Tag: Books

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews3 Comments

Blue SwordContinuing recent trends, I reread The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley for Once Upon a Time, and for my goal to reread old favorites.  I’ve no idea when I last read this, but it may have been middle school.  By now, it’s like an entirely new book–not a bad thing, when it’s by one of my favorite (but not prolific enough!) authors.

The heroine of the story is Harry, who travels from what seems to be loosely Victorian England, out to the edge of the empire.  The Homeland has never quite conquered the desert and hills of Damar, where the natives still follow the old ways–and are rumored to have magical power.  When Harry is abducted by the Damarian king, she begins to forge a new identity among a foreign people she’s strangely drawn to–and finds a role in their coming war with the North.

I feel like this plot summary makes the book sound like Indian Captive, which it isn’t at all…but telling more would give too much away.

I like Harry as a protagonist–she’s intelligent and capable, and always puts on a strong appearance even when she’s secretly unsure.  She makes some leaps in learning and skills that are, um, improbable to say the least, but there’s a magical explanation so I’ll give that a pass…  McKinley also succeeds in making the Damarian king, Corlath, into a sympathetic character, when he very easily might not have been at all.

The romance comes slightly out of left field, but…it feels like it makes sense when it arrives, so I’ll accept that too.  Slightly sudden romances are a recurring feature of McKinley’s writing…

Besides lots of magic and swordfighting and epic legends, possibly the coolest part of the story is Harry’s animal companions.  She has the world’s most amazing horse, and if that’s not enough, there’s a wildcat too!

It was funny reading this right after Fellowship of the Ring, because in some ways the writing style seemed even more Tolkien than Tolkien himself–more what I expected Tolkien to be.  And by that I mean that there is considerable detail given to what the landscape looks like, the clothing styles, the exact details of saddles…  Most of the time that was all right and even interesting, and mostly the book still moved at a reasonable pace.

The only real trouble I had was at the beginning, and “trouble” might be putting it strongly.  It’s just that there’s a fair bit of set-up explaining the political situation and Harry’s personal past, and it all comes out rather dry.  This is particularly funny because McKinley is known for throwing readers in without much backstory or explanation…but this was an early book.  Evidently her writing evolved.  So if you pick this one up and find it slow, at least go on until Harry’s abducted–I found it picked up considerably then.

This book has made me very much want to reread The Hero and the Crown, which I only remember marginally better.  That one is a prequel, focusing on legendary characters who are frequently referenced here, and I look forward to reading their story.

This book also made me want a really amazing wildcat companion, but that want could be a bit more difficult to satisfy…

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

Other reviews:
Lisa Godfrees
Bookshop Talk
Tor.com
Anyone else?

Buy it here: The Blue Sword

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews18 Comments

Fellowship of the RingDrumroll and fanfare…I have successfully finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring!  And yeah, that probably wouldn’t be a big deal to a lot of you fantasy readers out there.  But I’ve been intimidated by the Lord of the Rings for, oh, about ten years now, so I’m rather proud.  Not hugely surprising, the book wasn’t nearly as hard to get through as I was afraid it might be!

The plot is a classic quest, centered around the One Ring of Power.  The ring corrupts everyone who touches it, and if it falls into the hands of the Enemy, Sauron, the situation will be very (very) bad for Middle Earth.  Frodo and his companions set off to take the ring to Mordor, Sauron’s country, the only place it can be destroyed.

Having seen the movies, there weren’t many surprises for me in the plot, but I was hugely curious to see what Tolkien’s writing would be like.  It wasn’t as dense as I was afraid it might be–I found him an easier read than, say, Dickens.  In fact, I didn’t find Tolkien particularly slow on a sentence-by-sentence level.  At the same time, I didn’t feel like the book on a whole had a lot of urgency.

There was tension–there was clearly a rising threat and actions that must be taken to counter it, and there were sometimes moments of more immediate danger.  And yet, it seemed like there was always plenty of time for the characters to stop and think about their next move, or to recite an epic poem.  Even when they were on the move, often days and days would go by of just traveling.  And I was completely floored to discover that Frodo didn’t leave the Shire until seventeen years after Bilbo left.  I think the movie compressed that down to a week.

It’s almost odd how much tension there is, combined with so little urgency and such a slow pace.  I feel like this may be an indication of how culture has changed.  Tolkien was writing from a slower-moving time, one without high-speed planes, instant communication around the world, a 24-hour news cycle and 30-second YouTube videos.  On the other hand, C. S. Lewis wrote from the exact same time period and didn’t move as slowly, so maybe it’s not all culture!

As an aside, Tolkien spent years and years on LOTR, while Lewis wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in a few months, which I’ve heard annoyed the hell out of Tolkien.  That may just be a rumor, though…

Anyway, the slow pace didn’t precisely bother me, I just found it an interesting element.  I wouldn’t want every book I read to move this slowly, but I so completely expected it here (everyone warned me) that it wasn’t much of a problem.  Even the Council of Elrond was all right–and the most devoted LOTR fans had told me that went on.

I enjoyed Tolkien’s world, and the depth of detail about the different races, especially the Elves.  Many of the legends are really beautiful, and I was fascinated by the Elves’ role as incredibly long-lived, almost ephemeral beings in the midst of a changing world.  We got a bit more about dwarves, Hobbits and wizards too, all interestingly different from one another.

I did get a little stuck on the idea of all these apparently isolated settlements or fortresses, in the midst of vast stretches of empty wilderness…how exactly does your economy function?  Do you have an established import/export system?  But never mind that.

I find it very hard to talk about the characters, because I’m not sure what I’m getting from the movie versus from the book.  I feel like the book has amazing characters who are difficult to see clearly.  I know they’re amazing–but I’m not sure how much of that impression comes from the movies, and how much is, eventually, revealed within the book.

I was disappointed by the very tiny role of Arwen in the book.  It takes serious detective work here to figure out that Aragorn and Arwen have a romance going–and if I hadn’t seen the movie, I don’t think I would have picked it up at all.  I’m not at all sure that Arwen even had a line of dialogue.  Sigh.  Disappointing, but not surprising.  Women really are not Tolkien’s strong point.  After all, the Fellowship has five different races, but they’re all male.

If this wasn’t Tolkien (by which I mean Tolkien, classic writer and vast influence within the realm of fantasy…) I would probably not rush to read the next book.  I would eventually, no hurry.  But I did enjoy Fellowship pretty well, even if I didn’t love it, and because it is Tolkien and I’m immensely curious about the whole trilogy, I plan to go on to The Two Towers in a few weeks.  Stay tuned!

Author’s Site: http://www.tolkiensociety.org

Other reviews:
With Muchness
Words for Worms
Wondrous Reads
Snuggly Oranges
And no doubt many many more.  Tell me about yours and I’ll add a link!

Buy it here: The Fellowship of the Ring

Quotable L. M. Montgomery

On By cherylmahoneyIn Quotable3 Comments

“Oh, books, books what worlds of pleasure you open!  What freedom you offer all prisoners!  How do people live who never read or want to read?  I cannot understand them.”

– L. M. Montgomery

Stardust Read-Along, Movie Edition

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations5 Comments

Remember that Stardust Read-Along we were doing for Once Upon a Time?  Well, today is a kind of bonus post, doing a comparison to the movie version.

If you’ve been following along, you know that I really enjoyed Part One, then found myself with serious issues in Part Two.  I enjoyed the book…but!  I loved reading everyone else’s thoughts, and I found it so fascinating how other people drew such wonderful meaning, insight and complexity from plot elements that just didn’t speak to me.

I stand by my opinion–but I love the complexities other people saw too.  And with that divergence in thought, I suspect I’m going to be an outlier on my opinion of the movie too!

So I know it wasn’t as complex.  I know it was much more conventional.  I know it didn’t have the same depth of insight.  But you guys?  It just made me happy watching it.

The story is essentially the same: bumbling Tristan (who lost an R somewhere!) quests through Faerie with a fallen Star named Yvaine, while they’re being pursued by a nasty witch and a couple of ruthless princes.

I felt like the movie gave us that character growth and developing romance that I thought was lacking in the book.  It was mostly just little moments here and quick conversations there (which was all I ever really wanted in the book) but it was enough.  I could see Tristan learning from Yvaine and from the other people he was meeting.  And I could see Yvaine falling for Tristan–in delightful fashion.  Maybe it’s cheesy for a star to shine when she’s happy…but I thought it was a fun character device, and one that was used effectively.

I enjoyed the villains as well.  I love that the ghosts of the murdered Stormhold brothers hang around for the whole movie, and I love that there was a final confrontation with the villains.  Yes, yes, it’s much more conventional–but it was satisfying.

The movie doesn’t have the same airy, gossamer magic of the book, and not quite the same mysterious fascination or touches of darkness.  On the other hand, there was so much that was funny or clever.

At the end of the day, I fully acknowledge that Gaiman’s book is attempting to tell a story that is far more complex and impressive–but it just didn’t quite work for me (obviously it worked for other people!)  The movie’s goals were lower, but (for me!) it succeeded much more at what it was trying to do.

I would definitely recommend the movie if you haven’t read the book.  If you have…well, that might be a bit more complicated!

Saturday Snapshot: Book Delight

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot17 Comments

I don’t usually post pictures of books for Saturday Snapshot (seeing as I do that all week…) but this week I couldn’t resist.  I had a new arrival in the mailbox that has me thrilled to pieces.

LM Montgomery (1)I’ve been wanting to read a really good, in-depth biography of L. M. Montgomery for years, and I finally decided to buy Mary Rubio’s Gift of Wings…which weighs in at some 750 pages!  But I need something that long, if I want it to tell me anything that I haven’t already read in the thousands of pages of Montgomery’s journal…

LM Montgomery (3)After you’ve read that much about one person, you get sort of invested (obsessed?)…and want to know more.  At least, I do!  And while I haven’t started reading the biography yet, I’m taking this picture at the front as a good sign…

LM Montgomery (2)The book opens with a picture of Montgomery I’m fairly sure I’ve never seen–and to be honest, I don’t think there’s all that many of those left!

I’m not exactly recommending any of these books, unless you really like L. M. Montgomery (and possibly not even then…)  It all makes me think that writing isn’t intrinsically interesting or boring (maybe some is), but rather, something is interesting if we’re interested by it.  Circular?  Probably.  All I know is that I balk at 500 page fiction books, even in fantasy, a genre I love…but I’m delighted by the prospect of a 750 page, non-fiction biography about a woman who lived in Canada a hundred years ago.  Oh, and wrote a little book called Anne of Green Gables, followed by some twenty others.

Well, enough ruminations for Saturday morning!  Have a lovely weekend, and visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots.