Category: Reviews

Book Review: The False Prince

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult8 Comments

Some books make the circuit of lots of blogs I read…and sometimes it still takes me a long time to get to them!  I finally picked up The False Prince by Jennifer A. Neilson, after seeing rave reviews from other bloggers.  And the good thing about waiting so long?  The rest of the trilogy is already out!

The False Prince is told to us by Sage, an orphan boy who is one day plucked from his orphanage by Conner, a wealthy noble with a sinister manner.  Sage soon learns that Conner is collecting orphan boys, intending to train them to pose as the long-lost Prince Jaron and prevent a succession crisis leading to civil war.  But only one boy will be chosen for the role, and Conner’s ruthlessness and secrecy make it clear that those left unchosen will be killed. Continue reading “Book Review: The False Prince” →

Witches and Phantoms and Opera, Oh My!

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews17 Comments

I think we know that I madly love retellings of The Phantom of the Opera…and that Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series claims the “Funniest Book” spot on my End of the Year Rankings every year…so what could be more perfect than Maskerade, a Discworld retelling of Phantom?

I was inspired to pull this off my shelf recently after reading I Shall Wear Midnight, with its cameos from Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg.  This is my…third?  fourth? read of Maskerade, and it stays just as funny on repeated visits.  Although my poor paperback now has a crack in the spine–which I kind of enjoy, because it’s cracked on my favorite page!  I feel like that’s a cliche that rarely actually happens…

Anyway!  Maskerade focuses on Granny and Nanny, who are coming to the unfortunate realization that you just can’t have a coven of only two witches, having recently lost Magrat as their third.  The only eligible girl in Lancre is Agnes Nitt–but she recently departed for the bright lights (and strong smells) of the big city of Ankh-Morpork, determined to reinvent herself.  Agnes wins a role at the Opera House due to her prodigious voice–but not a starring role, due to her prodigious size.  She is befriended by the wonderfully, incredibly idiotic Christine, who can’t sing but looks good in an evening gown.  When Christine’s mirror starts talking to her she insists on switching rooms with Agnes, and Agnes finds herself the recipient of music lessons from a mysterious man in a mask.

Meanwhile, the Opera’s new owner is very perturbed to find out that the entire Opera Company accepts the existence of a masked ghost who writes notes and gives directions and, in a recent development, kills people.  Granny and Nanny, from the most altruistic motives possible of course, decide that something is a bit off in Agnes’ letters home, and they must depart for the big city to investigate.

And there is mayhem and Death and hilarity and Phantom references and mad little notes with five exclamation points and suspicious cookery and sometimes most of those things all on one page. Continue reading “Witches and Phantoms and Opera, Oh My!” →

Book Review: Cart and Cwidder – Drowned Ammet

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult7 Comments

One of my goals for Once Upon a Time was to reread Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet, which I last read in high school and largely forgot.  I successfully read them…but didn’t manage to get to reviews!  Today I’m going to look at the first two books, Cart and Cwidder and Drowned Ammett.

Cart and Cwidder is about a family of musicians traveling in a cart through Dalemark.  And just to clear up the title, a cwidder is a musical instrument (somewhat like a lute, I think).  Moril is our main character, the dreamy one of the family who isn’t sure about his talents.  The family is on their annual trip through South Dalemark, ruled by oppressive earls, back towards the “free North.”  Moril and his siblings find themselves suddenly thrust into the center of a brewing war when their father is killed and they must undertake a vital task he left unfinished.  Oh, and that cwidder in the title?  Definitely magical. Continue reading “Book Review: Cart and Cwidder – Drowned Ammet” →

Princess of the Wild Swans

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews2 Comments

Continuing my Once Upon a Time reading (getting down to the end!), I squeezed in another fairy tale retelling with Princess of the Wild Swans by Diane Zahler.  By the same author as The Thirteenth Princess, this book is based on the Grimm tale, “The Six Swans,” and the Hans Christian Anderson story, “The Wild Swans.”  It makes things a bit less (ahem) grim in the process, but keeps good tension and magical danger too.

At the beginning of the book, Princess Meriel’s chief complaints are that she hates sewing, and that her five beloved older brothers don’t give her enough of their time.  Things take a sudden turn when her usually-doting father returns from a trip, and brings a new bride with him.  Meriel immediately dislikes Lady Orianna, and the new queen soon shows her true colors.  In order to clear the path to the throne for her own future son, Lady Orianna transforms Meriel’s brothers into swans.  Meriel seeks the help of Riana, a witch and healer, and her younger brother, Liam.  She learns the only way to free her brothers is by undertaking to sew five shirts from nettles…and it must be done before the lake freezes over for the winter and forces the swans away. Continue reading “Princess of the Wild Swans” →

The Amazing Spider-Man, and the Amazing People Around Him

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction2 Comments

Spider-Man 2I recently, belatedly and quite impulsively decided to go see The Amazing Spider-Man 2, mostly because it was hot out, I figured the theatre would be cold, and nothing else playing looked appealing.  From those basically nonexistent expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I liked this movie–and I keep liking it better the more I think about it!  Some spoilers to follow (though the chief spoiler hit news stands in 1973, so it may be past its expiration date…)

The movie opens with life a bit rocky for Peter (Spider-Man) Parker (Andrew Garfield).  His relationship with Gwen (Emma Stone) is “complicated,” he has unanswered questions about his deceased parents, and Oscorp, of course, is probably up to something they shouldn’t be.  So it seems like a good thing when childhood friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) comes back to New York to take over the company…until Harry tells Peter that he’s dying of a genetic disease, and believes only Spider-Man’s blood can help him.  Meanwhile, Oscorp employee Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) has an unfortunate accident involving electric eels, and morphs into Electro, a creature with power over electricity and a grudge against Spider-Man.

Firstly, there is a lot that is just fun in this movie.  I’ve thought Andrew Garfield was wonderful ever since The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and here we see a real gift for making awkwardness seem adorable and somehow charming.  And then he puts the suit on and is witty and clever, while still feeling like the same person.  We get some great back-and-forths between Peter and Aunt May (Sally Field), Peter and Gwen, Spider-Man and various insane mega-villains… Continue reading “The Amazing Spider-Man, and the Amazing People Around Him” →