Tag: Books

The Silver Chair

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews4 Comments

Silver ChairNext in line on my adventure through the Chronicles of Narnia on audiobook is The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis, read by Jeremy Northam.  This one feels like a more direct sequel to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, following most closely on those events and characters.

The Silver Chair begins in our world, at the very dreadful school, Experiment House.  Eustace Clarence Scrubb (much improved and no longer deserving his name) attends here, along with Jill Pole.  Fleeing from a pack of bullies, the two children find an open door in the school wall—and go through into Aslan’s Country.  Despite some mishaps, Aslan sends them to Narnia, charged with finding the missing Prince Rillian.  In Narnia, they learn that Rillian is the son of the aged King Caspian.  They set off into Giant Country in search of Rillian, guided by Puddleglum the Marshwiggle.

This is reminiscent of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, as a journey story, but it has a much tighter focus on the quest.  Even when not immediately apparent, the various adventures (like being taken captive first by giants, and then by subterranean “earth men”) all lead towards the rescue of Prince Rillian.

Eustace and Jill are satisfying lead characters, not as noble as the Pevensies perhaps but good-hearted on the whole.  I enjoy characters who are good people trying to do the right thing, but who still descend to bickering and complaints when trudging through a snowstorm.  It’s very human, without making the characters unlikable.

My favorite character may be the non-human one, Puddleglum the Marshwiggle.  His name fits him perfectly, as he’s hopelessly doleful and apt to predict the worst.  Even though he seems like a wet blanket Eeyore at first, he comes through as courageous, sensible and dedicated.

My favorite scene is well along in the book, so spoilers beware!  After they find Rillian, there’s a confrontation with the witch who has been holding him captive.  It’s a wonderful, tense scene with an enemy who doesn’t swing a sword but uses words instead.  She uses magic, too, but the fascinating part is her mind-twisting arguments that the world above must not really exist.

This isn’t a new favorite of mine in the series (that’s still a toss-up between The Magician’s Nephew and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader).  It is a solid installment with a compelling plot and likable (but not too likable!) characters, and some nice creepy moments from truly dangerous villains.

Only the last book in the series left, the appropriately named The Last Battle.  Coming up soon (with a very exciting reader, by the way…)

Author’s Site: https://www.cslewis.com/

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Buy it here: The Silver Chair

Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction2 Comments

I’ve spent a lot of time in the Star Trek universe these past two months for the Sci Fi Experience, but I also spent some time in another major sci fi franchise, rereading Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy.  These three books are set about five years after Return of the Jedi and, I believe, largely set the stage for the Star Wars Expanded Universe in the books.  The story begins in Heir to the Empire and continues in Dark Force Rising and The Last Command.

Thrawn Trilogy

Following the victory at Endor, the Rebel Alliance has pushed the Empire back into the fringes of the galaxy.  They have retaken Coruscant and set up the New Republic in the old Imperial Palace.  Trouble begins brewing with rumors of a new and brilliant tactician leading the Imperial forces.  Grand Admiral Thrawn is frighteningly intuitive with a flair for multi-layered plans and intrigue.  Meanwhile on Coruscant, Leia and Han are expecting Force-strong twins, and Luke worries about someday training them to be Jedi.  More immediate worries arise when Leia becomes the target of repeated kidnapping attempts.  And then we also have thrown into the mix Joruus C’baoth, a dangerously unstable Jedi Master with an obsession about Luke and Leia; the Noghri, a gray-skinned alien race with a complex and tragic history; and Mara Jade, second-in-command to smuggler Talon Karrde, with a mysterious history and a burning enmity for Luke Skywalker.

As you can see, lots going on here!  The complex web of plot stretches through all three books, and keeps the action tense and the excitement high.  There are clever twists to the plot and usually some kind of complicated strategy going on at Thrawn’s direction at any time.  In some ways it becomes a galactic chess match, with moves and counter-moves, victories and defeats for both the New Republic and the Empire.  Or maybe it’s more like poker, considering there’s plenty of bluffing and psychology at work too.

The plot is solid, and the characters are equally good.  Luke, Leia and Han are all strongly present, feeling very much like the movie characters, plus more insight and depth that’s hard to show on film.  Lando and Chewie also get plenty to do and some very nice moments.  C3PO and RT-DT felt a little under-represented, though they are definitely present.  More impressive, perhaps, even some minor (but important) characters from the film, like Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar and Wedge Antilles, have their stories continue here.

Many of the new characters are just as strong and compelling as the familiar ones, Mara Jade in particular.  With her shadowy past and Force-sensitivity, she’s complex and hard-edged yet still sympathetic–which is saying a lot, considering one of her driving goals (stated, at least) is to kill Luke.

Thrawn is a brilliant villain, very different from the Emperor or Vader.  The terrifying thing about Thrawn is that he is not mindlessly evil.  I think it’s telling that he wears a white uniform.  Vader is famous for strangling subordinates if they make any mistake; Zahn does a nice play on that.  Thrawn does kill one subordinate for a mistake–and in a later scene commends another for original thinking, even though the man’s effort failed.  Thrawn thinks before he acts–though when he acts, he is ruthless and cold.  We always see Thrawn through the eyes of his second-in-command, Captain Pellaeon.  He’s a fascinating character too, a good soldier who really believes in the Empire.  He can be a little contemptuous at times, but there’s nothing really villainous about Pellaeon.  He’s just on the wrong side.

Seeing the continuing lives of familiar characters is of course a strong appeal here.  Having seen other franchises go into bizarre places with characters, I think I owe thanks to Timothy Zahn.  At the end of Return of the Jedi, I (most of us?) want Leia and Han to get married, and Luke to become the new leader of the returning Jedis.  And that’s what happens in the Expanded Universe books, I think because Zahn set it up in these three.  There might instead have been new romantic triangles for Leia and Han, beloved characters could have gone over to the Dark Side, someone might have been tragically killed…and all of that would have created plot and drama, but I’m so glad Zahn found his plot in other ways, and sent the characters down the path I for one feel they should have the opportunity to walk.

Beyond the plot and the characters we also have the universe.  In three books, there’s enough time to visit many planets, and I love that.  We get little glimpses into many, many different cultures and civilizations.  It doesn’t generally get into the kind of depth that Star Trek offers, but in a way I like the sampling.  It gives a sense of the vastness and variety of the galaxy.  It actually reminds me of The Magician’s Nephew or The Lives of Christopher Chant, with the opportunity to travel to many different worlds, whether in different planes of existence or just different star systems!

The usual rule (in Star Trek, at least, and I think elsewhere) is that for cross-medium franchises, film counts as officially canon while books do not.  For my personal canon of the Star Wars universe, the status of the prequel trilogy is decidedly iffy, but these three books are definitely accepted.  I’ve read many good Star Wars books, but I recommend this trilogy as the must-read for fans!

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Buy it here: Thrawn Trilogy

Cursed by Frogginess

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

FroggedFew things are more disappointing than a premise I love in a book that just didn’t work for me.  It’s very rare that you get a second chance at that original brilliant premise.  I was disappointed by The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker, even though I loved the idea of the princess turning into a frog when she kisses the enchanted prince–so I was thrilled to hear about Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde, a story about a princess turning into a frog, from an author I’ve greatly enjoyed in the past.

Frogged is about Princess Imogene, twelve-almost-thirteen, and worried that she’s not a very good princess.  When she meets a talking frog, she tries to help by kissing him, and ends up trading places–he’s restored to being a boy, and she becomes a frog.  Since he quite rudely refuses to help, Imogene sets off herself in search of the witch who cast the spell.  Along the way, she meets new enemies, secures unexpected allies, becomes a star attraction in a terrible theatre company, and learns something about herself and the people around her.

This is not the same story as The Frog Princess, although the parallels are inescapable.  Happily, I liked this one much better.  It’s a simple story and the target age is young (perhaps 8-10), and there isn’t a huge amount of depth or complexity…but the voice was strong, there was a nice amount of humor, and the story was reliably entertaining.

An ordinary, possibly clumsy, not-stereotypical-beautiful princess has becomes something of a stereotype itself (I can think of five others without even trying), but Imogene has her own unique points.  I like that she very much feels 12-almost-13, and most of her problems are chalked up to being a difficult age more than anything else.  Some “ordinary princesses” are almost overpowering in their identity as “ordinary,” and become unusual by swinging so far that direction.

I also particularly liked an arc of learning Imogene goes through about changing how she sees others.  She’s always good-hearted, but she comes to realize that some people she thinks she understands have unexpected depths (for good and ill), and also that people don’t always perceive her the way she expects.

My favorite character apart from Imogene is the witch, who is gloriously untroubled by anyone else’s problems.  She’s not a wicked witch, exactly, and feels quite comfortable in her own mind that her actions have been reasonable (and she makes a convincing case).  She’s also not a Glinda-type, who wants the heroine to solve her problems herself so that she can learn the true lesson.  She’s simply practical, unsentimental and takes it for granted that everyone should take responsibility for handling their own lives.  She might drive me crazy in real life, but she’s remarkably refreshing in this kind of story.

Actually, a lot of the twists on traditional fairy tales are refreshing in here.  But I do tend to like that kind of thing. 🙂

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

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Buy it here: Frogged

TGKA: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science FictionLeave a comment

khan-posterThis year for the Sci Fi Experience, I’m off on The Great Khan Adventure, tracing the story of Khan Noonien Singh through books and movies. So far I’ve watched a few episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, and read Greg Cox’s Khan trilogy (Eugenics Wars: Volume One  and Volume Two, and To Reign in Hell).  Getting down to the end of the Adventure, I spent New Year’s Eve watching The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home.

To Reign in Hell ends almost precisely where The Wrath of Khan begins.  Chekov and his new captain, Terrell, beam down to Ceti Alpha V (thinking it’s Ceti Alpha VI–DON’T ask) looking for a test planet for the Genesis Project.  There they encounter Khan and his followers, who, with the help of mind-twisting eels, take over their starship and set out to pursue Khan’s quest for revenge against Kirk.  Meanwhile, Kirk and friends are aboard the Enterprise with a crew of trainee cadets.  They rush to investigate when an urgent call comes in from Carol Marcus, reporting that someone is trying to steal Genesis, a device to “create life from lifelessness.”

It was fascinating (to coin a phrase) watching this movie directly after reading To Reign in Hell.  There’s so much more room in books than in movies for details and background and character expansion.  Don’t get me wrong, The Wrath of Khan is a great movie, full-stop, period.  However–To Reign in Hell, despite some flaws, provides so much context and insight and character details.

For instance: we get a story on why Khan’s wearing that glove all movie, not to mention why he’s wearing a Starfleet emblem.  Joachim becomes a fully-fleshed character in the book; in the movie, you know him as Khan’s lieutenant, and the only one in Khan’s crew being paid for dialogue.  His name doesn’t come up until the very end of the movie, but I figured all along that he had to be Joachim, based on the book.  In the movie Khan references his wife twice but never actually says her name; presumably he means Marla (and I see no reason to think otherwise) but by comparison, the book makes her a major character and explores their romance.

Of course, the order of creation is a little odd in that Cox watched the movie and then wrote the backstory–but I think that worked, because I felt like I got more from the movie when I was keeping Cox’s backstory in mind.  Strangely enough, I’m not sure it would have worked the other way.  Reading the book, I occasionally thought I might be getting more from it if I had watched the movie recently–but after watching it, I think that might have made the book feel more forced.  Since the movie was fuzzy in my head, I didn’t get every single reference in the book, which, based on how many I noticed when I did watch the movie, might have become a bit much while reading…

Stranger yet, all this backstory and Khan-focus made me feel, well, strangely sympathetic towards him as a character.  Don’t get me wrong, I know he’s a terrible person, and I dearly love Kirk, Spock and McCoy…but Kirk did strand him on Ceti Alpha V and poor Marla got killed and it was all really, really awful and you can see how a person could lose it a bit at that point…even if Khan’s reaction is rather beyond the stretch of justification.

Ah well, a purely reprehensible villain wouldn’t be very interesting.

It also felt rather strange when the events of The Wrath of Khan set up the next two movies–and yet Khan never gets mentioned again.  Granted, Kirk has other things on his mind, but still.  Khan seems to have loomed bigger in the audience’s mind than in the characters’.

Another interesting sidenote: I’ve been complaining ever since Star Trek Into Darkness came out that these people are not qualified to be crewing a starship, and I find Wrath of Khan justifies the complaint.  Imagine if, at the end of the movie, Saavik was made captain and the trainee cadets were handed officer positions and told to go exploring.  That’s basically what happens at the end of the 2009 movie!!  Mumble mumble implausibility grumble…

On that subject, after watching the three classic movies and Khan-a-la-Ricardo-Montalban, I plan to finish up the adventure with a rewatch of Into Darkness and Khan-a-la-Benedict-Cumberbatch…which ought to be interesting directly after Wrath of Khan.  Stay tuned!

Buy it here: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Blog Hop: Book Blogger Purist?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations8 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Are you a book blogger purist? Do you only have book related posts or do you review/post on anything/everything that catches your eye?

I feel like if I was really a purist book blogger, I’d only post book reviews.  Which, obviously, I don’t!  On the other hand, I do try to keep to my general theme–which, as I think about it, may be less about books and more about stories.  I do movie and TV reviews, sometimes I post about songs, and I share my fiction writing at times, but the common thread is stories.

All my challenge posts relate to books and reading, and most of my blog event/meme posts do too–except for Saturday Snapshot, of course, but even that one I try to give a book spin when I can.  Or if it isn’t a book-related photo, I try to at least give a story to the photo I’m posting!

Your turn: book bloggers, do you consider yourself a purist in what you post?  Blog readers, do you like blogs to have laser-focus on their topic, or do you like more varied posts?