Tag: Fairy Tales

Rapunzel in Her…Satellite?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction, Young Adult8 Comments

The long-awaited Cress by Marissa Meyer finally reached me from the library!  And still in time for Once Upon a Time. 🙂  Technically it’s sci fi, not fantasy…but it’s a fairy tale retelling, so I’m saying it counts.  Cress is the third book in The Lunar Chronicles (read about the first two here) so spoilers may follow for the earlier books.

Cress picks up right after Scarlet, and continues the story of Cinder and her friends.  We also get our new title character, Cress, who we saw only briefly in the earlier books.  Cress has spent the past several years trapped in a satellite orbiting the Earth, forced to use her brilliant computer skills to spy on behalf of the Lunar queen.  She manages to make contact with Cinder–but a rescue attempt goes horribly wrong, ending with Wolf badly wounded, Scarlet abducted, and Cress and Thorne crash-landing into the Sahara Desert.  Meanwhile, Prince Kai’s plans to marry the Lunar queen in a desperate attempt to avert war are moving ahead all too quickly.

There are a lot of plot threads going on here, but Meyer manages to move very adeptly between different characters, giving us time with all of them.  I would have liked a little more time with Scarlet (because I love Scarlet!), but completely understand that something had to go in this already-long book.

It’s okay that I didn’t get much Scarlet because I loved Cress too.  She is naive and idealistic and a little bit awkward, because after all, she spent years locked away alone in a satellite.  She’s so thrilled by everything on Earth, seeing so much beauty in ordinary things.  I loved Cress’ growth through the book, gaining more insight and understanding as she interacts with more people.

And Cress and Thorne are just so much fun!  I really enjoyed the romance in Scarlet and this one is just as good, while being completely different.  Thorne has been putting on this heroic rogue persona, which everyone else sees through…but Cress is isolated and naive and develops a major crush on him.  The evolution of Cress’ feelings about Thorne as she gets to know him as a real person is just lovely.

And Thorne…is neither as heroic as Cress thought he was, or as bad as he pretends to be.  He’s a lot like Han Solo, circa A New Hope…except possibly a Han Solo who watched Star Wars and knows exactly what image he’s trying to present, without being entirely sure himself that he would come back to help blow up the Death Star (sorry, spoiler…) Anyway–such a great character, and these two may be my favorite romantic couple for this year.

As in the previous two books, there are some nice fairy tale tie-ins.  Cress, of course, is Rapunzel, from being trapped in her satellite to having her name be inspired by a variety of lettuce.  She also has very long hair that’s cut when she leaves her “tower,” and her “prince” goes blind at the same time.  I love how Meyer puts a sci fi twist on fairy tale elements throughout this series!

Cress has a lot of action and a lot of excitement and a lot of movement forward in the brewing revolution against the Lunar queen.  But there are very few conclusions, and I find myself more anxious for Book Four than I was for Book Three.  Because Cress and Thorne have not really figured their romance out, and the revolution has not come to a boil, and this book left me desperately curious about Book Four’s title character, Princess Winter.

So now I have to sadly wait until next year for the concluding volume.  But at least I can be happy that this series has gone through three out of four books without losing steam and, very possibly, getting better with every installment.  Making me so very hopeful for the final one!

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

Other reviews:
Reading Is Fun Again
Pandora’s Books
Consumed By Books
And…there are many more!  Tell me about yours and I’ll add a link. 🙂

Buy it here: Cress

Up a Beanstalk and Into a Woods

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews4 Comments

I have been trying to get through my To Be Read List, and trying to believe that I will actually read more fantasy novels than I will add (ha!) during the Once Upon a Time challenge…so I decided to go to the top of the list and read the fantasy novel that had been on there longest.  That turned out to be Half Upon a Time by James Riley, which was on the list since 2010.  On the plus side, the next two books in the trilogy were published in the meantime!

As you can guess from the title, this is a fairy tale-inspired book.  Jack attends a training school for heroes, but his heart isn’t really in it–until a girl falls out of the sky literally at his feet.  May insists she isn’t a princess, but when she’s wearing a t-shirt that says “Punk Princess,” how can there be any doubt?  Soon the two are on a quest to find May’s abducted grandmother, who just might be the long-missing Snow White.  With the Huntsman on their trail, they fight a giant and a witch in a candy cottage, make an alliance with Prince Philip and a more uneasy one with the Wolf King, and try to find the magic mirror that may have a clue to locating Snow White and defeating the Wicked Queen.

This is another “throw lots of fairy tales together!” book, but I thought it worked quite well.  Since Jack and May are traveling on a quest, it felt natural that they keep bumping into new fairy tale elements.  Most are also tied together in some way, through their roles in the Great War between Snow White and the Wicked Queen.  The story is fast-paced between all the new adventures and obstacles, and there are some fun twists.  For instance, the Wolf can change shape from man to beast, and Red Hood has a cloak that makes her invisible.

I liked this book…but I didn’t love it, and I think that was because of the characters.  There’s no real flaw–they just didn’t grab me either.  Jack is clearly a fairy-tale-Jack, the non-royal, relatively ordinary hero without major warrior skills.  He has a good heart and he’s a nice guy, but he didn’t feel particularly unique to me, or as clever as the best of fairy-tale-Jacks.  May is blessedly not a pathetic princess in need of rescuing, but “spunky fairy tale heroine” has also become a Thing, and she’s a pretty generic version of that.  In a way, I think she adjusts too quickly to coming from our world to the fantasy world, losing some opportunities in that area.

Where this book mostly loses an opportunity, though, is with Prince Philip.  I wrote last Friday about Friendship Triangles in stories, and while there’s some romantic hinting, this book pretty much has a Friendship Triangle.  Philip could have redeemed the whole book, by being the show-stealing Third Character that makes the blandness of the leads matter less.  Instead, he was a pretty bland Prince Charming type…

I don’t want to over-emphasize this, though!  I think a younger reader, or someone who has read less fairy tale retellings, would have been bothered much less by slightly flat characters.  And even I wasn’t bothered exactly…I just didn’t become attached to the characters in the way I want to be.

I still plan to go on to the rest of the books in the trilogy.  There were some clever twists near the end of the book, and hints of others coming, and I want to see how it all turns out.  And who knows–maybe I’ll get more insights into the characters and end up liking them more!

Last chance to win a signed copy of my fairy tale retelling, The Wanderers! Just put #WanderersGiveAway in your comment to enter.  Contest closes April 30th!

Author’s Site: http://james-riley-author.tumblr.com/

Other reviews (and they all loved it, so go figure!):
The Book Cellar
Transcribing These Dreams
The Maiden’s Court
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Half Upon a Time

From Beijing to France, with Cyborgs and Lunars

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction, Young Adult9 Comments

I’m waiting in line at the library for Cress, the third book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.  Waiting turned out to be a good thing…because it gave me time to reread the first two books, Cinder and Scarlet.  You can click the links for my original reviews, but I thought I’d do a quick re-read review too!  (Some spoilers to follow for Cinder)  These are sci fi, but since they retell fairy tales, I’m still counting them for Once Upon a Time.

The Lunar Chronicles are set a vague but significant distance in the future. Earth has formed itself into seven countries, all at peace–but in an uneasy truce with the Lunar Colony, ruled by the cruel Queen Levana.  Lunars possess magic-like abilities to manipulate the minds of others, and no one is more powerful than Queen Levana.

Cinder is a teenage girl living in New Beijing, a gifted mechanic–and a cyborg.  Despised by society and her adoptive mother, her best friend is Iko, a robot with an overactive personality chip.  Her path crosses that of Prince Kai, shortly before the annual ball (can we see where this is going?)  At the same time, life begins to spiral out of control for both of them–Cinder’s sister is deathly ill with the letumosis plague, Cinder begins to find out startling revelations about her own past, and the death of Kai’s father forces him to take the lead in dangerous political dealings with Queen Levana.

My favorite thing about Cinder may be that she is just so level-headed.  I never understood Cinderella’s relationships in the original story, but I love how Meyer has reimagined things for Cinder.  She has no choice but to stay with her adoptive mother, because as a cyborg she’s legally property.  Cinder is fiercely loyal to her kind younger sister, and her robot friend, so we know she cares about people…but she doesn’t fall immediately under Kai’s spell.  Oh, there’s a crush going on…but she keeps perspective about it all.  It feels like how someone might legitimately feel about a near-stranger they’re attracted to.

I love a Cinderella who would rather run away and start her own life than go to some ball and dance with a cute prince.  Not that she wouldn’t like to dance with the cute prince, but she has priorities!

Oddly enough, much as I love the not-ridiculously-fast romance, it backfires to a certain extent in that I don’t find myself especially rooting for Cinder and Kai as a romantic couple.  Cinder gave us the very beginning of a romance for them…and I hope subsequent books will give us more so I can get more invested in them as a pair.

My other favorite part is Cinder’s amazing cyborg abilities–from the relatively mundane, like having a cabinet in her calf, to the really awesome like being able to detect lying.  They’re woven throughout the book in a very cool way.

Scarlet picks up right where Cinder left off.  Cinder is now a fugitive from both Queen Levana and the Earth authorities, and winds up joining forces with the dashing Captain Thorne.  In his stolen spaceship, they’re on the trail of information about the missing Lunar heir, Princess Selene.  The trail takes them to France, to intersect with our other heroine of the book, Scarlet.  Scarlet is desperate to find her grandmother, who vanished two weeks previously.  She meets Wolf, a street fighter who fluctuates between gentle and fierce, who may have a clue to her grandmother’s abduction.  Although she doesn’t really trust him, Wolf is her only help, and they set out together for Paris.

I liked Cinder, but I really liked Scarlet.  Scarlet is fiery, impulsive, and even more fiercely loyal than Cinder.  And unlike Cinder and Kai, I definitely got behind this romance.  Yes, it’s fast–yes, it doesn’t always make sense–yes, I know all that…but it just works.  Although I tend to like Brooding Heroes with Hearts of Gold (it’s a thing), so that may be a factor…

And a purely personal aspect that will probably not matter nearly as much to anyone but me–a big chunk of the book takes place in the Opera Garnier!  It’s never identified by name, but trust me, it’s the Opera Garnier, former home of the Phantom of the Opera, and Meyer clearly researched the floor plan.

With broader appeal…much as I enjoyed Scarlet’s storyline, I also enjoyed Cinder’s storyline, which kicked into a higher gear in this installment–and how can I not love Captain Thorne, roguish and charming, if not quite as charming as he thinks he is.  I have this thing about arrogant charmers too, so this book was just hitting all my favorite hero-types.

I have to say, I am even more excited for Cress now, which was kind of the point…that, and making sure I’d actually remember who everyone was when I picked up the new book!  I also snagged on to a possible clue about Cress in the first book that I’m sure I didn’t spot on a first read, and I can’t wait to find out if my guess is right. 🙂

Let’s see…#15 in line, and with 27 copies circulating, that’s not so bad!

Don’t forget, you can win a signed copy of my fairy tale retelling, The Wanderers! Just put #WanderersGiveAway in your comment to enter.  Ten days left!

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

Buy them here: Cinder and Scarlet

Guest Post: Favorite Fairy Tale Retellings

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations6 Comments

 You’ve seen me write about my favorite fairy tale retellings many times, but today I’m happy to present someone else’s opinion!  Today we have a guest post from Katy, who writes at A Library Mama.  Some of these are favorites of mine as well, and some are ones I am definitely going to have to explore!  Links go to Katy’s reviews, if you want to find out more.

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Fairy tales made into novels are some of my favorite types of books ever, and I promised Cheryl this list oh, months and months ago. I’m finally doing it in honor of the Once Upon a Time challenge (hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.)

These are not by any means the only fairy tale retellings I have read and loved – but in the interests of keeping it manageable, I’ve limited myself to an even dozen. I hope you enjoy!

Beauty by Robin McKinley. (1978, Middle Grade)

This is the book that started it all, first checked out regularly from the library, then bought with Christmas money so that I could carry it in my suitcase when traveling. This retelling of Beauty and the Beast started both my adoration of Robin McKinley and my search for great fairy tale retellings.

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. (1991, Adult. “New Adult” might be perfect)

This was the first book I found in the Fairy Tale Series, edited by Terri Windling, though I went on to track down the others as well. I was in college when I discovered it, and despite the marked difference in technology between my college and the college of the story, the college life is so vividly described that it took me quite a while to realize that it was set in the 1960s rather than the present. The magic weaves its way into the story subtly at first, gradually coming to a crescendo.

Jack the Giant Killer by Charles deLint (1987, Adult)

Jacky is stumbling through the streets of Ottawa, reeling from a tough break-up, when she finds that grief and alcohol have blurred the edges of reality so that she can now see its faerie denizens – and the growing conflict between the Seelie and Unseelie courts. This is another Fairy Tales series entry, and my introduction to deLint, as well as a great story in its own right.

Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia Wrede (1989, Adult)

The author of the beloved Enchanted Forest Chronicles doesn’t disappoint in this Elizabethan retelling of the story, featuring a manipulative John Dee. Also part of the Fairy Tale series.

Kate Crackernuts by Katharine Mary Briggs (1963, Middle Grade)

Kate Crackernuts (the original, traditional) is a wonderful story of stepsisters who are loyal to each other even when the stepmother thinks they should be enemies. This lovely retelling moves the whole story to the Scottish Highlands. I got a dusty old copy through interlibrary loan to read it, but it’s now happily available in paperback as well.

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley (1997, Teen)

It’s Beauty and the Beast again, but different – I’ve read both of these retellings multiple times. Beauty feels more down-to-earth, and has more about Beauty’s love of books and her relationship with her horse. Though of course there’s magic in both stories, the magic here feels more fantastical, and there is a lot more about the magic of roses in particular.

Zel by Donna Jo Napoli (1996, Middle Grade)

A mystical, reflective retelling of Rapunzel, told from the points of view of Rapunzel, the witch, and the prince. I fell in love with it in library school.

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (2003, Middle Grade/Teen)

The book that first brought Shannon Hale to my attention, the story of Princess Anidori’s struggle to survive and reinvent herself after she’s betrayed grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go.

East by Edith Pattou (2003, Teen)

“East of the Sun, West of the Moon” set in rural Norway. When Rose discovers that, contrary to what she’s been told, she was born facing north, the direction of adventurers, she is both outraged and excited. Then, an enormous white bear offers to save her sister’s life and her family’s fortune if she will come with him. Strong characters and a strong sense of setting make for a wonderful retelling.

Ash by Malinda Lo (2009, Teen)

A Cinderella that puts the chancy Fair Folk back into the fairy tale, and takes the assumptions that a heterosexual romance is the path to happiness out. It’s all done in the context of an utterly compelling story.

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier (2007, Teen)

A beautiful and terrifying, if not straightforward, “Twelve Dancing Princesses.” This particular fairy tale is one where I tracked down every novel retelling I could find – I’ve picked this one as my favorite for this list, but there were so many other good ones, too!

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu (2011, Middle Grade)

Confession: Hans Christian Andersen is not my favorite. It’s greatly to Ursu’s credit that she turned “The Snow Queen,” a quite disturbing story, into a novel that I really enjoyed. Breadcrumbs has a modern-to-magic setting that works very well, and deals well with deep issues of identity and friendship.

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Thanks for sharing so many great titles, Katy!  Personally, I’m thrilled by a “Jack the Giant Killer” retelling from Charles deLint!  Anyone else see something they want to pick up?

And don’t forget, you can also enter to win a signed copy of my fairy tale-inspired novel, The Wanderers!  See Katy’s lovely review here, and include #WanderersGiveAway in your comment to enter. Contest open until April 30th, and you can comment around my blog and enter as many times as you like!

Enchanted, Movie Edition

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews10 Comments

EnchantedposterI recently reviewed Enchanted by Alethea Kontis, and by complete coincidence, I also just watched the Disney movie Enchanted.  No connection besides the name!  But dare I say it was…enchanting? 🙂 It’s also a great fit for Once Upon a Time!

I’ve seen Enchanted at least twice, but it loses none of its charm on repeated viewings.  The movie is essentially Disney poking a bit of gentle fun at Disney.  Starting with an oh-so-sweet animated sequence about Giselle, her forest friends, and her handsome prince Edward, everything changes when the wicked queen banishes Giselle to “a place where there are no happy endings.”  Giselle finds herself in the middle of Times Square, and in live-action as Amy Adams.  After scrambling through New York a bit, she encounters Robert (Patrick Dempsey), who reluctantly tries to help her at the urging of his six-year-old daughter.  Meanwhile, Prince Edward (James Marsden) comes to New York to find his lost love, accompanied by Giselle’s chipmunk friend Pip, and pursued by Nathaniel (Timothy Spall), who secretly is working for the evil queen (Susan Sarandon).  Chaos, hilarity, romance and a dragon all ensue.

This movie is so much fun on so many levels.  There are fairy tale and Disney references galore, with poisoned apples, a wicked queen resembling Maleficent, and of course a dropped slipper.  Giselle’s forest friends seem to include animals from several other Disney movies, like mice, racoons, rabbits and deer.  The themes are in some ways even better, taking trends from the early Disney movies (like the incredibly rapid romances of, say, Snow White and Cinderella) and stretching them to absurdity.

The characters are really brilliant as well.  I love the way Giselle and Robert start out as complete opposites, and then both influence each other for the better.  Giselle believes unreservedly in true love and romance, and sees beauty and goodness everywhere.  Robert is jaded and cynical, practical to a fault.  Together, Giselle begins to tap into deeper, more meaningful emotions, while Robert finds unexpected romantic depths.

And then of course the supporting cast is hilariously funny.  Edward is beautifully, blissfully oblivious and self-absorbed, and charges about through New York in a wonderful way.  One of my favorite moments may be when he stabs a bus, mistaking it for a monster.  Nathaniel, on the other hand, begins to question the nature of his relationship with the evil queen, and I love it when he calls into a radio show to pour out his problems.  As to the evil queen, Susan Sarandon appears to be having a wonderful time camping it up, fantastically villainous and over-the-top.

There’s really an enormous number of funny bits though.  Pip’s efforts to pantomime messages when he discovers he can’t talk in New York…the ridiculously large skirt on Giselle’s wedding dress…or Giselle’s summoning of New York pigeons, rats and cockroaches to help her clean Robert’s apartment (“oh well, it’s always nice to make new friends!”)  And I love the musical number in Central Park.  It’s a great song, there’s beautiful scenery, and I love Robert’s practical asides in the middle of it all (“wait, they know this song too?”)

All in all, Enchanted combines lots of my favorite things in fairy tales–clever references to spot, lots of humor, characters with complexity, and of course, an acknowledgement of all the wonderful strangeness of the original versions!

Don’t forget, you can win a signed copy of my fairy tale retelling, The Wanderers! Just put #WanderersGiveAway in your comment to enter.