I saw the latest Xanth offering at the Library and I didn't have very many other books to take home so I figured, "meh, why not". At least I wasn't paying for it, right?
The book is done in the standard formula: Querent goes to Magician Humfrey, Querent gets assigned a Task that is far too hard and complicated for their simple stupid Answer, they take it anyway because of course they're the Only One That Can Accomplish This Vitally Necessary Task, they collect a bunch of people along the way and finish their task with no time to spare.
In this case, it's a knot of Petrified Reverse Wood that must be moved / removed from the Gap Chasm and delivered to Humfrey.
This book dumps our subjects into Ida's Alternate Worlds a few times, but thankfully does not, for the first time in a LONG time, end with "good thing you did the Task because this was all another Demon Contest and if you'd failed the Land of Xanth would have no magic / belong to another Demon / fall apart / etc."
The ending was odd, to say the very least, and made me go, "wait...what just happened?"
I did think that the books have been getting more "stereotypical" in their handling of the gender relationships. This one was bordering on offensive - all men, bar none, are mindless one-dimensional boors, obsessed with one thing and one thing only - sex. This is of course unless they are friends of the protagonist and are required to be multi-dimensional. But husbands? Are always, always, always interested in one thing from their wives. While the concept of "a man still finding his wife to be HAWT" is very nice, the idea that that is all they think their wife is good for is obnoxious. The only thing that changes a man from Obnoxious One Dimensional Boor Husband into Loving Wonderful Multi-Dimensional Husband With Many And Varied Interests (really, what turns him into a human being) is HAVING CHILDREN. Because of course everyone knows this is the only thing that gives life meaning or higher purpose.
Women, on the other hand, are portrayed as HAWT, flirtatious, and only interested in giving their husbands What They Want so the women can get on with their interesting, multi-dimensional lives. Interaction of an intellectual, friend-to-friend sort must of necessity take place outside the marriage because the husband is a sex-crazed idiot. To this end, they are manipulative and scheming, and all too willing to leave their husbands behind - except of course for the obligatory Nightly Conjugal Visit (10 minutes or less "should be enough", right?) And, of course, any woman that makes it past age 20 or so without Having A Man is completely Washed Up And Useless. All women, naturally therefore, want only to Get A Man, and then Have Children - because only by Having A Man and then Having Children will her life have any meaning.
While these attitudes have been expressed in the Xanth series before, generally they were merely alluded to, or expressed in a more sarcastic or "jokey" manner. However, in this book, they were obviously more "intended", so to speak, and that's what I found offensive. They're getting more and more obvious, and more and more blatant.
In sum: Latest Xanth book is "meh" for the plot (what there is of it), offensive for the misandry and misogyny, the ending is arbitrary but thankfully does not have any Demon Contest inclusions, so I give it a "whatever" out of 5. 1.5 bones I suppose.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games trilogy consists of:
Book 1 - The Hunger Games
Book 2 - Catching Fire
Book 3 - Mockingjay
These books are riveting. Brutal at times but absolutely amazing.
In a future where the United States has fallen and a new country, called Panem, has risen, Katness Everdeen steps into the place of her little sister to participate in The Hunger Games, a reality show where the contestants, 1 male and 1 female from each of the 12 districts of Panem, go to compete - to the death.
Chosen to go with her (via lottery) is Peeta, a boy from District 12's town. His family are bakers by trade and Peeta really has no skills to survive in The Arena (where the Hunger Games takes place). Katness, however, has been "training" most of her life by illegally hunting and gathering in the forest to support herself, her mother and younger sister, Prim. (and Prim's cat, Buttercup)
The story, over the three books, tells of the discontent of the districts against the Capital's rule. No Capital children are ever selected for the Hunger Games, which grew up as a way to remind the Districts of the folly in revolt against the Capital.
Very powerful, often tear inducing, these books will continue to give me food for thought for a very long time.
5 out of 5 berries for all three books.
Book 1 - The Hunger Games
Book 2 - Catching Fire
Book 3 - Mockingjay
These books are riveting. Brutal at times but absolutely amazing.
In a future where the United States has fallen and a new country, called Panem, has risen, Katness Everdeen steps into the place of her little sister to participate in The Hunger Games, a reality show where the contestants, 1 male and 1 female from each of the 12 districts of Panem, go to compete - to the death.
Chosen to go with her (via lottery) is Peeta, a boy from District 12's town. His family are bakers by trade and Peeta really has no skills to survive in The Arena (where the Hunger Games takes place). Katness, however, has been "training" most of her life by illegally hunting and gathering in the forest to support herself, her mother and younger sister, Prim. (and Prim's cat, Buttercup)
The story, over the three books, tells of the discontent of the districts against the Capital's rule. No Capital children are ever selected for the Hunger Games, which grew up as a way to remind the Districts of the folly in revolt against the Capital.
Very powerful, often tear inducing, these books will continue to give me food for thought for a very long time.
5 out of 5 berries for all three books.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
In the Company of Vampires by Katie MacAlister
I have been waiting for this book for YEARS. Yes, literally, years.
In the Company of Vampires is the third book in Ms. MacAlister's Ben and Fran Dark Ones (slash)Goth Faire books which started with Got Fangs? and Circus of the Darned. Can't find them because they're out of print? Never fear, Katie Mac is here! She recently received the rights to the books back and her new publisher, Signet, has reprinted them in a handy omnibus edition under the title Confessions of a Vampire's Girlfriend. My well worn original copies can now be retired to my "well loved and most favorite" book shelf. Hooray.
Okay, the review...
Ms. MacAlister has delivered another winner with this book. She made me laugh, she made me cry. I gasped, I sighed and when it was all over, I turned it over and restarted it. I'm currently half way through my second reading and it's still wonderful. I can tell that this will become, like the first two, a comfort read for me. Something I can pick up and delve into just to be with beloved friends.
The book opens with Fran, now 22, living with a roommate in Oregon where she is working for a web development company. She and Ben have broken up and she is miserable but adamant that she wants to make her own decisions about who she should be with, not be a "pawn of fate".
There is much hilarity in this book and, because Fran is officially an adult, much more naughtiness as well. Which is good and actually really clean. (One reason I like Ms. MacAlister's books so much is that there is rarely any cursing or taking the Lord's name in vain. It's refreshing!) Fran ends up going back to Europe to the Goth Faire to retrieve the Vikingaharta from Imogene. Eirik, Finnvid and Isleif are also in on the retrieval having been sent by Freya to help Fran send Loki to the Akashic Plane.
The reunion scene with Ben made me weep. My heart broke, was healed and broke again. The misery that both Fran and Ben endured over the 5 years Fran had been gone from Europe, the utter despondency that engulfed them during the year of their complete breakup, made me ache with loneliness. Then the joy began but was shattered only to give birth to hope.
And that hope was not in vain.
Needless to say, I loved this book. I ached for this book for so long, I was afraid I had built it up too much in my mind but I was wrong. This book is, if not quite a perfect conclusion, a very satisfying semi-conclusion to Ben and Fran's love story. There are many threads hanging at the end but, as Ms. MacAlister has promised that this is the begining of a new series, I'm very hopeful that there just MIGHT be another B&F centric book among them.
We do learn what Loki took from Fran ("I will take that which you value most") in Circus of the Darned and it actually was close to my hypothesis that Fran lost her feeling of acceptance, her feeling of belonging, that I was well satisfied with Loki's denouement.
5 of 5 berries for this one. Read it! You'll fall in love with Ben and Fran as well!
In the Company of Vampires is the third book in Ms. MacAlister's Ben and Fran Dark Ones (slash)Goth Faire books which started with Got Fangs? and Circus of the Darned. Can't find them because they're out of print? Never fear, Katie Mac is here! She recently received the rights to the books back and her new publisher, Signet, has reprinted them in a handy omnibus edition under the title Confessions of a Vampire's Girlfriend. My well worn original copies can now be retired to my "well loved and most favorite" book shelf. Hooray.
Okay, the review...
Ms. MacAlister has delivered another winner with this book. She made me laugh, she made me cry. I gasped, I sighed and when it was all over, I turned it over and restarted it. I'm currently half way through my second reading and it's still wonderful. I can tell that this will become, like the first two, a comfort read for me. Something I can pick up and delve into just to be with beloved friends.
The book opens with Fran, now 22, living with a roommate in Oregon where she is working for a web development company. She and Ben have broken up and she is miserable but adamant that she wants to make her own decisions about who she should be with, not be a "pawn of fate".
There is much hilarity in this book and, because Fran is officially an adult, much more naughtiness as well. Which is good and actually really clean. (One reason I like Ms. MacAlister's books so much is that there is rarely any cursing or taking the Lord's name in vain. It's refreshing!) Fran ends up going back to Europe to the Goth Faire to retrieve the Vikingaharta from Imogene. Eirik, Finnvid and Isleif are also in on the retrieval having been sent by Freya to help Fran send Loki to the Akashic Plane.
The reunion scene with Ben made me weep. My heart broke, was healed and broke again. The misery that both Fran and Ben endured over the 5 years Fran had been gone from Europe, the utter despondency that engulfed them during the year of their complete breakup, made me ache with loneliness. Then the joy began but was shattered only to give birth to hope.
And that hope was not in vain.
Needless to say, I loved this book. I ached for this book for so long, I was afraid I had built it up too much in my mind but I was wrong. This book is, if not quite a perfect conclusion, a very satisfying semi-conclusion to Ben and Fran's love story. There are many threads hanging at the end but, as Ms. MacAlister has promised that this is the begining of a new series, I'm very hopeful that there just MIGHT be another B&F centric book among them.
We do learn what Loki took from Fran ("I will take that which you value most") in Circus of the Darned and it actually was close to my hypothesis that Fran lost her feeling of acceptance, her feeling of belonging, that I was well satisfied with Loki's denouement.
5 of 5 berries for this one. Read it! You'll fall in love with Ben and Fran as well!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Elemental Masters books, Timeline
The Elemental Masters books by Mercedes Lackey are an interesting series of books. They are written with the assumption that magic works in our world, and that the wielders of said magic are hiding it from "normal" people. Well, that makes sense.
These Magic-wielders are able to manipulate magic in one of the four "elements": Fire, Air, Water, Earth. Each has their own abilities and Elementals to command, and each can be used for good (Light Path) or evil (Dark Path, usually blood magic). All of these books are actually retellings of Fairy Tales, and take place around the turn of the 20th Century.
I was reading them and started wondering about the timeline for these books, and how they fit together. Here's what I came up with, in chronological order:
Wizard of London, Elemental Masters book 5.
Fairy Tale: The Snow Queen.
Takes place sometime between 1861 and 1880 (or so).
Clues: Queen Victoria is mentioned as "mourning her husband", so obviously it's after Albert's death in 1861. A fraudulent medium is mentioned as well, and that her punishment may be "being sent to Australia". The final shipment of prisoners to Australia took place in 1868, but it's conceivable that this would still be in the minds of people as "something that happens to criminals" much later than that, so I lengthened the timeline. It's conceivable, actually, that it takes place anywhere up to 1901, since that's when Victoria died.
The Fire Rose, Elemental Masters book 1.
Fairy Tale: Beauty and the Beast.
Takes place in 1901 - 1902, as is evidenced by the San Francisco Earthquake near the end of the book.
Reserved for the Cat, Elemental Masters book 6.
Fairy Tale: Puss in Boots.
Takes place between 1907 and 1914.
Clues: The Ziegfeld Follies, started in 1907, is mentioned as the up-and-coming form of entertainment. The protagonist is said to be fleeing Russia and "won't be missed unless she's a favorite of the Empress". The Imperial Family was executed in 1917. However, Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, and certainly the main Mages in the story would have been called up by 1915. Also, there is no mention whatsoever of the war, and at least one character has no problem traveling across Europe by train. Therefore, it must be before 1914.
The Serpent's Shadow, Elemental Masters book 2.
Fairy Tale: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
The text itself states it starts in 1909. May take place either slightly before or simultaneously with Reserved for the Cat.
The Gates of Sleep, Elemental Masters book 3.
Fairy Tale: Sleeping Beauty.
This one is the most uncertain. The text does mention Dr. Maya (from The Serpent's Shadow), and one of the characters here, Dr. Andrew Pike, is mentioned in Phoenix and Ashes. So I put it between the two.
Phoenix and Ashes, Elemental Masters book 4.
Fairy Tale: Cinderella.
Dates in the book place it starting at 1914, and the action takes place between 1914 - 1918.
They're an interesting series of books, fascinating retellings of the "classic" fairy tales, and they're an enjoyable read. They are internally consistent, as well - they reference action that has taken place in previous books and it all hangs together nicely.
These Magic-wielders are able to manipulate magic in one of the four "elements": Fire, Air, Water, Earth. Each has their own abilities and Elementals to command, and each can be used for good (Light Path) or evil (Dark Path, usually blood magic). All of these books are actually retellings of Fairy Tales, and take place around the turn of the 20th Century.
I was reading them and started wondering about the timeline for these books, and how they fit together. Here's what I came up with, in chronological order:
Wizard of London, Elemental Masters book 5.
Fairy Tale: The Snow Queen.
Takes place sometime between 1861 and 1880 (or so).
Clues: Queen Victoria is mentioned as "mourning her husband", so obviously it's after Albert's death in 1861. A fraudulent medium is mentioned as well, and that her punishment may be "being sent to Australia". The final shipment of prisoners to Australia took place in 1868, but it's conceivable that this would still be in the minds of people as "something that happens to criminals" much later than that, so I lengthened the timeline. It's conceivable, actually, that it takes place anywhere up to 1901, since that's when Victoria died.
The Fire Rose, Elemental Masters book 1.
Fairy Tale: Beauty and the Beast.
Takes place in 1901 - 1902, as is evidenced by the San Francisco Earthquake near the end of the book.
Reserved for the Cat, Elemental Masters book 6.
Fairy Tale: Puss in Boots.
Takes place between 1907 and 1914.
Clues: The Ziegfeld Follies, started in 1907, is mentioned as the up-and-coming form of entertainment. The protagonist is said to be fleeing Russia and "won't be missed unless she's a favorite of the Empress". The Imperial Family was executed in 1917. However, Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, and certainly the main Mages in the story would have been called up by 1915. Also, there is no mention whatsoever of the war, and at least one character has no problem traveling across Europe by train. Therefore, it must be before 1914.
The Serpent's Shadow, Elemental Masters book 2.
Fairy Tale: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
The text itself states it starts in 1909. May take place either slightly before or simultaneously with Reserved for the Cat.
The Gates of Sleep, Elemental Masters book 3.
Fairy Tale: Sleeping Beauty.
This one is the most uncertain. The text does mention Dr. Maya (from The Serpent's Shadow), and one of the characters here, Dr. Andrew Pike, is mentioned in Phoenix and Ashes. So I put it between the two.
Phoenix and Ashes, Elemental Masters book 4.
Fairy Tale: Cinderella.
Dates in the book place it starting at 1914, and the action takes place between 1914 - 1918.
They're an interesting series of books, fascinating retellings of the "classic" fairy tales, and they're an enjoyable read. They are internally consistent, as well - they reference action that has taken place in previous books and it all hangs together nicely.
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