Geist & "Spoilers"

I'm really, really bad at one thing - reading a part of the last pages of a book and "spoiling" myself. I think this started for me after reading Anne McCaffery's Moreta: Dragon Lady of Pern, because, you see, I didn't expect it. That was the very first time EVER I cried when reading a book. (It wasn't he last.) So I think I might do this as a sort of coping mechanism. A few books I've read recently I've done this to when I get stuck in the middle, and part of my brain is going: "THIS IS NEVER GOING TO END." (But it does, and the ending is good, and I pick up the sequel and then it's like following the directions on your shampoo bottle.)

However, this is probably the first time that reading a small glimpse at the end of a book really felt like it tainted my experience of the book itself (though I realize it probably does, regardless - I'd just never NOTICED it before.) The book in question was Geist (A Book of the Order) by Philippa Ballantine. This was not an epic tome where I got bored in the middle and wanted a glimpse to be certain that "the other side" was waiting for me. In fact it was action packed, and a fairly quick read. But I still cheated!

Geist is a good read. The story is a bit of urban fantasy with some romance and mystery, and there is a very interesting magic system. The story follows Deacon Sorcha Faris, a member of the Order - a magical organization that trains "Sensitive" Deacons who can see and identify wraiths and other undead creatures from the Otherworld (called geists), and "Active" Deacons - those that can wield magic to fight against these supernatural beings. The Actives and the Sensitives learn different runes of power that they can use. The actives have gauntlets that channel their power, and each of the runes has a specific power that can be used against the geists. While partnered with her "Sensitive" husband, fighting a geist, something goes wrong. Her husband ends up very hurt, and Deacon Faris must travel to the town of Ulrich to find the answers. She begins her journey with a new partner, Deacon Merrick Chambers who has just finished his training. Along their journey they meet with Raed Rossin, the son of the usurped emperor, and bearer of a wicked curse.

I highly recommend Geist, and I quickly added the next books in the series to my Goodreads account so I wouldn't forget to pick them up. It's a bit of a mash of genre, urban fantasy mixed with more traditional fantasy, and a dash of steampunk just to mix things up.

So why did I peek at the end? Well, to be honest, early on, I guessed that two of the characters would end up in some sort of romance. So, I glanced at the end to see if I was on the right track. Unfortunately, the words I read basically solved the mystery of the entire novel. And reading it with that in mind, I felt some of the later parts of the book were especially annoying. When reading a mystery, if you know who the murder is, the clues become very obvious for the reader. And what I don't like is knowing if I would have "caught on" if I didn't already know.

But I did this to myself. Maybe I've learned my lesson. Next time I won't give in. Next time I won't try to confirm my suspicions at the beginning of the novel. Or maybe I will. I do however, recommend when you pick up Geist, you read it the way the author intended.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

I felt it better, and easier, to give a brief review of The Hunger Games Trilogy as a whole, rather than as individual reviews, because with them there is another topic I'd like to broach, which is YA.

First things first - no I do not think you have to be under 19 to enjoy "Young Adult" novels. Some of them are very well written, have great characters, and are fun and exciting. Just because you pick up one YA novel or series does not mean you have to start reading ALL YA novels, but if you enjoy it, you might look into some others. (Goodreads is a great place to get book suggestions!)

Second - one of the current trends in YA (after paranormal romance) is dystopian. Hunger Games and some other big named books fall into this category. I think the trend is interesting and I do think YA is a great place to have dystopian novels. Young Adults, who are your target audience are those that are most likely to look at the world and say, something needs to change. They may or may not be "right" about it, but sometimes it's the people without experience in the "real world" that can see what the rest of us can not. It's easy to keep going on because you have to - there are bills to pay, people to impress, personal and professional goals to reach. You tend to lose track of the system when you are so ingrained into it. Young Adults are fresh, they have new eyes on the system. They look at it and say: "OK, but WHY do we do this?" And sometimes that can be a good thing.

So, on to the Hunger Games. As a whole, I enjoyed 3/4ths of the trilogy. Well, probably more than that, about the last 50 pages of the last book makes me hope and pray Hollywood actually CHANGES a book to movie translation. (It is super rare to hear me say that. I was ready to lead a revolution if Neville Longbottom didn't get his due in the last Harry Potter film. Thank the gods of entertainment that it all turned out all right in the end!) I enjoyed Catching Fire more than many others did, though I read it and Mockingjay AFTER I saw the Hunger Games movie. I didn't care for the end of The Hunger Games itself, either, so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised by the end of Mockingjay, but I just felt the end of Mockingjay was a bit too depressing. I'm not in the camp that everything has to have a happy ending, but I do think an ending has to have some movement from the beginning. The ending to the whole trilogy felt a bit forced and without hope, which is pretty much how the books started.

In terms of dystopian literature, I know there are usually two possible outcomes - what happens pretty much gets overwritten (1984) and everything goes back to the way it was. Or, the heroes triumph and go about trying to make a new world. I just think, especially in a YA novel, you need a little more of the triumph of revolution.

If you haven't read the Hunger Games they can be a bit violent. I don't really recommend them for the younger crowd - but you know your child best. I will always suggest that until your kids are in the 13-15+ range you read the same books they are reading. (I honestly suggest you do this beyond, so you can discuss the books with your kids.) Still, I recommend reading all three. If you plan on seeing the movies (or have already seen the first) they will help fill in some of the gaps that I feel complete the picture, and I do recommend reading all three before seeing the movies.

What did you think of the Hunger Games? Love them? Hate them? Not giving into the hype? Let us know!

The Snow Queen's Shadow by Jim C. Hines

Oh, Jim Hines, how could you do this to me?

The Snow Queen's Shadow is the fourth book in Jim C. Hines' Princess series. I picked up the first one in May 2010, and have looked forward to each of them in turn ever since. I left this one on my TBR pile for longer than I wanted because I knew it was the last in the series, and part of me didn't want the series to end.

The Princess novels center around a wonderful re-telling of three very famous Princesses: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Snow Queen's Shadow starts in Cinderella's Kingdom, where her Mother-In-Law, Queen Beatrice, is dying. Snow White tries some mirror magic to help the Queen, but something goes horribly wrong.

I wanted to love this book. I wanted to feel an emotional connection. But after the first quarter of the book (which kept me up past my bedtime!), the rest of the book just fell flat for me. And that upsets me. I've followed these characters through three well written novels. This ending just seems, forgive me for saying this, like a fairy tale ending. It's dark, and horrible, but then - the ending, everything works out fine. Not wishing to give spoilers, I'll just leave it at that.

I wish I could recommend this book, but part of me wants to tell everyone to go forth and read books 1-3. Love them, tell your friends about them, and just forget that this book even exists or is part of the series. Make up your own stories about the gang from there. It's OK. I'm not upset that the series itself is over (for now), but more how it ended just didn't feel right to me. I wish I could recommend this book, I really do. I follow Jim Hines on twitter, and his blog through Google +, and I certainly do not want to ever turn anyone away from reading any of his books. I just wish I had been able to enjoy this one more.

The Warded Man by Peter V Brett

Wow! Really, I could leave this review at that word, and be satisfied that you will now go off and read The Warded Man. But there really is more to it than just that.

At the core of the Demon Triology (pun intended) are Corelings, Demons from the very Core of the planet, which attack at night. The only way to protect yourself is through wards, but only clear, powerful wards will work, and the Corelings will test the Wards until the sun rises - I know I wouldn't sleep good at night if I knew that at any moment Corelings could rush into my house and eat me! It's dark and scary and makes Brett's world very interesting to read about.

We follow three characters, but spend the majority of our time with Arlen, and this really is his book, and his coming of age story. And it's not a happy story. Our other major players are Leesha and Rojer. All three stories are interesting and echo a theme of finding strength through tragedy.

It has been a very long time since a book captured me like The Warded Man
did. I loved the majority of this book. I have given it a 5 star rating on Goodreads, because they do not allow half stars, I would have given it 4.5, because there were some things in the last part of the book that seriously bothered me. But other than that, I felt that this was the type of fantasy book I've been looking for. Dark, heavy, epic, realistic, with elements of traditional fantasy weaved into it. The last part of the book really did leave me with serious issues, and I've read mixed reviews of the second book in the series, but I think this novel really works, and I'm very glad that I read it. Being that captured by a novel doesn't happen to me very often anymore, and I'm always excited when it does.

So, go forth and read this book. I think you'll be glad you did - but do know what you're getting into up front. This is a dark fantasy world, and it starts off that way right from the beginning. If you are looking for safe and light, this isn't the book for you.

Spellwright by Blake Charleton

The old adage states: "Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. This might be true in our world, but if you find yourself in Blake Charleton's Spellwright, you are in for a big surprise. Here words are Magic. Literally. 

A first book by a new author, Spellwright is very thought provoking. This isn't entertainment that you're going to pick up and finish right away, just because the system of magic shown here is unique and complex. In a genre where magic is usually a key element, and the basic underlying for those systems is similar (only the names have changed to protect the innocent), this feels like a very fresh take on magic. I liked it, though I do have to say it was very complex to understand. And that's not a bad thing either. Though provoking may not be the words typically used to describe works in the genre of fantasy; instead this is an escapist genre (many may argue, and there are a lot of social issues address in fantasy though usually not on the surface). Still, it is nice to find something challenging, that engages the mind not just in what's happening in the story, but in having to understand the world and its characters.

Our hero, Nicodemus Weal, is a young magician with a problem. Magic is a written language and there are those that can use magic, but misspell - dyslexic spellcasters - known in this world as cacographers. Nicodemus is a cacographer. He is an apprecitce to an old blind wizard, and tucked away by the magical academy he attends with others like him in a building called the Drum Tower. Just by touching the magical words he can ruin spells, literally misspelling them. It's a hard life, as an apprentice, never knowing if he'll be able to fulfill a prophecy that he and some others think he might have been born for. Murder, demons, druids, prohecies, counter-prophecies and wizards - this book really has it all, and it's manged pretty well.

This was a slow read for me in good and bad ways. There are parts that are hard to read through, and wrapping your head around the magic system does take some time. But there are very good parts that are action packed. The mystery aspects, investigating a murder, while important could have used better pacing, and there are some things that seem to not be well foreshadowed and are TOO much of a surprise to the reader. (Not that I want to be able to figure things out, but usually when something I was expecting happens, I can look back and go, "OH!" But there are a few things where you just don't get that that moment of clarity like you should, and that's a disappointment to me, because it means the surprise was too forced.)

I must say, there was a point in this book where I would have given almost anything for the main character to make a different choice. And I honestly feel the way the book was written, the hero making that choice would have been justified in that choice. It would be very interesting to read a much different story where he did make that choice. The ending of this book is actually pretty slow for me. I think he could have been cut off much earlier, and still the reader not miss anything of grave importance that couldn't be quickly covered in the opening of the second book.

Still, I am interested in picking up the sequels to this novel, though they might not be on my "MUST READ RIGHT NOW" list, they will certainly fall into my TBR pile, and I'm looking forward to that.

"The Magic of Recluce" by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

I've been eyeing the Recluce books for a while. They tend to catch my eye in the bookstore, because their cover art reminds me of the cover art for The Wheel of Time series. But I'd never really picked them up. I did grab another of L.E. Modesitt's books,The Soprano Sorceress: The First Book of the Spellsong Cycle, which I'd started but abandoned due to lack of interest. (I'd looked up the author's website, and he does maintain that you might like some of his books and not others, and that's OK with him. I like that.)

Recently, I decided to give Recluce a try, and so I picked up The Magic of Recluce. And I'm glad I did. As mentioned in my "What draws us in" post, I didn't expect to be drawn into this book like I was. First it's rare, in my experience, to have epic fantasy written in a first person point of view. I enjoyed this change of my perceptions where viewpoint is concerned.

The Magic of Recluce introduces us to Lerris, a young boy, and his family. The Island of Recluce is reclusive, strict in its near worship of Order. This need for Order and perfection bores the hell out of Lerris and after a failed apprenticeship woodworking for his Uncle, Sardit, Lerris is sent to the capital city to undergo a ritual, dangergeld, for those who aren't "Ordered" enough to continue existance on Recluce. The exile isn't permanent, but you do have a mission to complete before you are to return, if you wish to return at all. Lerris is young, and completely untrained, but they send him to Candor anyway.
And that's when the real story begins. We follow Lerris through Candor, where he meets up with Anton, a White Mage (Chaos) and Justan, a Grey mage (who uses both order and chaos trying to balance both.) Lerris follows Justan who sort of teaches him. Along the way, we discover that Lerris is also a Mage, and he must choose between Order and Chaos.

What most interests me about the series is the play on words that help spark your attention. In most works, White is for goodness, purity, logic and acension. Black is for evil, unclean, chaos, and decension. In most of our minds, we probably find some good associations with white, and negative associations with black: Light vs. Dark. Modesitt flips this on its head, by having "Order Mages" be called Black mages. Our hero is shown with a preference for Order, but he isn't shown as evil, where as a White Mage, performing Chaos magic is shown as Evil: starting wars, living beyond his years by stealing the bodies of others. The Magic of Recluce is a novel where one must think. I like that.

It follows Lerris coming of age journey, that he constantly asks "why" and is rebuffed and finally told he needs to accumulate his own knowledge and wisdom and make his own determinations about the world and what is right. And that story is true for all of us. And I think that's what is great about following this story in first person. If we knew too much, from a narrator, or from other viewpoints, the story would not be as good.
The rest of the Recluce Saga jumps back and forth through time. I feel the story is complete enough for me. If they followed Lerris, I might be tempted to add them to my lists to read in the future, but for now, I'm happy with the Magic of Recluce, and have no need to discover the rest of Modesitt's world.

"Hexed" by Kevin Hearne

Hexed is the second book the "Iron Druid Chronicles" and continues pretty much right where Hounded leaves off. This is actually somewhat unique in the genre of urban fantasy. Usually between books, our heros get a much needed rest, and the next book takes place a month or year or more later. While there has been a brief respite, it's only about two weeks later, and it goes pretty much right into Atticus once again getting his butt kicked.

We only leave our characters for long enough to set a few things into motion. The results of Hounded are touched on right away. Atticus has an apprentice, who is off in North Carolina, fulfilling a promise. There is a treaty that is being worked on by Atticus' lawyers, and Oberon is still in need of a belly scratching and sausages.

 While Atticus is a great character, Oberon, his faithful wolfhound again steals every scene that he is in. Oberon has got to be the greatest companion animal in any series, ever. And let me tell you, I love Animal Companions. I first started reading books, like Anne McCaffery's Pern series, when I was very young. As the young are want to do, I had dreams and invisible animal companions. I loved my dog, but I would have given anything if she would have been able to actually communicate with me. From Dragons to Ghatti (Gayle Greeno) to Chosen (Mercedes Lackey), animal companions have always been one of my favorite tropes. Several of my own stories, as a younger version of myself, featured some sort of animal companion. There has, and probably always will be, that wondrous idea that you can mentally chat with your favorite animals.

Hearne's Oberon is such a delight. He's comic relief, because he sees the world through a dog's eyes. He's not a human trapped in animal form - he's a dog, he likes to eat sausages, and have his belly rubbed. He's intelligent, certainly, but the basic "animal" is still there.

*Warning - stop here if you have not yet read Hounded. And now, go read Hounded. It's awesome.

* Please note there are spoilers below if you haven't read Hounded first.

Okay, enough about Oberon. The story in Hexed  makes for a nice segue-way into the third book, Hammered. After the climax of the first book, Hounded, Atticus is now in high demand as a Godslayer, and everyone wants him to go after Thor - who is apparently the biggest dick in all of godhood. He has an apprenctice to deal with, a long dead witch in her head, who has gone off to get said witch out of her head and into the head of a coma patient whose soul has already fled. Atticus is working a treaty with the remaining witches of a local coven, and there is the demon touched land that Atticus feels is his duty to fix, since he was responsible for it getting blighted in the first place.

I did not like Hexed as well as I did Hounded. As I said, it feels like, we need a way to get Atticus to agree to kill Thor, and since he has no beef with him personally, now he owes two of his powerful allies a favor that both involve heading to Asgard and killing Thor. Since the third book is entitled Hammered, I fully expect this to be the subject of our next Atticus adventure. But don't get me wrong, this wasn't a bad book by any means. It does set up our next adventure in a very plausible way, it just seemed convenient that everything works out the way it does.

Still, I do look forward to reading Hammered, and the follow up books that will be out later this year (2012).