Ten Things I Love About... "Stardust"

I know, I know, you shouldn't see the film until you have read the book. But with "Stardust" - written by Neil Gaiman - I had no idea that there was a book until I had already seen the film. Twice. I really liked the film, I was completely sucked into the story so when I found out there was a book, I had to read it even though I was worried that it wouldn't live up to the film. How wrong I was. In my defense, I hadn't read anything by Neil Gaiman at the time so I had no idea that this wasn't just any author but a very very gifted one with a spark and an imagination that very few can match. It is hard to describe this book but it kind of reminds me of Willam Goldman's "The Princess Bride".

Since then I have loved "Stardust" and now I want to tempt you into reading it. So here are ten things I love about "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman:

1) One of the main characters is a fallen star and the reader meets this fallen star at a moment when said star is in a very bad mood and very ready to throw mud at our hero.

2) It manages to be both tough and whimsical at the same time.

3) The names of the characters - Tristran, Dunstan, Yvaine...

4) This quote from page 123: "As they travelled, the star cursed the day she had fallen to this wet, unfriendly world. It had seemed so gentle and welcoming when seen from high in the sky."

5) And this quote from page 167: "It has occasionally been remarked upon that it is as easy to overlook something large and obvious as it is to overlook something small and niggling, and that the large things one overlooks can often cause problems."

6) It features the word "gradiloquently" on page 37.

7) And on page 183 it features the words: "lackwit", "clodpoll" and "dunderhead".

8) Two goats are having to act human in one of the chapters. Not an easy task.

9) The villains are really evil. Not kind of nasty or had-a-bad-childhood-unpleasant. Evil.

10) This quote from page 135: "They sat side by side on a thick, white cumulus cloud the size of a small town."

Review: "The Folk Keeper"

Sometimes a book that is not written for us, as in not written for our age group, gender etc. etc., can be just the right book for us. I came across one such book just the other day: the children's book "The Folk Keeper" by Franny Billingsley. This is a fantasy/fairy tale/adventure children's book, a short but sweet and touching tale of Corinna who keeps her gender a secret as she works as a folk keeper in the orphanage where she lives. A folk keeper as in indispensable part of a large household as he is the one who keeps the folk, a mythic people living in the ground who will spoil the harvest and kill the animals if they are not kept happy and content. It is a dangerous job but one that Corinna values - it is her identity. So when she is offered a different life as a folk keeper in a larger household, an estate, she goes there to seek her fortune. What she doesn't know is that she will find more than her fortune, she will find her destiny.

This one is an easy one to review because it is a really sweet children's book. It had me captivated even though I should probably have read it when I was ten or twelve, not 26, and it captured my imagination and took me on a trip to Corinna's world. A really good book for teenagers with great imaginations and a love of fantasy.

Read it if: You had a dungeons and dragons phase in your teen years or if you just enjoy good fantasy fairytales.

Review: "Passion"

So now the time has come to review "Passion", the third book in the series about the eternal love of Daniel and Luce which is written by Lauren Kate (btw. such a cool name for an author!). The first books "Fallen" and "Torment" had something. I loved the black school uniform in book one and the graveyard and the firsts meetings between Cam and Luce. "Torment" was good as well, it had something. The last scenes were powerful and that leads me nicely to "Passion" which starts where "Torment" began. However, the plot of this one is quite different and if you are a huge Lauren Kate fan, then please forgive me for this review. I am going to be honest (because otherwise what's the point?) and it is not really going to be nice...

The plot is ridiculous. At best. The idea is actually good but the actual story is not only unimpressive, it is downright awful. In order to understand the eternal love of Daniel and Luce and the curse that means that Luce dies whenever their love becomes to passionate, Luce travels through time. Literally. She uses the announcers to travel through her past lives and observe or even take part in her past lives and what lives, she has led... And boy has she led some interesting lives. She seems to have been in all the right places on the right times, at least in a historical context. Thinking about this in a reasonable way, one would assume that she had had maybe one exciting life and a lot of normal lives outside of the main historical events. Not so Luce. She was lady of the manor in Victorian England, a friend of Shakespeare and the reason for the fire of the Globe Theater, a slave at the court of Pharaoh, a Chinese king's fiancee, a Princess of Savoy at the court of the Sun King... She has experienced quite a bit! And I can see why otherwise this plot may have become boring quite fast because Kate doesn't take the time to really explore any of these lives, instead she seems to try to fit as many past lives into one book as possible. And feature the devil as well plus a strange dialogue featuring God... Have to say I don't like it. At all.

If you loved "Fallen" and "Torment" please don't get your expectations up... If you loved films such as "Shakespeare in Love", "Mulan" and "The English Patient" then you might like it because the author seems to have borrowed a bit from these and other movies. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, except that she has not done it in a very elegant way and that rather annoys me. Honestly, this book seemed to me as if it had been written in a hurry and that's really too bad. I hope that the next book, "Rapture", will be better because even though I was less than impressed with "Passion", I still have to find out what happens to Luce and Daniel.

Review: "Changeless"

I was really entertained by my first steampunk read "Soulless" by Gail Carriger and so I looked forward to biting into the sequel "Changeless". Alexia Tarrabotti is now Lady Maccon after having married Lord Maccon, the formidable werewolf with a temper that is matched only by his wife's... Their marriage is a happy one and Alexia is loving the life as lady of the manor. However, suddenly her husband goes missing and a strange phenomenon is causing supernaturals to lose their abilities and turn into normal people. Something has to be done and Lord Maccon (forgetting to tell his wife... bad idea) goes to Scotland to his old pack as he feels certain that they are somehow involved.

Of course Lady Maccon does not want to be left at home in London, so she instantly books a dirigible float to Scotland. However, before she has time to throw a tantrum a veritable court of people have decided to go with her and Alexia has enough to do with keeping Ivy from falling in love, keeping her sister from teasing Ivy and keeping an eye on a suspicious French inventor who wears gentleman's attire... The scene is set for an adventure and a mystery!

However, here something goes wrong. Somehow Carriger doesn't manage to do anything with all this build-up energy and the ending was really disappointing for me... Unfortunately because I loved the first half of the book but then it just all seemed to come apart and the excitement just petered out. Too bad, it was so promising. Not sure I will read the third installment in the series "Blameless". Have any of you read it? Can you recommend it?

Review: "Soulless" - Steampunk with soul

Steampunk. What a cool word! Even before I knew what it meant, I knew that I loved the word. It sounds so full of energy, dynamic, cool, rock'n'roll. So of course I had to give the genre a go. Now for those of you (who like me a short while ago) do not know what steampunk is, I found this definition on Wikipedia:
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s.[1] Specifically, steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy.

My first attempt at the steampunk genre is "Soulless" by Gail Carrigan, the first book in a series about Alexia Tarrabotti, a parasol-loving old maid with tan skin and a slightly large nose. Alexia is a preternatural which means that she has no soul and therefore has a neutralizing effect on supernaturals such as vampires and werewolves. Now in this story, Victorian England is a country where vampires, werewolves and humans live side by side in an atmosphere of some tension and reluctant acceptance on both sides. Alexia is a spinster - she has turned 26 years without managing to catch a husband, something that she herself doesn't regard as a problem but which means that she is treated as a burden by her mother, stepfather and two stepsisters, all of whom seem to be exceedingly silly. Alexia is a practical girl with a lively temper and a thirst for knowledge. She has a mind of her own and when a vampire tries to feed on her, she kills him with her umbrella. Investigations into this episode is done by Lord Maccon, a very manly werewolf with whom Alexia is constantly fighting - and as you know love and hate does not lie far apart... So as werewolves and vampires begin to disappear mysteriously, Alexia and Lord Maccon's relationship begins to sizzle.
I have to say that this was an entertaining read. Alexia is a great heroine with lots of personality - she seems to be a sort of mix of Sookie Stackhouse and your average Georgette Heyer heroine which I have to say is a really interesting mix! Stubborn, courageous, headstrong, prickly, cake-lover who is not easily scared by society ladies' opinions or hives of vampires.
So if you like a bit of romance mixed with some paranormal creatures and lots of drama, this should be a book for you.

For other reviews of this delicious debut novel, please visit:
Pensieri Persi: http://greenyellowale.blogspot.com/2011/04/review-soulless-by-gail-carriger.html

Wondrous Reads: http://www.wondrousreads.com/2011/03/review-soulless-by-gail-carriger.html

Reading in a Single Sitting: http://www.readinasinglesitting.com/2010/05/27/review-soulless-by-gail-carriger/

Review: "Novice" - This sure ain't Hogwarts

Some days ago I reviewed "Magician's Guild" by Trudi Canavan and now the time has come to review "Novice", the sequel to "Magician's Guild". "Novice" begins more or less where Book One of The Black Magician Trilogy left off.
Sonea, a slum girl with great magic powers, has consented to stay at the University for magicians to explore her potential. However, the other students at the University all come from rich and powerful families - the Houses - and Sonea is the odd one out. Having grown up in the slum dwellings among thieves and beggars, she now has to do her best to fit in and leave her past behind her. The other students do not willingly accept her and one of them, the charismatic Regin is determined to make Sonea's life a nightmare.
This is not Sonea's only worry though - Imardin, the capital of Kyralia, where she lives, is a dark city full of power struggles. In the streets of the city people are dying - being murdered - but the police cannot find the murderer or find a motive. At the University, the High Lord Akkarin, the most powerful magician in Kyralia, is hiding a dark secret and to make sure that this secret stays safe, he takes Sonea as hostage in a chilling intrigue for power.
The book also follows Sonea's friend, the magician Dannyl, who travels to the coutry Elyne as an ambassador but who is unknowingly on the hunt for information about the High Lord's past. It is a dangerous game and Sonea's friends are all involved, playing for high stakes.

As one of you wrote in the commentary to my review of "Magician's Guild", "Novice" is better! It is a really great book that had me completely enchanted. The story is dark and full of dangers but there is also room for some well-placed romance and humour. As a reader I came closer and closer to the magicians and to the world of the magical University. Believe me, this place is no Hogwarts. The teachers and students are not particularly friendly to Sonea - with a few exceptions - and most of them are envious of her power. Regin, Sonea's class mate is not only a bully. He is a mean, vicious bully who is not afraid to use violence against his victim and Sonea has to literally fight for peace.
Sonea works great as a main character. She is cool, determined girl who deals with her worries and troubles. Due to things in her past, she finds it hard to trust and make friends but she is easy for the reader to warm to.

I really enjoyed this book. The magic is much darker and more grown-up than in many of the other fantasy books out there on the market. This is far from paranormal romance and all about the way power corrupts the human soul.

Review: "Magician's Guild" - Talent and training

Have you read David Eddings? Or Tamora Pierce? Then this review will probably interest you.
"Magician's Guild" is the first book in a trilogy about the girl Sonea who has an impressive magical talent. It is one of those books that I have come across again and again and again until I finally thought "oh well, let's give it a chance". I am happy to report that it was worth it.

Sonea is one of the many people living in poverty in Imardin, the capital of Kyralia. She lives in the slum and is on her way to meet her uncle and aunt when she gets involved in a street riot between a gang of youths who used to be her friends and powerful magicians whose job it is to clean the streets of beggars and criminals. In anger and frustration Sonea throws a stone at the magicians and thereby release a powerful magic nestling in her mind. Not wanting a rogue magician loose in the streets of Imardin, the magician's guild starts a search for Sonea using everything from wandering the streets, knocking on doors and using magic. However, Sonea has good friends in the underworld of Imardin and now they do their very best to protect her from the magicians who are known for their haughty, arrogant attitude to the poor. Sonea and her close friend Cery team up with the Thieves, the organised criminals in control of the Imardin black market, who are very eager to protect Sonea in return for her magical abilities.
It will take more than a pack of skilled criminals, however, to tame the magic that has been released in Sonea and as time passes, she finds it more and more difficult to control her magical power.

I have to say that I found the first part of this book rather long-winded. The hide and seek element between the magicians and Sonea was not my main interest. However, I found that the book picked up pace when Sonea and the magicians finally make contact. The things begin happening and the book became unputdownable. The last 50-60 pages flew by. I loved the ending. It was so good. Luckily for me I already have the sequel - "Novice" - at home and ready to be read as soon as I have time. Looking forward to diving back into Sonea's magical universe.

Review: "Under the Skin" - it does actually get under your skin...

I read "The Crimson Petal and the White" by Michel Faber a couple of years ago and immediately loved it. Since then it has been one of those books that I use when I need a good present for someone because it really is an amazing book.
So a couple of days ago I read "Under the Skin" by Michel Faber, hoping for the same kind of amazing reading experience. I got a reading experience but not quite the one I had bargained for... It actually left me with physical reactions.

Isserley spends her days driving through Scotland, forth and back on the A9. She knows all the good place, she knows exactly where the good spots are. Where she will find the good hitchhikers. Isserley won't pick up any random hitchhiker, she only wants men and she only wants men with large muscles, men that have broad shoulders and big biceps. The scrawny ones she leaves behind. Then she cross-examines them: do you have a wife, girlfriend? Are you expected somewhere? Does anyone know where you are? Are you employed? As she questions them, she decides their fates. All I can say is that for the hitchhikers' sakes, I hope that they are found lacking because this will be the last drive of their life.

What happens with the hitchhikers? Where does Isserley take them? And what is it actually with Isserley? Why is she so different?

This novel was nothing like I expected. Nothing. Once I began reading it, it was impossible to put down. Even though it was not exactly a pleasant read. For every page I got more and more nauseous and even just writing this review, my stomach has started to turn. This was a nasty book that raised a lot of questions in my mind about the way we live, about how we treat each other, about what the world is coming to. It is a very very creepy book. If you like dystopia, fantasy, thrillers, mystery, great quality writing from a very accomplished author, then this is something for you.
Will I read it again? I seriously doubt it... At least right now, I can't stomach it.

Review: "Catching Fire" - Reading as if the book was on fire!

So after reading "The Hunger Games" I was impatiently waiting for "Catching Fire", the sequel which promised many more hours spent deep in reading about the country of Panem and the courageous Katniss. When it finally arrived in my mailbox, I saved it and took it with me when traveling to my parents' place for Christmas. And ended up spending most of the night between the 23rd and the 24th of December reading in bed because this book was unputdownable (if that is a word).

IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE HUNGER GAMES AND CATCHING FIRE, PLEASE STOP HERE AS THE REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS!
Just wanted to warn you :-)

Katniss is back home in District 12, now living with her mum and sister Prim, Haymitch and Peeta in the Victor's Village. Finally they have some stability, enough to eat and a safe place to live. But Katniss and Peeta have to keep up the pretence of being star-crossed lovers as they go on a Victory Tour to the other districts. However, since leaving the Hunger Games the relationship between Katniss and Peeta have been akward and cold and the act is by no means easy to keep up. However, President Snow soon makes it clear to Katniss that the act is crucial to her and Peeta's survival. So Katniss has to do the best she can - and as this is not good enough, she soon faces another round in the Hunger Games arena, taking Peeta with her.

This is a great book. Not as great as "The Hunger Games" but a great sequel. I loved the plot that kept twisting and turning and the growing love triangle featuring Peeta, Katniss and Gale. It was a really strong book for me, mostly because of Katniss. She is so cool. Full of flaws but full of virtues as well. Cold, pragmatic, calculating, no-nonsense - loving, caring, rebellious, thoughtful, clever. She is a really facetted characters, better than most of the other ones out there in fantasy-world.

Want to read what others think?
In Bed With Books: http://www.inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com/2009/09/review-catching-fire.html
Bart's Bookshelf: http://www.bartsbookshelf.co.uk/2009/09/12/review-catching-fire-by-suzanne-collins/
My Friend Amy: http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/2009/08/review-catching-fire-by-suzanne-collins.html

Review: "Torment" - Yes Indeed...

This weekend I had a little something waiting for me: "Torment" by Lauren Kate, the sequel to "Fallen" which I quite liked. My experience is that often the sequel is better than the first - at least that's how I felt about Twilight and Hush Hush. So after reading "Fallen" I was of course really interested in getting my hands on "Torment" and so I devoted most of my Saturday to enjoying this one. So what did I find when I was done reading "Torment"?

Well actually, I found that the title was very appropriate, it was tormenting. And not really in a good way either. Let me explain. "Torment" begins where "Fallen" left off. Daniel is escorting Luce - the love of his eternal life - to a new and safer boarding school in California. And just as grim, grey and forbidding as her former school was, just as free, luxurious and posh is the new one. Here Luce is put in a class for specially advantaged kids - a phrase used to camouflage that the kids in this class all have some angel running in their blood.
Luce is fighting to adapt and to make friends with her less than friendly roommate, she is fighting to keep up in class and she is parted from Daniel. With this parting comes the opportunities to get a lot of new information about her boyfriend and also about her former lives. Wanting to know more about herself and get to know about the things that Daniel remembers and she doesn't, Luce persuades her friends to help her tackle the shadows that hold the keys to her past. This quest leads her into not so few life-threathening situations and it leads to some so relationship-threathening knowledge.

All this is quite good but something was missing. I not sure exactly what it is but there seemed to be a lack of storyline going through the book. I wanted more glimpses into the past and less boarding school. It took away from the love story - which was further diluted by the lack of Daniel in the book. And then there was the ending which was a bit of a mess really. Too much, too fast, too confusing. Too many characters and loose ends.
So all in all not a favourite with me - tormenting having to read it and not being swept away and tormenting having to wait for "Passion" (third in the series) and not knowing if the mess left behind in "Torment" will be untangled.

Review: "The Hunger Games" - I'm hungry for more!

After seeing so many people out there in the blogosphere raving about the Mockingjay series I thought I would give it a chance but to be honest I did not expect much. I kind of expected something rather interesting where I would read the first book in the series - "The Hunger Games" - and then decide that this was nothing for me. How wrong I was. Once I began reading this book there was no putting it down again. I read everywhere until I had turned the last page - and when I say everywhere I mean everywhere. On the bus, at the gym, while walking to the gym, even while cooking (and that cannot be recommended unless you are a trained read-while-you-do'er).

So for those of you who haven't yet been convinced to read this yet, what is this all about? "The Hunger Games" is the story of the teenager Katniss who grows up in North America sometime in the future. The world has changed drastically and American has been renamed Panem and is divided into twelve districts, of which Katniss lives in the poorest district where most people work in the coal mines. Katniss has had to take responsibility for her mother and her sisters and is the main breadwinner of the family. She is fiercely protective of her family and when her sisters is called on to take part the hunger games, Katniss volunteers to take her place, thinking that this is sure to be a death sentence. Because the hunger games is not just any old games - it is a reality tv-show where 24 teenagers are forced to fight until only one is still alive and is crowned the winner. Katniss' chances do not look good but she would die for her sister and alongside another teenager from her district, she goes to the capitol to fight for her life.

Normally I am not one for these futuristic/dystopian tales - the only other one I have ever liked is "The Handmaid's Tale" but not liking this book was not an option for me. This is YA at its best. It is well-written and the universe that Katniss exists in is well-constructed and believable. It is logical in the way that it is build up and nothing sticks out as seeming wrong. It is no pleasant universe though. The rules and rulers are evil and inhuman and it takes a lot of courage and cleverness to survive.
Even more courage and cleverness is needed to survive the hunger games and I really enjoyed reading about the way Katniss handled herself. Trying to survive while sticking to her ideals and principles. As a main character I loved Katniss. She has lots of flaws and she is not aware of all of them herself but she is a cool chick with a lot of backbone and a lot of personality. She lets no one mess with her but at the same time she is vulnerable and doesn't always find it easy to understand other people. I loved her instantly.

My only complaint is that I did not buy the next two books in the series when I bought the first one - but I only have myself to blame for that :-)

So here is a question for those of you who have read "The Hunger Games", what did you love most about the book? For me the best part was Katniss, I can't wait to read more about her.