I recently finished the amazing Libriomancer series with the amazing Revisionary (I think? Unless there’s a book five coming…?) And I also recently finished the not so good Riverman Trilogy with the not so good The Storyteller.
The Riverman by Aaron Starmer began the series very intriguingly, as Alistair hears from friend and crush Fiona about a magical world, and wonders if she’s actually covering some real world trauma. Book two, The Whisper, answers that question as Alistair dives into Aquavania himself, in pursuit of the Riverman, also called the Whisper, who has made Fiona and other kids disappear. The Storyteller brings us into the head of Alistair’s sister Keri, trying to make sense out of her brother’s reaction to a traumatic shooting and his strange stories, while also writing stories of her own.
There’s an interesting concept at the core of this, that ideas from Aquavania leak out into the world and are picked up by people like Keri, to turn into stories. Story ideas do often feel like they must be coming from somewhere…though as I think about this more, in this scenario they’re just coming from the imagination of other kids, rather than the imagination of people actually writing them down, and as a writer-down of stories I’m not sure I like that after all!
This may be a microcosm of why I didn’t like this series better. There’s a lot that makes me go, “hmm, that’s interesting…” but then it never comes together in a satisfying way. A lot of ethical questions come up in the second book, and even more mysteries about who is good, who is evil, what those concepts even mean, how the Riverman and Aquavania actually function and what Alistair’s role is…and this final book didn’t give me much of an answer to any of it. Continue reading “Book Review: The Storyteller (Riverman Trilogy)”
If I had to choose one magic system as my absolute favorite ever (I mean, ever), libriomancy would be a very likely winner. So you can imagine I was delighted to return to it with Jim C. Hines’ fourth Magic Ex Libris book, Revisionary.
The premise of Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana had me intrigued, mostly as an opportunity to read about events that are now history, but recent enough that I remember them. I’m still young enough that I haven’t encountered that many books like that! This one centers around Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans—and since it’s about an African-American family in the Ninth Ward, it also fits my diversity challenge.
I slipped one more parallel universe book in just before reporting on my challenges: Parallel by Lauren Miller. This is another one that does a beautiful job exploring how different decisions can radically change a person’s life…while being totally different than the previous two parallel universe books I read this year!
Tales of the Marvelous 