Kindling, by Kathleen Jennings

If you are looking for lovely fantastical short stories, such as a perfect for savoring on a cold winter night (or hot summer day if you are antipodal), I enthusiastically recommend Kindling, by Kathleen Jennings (Small Beer Press, January 23, 2024).

Reviews of short story collections are hard to write.  I want to speak of each story individually, but that would take ages and spoil the lovely twists of them.  I could generalize, and say that the writing is lyrical and lovely, except that this is trite, and "lyrical" is, I feel, an overused and rather meaningless way to say that the words paint pictures in the mind, and call feelings from the heart and thoughts from the mind.  I could say in equal fairness that there's a very pleasing range of story collected here, ranging from fairy tale-esque to horror-esque, and I was never bored (though this is a boring sentence).

But I am an INFP, and the book through which I learned this says of me and my ilk that "metaphors come easily but may be forced" or words to that effect.  And so here's a metaphor that captures how I feel about these stories.

Some collections of stories are like eating cookies I enjoy, one after another, rather mindlessly, in a single sitting, and when I get the bottom of the bag of double chocolate milanos aka the end of the last story, I feel full but not deeply appreciative.

Others are like a collection of artisanal cupcakes, each a distinct flavor, some weird, some familiar, each beautifully ornamented so that one must stop and appreciate each before biting into it.  And each so rich and full in its own right that binge eating/reading is not possible.  Kindling is a box of such cupcakes.  I read no more than one story in a single sitting, because that was enough.  

As is the case with a box of mixed artisanal cupcakes, some were more to my taste than others.  The first story was the one I liked least, as I felt the writing got slightly in the way of the story, but all the rest of them I enjoyed lots and I am happy to have them in my mind's library now to revisit at my leisure.  

And I will keep the ARC on my shelf, for when all I need is one really good short story.  And when I have paid for my new roof and can buy new books again, I will see this ARC and replace it with the finished copy, and hope for more books from Kathleen Jennings. (I have shelved it between Kelly Link's books and Ursula Le Guin's books, as sown below, where I think it is happy.  Except that there is now no more room on that shelf, and though there are sadly no other Le Guin's to buy, there will be more Kelly Link, and hopefully more Kathleen Jennings, and so I guess I will have to move Connie Willis, which is ok because I'm not sure how well she plays with Le Guin.......)

In any event, thanks very much to Small Beer Press for the review copy!

The Blood Trials, by N.E. Davenport

The Blood Trials, by N.E. Davenport, is a fierce read about a young woman consumed by grief and anger who is determined to bring her grandfather's killer to justice, and who ends up setting herself against a world controlled by rival evil (and incredibly powerful) governments.  Though readers of YA may well appreciate it, it's a book for adults--there is considerable, very detailed, violence, and a graphic sex scene. 

Ikenna was ready to give up on her ambition to become one of the elite Praetorian Guard after her grandfather's death throws her into acute depression.  But when she finds out she was murdered, she becomes fueled by rage and determination to find the killer, and becoming one of the Guard will help her do that.  The trials the would-be guard members, the best and brightest of the military recruits, are put through are brutal, and often fatal (which seemed really wasteful as a military strategy; this thought kept distracting me).   Ikenna gives and gets horrible injuries, the body count is in the hundreds, and things seem pretty hopeless for her at many points in the story.

Ikenna, having inherited the dark skin of her grandfather's family, faces awful racism, is a woman in a misogynist society, and is often self-sabotaged by her lack of emotional control born from anger and grief, but she has a secret advantage--she has a blood gift, from the old gods...one that her country's greatest enemy uses as a terrible weapon.  She can't risk having it discovered, but she can't help but uses it when needed, to ferret out secrets and heal herself from the many injuries the trials inflict on her.

In the course of the trials, surrounded by people she cannot trust, many of whom hate her (even without knowing about her blood gift) more death and guilt add to her burden, and a night of forbidden passion doesn't help.  But she perseveres, leaving a blood-stained wake, until, like opening a series of nesting dolls, she realizes at the end of the book that the fight she's undertaken for justice, and her own right to exist, is much greater than she'd imagined.

Ikenna's strong emotions are perfectly understandable, but don't leave much room in her headspace for the reader to get to know other dimensions of her personality.  (I would have liked more intelligence, and less emotional response....).  And the pretty much non-stop violence of the trials, and the hate she gets thrown, and the betrayals she endures, don't make for easy reading; it was all a bit much for me.  I didn't actually enjoy it much, though I never considered not finishing the book, because of wanting to know what happened.  But having reached the end of the book, with the stakes becoming increasingly higher, Ikenna at last has reached a point where she has people on her side, and no longer has to hide who she is, so I'm pretty willing to give the second book at try.

So not a book for me, but if you look at the Goodreads reviews, plenty of people loved it.....

disclaimer: review copy received from the publicist.

A Stitch in Time, by Kelley Armstrong, for Timeslip Tuesday

This week's Timeslip Tuesday book, A Stitch in Time, by Kelley Armstrong (October 2020, Subterranean Press), is one for grown-ups--along with time travel, there's a pretty hot romance (at least, I guess it's hot, but I don't know what the standard for these things is these days...), ghost story, and murder mystery.

When Bronwyn, a widowed history professor in her late 30s, inherits the old family house in Yorkshire, she is happy to leave Toronto for the summer to revisit this place she loved as a child but never visited after she was 15.  That year, there was a tragedy, and Bronwyn never went back.  But she never forgot her visits there, visits in which she played with her best friend William, and later, began to think of him as more than just a friend.

There was one small snag about this friendship--William lived in the 19th century, and no one believed that Bronwyn was traveling back in time to visit him.

So there she is, in this big old house, with memories both horrible and happy, still missing her husband something fierce....and she travels back to William's time again.  And their relationship, now one between two consenting adults, heads up pretty briskly.

The ghostly hauntings of the house also heat up.  Soon Bronwyn has become aware of four different ghosts in the house...and has to figure out what happened to them so she can lay them to rest (fortunately there's a wise woman in the local village who helps her figure out that this is what she needs to do...).  It's a lovely creepy mystery that's connected to William and his family, brining these two parts of the story nicely together.  

William and Bronwyn's romance was a bit much for my taste (it seemed too easy, but that could be explained by their shared past), but it made them happy, so good for them.  It was fun, from a time travel point of view, to see a historian of the 19th century appreciating the past directly, and interesting to see the two of them working out the complication of living in different times...neither assumes that Bronwyn would want to leave the 21st century to live in the 19th full time, so points to William for that!  And the ghosts really were nicely spooky.  There was also a time travelling kitten, which was a nice bonus. 

The house never became real to my mind's eye though, which was disappointing. because I love thick description of old houses and gardens.  I quickly rejected the Victorian house on the cover; I do not think there is anything remotely like that in rural Yorkshire (or even urban, where I lived for a year).  And I'm not convinced that Kelley Armstrong has ever stripped really old wood; like the romance, and even like the mystery solving, it all seems a tad too easy-- "There are few things in home renovation as satisfying as removing paint, watching long strips slough off in ribbons, revealing the gorgeous wood beneath." (p. 222).  Latex paint over varnished wood does this to a certain extent, but lead based paint (which I bet is what she's dealing with) does not, and the wood looks like crap until you put lots more work into it, and page 222 was a ways into her summer vacation and there's no way she's going to get it done before she goes back to Toronto....I have been stripping paint in my own house for 20 years now, and am perhaps bitter. Am also not convinced that the small Yorkshire village would sell paint stripper.

But it's pretty clear Armstrong enjoyed writing the book, and it's an enjoyable read, though not one I fell hard for.

This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, for Timeslip Tuesday

This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (July 2019, Gallery / Saga Pres), is an epistolary love story between two agents (Red and Blue) on either side of a time war that stretches millennia in both directions.  Red and Blue are skilled at manipulating the strings of time, braiding them into patterns that will result in the desired outcomes of the two very different futures that spawned them.

But when they begin a correspondence that starts as a taunting challenge, they find that they are braiding themselves together, tugging each other toward a future that seems impossible.

It's not a doorstopper of a book (198 pages), so I thought it would be a fast read, but it's not, because all the words deserve consideration, and it's so rich in literary allusions and historical details and epistolary conceits that it demands to be savored.  It' s a very complicated sort of time travel (constant back and forth manipulation of history can make my head spin), and I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep my mental footing secure, but it's a very simple story of two lonely women learning to value, then trust, then love each other passionatly, and their two distinct selves kept me grounded.

In short, it's a very good, very strange, very sweet book.

It's written for grown-ups, but the theme of finding who one is amidst the trappings impossed on us by birth and rearing is one I imagine teens finding very appealing.

The Family Tree, by Sheri Tepper, for Timeslip Tuesday

I was sad to hear that Sheri Tepper had died last week...she was a keystone of my speculative fiction reading in my twenties, and obliged just beautifully with her prolific writing.  As an added bonus, my mother discovered her at the same time I did, so we could share the reading experience.  Not every book was to my taste, but they were all interesting, and some I love.   One of my favorites is The Family Tree (May 1997).  And it is impossible to review the book without spoilers, so I shall start by saying that if you are at all interested in a scenario where nature starts fighting back against late stage capitalism, if you are at all interested in world building that involves very different races coexisting in (more or less peace), and if you are at all interested in books that cannot be reviewed without spoilers, because the moments of Realization are so stunning, then go read this book!  There's also a murder mystery, and it's one of Tepper's funniest books--it makes me chuckle lots and lots.  There's also a nice romance. 

On the other hand, it's a two stories at once book, so you have to bounce between two entirely different sets of characters in two very different places. 

I myself love love love the part of the story set in our world, which tells how nature decides to fight back against suburban sprawl, overpopulation, and the predations of goats on semiarid landscapes.  Dora, the protagonist of this part of the story, decides toward the start of the book to leave her husband, Jared.  The wonder of it is why she married him to begin with--it is not a real marriage in any sense of the word.  The catalyst for her decision is a plant, one that attacks Jared when he tries to kill it, sending him to the hospital.  Dora, on the other hand, has friendly feelings for the plant, and wishes it well (I like a character who says hi to plants).  So she finds a place of her own (she's a police officer, so can afford independence), and when trees start coming up all over, blocking roads and trapping parked cars, and removing parking lots etc., Dora is taken aback, but doesn't feel threatened.

But then she is.

And in the meantime, there's a whole nother story going on at the same time, about a group of diverse inhabitants of another society (sort of medievally in feel) going on a journey to find answers to prophecies and dire warnings.  The trees in this place are not growing every which way, but they have become strangly agitated; they feel a catastrophe is coming.

(mostly when I re-read I follow Dora's story straight through, because I like it better, but don't do this your first time reading because it will mess everything up, even it the non Dora story feels too stereotypically fantasy journey.....).

And then the two stories meet.

(spoilery now)

Spoilers not because I'm going to give everything away, but because the more about the book you know the more likely you are to guess things. 

So you can stop reading now.

The meeting of the two stories involves time travel of a rather unexpected kind, and revelations that there were other stories going on in both places that are rather astounding.

The time travel mechanics are not explained, but simply exist to make the story possible.  The time travel, with its concomitant issues of changes the past, and thereby changing the future, are central to the plot, but not so central to the story of the characters, like Dora, who have to cope with the time travel consequences and who have to try to keep the worst of them from happening.  There is a villain who must be foiled...and a future of diverse peoples to be saved.

So in any event this is my most favorite of Tepper's books, and every time I read it I see more and more clues in her descriptions (and boy, is she careful and cunning!) that once you know what's happening make it even more fun.

Uprooted, by Naomi Novik

If I had a long airplane trip in front of me, or a five hour wait at a dentist's office, or something equally uncomfortable, I would like very much to be having the pleasure of reading Uprooted, by Naomi Novik (Deckle Edge, 2015), for the first time again.  As it was, the suck-in-to-book-world force was so strong that I was able to ignore the crushing heat of my house at lunch time, and even my desire to get up to get a Fla-Vor-Ice (sic) was trumped by my desire to keep reading.....So yes, it's one of my top books of the year.  Technically it's a book for grown-ups, but if I had been told it was published as YA, I would not have questioned it.

The basic story--a bad Wood of Evil threatens the inhabitants of various villages in a valley.  The threat of the Wood is held in check by the power of a magician, known as the Dragon.  Every ten years the Dragon chooses a girl from one of the villages to go live with him (none of them ever report sex being part of the living arrangement...).  Agnieszka is the latest girl to be picked.  She wasn't expecting to be chosen, because of not being particularly beautiful or accomplished...but it turns out she has a gift for magic that made the Dragon kind of have to pick her to teach her.

It does not go as he had planned- her magic and his magic are very different in flavor.  His is the well-crafted, aesthetically handsomely crafted edifices of spellwork, and for her magic comes most easily as homely song and friendly word, feeling and intuition working just as strongly for her as well studied words do for the Dragon. 

Gradually the two of them, so very different, learn to be harmoniously in the world together viz their magic, which is a Good Thing because the Wood is very very very bad and basically wants to send its poision out into the whole world of humanity, and they learn to live harmoniously as people, and (I really liked this aspect of the book) there isn't insta love between the two, but rather sexual desire on the part of Agnieszka totally of her own accord (she initiates things) and with no moping and swooning--and it's not that it's not romantic, but it's a realistic, believable two people strongly phycially attracted to each other relationship.  This makes it rather different from the insta-love of the swoon worthy new boy that has shown up in the last ten YA spec. fic. books I've read.....

And the fight against the wood ends up involving court intrigue and armies and duplicity and scheming (I could have just stayed happily in the Dragon's tower humming spells along with Agnieszka and getting to know the Dragon along with her and sharing flashbacks to her childhood, but I guess the  bad magic out in the wider world of kings and princes and court magicians was important to the story....)

And then there is the final faceoff, and it is somewhat more nuanced than I was expecting with regard to motivation of the bad force behind the Wood.

So in short, I found it immensely readable; my only un-positive thought is that I'm not sure there's enough unsaid or implied or suggested such that re-reading would make it even more to be appreciated (the way, for instance, that one can keep reading Megan Whalen Turner's book and find a new meaning in how a particular gem flashes that give character insights).  It's not tremendously subtle....and  much of the magic is perhaps overly convenient and easily used....so though I enjoyed the first reading very much,  I'm not going to go leaping out to buy my own copy to re-read ad nauseum.

Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson

So I don't generally read hard sci fi books written for grown-ups that are 861 pages long, but I'm not opposed to doing so (I enjoyed lots of sci fi for grown-ups back in the 1980s and 90s*), and I was rather pleased to receive a review copy of Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow, May 2015), and plunged right in.

The premise is great--the moon gets shattered into seven chunks, and at first this seems ok--seven bits of moon in a cluster instead of one big moon.  But then it becomes clear that the seven chunks are going to bash into each other in an exponentially shattering rate, and all those bits of moon are going to come crashing down onto earth in a "hard rain" of planetary destruction.   So humanity looks to space to provide a home for future generations, until the hard rain ceases and earth can be re-seeded.  The space station becomes the nucleus for a colony, populated by a mix of scientists and engineers who are there because of their technological know-how, and young people of many lands who are there to make babies.

It is not smooth sailing in space.  Things go wrong both on the technological side of things and the social, and by the end of the first few years, there are only seven "Eves" left to be the mothers of space humanity....And then we jump through the ensuing five millenniums to the point where Earth is ready to be recolonized, and the descendants of those Eves come down to their old homeland...

So a very interesting story.  I regret to say, though, that Stephenson's style does not work for me.  There are pages and pages of scientific exposition.  I don't mind some technical detail to give me a sense of what's happening, but all I need is enough to get a general idea that things make sense.  I don't care How the orbital mechanics of things in space work (and likewise, if there's magic in a book, I can accept "magic" without to much exposition about where it comes from and how it works).  Stephenson really goes overboard on spelling out the hard science.  By around page 400 or so I realized that I would never finish unless I skimmed the pages and pages in which no person talks, and it's all just explanation of what was happening in space, or long long passages about the specifics of how the genetics of the seven Eves played out (in many more words than I thought were needed).   There was a lot of Telling here, and the characters seem more like inserts into the science, than the science providing the stage on which the characters can truly come alive.

So the the part of sci fi epics that I most enjoy--the human and cultural elements playing out (as opposed to being explained by the author) isn't the strong point of this book.  There were some fascinating characters, who I cared about, but I couldn't quite shake the sense that they were pieces being moved on the board of the grand scheme of things by the author.  Of course, they were pieces being moved by fate and the force of circumstance, but still.  This wasn't deeply satisfying social anthropological sci fi, even when they do make it back to Earth  (I was especially unconvinced by the social and cultural changes and (more glaring) lack thereof that happened during 5,000 years, which weren't all that speculative).    So not one for me....and yet I kept reading, fascinated by the epic scope...If you do like the science of a story spelled out in detail, you may well like this one lots!

*just for context--my favorite sci-fi for adult authors off the top of  my head are Ursula Le Guin, Sheri Tepper, and David Brin. 

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

Superheroes Anonymous, by Lexie Dunne

After focusing so much on middle grade speculative fiction for the Cybils these past few months, it was nice to turn to a fun, fast adult book--Superheroes Anonymous, by Lexie Dunne (Harper Voyager Impulse, Nov. 2014) .

No-one calls Gail by name anymore, not even her boyfriend--instead, she's just known as "Girl," short for "Hostage Girl."  Over and over again, Gail is abducted by super-villains, and over and over again, her own personal superhero Blaze saves her.  He never speaks, just saves...and though Gail is tired of being a hostage ad naseum, she's at least got her role down pat.

Then her boyfriend (who everyone--media, co-workers, and, it seems, super villains) moves to Miami...and the kidnappings stop--if Blaze isn't going to be there to save her/be lured to villainous traps, there's no point.  But one villain doesn't get the message.  He kidnaps Gail, and in his lair of evil insanity he inadvertently bestows superpowers on her.

Now Gail isn't going to be the victim anymore....but when she's taken to the headquarters of the superheros, she becomes virtually a prisoner there.  Her body is now strange to her, and her days are spent having her new-found powers honed (with a focus on her fighting ability) with little discussion of what her future might hold.   But on the bright side- now she gets to meet the man who inhabits Blaze's costume, and romance blossoms.  On the less bright side, there's a whole Plot of Evil going on outside headquarters, and Gail's past has implicated her in how it's going to play out....

So yeah, fun and fast.  It's an entertaining set-up of superhero/villain high-jinx, and the pages turned quickly.  I couldn't help but be annoyed by how the Superhero folks treated Gail-sticking her in a windowless room, giving her standard issue workout uniforms to wear, and not explaining details like food or future or anything and not giving her books or electronic devices.   And I was annoyed at Gail, for not being more bothered--sure, she's used to being a passive victim, but she could question things just a tad more proactively.   On the other hand, I enjoyed her relationship with "Blaze" very much (he's rather attractive in personality as well as appearance), and on the strength of that, I can recommend this with conviction to fans of romantic spec. fic.  It's one I think YA spec fic readers, used to sharing adventure with romance, would enjoy in particular.

This is the first book in a series, and it literally ends with "to be continued..." just as the action/tension side of things has really been ratcheted up.  It almost reads as an extended prologue, which might be off-putting for some.  For me, used to this happening all the time in middle grade spec fic, it was not troubling at all....

(minor thing that's troubling me--what the heck happened to Vicki in the bit at the end?  I re-read it to see if I'd missed something, but didn't see anything about what was up with her.....odd).

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Bell at Sealey Head, by Patricia McKillip

So this weekend I finally read a book I was given by my husband for Christmas in 2008-- The Bell at Sealey Head, by Patricia McKillip.   Sheesh--so pathetic of me, but that is what happens when your tbr piles explodes and keeps growing--the books you know you love and really want to read get set aside (someday I'll read The Islands of Chaldea...).

But I am So Glad I have now read The Bell at Sealey Head because it is one of my most favorite of all Patricia McKillip's books and I loved it. 
 
It is a beautiful story of ordinary life twisted with magic in which nice people such as I'd like to be friends with who like books and stories and questioning the edges of reality learn about the magic and not much Happens in an action-packed sort of way and there are small things that made me laugh and beautiful pictures painted in my mind.  

So pretty much a perfect book for me, and if you at all love the same books I love do try it!

Here is a quick synopsis-

Every day, just as the sun sets, the bell at Sealy Head rings.  No one has seen the bell, no one knows its story--it is a mystery that is part of the fabric of life.   One young woman writes stories to explain it, one young man listens for it with his blind father, as their inn sits empty, one young man comes from far away (bringing lots of books) to find its story, one dying woman in her ancient manor house holds to its sound and to life, waiting....and another young woman hears it, but has moved passed it to the magic of the world that sometimes can be seen through the doors inside the manor.  And behind the doors is a third young woman, caught in an endless ritual of magic of which the bell is a part... (There are other people too, worth mentioning, but I feel I've mentioned enough).

And their lives all come together and they figure out the story (with the help of books) and untangle the chains of magic (which have a malevolent twist to them) and it is a happy ending with nice romance and it is flavored nicely with bits of comic relief from minor characters.

Yep.  Possibly even my favorite McKillip.....

If I were marketing it I would want to market it to YA readers because the main characters are in their teens, and it is very much a teens growing up story, but it is so different from what's in the YA section these days that I don't know how it would do there.....(pause while I try to think of a contemporary YA title I would describe as "beautiful magic."  Cannot think of one).

The Lost, by Sarah Beth Durst, with Armchair BEA giveaway of ARC

It is such a lovely thing, when a book you get for review turns out to be a beautifully satisfying read.  All the pressure to be tactful is off, and you can simply say things like "I really truly enjoyed this book and didn't want it to end."  The Lost, by Sarah Beth Durst (Harlequin, May 27th, 2014) was such a book.  The pleasure of having some of it left to read this morning almost made up for the hideous fact that the cat woke me up at 4:30am.

Lauren was on her way to work one day, driving to a job she didn't like, driving away from the return of her mother's cancer.   But instead of doing what she was supposed to, she just kept going, driving down a highway through the desert with no plans or intentions to speak of.  And she found herself in Lost.

Lost is a place where missing things, missing houses and toys and dogs and library books, and even lost oceans end up.  Its residents are people who have lost their way, or been lost, themselves.    If they find what they are missing, they can leave... And in the meantime, they survive, or not, by scrabbling through the detritus of the lost bits of other people's lives.

Lauren doesn't know what she's lost.   And she doesn't know what she's going to find.

Here's what she finds:

--lots of scavenged stuff (those who like people making home-ish places with scavenged stuff will share my pleasure in this aspect of the book)
--two of the most meaningful relationships of her life (such as made my heart ache).
--what she needs to do

Here's what the book did to me:

--erased reality
--left me with images and emotions that I will enjoy revisiting during the coming summer of yard work (my mind plays books back to me as I weed)
--left me with a strong desire to read the sequel (The Missing, coming this November)
--made me want to enthusiastically recommend it

It is a fact that I mostly read books for young readers, and I think part of the reason I enjoyed The Lost so much is that it is a book written for grown-up that keeps all that I love best about kids books--the deeply, lovingly created world, the characters who are worth caring about, and the sense of wonder and possible impossibility you find in the best children's fantasy.    If I had to pigeon-hole The Lost explicitly, I'd call it New Adult fantasy, because the main character, Lauren, is a New Adult, facing the questions that come with that territory (of the "what am I going to make of this life I have in front of me" type).    It's easy to imagine YA readers also enjoying it just fine.

You can read the first two chapters via Sarah Beth Durst's website.   

And if you are an Armchair BEA participant, I'm giving away my (very very gently read; you might not even notice my reading of it) ARC of The Lost.  Just leave a comment by midnight this Saturday (May 31) making sure that I can somehow find you....

And now, having lost track of time, I must rush off.  (I would so love to find all the time I have lost track of during the course of my life.)

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Mist, by Susan Krinard (me reading adult fantasy)

I  occasionally step outside my comfort zone of fantasy and science books for young readers, and peek at the grown-up section of my local bookstore.  Mist, by Susan Krinard (Tor, 2013) caught my eye--Norse mythology coming to life in San Fransisco!  Brave Valkyrie (Mist), stuck in Midgard for centuries after the first Ragnarok fizzled out under strange circumstances, finds herself desperately trying the world from being destroyed in a second Ragnarok masterminded by Loki! So when Tor offered me a review copy, I said, yes please.

Mist is very much a first book of a bigger adventure.  It tells how Mist goes from being an ex-Valkyrie running ordinary weapons workshops to a powerful (but still uncertain) magic-user leader of those opposing Loki's grand plan to ruin everything (for everyone but Loki).   And as such it's a story of characters meeting (and the reader meeting characters), mostly under violent circumstances, and Mist starting to figure out just who she is, and just who she has to become.   The first of her potential allies to appear is Dainn, an enigmatic Alfar (Norse high elf type of being), who clearly has secrets and darknesses in his past.  Part-way through the book, we begin to be given his point-of-view, and the secrets and darkness begin to be spelled out.

There are urban fantasy type adventures, and some cool magic, and Mist is a fine heroine of the headstrong, determined, and somewhat over her head type.  There are fights with Jotuns (ice giants), allies beginning to be drawn to Mist, Mist learning to use her innate magic, Loki magically and sexually conning people right and left, and Dainn being tormented by secrets and darkness (he is tormented by these lots).

Though quite a bit Happens, the book as a whole is somewhat slowed by explication and repetition--perhaps the explanatory elements are necessary for those not familiar with Norse mythology, but I do feel that I got the point of particular plot and character threads sooner than the author thought I had, and didn't need to keep revisiting them.  This was particular true with the romantic sub-plot.

Mist and Dainn start being drawn to each other quite soon after meeting, and it is made very clear to the reader that they keep on being drawn to each other repeatedly and reluctantly throughout the book, in such a way as to make me wonder at times if I was, in fact, reading a romance with mythological elements rather than a fantasy with romantic elements. 

"[Mist] averted her gaze from the swallowing darkness of his gaze, focusing on the next thing she saw.  Unfortunately, that was still Dainn, his long, elegant hand resting palm-up on his knee.  It was the kind of hand that could bring pleasure with the lightest touch of a fingertip." (page 218)

I tend to like my fictional romances a tad more subtle, so this aspect of the book didn't work well for me.    And Dainn's point of view sections, which were all about his secrets and darknesses, slowed the book down, and took too much time away from the more energy filled story of Mist discovering her powers and her new (unwelcome) role as head of the Opposition to Loki.

In short, what I enjoyed most were those parts of the book that focused on Mist and her nascent army of teenagers with strange gifts (only two of them thus far, but they were interesting characters), two heavy drinking sons of Odin, and, best of all but right at the end, a sister Valkyrie who arrives at the head of a motorcycle gang.

Not quite a book for me, but those who enjoy romance mixed with mythological fantasy might well like it very much indeed.  As for me,  I had already this year read a book about a Valkyrie named Mist - Norse Code, by Greg Eekhout (2009), which was much more to my personal taste (here's my review).

The Bards of Bone Plain, by Patricia McKillip (me reading grown-up fantasy)

I haven't been meeting my goal of one adult fantasy book a week--turns out, no surprise, it takes longer to read something written for grown-ups than something written for an eleven-year old.  But I have been enjoying the variety of reading more of it.  Especially when, as has been the case these last few days, I have been lost in beautiful, magical imagery, and ancient secrets, following avidly along as intelligent, deeply likable people find their way through stories that have come from the past to twist the present into something rich and strange.

In short, I read a Patricia McKillip novel, and a rather fine one at that--The Bards of Bone Plain.   It is perhaps one of her best books ever.  And oh the shame of it, it was a Christmas present back in 2011, and it languished all this time, because (and I don't think I am alone in this), it is often easier to put off reading books you know you'll love, that will wait there patiently for you to come to them.....


Things I liked:

--what I said above.  McKillip is an author I read in much the same way as I approach a box of really expensive assorted truffles.   You don't gobble the whole box down, delicious though they are--instead, you make the most of the immersive experience of each bite, and are rewarded with great richness.  Except that only holds true for the first time reading one of her books, when I really don't know what is happening and how things are going to tie together. On re-reading I  proceed with a more relaxed, comfy, briskness....

--you know that whole if its fantasy it must be quasi medieval thing? To heck with that!  McKillip has two stories going at once, one in the past, and one in the present; the past one, with legitimate reason, is quasi-medieval, but then centuries have past, so we get a quasi Edwardian, steam-powered present!  With a princess who's an archaeologist by vocation, who drives a steam-powered vehicle.

--lots of music, and story, and legend  (if you like fantasy books with music, this is a must-read.  If you want to buy a fantasy book for a folklorist or an archaeologist, this is an excellent one).

--a rather sweet and unexpected romance.   I wish that McKillip would maybe be just a tad more forthcoming in the romance department, but she is parsimonious with details (really too parsimonious, in this case).   Happily, her characters have so much independent life to them that is easy to fill in the blanks (swoon!) for oneself.  

I do not think it is to everyone's taste, especially all the underlining of how the stories from the past, and from the land itself, are coming up into the light of day to disturb the order the things.  I can imaging some people feeling that they want less of being told how this is happening, and more of being told what the heck is really going on.   On top of that, everyone is running around with questions they are keeping to themselves, and feelings about things they never quite get a chance to articulate, and even I felt that maybe a bit of dictatorial explanation would have been not unwelcome.

That's the sort of thing, of course, that gets cleared up when you re-read it.  And truly, the best books are those that demand re-reading, and that offer new things every time one does.   I haven't re-read The Bards of Bone Plain, of course, but I already look forward to it...

Huh.  I just went and read the Amazon reviews, and the people who didn't care for it said they had it all figured out early on.   This is not something I myself have a problem with (the whole having figured things out bit).  I think it happened once (The False Prince).

I toy with the idea of someday organizing a Patricia McKillip appreciation week.  She seems to be finding more readers these days (at least, in the blog circles I frequent), but she deserves to be known and loved more widely!

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, by Wendy Welch

...was perfect Friday night in front of the fire comfort reading.  Anyone who loves used bookstores and/or stories of people leaving their ordinary jobs to follow idiosyncratic dreams will probably also enjoy it.

In a nutshell:  a couple stakes all their economic hopes on turning an old house in a small town into a used book store.  After initial tension (will they find enough stock to make all the new shelves look less pathetically empty?) it works out for them.  They make friends.   There are cats.   Tea and coffee are served.  Homemade gifts are exchanged.  Books are sold.  Customers are interesting--humorous, moving, difficult.

As one who is collecting stock (antiquarian and out of print children's books) for her own bookstore, I appreciated the practical side of things very much.  As a lover of bookstores, I appreciated it even more.

Quibble:  I wish Wendy Welch had put in a map, showing how to get to her store! 

Me reading fantasy for grown-ups: Heroes Adrift, by Moira J. Moore

I must say I am quite enjoying reading contemporary fantasy books for adults on a regular basis!  Of course, I have not been making Risky Choices in the books I have been choosing.  This week's book, for instance, was very safe.  Moira J. Moore's Hero series, of which Heroes Adrift (Ace, 2008) is the third, is one that I began reading because of Angie's enthusiastic endorsement.  I am happy to report that these books make lovely comfort reading for those who enjoy character-driven romantic fantasy with generous dashings of intrigue and magical world-building. 

Here's Angie's review of the first book, Resenting the Hero, and yes, it has an awful cover, just awful, one of the worst ever, but don't be deterred. 

In Heroes Adrift, Lee and Taro are relieved of their obligation to use their extraordinary mental gifts to protect the citizens of their alien planet from natural disasters.  Instead, they're sent down to one of the southern islands at the command of the Empress, to track down descendants of an illegitimate member of the royal family.   Confronted with a very different culture, and very different perceptions of their value to society (which is to say that for a change they are now broke), they are forced to re-examine and re-negotiate both the way they think of themselves, and their relationship to each other, and though there are no Big Happenings, there's lots of small goings on that cumulatively make for a good story, and I did enjoy very much the unhurried progression of the two main characters.   It's made more interesting by the fact that Lee, from whose point of view we see things unfold, is, by nature and nurture, a somewhat unreliable observer of both herself and Taro--what she says is happening isn't what the reader thinks maybe going on! 

In short, reading Heroes adrift was like going on a trip with good friends, and doubtless book number four in the series, Heroes At Risk, will show up here soon (or maybe not so soon--I'm enoying taking my time with these, saving them for when I need a fun, untaxing break from the rigours of middle grade sff, which is actually quite a lot harder to write about thoughtfully...)

Note on this cover--there is no piratical adventure at sea, and Lee would never skip around a boat looking like that. Sigh. 

Me reading adult fantasy--Norse Code, by Greg van Eekhout

This week's adventure in reading fantasy books for grown-ups (though it has huge YA crossover appeal) was Norse Code, by Greg van Eekhout (2009), one I enjoyed very much indeed.  It is a swirlingness of Norse mythology in which two main characters try to fend off the annihilation of Ragnarok, and are forced to be very brave indeed. 

When the story starts, Fimbulvetr, the unending winter, has arrived--three years have passed on earth with no spring.  And Kathy Castillo, an MBA student, has been murdered, only to find her newly dead self offered a new life as a Valkyrie.   Recruitment for Odin's army has been stepped up, and NorseCODE, a secret project funded by the Aesir gods, is tracking down every mortal descendant of Odin it can.   Even ordinary ones like Kathy, now known as Mist.


But Mist goes AWOL.  Instead of being a good Valkyrie, recruiting others, she decides that what's really important is finding her way to the kingdom of Hel, where most of the dead end up-- like Mist's sister, also murderd. To get to Hel and save her sister, Mist needs a guide, and the only choice is the Vanir god, Hermod, who made the journey himself once before (to save his own brother--it didn't work out).   Hermod is a kind of loner god, not really into the mead-soaked fun and games of his family, and rather preoccupied with tracking down the wolves who are going to devour the sun and the moon....but off they go to Hel.

And then lots happens.  Basically, Mist and Hermod team up to try to diffuse Ragnarok, despite all the weight of prophecy and immortal machinations pushing it forward to its deadly conclusion.  They don't have much going for them--some help from Odin's eight-legged horse, and a bunch of dead farmers from Iowa (tornado victims) who, along with Mist's sister and the blind god Höd, have formed a resistance movement in Hel.  Odin's all-seeing eye might help if they can get it, and then there's a sword partly forged from Nothing, that might be useful....

So there's a lot happening, and Mist and Hermod don't really know what the heck they are doing for much of the book, and even when they do know, they have a hard time being special enough to do it, and sometimes people die, and Ragnarok keeps on progressing--yet it wasn't depressing!  I do not like depressing books, so this was good.

Reasons why it wasn't depressing, even though when the story begins it is never ending winter and it's all grim and one isn't at all sure if one wants to read it:

--Mist and Hermod manage to muddle through at every turn; they keep on trying, even when things look their darkest.  This keeps the reader from losing hope too (I hate it when I lose hope). 

--There are lots of little funny bits, little zingers that made me chuckle and longer bits of the author not taking things too seriously but not falling into farce.

--There is violence, and there's at least one graphic mentions of intestines, but it doesn't have the off putting pages of gore and fighting that one might encounter in grown-up books (and some middle grade fantasies)

--I liked the romance.  If this were written as a YA book, there would be lots more about the romance, with angst and thrawtingnesses etc.  This is a nice grown up romance, tastefully presented--growing tension, followed by brisk mutual enjoyment snatched from despair,  conducted offstage.  Though I wouldn't actually have minded a bit more conducted onstage.....

--I really liked the farmers from Iowa.  Plain People of Middle America ftw!

--It is also not any longer than it needs to be.  Clocking in at a brisk 292 pages, there was no wallowing in pointlessness.

In short, Norse Code is the best Ragnarok novelization I've ever read, and the best girl with bare shoulders holding a sword on the cover book I've ever (though it was my first, as far as I can remember, on both counts, so that isn't saying much), and, much more meaningfully, a cracking good read.

Note:  I do not think you have to be deeply conversant with Norse mythology to appreciate it, but on the other hand, I think you need to have at least heard of Ragnarok and Odin's gang and Valkyries etc.

Additional note:  Mist is from Mexico--her family immigrated when she was a child-- which is neither here nor there as far as the story goes, but there it is, so I'm counting this as multicultural fantasy, and anyone who has been wanting to read about a Hispanic Valkyrie need look no further.

Me reading adult fantasy--The Magicians, by Lev Grossman

I have vowed to make 2013 the year in which I bravely read fantasy books for grown-ups, and thanks to many of you, I have a lovely long list of recommendations.  After a false start with City of Dark Magic, I moved on to one I've been meaning to read for years--The Magicians, by Lev Grossman.  And once I got over the shock of the main character peeing in the shower, I enjoyed it...pretty much.

(this post contains spoilers)

What I liked:

1. The college of magic which the main character, Quentin Coldwater, attends is lovely and fascinating and very nicely described.   Quentin's sojourn at the antarctic campus is also good reading.

2.  The epic, post-graduation adventure of Quentin and his circle of college chums in the magical land of Fillory was also fascinating.  It's a riff on Narnia, asking what it would be like if adults were the ones crossing over to save a fantasy realm--an interesting premise, and rather gripping.

3.  The whole beautiful, charming, lovely, and ultimately sinister story of Fillory--there's a series of books about them that were the favorite childhood reading of the main characters.  (I especially love the fact that the Fillory books have their own website).

What I didn't like:

1.  Quentin is not appealing.  I can understand, and even empathize, with many of his feelings, but gee, the dude is self-centered.   Many years pass, and few meaningful words are exchanged between the characters.

2.   I found very off-putting indeed (though my rational brain admits it was important to the plot) the bit after Quentin graduates and he is doing nothing useful in New York and spending his time drinking too much, and Alice, his girlfriend who had all sorts of plans and potential is stuck there too (beats me why, except for reasons of plot).

What annoyed me:

1.  The author assuming I didn't know what the word "vixen" meant.  Please. 

2.  One of the central young student magician characters, Eliot, is gay, and I was not happy with his portrayal.  Early in the book we see him in a very off-kilter sexual encounter, and he's in great emotional pain, and trying to douse it with alcohol and forced sophistication.  And why did Eliot have to be the one who hooks up with a sex partner the moment they start meeting the Fillorians?

 I had the feeling the author was making some sort of point about how open and adult he (the author) was going to be about gay sexuality or something, and though it could be argued that sexuality and the emotional reverberations thereof are a huge part of Eliot's character, and the author was just being true to the character he was creating, but it felt gay unfriendly.

 There is another gay character, the author of the Fillory books, who turns out to have been a pedophile.   Great (sarcasm font).

(Just as a general observation, there was lots of sex in the book that didn't bother me; it didn't much interest me either, since it was mostly of an "and then they had sex" variety, and even the development of the relationship between Quentin and Alice, which took ages,  and was tremendously important, didn't make rainbow sparkles in my mind the way a good lusty fictional romance should).

3.  The whole business about Quentin cheating on Alice, and she is justifiably hurt and angry and he is all sad and wants her forgiveness, and then when she sleeps with someone else he gets his little knickers in a twist and is all Angry and How Could You and I had no sympathy for him at all.

What I am not sure about:

I am pretty sure that if I were attacked by a naked demon who happened to have enormous genitals I would indeed notice them, and perhaps even remark on them, as the characters do.  But were these enormous genitals really a detail that needed to be there?  Possibly, in that it underlines the point that this Fillory adventure isn't kids in fairyland, but I had gathered that already.  I'm not sure I wanted this particular image seared into my young, impressionable mind.

Did I like it?  Well, I read it with absorption and found it a pleasingly immersive experience, but I don't think I'll ever re-read it.  I will, however, add the sequel, The Magician King, to my list.

Thoughts on trying to read a book for grown-ups, City of Dark Magic

I like reading fantasy books written for middle school girls (and boys, to a lesser extent).  This does not mean that I don't also enjoy books for grown-ups, and I am willing to try those that sound good.  Such as  City of Dark Magic, by Magnus Flyte, which promised Prauge, and alchemy, and music, and academia, and dangerous magic.

If I had read its blurb on Amazon more closely, I might also have realized that it promised "tantric sex in a public fountain."  I might, at that point, have passed on it.

I have no particular issue with sex in fiction, especially when it comes after spine-tingling build-up of tension between two characters I care about.  Sadly, that wasn't the case here.

Sarah, the main character, is a musicology grad student who loves her physical frolics, and this is fine, although I don't see why I had to read details about past frolics that aren't relevant to the plot at hand (yes, it tells me a lot about Sarah, but not subtly).   More off-putting was that her main worry when meeting her new colleagues is that, because of clogged airplane sinuses, her preternatural pheromone sensitivity is not going to be in evidence.   Off-putting as well was the unsubtle introduction of a lesbian character (an expert on antique weaponry) who, like so many people, is attracted to Sarah for no clear reason other than to bring sex into everyone's mind again and demonstrate the marvellous health of Sarah's libido.

But what I really never wanted to read were the details of how Sarah found masturbation incredibly helpful when studying for her SATs so many years ago.  Distasteful, and irrelevant.

I could not help but feel that the author was finding his sexy babe character incredibly titillating, and this made me feel squicky.  So that was the end of me reading City of Dark Magic, before I really got to the dark magic part.  Sigh.

Undeterred, I've started another fantasy grown up book--The Magicians, by Lev Grossman.   And I've realized that I don't like it when I'm compelled to visualize the main character peeing in the shower.

This doesn't happen in middle grade fiction.