Pucker Up…and Wake a Dead Guy?

On February 25, 2013February 25, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult1 Comment

I think anyone who’s around this blog even occasionally knows that I love retold fairy tales. There are so many fascinating and strange elements to fairy tales that modern authors can play around with. So what’s not to love in an urban fantasy about a girl who needs to wake a sleeping prince with a kiss? Pucker Up by R. A. Gates is a YA Fantasy that takes a fun spin on some old fairy tale tropes. Disclosure–the author is a friend and member of my writing group, but I promise an honest review anyway!

Pucker Up centers on Ivy, a reluctant witch who finds herself on a quest to wake up sleeping Prince Sebastian. Ivy lives in Salmagundi, the place of refuge for anyone with magic, hiding from the witch-hunting Eradicators. Unfortunately, the spells hiding the town are breaking down. Ivy’s cousin Thane believes the answer is to wake up Prince Sebastian, who created the spells to begin with. Ivy needs the reward money to pay a debt to a very angry werewolf. As a descendant of Sebastian’s true love, she should be able to wake him up with True Love’s kiss…except that she really doesn’t want to kiss a dead guy!

I always approve of heroines who set off to do things rather than waiting for a man to save the day, and I love the twist of a girl needing to wake up a prince instead of the other way around. Ivy is a fun, somewhat-reluctant heroine, with good mysteries in her past that kept me curious as I read. The book also keeps moving with a series of adventures on the journey to find the prince. We get a whole host of magical creatures, including vampires and werewolves and even dragons–like a cute baby dragon nicknamed Sparky.

There are serious moments, but overall there’s a light tone to the book. It’s frequently funny in a tongue-in-cheek way…as with the ongoing series of necrophilia jokes. I love retellings that are aware of the absurdities in their inspiration material.

When Ivy and Thane set off on their quest, they’re accompanied by Thane’s friend Garren, who Ivy finds immensely irritating. Don’t expect too many surprises in the romance department…but even if it’s a bit predictable, it’s fun to read. And there are more surprises in the plot.

This is the first book in a series, and with some twists in the ending, I’m excited to see where it goes in the next book! Alas, not published yet…

I think I’ll finish up by borrowing a line from Ivy’s dialogue on the last page–it’s not a spoiler, and I think it sums up the book nicely.

“Don’t even think you’re rescuing me. I’m no damsel in distress.”

Author’s Site: http://ragates.com/

Buy it here: Pucker Up in paperback or ebook

Hunting for Secrets in the Dark

On February 18, 2013February 17, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult5 Comments

I’m particularly excited to share today’s review, because I know the author, a member of my writing group, Stonehenge. This may make me a little biased…but I promise you an honest review anyway! 🙂

Secrets in the Dark by K. D. Blakely follows the adventures of Kat and her two best friends–who definitely didn’t expect to fall into a magic world, when they were just trying to hide from a group of bullies. They discover that an old tree in the town cemetary is a portal to another realm. Every full moon, they and their friends can pass through to the magical world of Chimera. It would be great…if the bullies didn’t keep following them, and if something hadn’t gone horribly wrong in Chimera, causing everyone living there to disappear.

This story is a lot of fun, and very engaging throughout. The characters are my favorite part. There’s a big cast of kids, but I never had trouble keeping people straight or telling them apart–and I’m not very good at that! Kat is part of a group of five and there are four people in the group of bullies, so that’s quite a few people…but they all come to life as clear and distinct. Kat and her friends all have their quirks, as well as their strengths and their flaws, and I particularly enjoy how they all have to work together with their different skills to deal with the challenges of Chimera.

Kat is a very likable narrator. She’s not perfect but she is appealing, making for the best kind of heroine. She’s twelve-going-on-thirteen, and is struggling to accept how much her world is changing. It’s a very believable and sympathetic part of her character, and so appropriate for her age.

My favorite character may be one of Kat’s friends, Brady. He’s super-intelligent, and talks that way. His dialogue and the way he sees the world is so entertaining. There’s also one major older character, Kat’s sister-in law, Ronny. She has a special connection to Chimera, and does not always fit comfortably in the normal world. In particular, she constantly gets sayings wrong–like “slow and steady wins with grace,” or “the grass is always cleaner on the other side of the fence.” So much fun–and sometimes her sayings make a strange amount of sense!

I’ll end with one of my favorite aspects of the story: thanks to a wish that came true in an unexpected way, all the kids have familiars when they’re in Chimera. The story is just asking for promotional-tie-in stuffed animals. 🙂 Kat and her friends have fun and adorable animals like a tiny owl, a cat and a fox. They don’t talk, but they’re intelligent and often help as the kids explore the world. The bullies, on the other hand, get rather nasty animals like a rat and a pig, which they keep trying to chase away. The whole situation really makes me want a familiar…and who wouldn’t want a chance to explore a magical world?

If you find a tree (or a wardrobe) that lets you into a magical world, then by all means, have fun…but in the meantime, I highly recommend reading your way into the adventure!

Author’s Site: http://Kat-Tales.net

Buy it here: Paperback or ebook

Death Comes for an Apprentice

On February 4, 2013February 4, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews2 Comments

In my usual way of reading Discworld books, I had read most of the Death subseries without reading the first one. But recently, I finally picked up Mort by Terry Pratchett to get the beginning of the story, confident of finding a book that would be about life and death and eternity–and it was–and be enormously funny–and it was!

Mort has never been much of a success at anything, so his father decides the answer is to apprentice him out to a trade. As it happens, Death is looking for an apprentice. The job is a little daunting but Mort begins to get into the swing of things (pun intended!)…but then matters become complicated when he saves the life of a princess who the universe is now convinced is dead, and when Death begins to explore happiness and contemplate escaping his duties. Also there’s Death’s daughter (adopted) thrown into the mix, and more than one wizard of questionable power. And…well, it’s Discworld. There’s havoc and there’s hilarity.

There’s a whole collection of fun characters here, as I would expect from Terry Pratchett. Mort undergoes an interesting transformation from ordinary screw-up to resembling Death just a little too much–including this problem he keeps having passing through objects. Princess Keli is great fun, especially as she becomes immensely frustrated when the universe thinks she’s dead and everyone keeps forgetting about her. She’s an odd blend of very strong and also quite inept in dealing with the world–as happens when you’ve been a princess all your life, and never needed to deal with the world. Ysabell, Death’s daughter, is an odd blend of crazy and ultimately endearing. And it was fun to learn the backstory on Albert, Death’s servant–he’s in later books, but his background isn’t revisited that I can recall.

My favorite character here was Death himself. I tend to like him best in a supporting role–sometimes when he’s too much the focus it gets old (while often his two-paragraph cameos are the funniest bits of other books). Here, there’s enough focus on Mort and the others that Death gets just the right balance–plenty of him, but not too much. He tries to explore human happiness, which treats us to scenes of Death fly-fishing, line-dancing, and sitting in a bar (at a quarter to three, of course), and never quite understanding any of the things he’s doing. My favorite may be when Death visits an employment agency and puts down “Anthropomorphic Personification” as his previous position.

The setting is also particularly fun here, something I don’t often say about books! But Death created his own world, and though he tried very hard, he has some trouble–everything tends to be black and fake. We also spend time in Keli’s mountain kingdom, and get to visit Ankh-Morpork.

There isn’t a huge lot of satire and depth here, but there are some discussions on justice and eternity and the meaning of life. Death seems to struggle with these questions throughout his books.

The weak point of the book is the ending–only the very, very end. At the risk of a slight spoiler, there’s a sudden switch in the romance, and even though I knew it had to be coming (based on the later books about Mort’s daughter), Pratchett still didn’t sell it to me. It’s like he decided on the last chapter that there was more future potential in ending one way than with the other, and went for it without bothering about whether it made sense. I won’t complain too much…since it did lead to the amazing Susan, heroine of later books.

This is the fourth book in the Discworld series, and it’s one I’d recommend as a place to start. The books still get better, but this is the earliest one that’s already showing just how hilarious Terry Pratchett can be. Highly recommended!

Author’s Site: http://terrypratchettbooks.com/

Other reviews:
Brian Jane’s Blog
Helen Scribbles
The Eagle’s Aerial Perspective
Anyone else?

A Concert from the Harper Hall

On January 25, 2013January 24, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews12 Comments

It’s funny the things you can find once it occurs to you to look for them. I’ve loved Anne McCaffrey’s Pern poetry for years and years, the snatches of verses that, in context, are the songs of the Harper Hall. In the course of the January Dragonflight group-read, it occurred to me to do a search on Amazon to see if Masterharper Robinton’s harpers have put out any CDs–and they have!

Well, not exactly. 🙂 But Tania Opland and Mike Freeman worked directly with Anne McCaffrey to put together two CDs of music inspired by Pern, much of it using the lyrics described in the book.

Can I just pause for a moment here to say how completely amazing that is? I mean, Harper Hall songs! Really!

I admit I was a little nervous on purchasing…this could, after all, go very badly if I didn’t like how the songs were done. Fortunately, I like the music quite a bit overall. It has a very acoustic, folk-song style that feels eminently appropriate to the context. You couldn’t possibly play Menolly’s or Robinton’s songs on an electric guitar. They need pipes and strings and though I have no musical expertise to recognize exactly what instruments are being used, this feels right. Amazon tells me it draws from a variety of musical traditions, and I can most clearly hear the Celtic.

Most exciting, unquestionably, is that we get to hear songs I recognize from within the novels. I had to buy both albums because favorite poems/songs were split between them. The Masterharper of Pern has more of the traditional ballads and, obviously, Robinton-related songs. Sunset’s Gold has songs from Menolly, heroine and songster of the Harper Hall Trilogy.

Some of the tracks are instrumental, and I must admit those were not as interesting to me, though some do relate to book events. But that’s me–I almost always prefer words in my music.

The Masterharper of Pern has a number of the songs that figure in Dragonflight. I particularly love “The Duty Song,” which runs through all the key roles within Pernese society, and how all must come together to serve their unique purpose. “Fighting Thread” is also excellent, about the dragonmen rising to fight their ancient enemy. That one sticks in my head somehow. Most exciting here is “The Question Song” which is suitably spooky, if maybe not quite the soul-capturing mystery described in the book (but what could be?) I have mixed feelings about “Lessa’s Ride.” Parts of it are lovely, but I would have liked a melody that was more epic and heroic, considering the subject. On the other hand, “March of the Wings” gives me that more stirring melody I was looking for. You can just feel the dragons soaring up in formation.

Sunset’s Gold has many of my favorites from the Harper Hall Trilogy, brought to life very satisfactorily. Menolly’s “Run!” song is suitably toe-tapping, and “Brekke’s Cry” is eerie. I would have liked “The Little Queen” to be catchier somehow, but it’s been growing on me. I really enjoy “Gather Day,” which very much captures the festive atmosphere (and the lyrics refer to bubbly pies!) “Sunset’s Gold” and “Sweet Sea” aren’t ones I particularly remember from the books, but they’re beautiful songs in their own right, and would be even if they weren’t part of the larger context.

So, all my friends who read Dragonflight and especially those who liked the poetry…you really, really have to explore these CDs! 🙂

Musician’s Site: http://opland-freeman.com/pernmusic/index.htm

Buy it here: The Masterharper of Pern and Sunset’s Gold

A Mother’s Quest

On January 14, 2013January 14, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young AdultLeave a comment

Last week, I reviewed the first three books in Lois Lowry’s Giver quartet. Today, I’m turning to book four, the recently-released Son. Lowry does a wonderful job bringing together threads from all three of the previous books, and giving us a final conclusion.

This last book takes us back to the beginning of The Giver, and we see familiar events play out from a new point of view. Jonas’ story in The Giver also involves Gabe, a baby boy whose future is in grave danger due to his “failure to thrive.” In Jonas’ restrictive community, there’s no place for anyone who doesn’t perfectly fit the standards.

Son shifts the point of view to Claire, a girl who has been selected to be a Birthmother. This is an assigned job like any other, and not an honored one. Girls who are selected as Birthmothers spend a few years in the role, giving birth to three Products, and then going on to low-level labor for the rest of their lives. Something goes wrong with Claire’s delivery, and she is shunted into a new role at the fish hatchery. But she can’t stop thinking about her Product–her son. Claire finds her way to the Nurturing center, and there she meets Jonas’ father, who is caring for her son, Gabe.

I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers, but I don’t think I can at this point–at the end of The Giver, Jonas escapes the community and takes Gabe with him. In Son, Claire is devastated by this, and sets out on a desperate search to find her son. She ends up in a shipwreck, washing ashore in a small, isolated village with no memories. When her memories return, she resumes her quest, sacrificing everything to find Gabe.

It’s fascinating to go back to Jonas’ community, and to see it through Claire’s eyes. I did spot a few inconsistencies, but considering the books were written 18 years apart, I’m impressed by how well Lowry did with the return. The Giver showed us the community through the eyes of a twelve-year-old, while Son is from the perspective of independent young adults. We learn more about life in the community, and there are extra details that add to what was already a brilliantly-painted picture. There were comforting notes–I was relieved to see Jonas’ father expressing more concern over Gabe. There were horrifying notes–we find out even more just how little bond there is between family members.

In some ways, Claire seemed a little too aware. Part of the brilliance of Jonas’ character was that he simply didn’t know anything different, down to the level of not having the vocabulary to explain things he’s feeling. Claire at times thinks about things that I don’t feel like she should even be aware of. There’s some explanation for why Claire is different from the others around her, so mostly I believe it…but it was just a tiny bit off at times.

Son gives us a fourth community when Claire washes ashore. This one felt like a medieval fishing village, maybe in Scotland or Ireland. The community is close-knit and kind, for the most part. They do turn judgmental when it becomes known that unmarried-Claire had given birth to a son. Which is rather ironic, considering. It didn’t occur to me reading The Giver, but the community has basically made an institution out of virgin birth–all the Birthmothers are impregnated using science.

One of my favorite characters in the book is in the fishing village–and it’s annoying me to no end that I can’t remember his name! I already sent the book back to the library, and Google is not helping me here. I’m bad at character names, so anyone out there want to help me out? He has his own horrible past, and his attempt to climb out of the cliffs surrounding the village has left him crippled–but given him the knowledge to become Claire’s mentor as she continues her own quest. I’m a big fan of gruff, antisocial characters who turn out to have unexpected depth and hearts of gold. That part of the story is ultimately very bittersweet.

I don’t want to give too much away, but the story does take us eventually to the village from Messenger, where we get to see Jonas, Kira and Gabe, as well as the return of an old villain. The one thing in this book that makes me happiest may be a relatively small plot thread that confirms happy endings for Jonas and Kira. Messenger gives us some hints, and it’s so nice to have a definite conclusion! I usually hate ambiguous endings in books.

I won’t tell you the end of Claire’s story, of course, but I just want to comment that she does undergo incredible struggles. As heartbreaking as it often is, it feels right somehow too–the world is so thoroughly messed up, I wouldn’t have believed that it could be easily solved.

The first three books have a definite theme around the things that can dehumanize us. I think Son is about keeping your humanity in the face of those threats. Claire loves her son despite living in a society that barely understands the word; the people in the fishing village care for one another despite their relative poverty; and certain characters manage to resist greed in favor of things that are more important.

Thematically and plotwise, Son is an immensely satisfying conclusion. Before I read it, I wondered if it would really be the end–after all, Messenger was supposed to be the end too. But Son feels much more like The End. The one plot thread that didn’t feel resolved relates back to Jonas’ community. There are hints that things changed drastically after Jonas (and Claire) left, but we don’t find out details. I could imagine a fifth book relating to those event, but it would be much more removed from the others in the series.

Barring that, I think we can pretty safely put the end onto the story. So if I find a nice set of four, I’m buying it!

Author’s Site: http://loislowry.com/

Other reviews:
Literary Treats
Waking Brain Cells
Slatebreakers
And many more. Tell me about yours!

Buy it here: Son by Lois Lowry