Category: Fantasy

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

There’s an old legend that Merlin never died–that he’s imprisoned beneath a stone somewhere on the moor, sleeping through the centuries.  And while he sleeps, what might he dream?

This is the frame-story for Peter Dickinson’s wonderful book, Merlin Dreams.  He tells eight stories, eight dreams of Merlin beneath his stone.  Between each story Merlin half-wakes, remembers his life or senses what goes on above him, then drifts back into sleep…and has another dream.

I’m fascinated by the frame story, and the short stories are excellent too.  Several have a vaguely Arthurian flare, although I don’t think any retell an actual legend.  But there are dashing (and not so dashing) knights, brave damsels and many unexpected heroes.  There’s a king, fallen from honor and strength who needs a little girl to show him the way back.  Another little girl befriends a unicorn in the woods, only to be threatened by men who want to exploit the opportunity to hunt a unicorn.  Two stories feature tricksters who put on shows for country folk they hold in contempt, only to be undone by their own tricks.  There’s a young prince who fights a dragon, and another, particularly ugly young man, who fights a sorceress.  And woven throughout, Merlin remembers his own life, and strange fragments of other scenes and stories.

There’s a wonderful magical, mystical quality to the stories.  Often all is not as it seems, and the magic holds plenty of surprises.  Even though I don’t think these are traditional stories, many have that enchanting feel to them.

Part of it’s very much the writing.  Part of it is the illustrations too.  I honestly don’t know if there are multiple versions of this book, but if there are, make sure you get a copy with Alan Lee’s illustrations.  There are many throughout the book, some dark and shadowed, some vivid and bright.  They bring the stories to life in a new way, and many are just beautiful.

This is generally put in the kids section, and I think the short stories are definitely good for kids.  A word of warning that some of Merlin’s reflections are pretty dark.  And as beautiful as most of Alan Lee’s illustrations are, some could be disturbing for a smaller child.

There’s no Table of Contents to the book, which can be a little inconvenient at times.  But I think it fits too.  After all, it’s not just a neat line of stories.  It’s a series of dreams, and if you could line them up and list them out and easily jump to one or another, I think that would lose some of the flowing, magical quality of the book.

I can’t resist a few more pictures!  You can click on them to see them larger.

    

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

Going Postal with Terry Pratchett

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews4 Comments

I’ve mentioned Terry Pratchett and Discworld a few times recently in “Favorites Friday” posts, but I haven’t done a review yet.  Time to change that!  Part of the trick with Discworld (rather like Dr. Who) is figuring out where to start.  Discworld is one of those big sprawling series with over forty books in it.  If that sounds intimidating, don’t worry–the books are interconnected, but very few directly follow each other plot-wise, so you can read as many or as few as you feel like.

And you can probably start almost anywhere.  I’ve bounced all over the series, and while with some it was clear that there was a previous, related installment it might have helped to read first, I don’t feel like it severely hampered my enjoyment of whatever I was reading.  However, there probably are some places that are better to start than others.

I actually wouldn’t recommend starting at the beginning.  That’s The Colour of Magic, and it’s good, but Pratchett was still sorting the world out, and it’s not as brilliant as many of the later books.  One really good place to start would be Going Postal.

Going Postal stars Moist von Lipwig, a fast-talking conman who was supposed to be hanged, but finds himself revived after the gallows, and designated the new Postmaster of Ankh-Morpork.  The post office has been out of business for years, and the old building is falling to pieces–not to mention it’s literally filled with undelivered mail.  Moist finds himself trying to bring back the post, despite completely mad co-workers and violent competition from the clacks (telegraph) service.

It’s a wonderful, funny book, and it’s a good starting point because it’s stand-alone.  Moist and most of the other major characters make their first appearances here.  But you also get to meet a lot of characters who are significant in the series, but have only supporting roles here.

Vetinari, the Patrician, gets a good part; he’s a tyrant, and he’s terrifying, but he makes things work.  You get to meet a lot of the City Guard, who are my favorite group of characters (they have seven, soon to be eight, books written about them).  The Wizards of Unseen University, who are all at least little bit bonkers, make a guest appearance.  And I can’t remember for sure, but I think Death gets at least a cameo.  Death wears a big black hood and talks IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.  Usually someone dies at some point in every Discworld book, so Death gets to show up, and a few of the books focus on him.

So this is good for introducing characters who are important in other books, and it’s also good for giving you a feel for the city of Ankh-Morpork, and Discworld in general.  Pratchett is one of the funniest writers I’ve ever found.  He creates a crazy world (did I mention it’s a disc, which is on the back of four elephants, who are on a turtle?) filled with completely nutty and hilarious characters.  And he has a way of writing single lines which will make me laugh for days afterwards whenever I think of them.  Feeling down?  Read Pratchett.  I fully believe in self-medicating depression with Terry Pratchett books.

They’re not merely funny, though.  Pratchett is often very satirical.  Much of Ankh-Morpork is an extreme, but it’s an extreme you may recognize as based in something in our own society.  Going Postal is good satire too.

High, high recommendation for Discworld.  You won’t regret it!

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

A Suspicious Eye on Cinderella

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult1 Comment
Apologies for the placement of that sticker--I don't know what the librarian was thinking!

What ever happened to the twelve dancing princesses, after they quit dancing?  Well, according to Jessica Day George, one of them got mixed up in the plot of Cinderella.  Princess of Glass is a loose sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball.  The plot is entirely different and so are most of the characters but the events of the previous book are mentioned so frequently, I think you’re better off reading it first–though you could probably start here if you really wanted to.

So, a quick summary of both stories, with a minimum of spoilers.  The twelve princesses are cursed to dance at the Midnight Ball, with twelve demon princes.  If you know the Grimm story, it’s no spoiler to say that a soldier breaks the spell on them, and marries the oldest princess.  The second book is about Poppy, another of the princesses, who is off to a fantasy country based heavily on England (complete with Tutingham Palace as a substitute for Buckingham).  Poppy is there as part of a royal exchange program.  When a serving girl shows up at a royal dance, decked out in finery and mesmerizing the prince Poppy had been growing fond of, Poppy and her friends have to investigate what spell is afoot.

This is a really clever and unique Cinderella retelling.  I love that we get it from such a different perspective.  And since Cinderella, as a person, completely annoys me in the original version, I love that this version is not such a sweet, innocent (and spineless!) character.  This book also addresses a key question the original fairy tale never answers–where did this fairy godmother suddenly appear from anyway?  The godmother’s ultimate motivations felt a little bizarre to me, but the things she does are so fascinating, I’ll forgive her doubtful reasons.

Poppy is an enjoyable heroine (aside from that dreadful name).  She’s tough and resourceful, but has emotional uncertainties too.  I particularly like it that she has all kinds of emotional issues when it comes to dancing–which totally makes sense, right?  Prince Christian is a sweetheart, even if not the most complex prince I’ve ever encountered.  There’s a good complement of secondary characters to round out the cast, including a Cinderella with unexpected depth.

One aspect that really sells me on this book is the description.  It’s lush and vivid, describing dresses, magical transportation, and truly strange glass shoes.

If I had to choose, I liked Princess of the Midnight Ball a bit better, but this was a very lovely follow-up.

Author’s Site: http://jessicadaygeorge.com/default.aspx

Sleeping Beauty’s Sister, Questing Through Fairy Tales

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

I decided to give E. D. Baker another chance.  She wrote the highly disappointing Frog Princess–but I was so intrigued by the premise of The Wide-Awake Princess, I decided to try it anyway.

The story is about Sleeping Beauty’s younger sister, Annie.  She’s immune to magic (in fact, she nullifies it around her), so when the entire castle falls asleep, she stays awake.  She goes in search of princes to kiss her sister, picking up a handsome guard for a traveling companion.

To give Baker due credit, she’s really good at ideas.  I mean, the princess kisses the frog and turns into a frog–that’s brilliant.  The chancy part is what she does with the ideas.  Fortunately, this book was packed with clever ideas, and the follow-through was an improvement on The Frog Princess.

While out looking for princes, Annie encounters elements from half a dozen other fairy tales–Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and Rose Red, Rapunzel, the Princess and the Pea, even the Frog Prince.  They’re all a little bit tweaked, mostly in clever ways, and the fast flow of them all keeps the book interesting.

My main reservation towards the book was a lack of depth.  The major characters had some development but were not very complex, and they didn’t seem to feel anything very deeply.  As an example–all the royals, including Annie’s family, are magically enhanced from christening gifts.  Since Annie nullifies magic, they all become less beautiful, less graceful and so on while around her (again–brilliant idea).  As a result, Annie is forbidden to touch her family, and they never hug or kiss her.  In Susan Kay’s Phantom, the Phantom has the exact same problem, that his mother refuses to kiss him.  For him, it’s a deeply scarring situation, causing him real pain as a child, and on into adulthood.  Annie, on the other hand, seems to be a little wistful on the subject.  (Really–her mother never touches her–that should be painful!)

To some extent it’s apples and oranges–Phantom is high drama, this is a children’s comedy.  But characters in comedies can still feel things.  And children’s books can have depth–the end of The House at Pooh Corner has real pathos, and Abel’s Island is about a character’s existential crisis.

Then there was the treatment of life-threatening situations.  Characters choose to plunge into danger without much motivation.  And while in dangerous situations, Annie is never afraid.  She’s uncomfortable, irritated, occasionally worried, but not afraid.  It got to the point where I was rooting for her to get scared some time, just to prove that she’s human.  I love feisty heroines, but even Alanna (a lady knight dubbed the Lioness) gets scared sometimes.  I don’t care how light your story is meant to be, your characters still have to be believable according to human nature.

But the ideas were really good.  The plot was fine.  Annie, despite not having much depth, is a fun character, and her love interest is a good guy.

In the end, it’s a fun story.  Just don’t expect it to be more than that.

Author’s site: http://www.edbakerbooks.com/

Under the Sea

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews6 Comments

As you may have noticed, I’ve been revisiting some favorite kids’ movies lately–most recently, I went under the sea for The Little Mermaid.  Definitely one of Disney’s best!

The plot is straight-forward enough: Ariel, a mermaid princess, sells her voice to Ursula, the Sea Witch, in exchange for legs so that she can try to win the human prince she’s fallen in love with.

There could be a horrid problem here where Prince Eric clearly is only interested in her face (since she can’t talk to him!) but I actually think the movie did a pretty good job developing their relationship–you know, as much as you can in very brief time, and without any mutual dialogue.  Still, I felt like it worked.

However, I discovered that for my adult self, Ariel and Eric are of limited significance.  I like Ariel’s independent thinking, and Eric is a slightly more impressive Disney prince than most that came before him.  But…the movie’s really all about Sebastian.  The irritable, anxious, well-meaning though crusty crab sidekick totally stole the show for me.  He’s a composer too!  Did you ever notice that Sebastian gets two major songs (both nominated for Academy Awards), while Ariel only has one (plus a reprise)?  Not to mention–Sebastian’s just really funny.  Flounder and Scuttle were great too–how is that the animal sidekicks quite often end up being the best parts of animated movies?

Chef Louis is also wonderful, and clearly made a big impression on me as a kid, considering I was surprised by how little he’s actually in the movie when I watched it again.  And as a kid, I didn’t even know that he’s voiced by the same actor who played Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space 9.  My dad saw Rene Auberjonois at a Star Trek convention once, and he sang “Les Poissons” for the audience.

Aside from Sebastian and company, there were a couple of things that struck me here.  The first is one I’m sure my child-self would have understood.  I was fascinated by Ariel’s hair.  It was the way it floated when she was underwater.  All flowy and floaty and…yeah, having a girly moment, obviously.

The second thing that struck me was a very grown-up observation.  It’s nice and all that the prince got married, but at the end of the movie, the big news in the kingdom shouldn’t be the wedding, or even that she’s a former mermaid.  You know what the real news is?  Good grief, fish are intelligent!

The discovery that fish are on an intelligence-level with humans would have major ramifications.  I mean, what does this do to the fishing industry?  (Sidenote: if you look at the scene with Chef Louis from Sebastian’s point of view, and with the premise that fish are intelligent, it becomes something out of a heavy-duty slasher film.  Body parts everywhere!)  Considering Eric’s kingdom is on the coast, he could have a major economic slump on his hands if they have to give up fishing.  Though on the other hand, they have an entirely new trading partner in Triton’s kingdom, so maybe it would work out.  Plus you could expect all the marine sciences to develop at an astronomical rate.

You know I love picking fairy tales apart…but I love this movie too.  Good romantic leads, Ursula’s a fantastic villain (the tentacles–how cool are the tentacles?), great music, and of course…a funny and irritated crab!