and I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH I CAN'T WRITE A PROPER REVIEW. Like, I've reached Queen's Thief series-level adoration with this book, which is awesome because it has sort of a similar Greco-Roman setting and feel.

But if I was really trying to properly review it, it would go something like this: Ten years ago, the Valorians conquered the Herrani peninsula, seized their houses and property, and enslaved the Herrani people. Kestrel is the Valorian general's daughter, used to a life of luxury, and expected to either enlist in the army or marry by her 18th birthday. Then one day Kestrel finds herself at a slave auction and purchases a young Herrani man on a whim. And they slowly build this tension-filled reluctant friendship, and I'm not saying any more than that because SPOILERS. (ha. You thought you were getting a proper review and I fooled you!!)

If this book was a movie I'd rate it: PG-13, for some violence.

Book Review: Shadow and Bone

Pardon me for a moment, but I need to gush about Shadow and Bone.

I finished it last night at midnight and I'm still experiencing a book hangover. I'm giddy with ALL the feelings!!!!!!

This is not a very coherent review so far.

I knew practically nothing about this book going into it besides I was in love with cover, it was vaguely set in Russia, and that a lot of people raved over it. It's kind of cool reading a book and having zero idea what it's about!

Anyway, so the story follows Alina, who finds out she is a Grisha (somebody who has magical powers) and gets taken to the palace to be trained. The Darlking, a powerful Grisha who's second-in-command to the king, thinks Alina has the power to take down the Shadowfold, which is basically this band of darkness filled with ravenous dragon-like creatures called the Volcra that enjoy feasting on human flesh. The Shadowfold divides the kingdom, and the Darkling hopes Alina can destroy it and rejoin the land. The Darkling is dangerous and intoxicating and fascinating. There's also Mal, the boy Alina grew up with. He serves as a tracker in the army, and their friendship is the force that drives the novel. And that's all the plot summary I can give for fear of spoilers!

The characterization, plot and pacing (I am in awe of the pacing, for serious) are phenomenal, the writing is lovely, the setting vivid. It's a fantastic, smart story, executed to perfection. I can't wait to read the rest of the series!

ETA: My synopsis of this novel makes it sound kind of cliché. It's not. The story goes to dark, twisty places, and Alina is a fascinating, well-drawn character. She's flawed. She makes mistakes. She's not perfect. But I empathized with her in a very real way. Also, parts of this book strongly reminded me of an old favorite, Crown Duel, which made me love it even more.

Ultraviolet & Sorrow's Knot

Happy April to all and sundry! Also, how is it April already? Pretty sure that joke's on all of us…

Whilst waiting for feedback on my revisions, I read two phenomenal books last week: Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson, and Sorrow's Knot by Erin Bow.

Ultraviolet is sneaky—it starts out as one kind of book and ends up as another and was an amazing ride. Interesting and colorful and unusual.

Sorrow's Knot ripped my heart out and trod on it a bit—definitely read that one with a box (or two!) of kleenex. Lyrical and eerie and gut-wrenching.

Both books are HIGHLY recommended!

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

I just finished this exquisite book last week, and I cannot recommend it enough! Beautiful language and storytelling, compelling characters—it's just absolutely gorgeous. And because I'm too lazy to do a proper review, here are a few of the many (MANY!) quotable lines from Fairyland:

“She sounds like someone who spends a lot of time in libraries, which are the best sorts of people.”

“Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency and the throwing of erasers. This is why we must close them up into thick, solid books, so they cannot get out and cause trouble.”

“When you are born,” the golem said softly, “your courage is new and clean. You are brave enough for anything: crawling off of staircases, saying your first words without fearing that someone will think you are foolish, putting strange things in your mouth. But as you get older, your courage attracts gunk, and crusty things, and dirt, and fear, and knowing how bad things can get and what pain feels like. By the time you’re half-grown, your courage barely moves at all, it’s so grunged up with living. So every once in awhile, you have to scrub it up and get the works going, or else you’ll never be brave again.” 

Book Review: Entwined, by Heather Dixon

Entwined is a retelling of the fairy tale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," and I absolutely ADORED it. Seriously, this might have to go right up on the shelf with Ella Enchanted, Beauty, and East as one of my favoritest fairy tale retellings ever. I kind of want to read it all over again right now.

I don't know how Ms. Dixon helps the reader keep track of TWELVE princesses throughout the course of the novel, but she does a marvelous job. Obviously we know the most about Azalea, the eldest and main character, but we get to know the rest pretty well too, from spunky and prickly Bramble, to shy beauty Clover and on down to little baby Lily. I LOVE the relationships between the sisters. They're a close-knit group of largely mischievous girls who adore each other to no end.

The novel is set in a fantastical country existing in a time period very similar to Victorian England. There's newspapers and guns and talk of railways, characters in Parliament and horses named Dickens and Thackarey. The royal family is actually rather poor, and the King is always up to his neck in Royal Business (or R.B., as it's abbreviated).

The story opens with a Christmas Ball and the death of the girls' mother. :-( The whole house is thrown into Mourning, which means no visitors, no going outdoors, not wearing any color besides black, and absolutely no dancing for a whole year. The girls LOVE dancing, something they learned from their mother, and Azalea especially is quite accomplished. Dancing cheers them up and makes them think of their mother, but it's forbidden. The girls discover a magic passageway in their bedroom that leads through a silver forest to a magic pavilion on a lake guarded by a man dressed all in black named Keeper. He invites them to come and dance there, and so they do, every night, and every night they wear out their dancing slippers (as the fairy tale goes).

I love the details in this novel. From the old magic tea set that pours tea of its own accord with its accompanying vicious sugar teeth, to the description of the girls' mother smelling like baby ointment and white cake. The writing is beautiful and vivid.

And oh man, it gets CREEPY in the middle!! Yikes. For serious. Cree-ee-eeepy! But it in a good way. And there's adorable romances, and Mr. Bradford (we never learn his first name!!) rocks, and Azalea is awesome—you really see her grow over the course of the novel.

But my absolute favorite part about the story is the characterization of the King and his relationship with his daughters. It is THE BEST.

And the ending was perfect.

As I said, I LOVE this book.

Where there's life, there's hope… Maybe?

The short story lives! Between yesterday and today I wrote over 3K on a massive wave of inspiration. I wrote the ending, and the very beginning, and I think it's pretty awesome. But I still have no middle. And it's super disjointed. And it currently sits at 12,651 words, which would be manageable to cut down to 10K—you know, if I had a middle already. :-/ I really don't know what to do next. This is probably why I usually outline. And write linearly. All that jazz. At least it's looking like a possibility that I'll have a fully formed story by the end of the month. Ish. My goal is to have the whole first draft done by next week, so I'll have time to put it aside for a few days before I dive into editing it and making it all shiny for submission on June 30th. I don't know, we'll see!!

Finished The Runaway King. Liked it all right, but it wasn't my favorite. It just felt kind of forced or something and I didn't really connect with the characters. :-(

I also read Nancy Werlin's Extraordinary over the weekend (it went so quick it didn't ever make it to my "Currently Reading" tab) and I LOVED IT SO MUCH. I could NOT put it down. The language and characters drew me in from the beginning and it was just a fabulous read. It's basically about evil faeries manipulating the MC Phoebe's life to try and get her to pay up on a promise made by her many-greats grandfather. It reminded me of Fire and Hemlock, which is always a good thing. Lovely, lovely book. In fact I'm pretty sure it's what spurred me on to do so much writing this week!

Friday, Friday, Bloggin' on a Friday

Okay, it's update time!

I'm 7,264 words into my new story so far……… Most definitely going to surpass 10K at this point, but I think I'll be able to edit it back down again. I really didn't feel like doing any outlining or backstory brainstorming so I'm kinda figuring all that out as I go along, which leads to more verbiage than is strictly necessary (I think, haha). I go back and forth on whether I like this thing so far, but currently I do, and at any rate I think I can make something cool out of it. Today all that's happened is my MC has been following a wolf into his house and observing all the architecture. She finally made it to her room, though, so hopefully the story can progress now. :-)

In other news, I finished A Girl of Fire and Thorns yesterday and I really liked the ending. I always appreciate when an author is able to simultaneously bring proper resolution to the story AND whet my appetite for the sequel. Too many books end too soon and too abruptly for me, but this one hit the perfect balance. Fire and Thorns had a lot of twists and turns and ended up being a different sort of book than I thought it would be at the beginning—one particular twist completely SHOCKED me, but it was definitely a super brave thing to do, writing-wise. Definitely need the sequel now…

Also, the Once Upon a Time finale left me desperate for Season Three, and the spin off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland looks really, really cool. Also, also, I need to catch up on Doctor Who. I'm four episodes behind, I think.

Okay, that's about it.

Toodle-pip!

Seraphina

So obviously I chose reading over starting any projects yesterday. :-)

I finished Rachel Harman's Seraphina this morning, and I absolutely LOVED it!! It's about music and dragons and secrets and it was just lovely and amazing. The prose was beautiful, her world interesting and unique, and the characters rocked. I want more!! I first spotted it at the bookstore because it had almost the same title as a not-all-that-short-story I wrote a while ago (Seraphine—the name means like fiery creature or something like that), and the first few paragraphs—the first sentence, really—had me completely hooked. Finally snagged it at the library, and once I started I couldn't put it down. Amazing book.

Five stars and two thumbs up!!

Book Reviews: Starcrossed and Plain Kate

Reading a really, really, really good book is pretty much my favorite thing in the whole world—it's right up there with rainstorms and purring cats and Chopin Ballades. The only thing better is reading TWO really, really really good books right in a row.

Enter Starcrossed, by Elizabeth C. Bunce, and Plain Kate, by Erin Bow, both of which I had the pleasure of nabbing at the library a week and a half ago. Seriously, WOW.

Starcrossed follows the story of Digger, a thief-turned-lady's-maid who's being blackmailed to spy on a bunch of nobles in a snowbound castle. Set in a Renaissance-inspired fantasy world awash with religious persecution, magic and secrets abound…

I adored this book. It's like the Attolia series and Crown Duel meets BBC's Merlin, which is all kinds of amazing. Fabulous character development, fantastic writing, lots of interesting-and-unexpected-plot-developments, and an all around beautiful and compelling story. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel, Liar's Moon, due out next fall (I think?).

Plain Kate is an exquisite gem of a novel that captured my heart and then proceeded to wrench it thoroughly. It's the story of Kate, a skilled wood carver accused of witchcraft, who trades her shadow for the means to escape her town. It's Russian in flavor, and filled with color and heart; the prose is deceptively simple and as gorgeous as it is unusual. The story itself just about made me break down sobbing in several places; it has real resonance and depth. I finished it last Thursday and still can't quite stop thinking about it. Also, there is an amazing and adorable TALKING CAT, for whom I fell completely head over heels. (Heart you, Taggle!!) A really, really wonderful book.

Both are HIGHLY recommended, and are for sure going on my "Best Reads of 2010" list.

Better late than never

So this post is shamefully overdue. Sadly this is not because of werewolf attacks or dimension-transporting tornadoes or anything remotely interesting. I've mostly just been feeling lazy and didn't have anything to blog about. True facts. But in any case, it's time for some UPDATES!

Writing:
I'm still working on revisions for Seer, and at this rate will probably be working on them until the end of time. I'm in chapter five. Of twenty-nine. Needless to say it's going SLOWLY, and I will in no way be finished by the end of June. On the plus side, though, I'm happy with the changes so far. I'm focusing mainly on fixing my structure/pacing, and it seems to be working. Hopefully it'll start going faster sometime soon.

I also keep poking at On Journeys Bound, the novel that refuses to leave me alone; I've written at least a couple thousand new words on this thing but am still floundering in the depths of the Dreaded Middle. I really need to finish. I've been working on this draft for a grand total of four years—not steadily, of course, but still.

I just read through the 41k of my failed Nano novel from last November, and you know what? It wasn't that bad. Bits of it were actually pretty interesting. I get why I abandoned it and it does need some restructuring, but I think there's definitely hope. Not that I know when I'll ever have time to get back to it, but you'll have that.

Reading:
I'm way too lazy to properly review the fabulous books I've read lately, so you just get a couple of sentences each:

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead—this year's Newberry Award winner is set in the late seventies and follows the adventures of a twelve-year-old girl who starts receiving mysterious notes from the future. It's kinda like Fire and Hemlock meets Doctor Who. Really lovely writing.

The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold—an adult fantasy filled with well-drawn characters, fascinating settings, and intriguing philosophical ponderings. It's hard to explain. But quite good.

The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff—I read this back in high school and though I remembered liking it didn't actually remember that much about it, so I re-read it. LOVELY book. Its style is a little old-fashioned (it was written in the fifties), but I really liked that about it—makes a nice change from more modern in-your-face-nonstop-explosions types of books (not that those don't have their place, too :-)). The story takes place in Roman-occupied Britain and is about young Centurion Marcus traveling to Scotland to reclaim the eagle of his father's lost legion. They're making it into a movie starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell, due out in February—hopefully they do it justice!!

The Sunbird and The Lion Hunter, by Elizabeth E. Wein—these books are the next installments of Wein's Arthurian/Aksum sequence, continuing on from The Winter Prince and A Coalition of Lions. Really, really lovely books, in an intriguing setting—ancient Ethiopia. These two books (and the last in the sequence, The Empty Kingdom, which I have on hold for myself at the library and I very much hope is waiting for me today!), are more connected than the first two, and follow Telemakos, the son of Medraut (who, at least in The Sunbird, is still working through everything that happened in Winter Prince). Gorgeous writing and wonderful characters, these books are small but incredibly moving.


And that's all for now, folks. Enjoy the rest of your week! Go read some books!!

The Queen's Thief Series, by Megan Whalen Turner

I've now read A Conspiracy of Kings (twice!), and felt compelled by its awesomeness to write a review, which is impossible without at least mentioning the previous three books in the series.

So I'm going to attempt reviewing the entire series.

With as few spoilers as possible.

Which will be a trick. :-)

Here goes.

Book #1: The Thief

After bragging that he can steal anything—and flaunting the pilfered king's seal in a tavern to prove it—Gen winds up in prison. Fortunately, the king's adviser, the magus, needs him, and Gen finds himself bundled along on a cross-country trek in pursuit of the mythical Hamiathes' Gift, an object which can only be retrieved by a thief.

But this isn't just a straightforward adventure story. Set in the three countries of Sounis, Eddis, and Attolia, MWT gives us a wonderfully-drawn world inspired by the landscape and culture of ancient Greece, complete with her own pantheon of gods. She's so exact in her story-telling, so deft with her characterization and so careful with every single word, that you don't notice the subtleties of her impossibly tight plot until it whacks you up top the head at the end and you find your jaw sitting involuntarily on the floor.

This would be why The Thief garnered a Newberry Honor.

Book #2: The Queen of Attolia

In many respects, The Queen of Attolia feels completely different from The Thief. It reads more like a YA novel, and is told in third person instead of first. Gen—or Eugenides as he's referred to in this book—is still the main character, but the third person POV changes things a bit.

In Queen, Eugenides is forced to deal with a terrible loss, and the third person POV gives a certain amount of needed distance from this loss. We learn as much or more about Eugenides's character than we did in The Thief, but the focus is slightly different. He's vulnerable in a way he wasn't in the first book, and as we mourn for him we wonder if he can go back to the way he was, we wonder if that's even possible.

And while we're worrying about Eugenides, MWT is busy with her careful descriptions and meticulous character studies and oh-so-subtle-and-understated plot threads. There's war, political machinations, a new threat to our trio of countries in the form of Nahusersh, the oily ambassador from the Mede empire, and last—but certainly not least—one of the most intriguing romances ever to grace the boundaries of fiction.

Oh, and I started reading this series because of Queen's cover. Intriguing, no?

Book #3: The King of Attolia

This is the book I can say the least about without completely giving everything away. It's narrated in third person by a young soldier named Costis, but is still very much about Eugenides—we get an even further wide-angled view of him than we did in Queen. It's a great, great book, filled with all the MWT surprises and subtleties and complexities and heart we've come to expect.

And that's really all I can say. :-)

Book #4: A Conspiracy of Kings

Narrated largely in first person by Sophos, a character from The Thief, this, again, is a different book entirely from the other three in the series. Eugenides is important but even more distant than before, and for once this isn't his story—it's Sophos's. We find out what he's been up to since the first book, and follow his journey from timid, insecure boy, to mature, hardened-yet-vulnerable king.

Sophos is a great character, albeit very different from Eugenides (whom he sort of hero-worships, which is adorable), and I really enjoyed getting to know him. I read Conpsiracy last Wednesday and again over the weekend because I couldn't stop thinking about it.

You really almost have to read these books multiple times to understand/appreciate all the subtleties and motivations; MWT is a careful, meticulous writer, which is why rereading her books is so rewarding—you inevitably find things you missed the first (or second, or third) time around.
There's a definite sense in Conspiracy of things-being-set-in-motion-for-epic-ness-to-come (there's two more books planned in the series), which left me feeling a ttiiiiiiny bit unsatisfied, because I know there's going to be a long wait to find out what happens next.

But only a tiny bit. :-)

___________________

That was hard. I started this post on Tuesday.

Book Review: Incarceron

Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher, is about a prison—vast, sentient, and possibly malicious—and two people desperate to unlock its mysteries: Finn, a prisoner who believes he came from Outside and longs to Escape; and Claudia, the Warden's daughter, who's doomed to an arranged marriage and life in the stifling falseness of the Queen's court. Connected by identical copies of a mysterious crystal Key, both Claudia and Finn begin to dream that Escape is actually possible...

There were a number of things that impressed me about this book. One was Ms. Fisher's deft handling of POV changes and snappy scene divisions; the two main voices are Claudia's and Finn's, but occasional viewpoints of other key characters are woven in seamlessly. Her pacing is extremely impressive, as are her settings: the dark menacing weirdness of the prison and the glittering facade of the Outside world. Though the first part of the book didn't suck me in quite as quickly as I'd anticipated, I was pleasantly surprised by the plot twists and unexpected revelations in the last hundred pages or so and accidentally stayed up until 1:30AM the other night finishing it. I'm not at all sure I can wait until December for the American version of the sequel, Sapphique, to be released, so might have to dig up a British copy online. We'll see. :-)

One other thing: I'm curious as to how people are labeling this, genre-wise. To me it comes off firmly in my pet genre, science-fantasy; I really don't feel like it's one or the other. What do you think?

So this is the New Year...

Hey everybody, just a quick post to let you all know that I haven't fallen off the face of the planet.

Four things:

1. I have writer's block/no motivation with current projects/frustration with current projects/despairing of ever writing anything good again. It's a vicious cycle.
2. I read Tanith Lee's The Claidi Journals over the Christmas holidays, and loved them immensely. Gorgeous prose, unusual and striking world-building, unique and stirring characters... everything you could ask for in a YA fantasy. The fourth book was a little bit of a let-down from the others, but still worth reading to soak in the strange beauties of Tanith Lee's world, and find out how all the various storylines are finally resolved. The books are: Wolf Star, Wolf Tower, Wolf Queen, and Wolf Wing, respectively. Go hit up your local library or bookstore! That's an order!
3. The Doctor Who finale was breathtakingly awesome and heartbreakingly brilliant. David Tennant, John Simm, and Benard Cribbins all acted their proverbial socks off. A fantastic ending to a fantastic era of Who. The mighty D.T. will be thoroughly missed. :-(
4. I'd like an agent for my birthday, please.