The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

On May 6, 2013May 6, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews3 Comments

Continuing recent trends, I reread The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley for Once Upon a Time, and for my goal to reread old favorites. I’ve no idea when I last read this, but it may have been middle school. By now, it’s like an entirely new book–not a bad thing, when it’s by one of my favorite (but not prolific enough!) authors.

The heroine of the story is Harry, who travels from what seems to be loosely Victorian England, out to the edge of the empire. The Homeland has never quite conquered the desert and hills of Damar, where the natives still follow the old ways–and are rumored to have magical power. When Harry is abducted by the Damarian king, she begins to forge a new identity among a foreign people she’s strangely drawn to–and finds a role in their coming war with the North.

I feel like this plot summary makes the book sound like Indian Captive, which it isn’t at all…but telling more would give too much away.

I like Harry as a protagonist–she’s intelligent and capable, and always puts on a strong appearance even when she’s secretly unsure. She makes some leaps in learning and skills that are, um, improbable to say the least, but there’s a magical explanation so I’ll give that a pass… McKinley also succeeds in making the Damarian king, Corlath, into a sympathetic character, when he very easily might not have been at all.

The romance comes slightly out of left field, but…it feels like it makes sense when it arrives, so I’ll accept that too. Slightly sudden romances are a recurring feature of McKinley’s writing…

Besides lots of magic and swordfighting and epic legends, possibly the coolest part of the story is Harry’s animal companions. She has the world’s most amazing horse, and if that’s not enough, there’s a wildcat too!

It was funny reading this right after Fellowship of the Ring, because in some ways the writing style seemed even more Tolkien than Tolkien himself–more what I expected Tolkien to be. And by that I mean that there is considerable detail given to what the landscape looks like, the clothing styles, the exact details of saddles… Most of the time that was all right and even interesting, and mostly the book still moved at a reasonable pace.

The only real trouble I had was at the beginning, and “trouble” might be putting it strongly. It’s just that there’s a fair bit of set-up explaining the political situation and Harry’s personal past, and it all comes out rather dry. This is particularly funny because McKinley is known for throwing readers in without much backstory or explanation…but this was an early book. Evidently her writing evolved. So if you pick this one up and find it slow, at least go on until Harry’s abducted–I found it picked up considerably then.

This book has made me very much want to reread The Hero and the Crown, which I only remember marginally better. That one is a prequel, focusing on legendary characters who are frequently referenced here, and I look forward to reading their story.

This book also made me want a really amazing wildcat companion, but that want could be a bit more difficult to satisfy…

Author’s Site: http://www.robinmckinley.com/

Other reviews:
Lisa Godfrees
Bookshop Talk
Tor.com
Anyone else?

Buy it here: The Blue Sword

Saturday Snapshot: With Love, Michael Crawford

On May 4, 2013May 2, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot16 Comments

I had very exciting mail this week…

But before I get to that, let me tell you a story, if I may. I’ll give you the short version. About eight years ago, a friend loaned me a copy of Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera, and a CD of Webber’s musical. I wasn’t all that into the book, but I liked the soundtrack. And so an obsession was born.

A couple years after that, after a lot of delving into Phantom versions and who-knows-how-many times through the soundtrack, another friend suggested I find Michael Crawford’s other CDs. Crawford was the original Phantom in London and Broadway, and his is the voice on the soundtrack. As my friend suggested, listening to his other CDs would be like listening to the Phantom sing other songs–and it was! And so a new obsession was born.

I now have all of Crawford’s CDs because, well, he’s amazing. Somewhere along the way I stopped hearing the Phantom when Crawford sang and started hearing Crawford when the Phantom sang…if that makes any sense!

Recently I had an opportunity to mail an item in for a personalized autograph. And so, exciting mail arrived this week…

I could have had my Phantom soundtrack signed…but I suspect Crawford signs a lot of Phantom CDs! And I wanted this one anyway, because it’s my favorite. Or to be more precise, the last song on the CD, “A Piece of Sky,” is mind-blowing, life-altering, unbelievably amazing.

So I’d say that’s the most exciting mail I’ve had in, hmm, a long time. Couldn’t resist sharing!

Have a wonderful weekend, and visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!

Favorites Friday: Cheer-Up Songs

On May 3, 2013May 2, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday4 Comments

I was musing on topics for this Friday, and thought I’d do another song round-up. I’ve posted on my favorite songs about following your dreams (twice, in fact) but today’s not quite that. These songs are for days when, never mind following dreams, you don’t even want to get out of bed. Maybe it’s raining, maybe it’s Monday (in which case you could listen to “Rainy Days and Mondays” but it’s not very uplifting) and you just need something to battle the blues.

I have a playlist for those days, and here are a few of my favorites… Links go to YouTube videos if you’d like to listen too.

“Talking Optimist Blues” by Neil Diamond is a slightly odd one, because it’s all about how lousy the singer’s life is. It starts with “I’ve got worries by the ton” then lists them all–but “despite it all, I’d like to say, I’m gonna have a good day, today. Gonna have a good time anyway.” A lot of cheer-up songs focus on life getting better. I like the reminder in this song that happiness isn’t out there somewhere, after everything changes. We can’t always change our circumstances, but we can change our attitude. And have a good day–today. (Listen here)

“Daybreak” by Barry Manilow is more conventional, with an uplifting melody and enthusiastic singing–though it is present tense and there’s a little of the same message: “Hey, it’s daybreak, if you only believe, it can be daybreak.” (Listen here)

“Smile” was sung by many people but I have Josh Groban’s version. It’s not a cheery, upbeat melody. It’s almost a little melancholy, in fact, but it’s an encouraging, uplifting song in another way: “Smile, what’s the use of crying? You’ll find that life is still worthwhile if you just smile.” It’s sounds better when he’s singing it than when you just read it flat-out… (so listen here)

“Get Rhythm” by Johnny Cash is perhaps the most direct of all, with it’s repeated refrain, “when you get the blues, c’mon, get rhythm.” It does what it promises, as it’s a good toe-tapper. (Listen here)

“Put on Your Sunday Clothes” from Hello, Dolly is another exhuberantly cheerful one, from it’s opening “Out there, there’s a world outside of Yonkers…full of shine and full of sparkle.” All about seizing the wonderful things in the world, you can hardly help but feel enthusiastic…and to wonder how Michael Crawford ever transitioned from Hello, Dolly to The Phantom of the Opera. But that’s a different story! (Listen here)

I have to say this post has put me in a good mood…since I listened to everything while writing it! What do you listen to when you’ve got worries by the ton, get the blues, or feel down-and-out? 🙂

The Writer’s Voice

On May 2, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations20 Comments

Exciting news today! Recently my friend Ruth told me about a contest for writers with polished manuscripts hoping to find an agent. Step One was to enter a lottery just to be in the contest–and I got in!

Step Two is to post a query and the first 250 words of the novel to the writer’s blog. Regular readers may remember hearing before about Jasper the wandering adventurer and Tom the talking cat, yes? Well, you’re going to hear a bit more about them now… I hope you enjoy, and cross your fingers for me that the contest-organizers enjoy it too!

Query

Jasper planned to fight a magician, but he didn’t expect to pick up a talking cat as a traveling companion in the process—especially since he has a long list of rules, and one of them is Always travel alone (#18). The Wanderers follows the exploits of Jasper and talking cat Tom, through a landscape full of monsters, questing princes, and new spins on familiar fairy tales

The Wanderers is a young adult fantasy novel. It is a completed work, with a length of 107,000 words. We follow Jasper and Tom as they successfully help an inept prince complete a quest (and follow Rule #7, On quests, always help anyone who asks), and rescue a girl kidnapped by a witch. Plans take another twist (and Rule #18 is tested again) when the girl runs away and joins Jasper and Tom’s travels. Julie is just hoping to escape from the witch—who is, in fact, her mother. She quickly discovers a taste for adventure as well. The three band together to tangle with outlaws, a sea serpent, a very hungry (yet refined) ogre, and to solve a mystery involving twelve princesses and a lot of worn-out dancing slippers. Situations are rarely as they appear, and Jasper would probably do much better if he just listened more often to the cat!

I graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Francisco, where I was an English major with a writing emphasis, and had multiple submissions accepted to the school’s literary magazine. I currently work in marketing and social media with UniversalGiving, a San Francisco-based nonprofit. I also run my own writing and book review blog, Tales of the Marvelous. I am hoping to make The Wanderers my first published novel. It is a stand-alone piece, but I believe there is high potential for a series. The first 250 words are included below.

The Wanderers

No one mentioned mucking out stables when they told stories of wandering adventurers. Jasper didn’t bring up that part himself, when he spun out tales of his exploits. But it’s hard to ignore the reality when you’re in the middle of it, especially when that reality stinks. Even now, when he was well-out of the stable, he could still detect a whiff of that particular slice of reality. It was making an otherwise terrible meal even worse.

The food was excellent. They had started with a fish course, gone on to baked ham, and were fast approaching cherries jubilee for dessert. The bench was comfortable, the table didn’t slant, and the banquet hall was clean, if a little too full of stone pillars for Jasper’s taste, and far too large for a scant company of twenty.

The trouble was that company of twenty. Almost everyone present was a servant, and every one of them served with terrified zeal, as though their lives depended on performing their duties to perfection—which they did. By far the biggest trouble among many troubling people was the only one who wasn’t a servant, the magician sitting at the head of the table. The meal had begun when Magician Hawkins swept into the banquet hall, violet velvet cloak billowing around him in what was clearly calculated grandeur, and he had dominated the room ever since.

Hawkins passed the meal making caustic comments. Everyone laughed when he did, the sound echoing off the stone walls.

And…that’s 249 words!

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

On May 1, 2013May 1, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews18 Comments

Drumroll and fanfare…I have successfully finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring! And yeah, that probably wouldn’t be a big deal to a lot of you fantasy readers out there. But I’ve been intimidated by the Lord of the Rings for, oh, about ten years now, so I’m rather proud. Not hugely surprising, the book wasn’t nearly as hard to get through as I was afraid it might be!

The plot is a classic quest, centered around the One Ring of Power. The ring corrupts everyone who touches it, and if it falls into the hands of the Enemy, Sauron, the situation will be very (very) bad for Middle Earth. Frodo and his companions set off to take the ring to Mordor, Sauron’s country, the only place it can be destroyed.

Having seen the movies, there weren’t many surprises for me in the plot, but I was hugely curious to see what Tolkien’s writing would be like. It wasn’t as dense as I was afraid it might be–I found him an easier read than, say, Dickens. In fact, I didn’t find Tolkien particularly slow on a sentence-by-sentence level. At the same time, I didn’t feel like the book on a whole had a lot of urgency.

There was tension–there was clearly a rising threat and actions that must be taken to counter it, and there were sometimes moments of more immediate danger. And yet, it seemed like there was always plenty of time for the characters to stop and think about their next move, or to recite an epic poem. Even when they were on the move, often days and days would go by of just traveling. And I was completely floored to discover that Frodo didn’t leave the Shire until seventeen years after Bilbo left. I think the movie compressed that down to a week.

It’s almost odd how much tension there is, combined with so little urgency and such a slow pace. I feel like this may be an indication of how culture has changed. Tolkien was writing from a slower-moving time, one without high-speed planes, instant communication around the world, a 24-hour news cycle and 30-second YouTube videos. On the other hand, C. S. Lewis wrote from the exact same time period and didn’t move as slowly, so maybe it’s not all culture!

As an aside, Tolkien spent years and years on LOTR, while Lewis wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in a few months, which I’ve heard annoyed the hell out of Tolkien. That may just be a rumor, though…

Anyway, the slow pace didn’t precisely bother me, I just found it an interesting element. I wouldn’t want every book I read to move this slowly, but I so completely expected it here (everyone warned me) that it wasn’t much of a problem. Even the Council of Elrond was all right–and the most devoted LOTR fans had told me that went on.

I enjoyed Tolkien’s world, and the depth of detail about the different races, especially the Elves. Many of the legends are really beautiful, and I was fascinated by the Elves’ role as incredibly long-lived, almost ephemeral beings in the midst of a changing world. We got a bit more about dwarves, Hobbits and wizards too, all interestingly different from one another.

I did get a little stuck on the idea of all these apparently isolated settlements or fortresses, in the midst of vast stretches of empty wilderness…how exactly does your economy function? Do you have an established import/export system? But never mind that.

I find it very hard to talk about the characters, because I’m not sure what I’m getting from the movie versus from the book. I feel like the book has amazing characters who are difficult to see clearly. I know they’re amazing–but I’m not sure how much of that impression comes from the movies, and how much is, eventually, revealed within the book.

I was disappointed by the very tiny role of Arwen in the book. It takes serious detective work here to figure out that Aragorn and Arwen have a romance going–and if I hadn’t seen the movie, I don’t think I would have picked it up at all. I’m not at all sure that Arwen even had a line of dialogue. Sigh. Disappointing, but not surprising. Women really are not Tolkien’s strong point. After all, the Fellowship has five different races, but they’re all male.

If this wasn’t Tolkien (by which I mean Tolkien, classic writer and vast influence within the realm of fantasy…) I would probably not rush to read the next book. I would eventually, no hurry. But I did enjoy Fellowship pretty well, even if I didn’t love it, and because it is Tolkien and I’m immensely curious about the whole trilogy, I plan to go on to The Two Towers in a few weeks. Stay tuned!

Author’s Site: http://www.tolkiensociety.org

Other reviews:
With Muchness
Words for Worms
Wondrous Reads
Snuggly Oranges
And no doubt many many more. Tell me about yours and I’ll add a link!

Buy it here: The Fellowship of the Ring