Category: Fantasy

The Greek Gods in the Modern Day

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

I wish Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan had been around when I was twelve.  I went through a period when I was obsessed with Greek mythology, and I think I would have LOVED these books.  Or else I would have had fits over every tiny detail that was inaccurate–it could have tipped either way.  But since my 23-year-old self didn’t actually notice any inaccuracies, I’m guessing my 12-year-old self would have been a big fan.

I just read The Lightning Thief, the first book in the series, and while I don’t think I’m going to develop a raging obsession now, I did enjoy the book quite a bit.  The basic premise is that all the characters from Greek and Roman mythology have carried on into the modern world, still essentially doing what they’ve always done.  One of the things they’ve always done is to have children with mortals, which means there are still a lot of half-god children running around.  Percy Jackson finds out his absentee father is actually the water god Poseidon, just in time to get tangled up in a quest for Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt.  Its theft is perilously close to bringing on a war between the gods that could destroy the world as we know it.

I love the concept of these books.  I love the Greek gods brought into the modern day, and I’d really love to see more of how they’re fitting in with modernity.  Hermes has sneakers with wings and Ares rides a really tough motorcycle, for example.  I think it would be fantastic to find out, say, that Apollo (god of music) is completely obsessed with iTunes and thinks Rock Band is pretty awesome, or that Aphrodite (goddess of love) is actually running eHarmony.  How fun would that be?

Percy is good as a character; I can’t say he made a huge impression on me.  Maybe there’s too many slightly-screw-up characters who find themselves as heroes.  I’m not criticizing him as a character…but the one who I feel fonder towards is Grover, his satyr (half-goat) friend.  I think he’s more unique, as an environmentally-conscious satyr who really likes food, especially burritos and aluminum cans.  I also rather cherish the mental image of Grover careening through the air wearing Hermes’ out-of-control sneakers.

One criticism I do have of the book is that the quest felt a bit random.  Percy, Grover and their friend Annabeth set out, and along the way encounter several adventures, but they seem to just sort of bump into these adventures.  I would have liked to feel that there was a reason they were encountering the villains they were meeting, or going to the places they were reaching.  One caveat–I saw the movie first, and maybe I’m not the only one who felt this, because in the movie they definitely did have certain places to go and then set about going there.  This in turn may be why I felt particularly that they were a little aimless when I then read the book.

I actually haven’t heard Percy Jackson referred to as the next Harry Potter, the way everyone kept saying when Twilight became popular, even though it’s certainly closer in terms of themes and target audience.  I also think all three series have something in common, which may be a clue to why all three are popular.  It’s something Cleolinda Jones zeroed in on with her Twilight analysis, and that’s this element of suddenly finding your place.

You know you’ve been out of place and unpopular and kind of a screw-up your whole life?  That’s okay, you’re not really unworthy, you’re special!  And now you’re being transported to a new place where everyone realizes that what seemed like flaws are really gifts, and now you’re going to make new friends and be good at things and succeed like never before.  In some ways, Percy Jackson is even more transparent about this than Harry or Twilight (or Cinderella, for that matter).  Percy’s dyslexia is because his brain is wired for ancient Greek, and his ADD is to help him stay alive in battle.  When he goes to Camp Half-Blood, the training place for half-gods, he doesn’t become immediately popular (neither does Harry at Hogwarts, although Bella does in Forks), but he does become the prodigy of Chiron (trainer of Hercules, among others), and altogether begins to fit in.  And while I may poke at the idea a little bit as being a formula…it’s one that works very, very well.

A knowledge of Greek mythology would be helpful here, but I doubt it’s essential.  But you do need an interest, because by the time you’re done, you’ll have at least a little knowledge.  The Lightning Thief is a fun book, an exciting one, and even if I don’t love it as much as I might have at twelve, I plan to read the next one in the series.

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

Floriat Etona!

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews2 Comments
Eton College

Sometimes we don’t want to find out that our favorite villain had a troubled childhood.  Sometimes we don’t want those shades of gray.  It’s better to just have black be black and white be white, and good is good and bad is bad.

But Captain Hook was always an elegant and melancholy sort of villain anyway.  And I’ve read that in the earliest version of the play he went to his death shouting “Floriat Etona!” so all the historical grounding is there besides.

Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth by J. V. Hart rounds out my series on Peter Pan-related books with another prequel–a non-Barrie but successful one.  This gives us the boy who becomes Hook while he was at school at Eton, the prestigious school for boys.

Like Geraldine McCaughrean, J. V. Hart demonstrates a clear knowledge of the material he’s drawing from.  Hook’s first name is firmly established as James, which he signs Jas.  Hart tells us that his name is James Matthew B, and that he is the bastard son of a never-named Lord.  The name sounds to me like a none-too-subtle reference to James Matthew Barrie.  James’ best friend is Roger Peter Davies–again with the reference in the name, since Peter Pan was named after Peter Davies.  Roger swiftly acquires the nickname of Jolly Roger, and gives us the origin for the name of Hook’s pirate ship.

I find James a fascinating character.  He’s not exactly likable, yet I have to keep reminding myself that he’s the villain.  Hart has given us a character who can be dashing and gentlemanly, but also send a poisonous spider to inflict illness on an enemy.  James will go into the dark places the heroes won’t go, and perform the dastardly deeds a hero won’t do, and yet he also possesses the charm and the dashing airs that are usually reserved for the characters you want to cheer on unreservedly.  Hart has given us a villain who can fall in love, show deep loyalty to his best friend, and have dreams about a magical island–and yet who still has a dark side.  I don’t feel like he’s tried to make Hook out as a good guy…but he’s written about a very complex dark character.

He’s actually made me feel sad to know that, even though James will find his magical island one day, he’ll never get to rule it.

And then I have to stop and remind myself that I’m on Peter’s side.  That when it came down to it, I would root for Peter.  Because I would still root for Peter.  But I have to remind myself.  And I feel a little sad for Hook.

The first section (and majority) of the novel is set at Eton, where adventures center around conflicts with upperclassmen, the Wall Game (an extremely bizarre tradition), and James’ forbidden attraction for a foreign princess.  Later in the book James goes to sea, setting up his career as a pirate.  On the one hand, the adventures become in some ways more adventurous at that point, more in the style of Peter Pan, but I also think some of that conflict of James as the dashing villain is lost, as he becomes almost too much like a straightforward hero once he goes to sea.

This book makes me want to visit Eton one day.  I’m not exactly sure what I want to see there, aside from the memorial to Lawrence “Titus” Oates.  Apparently it’s good luck to rub his nose.  I swear I’m not making that up.  Anyway…even though I don’t know what I want to see, I would rather like to see the alma mater of Captain Hook.  Also the Davies boys, incidentally.

I’ve been hoping for a sequel to this novel.  The book itself sets you up to expect one.  Although there isn’t exactly a cliffhanger, much is left unresolved.  So far, nothing, and I haven’t been able to find any word on whether one might be expected.  Maybe one day…  This is J.V. Hart’s first and so far only novel, but he has written many screenplays, including Hook.  Less relevantly but most excitingly for me, he also wrote the screenplay for Muppet Treasure Island, which I have to say is the best version of the story I’ve ever found–even above the original.  Sorry, Robert Louis Stevenson.

If you’ve read Peter Pan and wondered about that scene where Hook’s wandering around the Jolly Roger and sighing because no little children like him, or noticed that Hook has this strange obsession with good and bad form, or wondered what Barrie was getting at when he made these veiled comments about Hook attending a very prestigious school…or even if you’ve never thought about any of that but just thought Hook was a pretty good character, Capt. Hook is a book worth looking into.

A Merry Christmas, Mr. Scrooge

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews7 Comments

I think everyone has a holiday story.  That story that you have to go back to every year, or you’ll feel like you haven’t really celebrated Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa–my experience is with Christmas, but I’m guessing it’s a universal thing).

Even though I’m such a big reader, I have to admit my main Christmas stories are movies.  It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, and Holiday Inn.  And, of course, Charlie Brown’s Christmas Special.  (And as a side note to the main point of this post, thank you, Charles Schultz, for insisting on making the special your way when the network wanted you to leave out the scene when Linus recites from Luke’s Gospel.)

But there is one book.  At the risk of being almost too traditional here: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  From the classic first line, “Marley was dead” to the classic final line, “God bless us, every one” it’s such a perfect book for Christmas.

Even though I like twists on traditional stories, I don’t like people to twist things too far.  I guess at heart, I’m ultimately a sentimental traditionalist, especially when it comes to Christmas stories.  I just read Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (a book I won’t be reviewing here because it’s not young adult), and it’s very much a collection of non-sentimental, non-traditional, non-heartwarming Christmas stories.  I enjoyed it on some level…but it also kind of made me want to run out and read A Christmas Carol.

Because on Christmas, I want to read a story about the virtues of generosity and loving thy neighbor and realizing that family is really what’s most important.  I want a story where the crotchety old man realizes that if he just extends a hand, people will be nice to him in return and welcome him into their family and everyone can live happily ever after.

Actually, I like that kind of story all year ’round.  That’s why I read young adult books.  But I especially like it around Christmas.  And around Christmas, it’s even better when you can throw in wintry, Dickensian things like brass door knockers, and bed curtains, and big turkeys, and gruel, and clanking ghosts, and little British boys who say things like “Walk-er” (which no one seems to know the meaning of).

So when I want to read a really good Christmas story, that’s mine.  What’s yours?

Finding the Way Back to Neverland

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, ReviewsLeave a comment

As a general rule, I’m against sequels to classic novels written by new authors, especially when the primary appeal of the original was the author’s voice.  How do you ever do that right?  I’ve only see it happen once.  Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean is a beautiful sequel to Peter Pan.

I give a lot of the credit to her–and a lot of the credit to the way the sequel came to be.  That’s a fascinating story too.  In 1929, J. M. Barrie gave the rights to Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, meaning that they receive all the royalty money, as well as controlling the rights.  Several years ago they held a contest inviting authors to submit a sample chapter and synopsis for a sequel.  All of this means that the people involved in the publishing had a primary interest, not in a later version, but in the original work–and you can tell.

I can’t say that Peter Pan in Scarlet feels like J. M. Barrie is telling the story, but I feel like the story is very much about the world and the characters that he created.  McCaughrean has done a very impressive job at staying true to the story J. M. Barrie gave us, and yet giving us another story that is, I think, what we all want.

Mr. Barrie was in some ways not kind to anyone who wanted to follow him with a sequel.  He left a lot of challenges behind him.  To name the chief ones–he killed off his villain, he grew up his supporting characters, and his heroine was rather annoyingly maternal all along.  So what is a sequel-writer, saddled with Wendy and knowing that readers really want to see Peter Pan and the (grown-up) Lost Boys fight (the deceased) Captain Hook, to do?

McCaughrean handles it all neatly and effectively, and with the kind of magical and whimsical solutions that are worthy of Mr. Barrie.  I don’t want to give it all away…but I can’t resist just a little.  Suppose a person wants to get back to Neverland but you can’t depend on Peter to show up at your window, how do you go about it?  Well, you’ve got to find a fairy for their dust, right?  And the best place to look…Kensington Gardens, of course.  And the way to find a fairy is to find a baby out with its nurse, and to catch the baby’s first laugh just as it turns into a fairy.  Brilliant, magical and whimsical.

Peter Pan in Scarlet opens with Wendy and the Lost Boys as grown-ups, but they’ve begun to dream about Neverland again.  They decide that something must be wrong, that perhaps Peter is in trouble.  They have to find a way to become children again so that they can return to Neverland and help him–and from there the adventures begin.  In Neverland they find that summer has turned into autumn, and something seems to be inexplicably wrong.

McCaughrean even handles Wendy well, successfully portraying her as simply a rather practical-minded child (after the grown-ups become children again), rather than a child who wasted all her time in Neverland darning socks.

After we return to Neverland and find everyone’s favorite Wonderful Boy, the adventures are “nicely crammed together,” and we have the chance to explore the greater geography of the magic lands.  Everyone’s favorite pirate captain appears too.  Again McCaughrean finds a way to stay true to the end of Mr. Barrie’s book, where the Crocodile eats Hook, and yet still bring the villain back.

Even if there was nothing else in this book to recommend it–which is obviously not the case!–there is a single line in here which would alone put it miles above Peter and the Starcatchers in my estimation.  At one point in the book, Wendy tells Peter and the Lost Boys a fairy story about a little white bird in the Kensington Gardens.  We don’t hear the story; we don’t even know what the story is supposed to be about.  But that doesn’t matter.  McCaughrean knew that a little white bird in Kensington Gardens is significant in Peter Pan lore.

Thank you, Geraldine McCaughrean, for knowing what you’re writing about, and for writing it so well.

Author’s site: http://www.geraldinemccaughrean.co.uk/

The Story That Didn’t Come Before Peter Pan

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews6 Comments

I might like Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson much better if it didn’t claim to reveal the story that came before J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.  As an independent adventure/fantasy story, it’s perfectly decent.  As a prequel to Peter Pan, it’s a lot of claptrap and nonsense that at no point convinces me anyone anywhere involved in the project ever so much as read J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.

There is a wonderful story that comes before Peter Pan.  It’s called The Little White Bird and J. M. Barrie wrote it himself in 1902.  To come along a century later and claim you’re writing a prequel without apparently doing any research is ridiculous, and insulting to Mr. Barrie.  Especially when the only research really required would be to read two books.  That’s hardly an exhaustive amount.

Mr. Barrie didn’t include a lot of details about Peter’s past life, but he did include some.  As far as I can tell, Peter and the Starcatchers ignores all of them.  The basic premise of the novel is that there is something called starstuff (strongly resembling fairy dust) loose in the world.  Peter is a member of a group of orphan boys.  The orphans, the starstuff, and a couple of factions fighting over the starstuff end up on an island somewhere.  When the starstuff gets loose, the island begins to transform into a magical place, not to mention changing Peter so he’ll never grow up.

If you’re not already spotting why most of this is an utter travesty on the original book, allow me to explain.  One–Peter was not an orphan.  It is clearly related that he ran away from home very shortly after he was born because he didn’t want to grow up to be a man–and he knew he would if he stayed because he heard his parents talking about it.  Two–Peter doesn’t grow up because he doesn’t want to.  You can take it two ways: either he forever rejected the idea of growing up the day he ran away, or he continues to reject it daily and his imagination is strong enough to make it actually happen.  Either way, it’s about Peter’s choices and his imagination.  Three–it’s pretty clear that the magical dust floating around is a byproduct of fairies, not the other way around.

These are central ideas to the Peter Pan mythology, and to ignore them from the onset creates overarching problems with the entire concept of the book.

It doesn’t get better in the details.  In Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter cuts off Hook’s left hand.  Whoops–in the original, Hook’s right hand was cut off.  Perhaps that’s nitpicking, but I’d say it demonstrates something about the amount of care taken.  If the rest of the book was true to the original I’d forgive the wrong hand, but when the rest of the book isn’t, all it does is exemplify the problems.

But you know what possibly annoys me the most?  There’s a scene in Peter and the Starcatchers where starstuff is put in a bag along with a bird, and out pops Tinker Bell.

The problem?  There is NO NEED to reveal how fairies came to be.  Because Mr. Barrie already told us that!  “When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”  Now, when every baby laughs for the first time, its laugh becomes a new fairy.  Given the choice between the charming whimsy of laughter becoming fairies, and the painful practicality of smothering a bird with starstuff…well, that’s not much of a choice.  And you can’t claim to be in Mr. Barrie’s magical world and then just disregard every rule he wrote for it.

I know from looking at the bookshelf at the bookstore that there are two or three more books in the series.  I haven’t read them, so I can’t comment on them.  But after reading the first, I’d be shocked if the later ones did any better at drawing from J. M. Barrie’s books.

There is room in the world for a new prequel to Peter Pan.  There’s a gap between The Little White Bird and Peter Pan, and in that gap Peter learned to fly, went to Neverland, and met Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys.  I would love to see a well-done book that reveals that story.  But Peter and the Starcatchers is not that book.