An Elf A Halfbreed and A Dragon Walk Into A Book

One of my favorite things about used book stores is the availability of older books to find that may not be available so readily on the shelves of our favorite big box store.  One of these books I found was The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey.  I remember stealing this book from a friend in highschool and am very happy to have rediscovered it as a bit of a more mature reader. Shall we see what these two favored authors of mine came up with?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

I'm gonna give you fair warning.  This first book in the Halfblood Chronicles...well the whole series in all honesty is a pretty complex book...so if this synopsis is a bit confusing that is probably why.  Also vodka.  Ok let's jump into this shall we.  We start with a human woman by the name of Serina Daeth remembering the events that led to her wandering and pregnant through the desert.  We learn that this world was initially populated by humans who have what the call mind magic, but were dominated and conquered by alien elves who came from another world through some sort of portal.  The Elves are now the dominate force and have enslaved the humans for hundreds of years through the use of breeding, conditioning and their own potent magic.  Serina was a human concubine in one of the high lord's Dyran's household.  She made herself invaluable to the lord and ascended to his favorite.  A jealous fellow concubine switched out the food that contained Serina's birth control, causing her to become pregnant with Dyran's child.  In this world carrying a halfbreed is tantamount to death as the elves are deathly afraid of the combined magic powers that a human/elf combo wields.  With the birth imminent Serina flees and is found by one of the Kin, a dragon who's magic is the ability to shape shift into just about anything.  The Kin, who also come from another world, hide themselves from both humans and elves for fear of conflict.  Serina gives birth to a baby girl and dies.  The dragon Alara, who is also the clans Shaman decides to adopt the baby and raise it.  The baby is named Shana and is raised by Alara and her son Keman.  Alara's daughter Myre is not so enthused about her foster sister.  Alara teaches both Shana and Keman how tho use their own special talents.  After an incident where Shana displays her unique magical talents in defense of her foster brother, the clan freak and force Alara to send her away. Keman takes off after her to try and find and help her. Shana ends up back in the city of her birth confused and afraid. She is put up for action and "bought" by a supposed representitive of Lord Dyran, who actually turns out to be another halfbreed who has come to rescue Shana.  Shana is shocked to discover other halfbreeds like herself in a place called the Citidale, and ancient stronghold left  over from the old wizard (what the elves call halfbreeds) war.  Here Shana continues to develop her powerful magic and discovers some shocking secrets in the historical records kept in the Citidale.    Meanwhile back in the elven city, Lord Dyran's son and heir Valyn conspires to get his halfbreed cousin and friend Mero to safety.  They end up at the Citidale where they join with Shana and Keman, who has finally caught up with his foster sister.  They are persued by an elven army who have discovered that the wizards are still alive and kicking.  Much action and chaos and angst ensue (seriously so many subplots!) and the merry band are eventually aided by a group of Kin who have decided that they can no longer hide.  The Kin and wizards decided that they can no stay hidden forever.  They all gather around Shana as the prophesied Elvenbane and decide to try and take down the reigning elves...but that is a story for the next book.

Worldbuilding - This book is very detailed...sometimes to the point of over explanation.  That being said this book is full of a fully realized world filled with various races, cultures, politics and details. It is a world that is mostly based on a class like fantasy world with just a touch of sci fi thrown in for good measure.   I feel like the world was built in a completely realized manner with all of the various races and their unique specifics explained and fit together in a seamless manner.  We get enough history and current affairs of the world to know exactly what is going on and each piece is thoroughly though out.  A+ on world building.

Story - The book gives us an epic story spanning time and space, individual and groups, small places and world wide stories.  This story is complex, yet interesting.  It combines the individual stories apace with the wider scope that affects everybody.  It is interesting and varied and gives the reader a reason to continue to turn the page.  There were so many threads and subplots that one never got bored with any one storyline, and yet the authors managed to keep the story as a whole completely coherent.

Characters - I absolutely loved the huge variety of characters in this book.  Each of the characters that got page time were unique and multi-faceted.  We get to see people from every race, class and walk of life.  This not only gives us some extra world building cred, but makes me feel like this is a real place with real people.  I love it when a character, especially the main ones have strengths and weaknesses and individual likes and dislikes, it gives a ring of authenticity and makes me root for them.  I also like it when their is more to the "bad guys" then them being flat out bad.  There is just so much to love when it comes to the characters in this book, it makes me so happy!

Editing - Two separate authors worked on this book and (this is a compliment) you can't tell.  The book flows smoothly and there is no sign of a struggle between the two authors.  The only real complaint I would have is that sometimes I felt that the book got over explanatory.  Overall though the editing was an assets to the book and we will see if this continues through out the series.

Two Authors - Speaking of the two authors...I have read and enjoyed both Norton's and Lackey's works (as my rambling list can attest to).  I felt like both authors were very well represented in this book.  I could easily find Norton's signature sci fi/fantasy mix.  The premise that the Kin and the Elves both came from other worlds through either magical or scientific means to shape the world our story is set in is very much in the vein of our lady Norton.  Lackey's in depth characters and complex plot...and overexplenation is also very much evident.  I think the combination of these two ladies of epicness is pretty awesome.

The Prophecy - In the book a re-occuring thread is the vague prophecy of the Elvenbane...which the book is named for.  We learn that the Kin have been spreading the rumor of the prophecy both uchto bolster the humans and to discourage the elves.  When Shana appears and begins to lead the non elves in rebellion it seems the prophecy may actually be true.  The part I like best about this book is the debate about whether Shana is actually the fulfillment of the prophecy or if she is the embodiment of a self fullfilling prophecy or if the only reason people even think of her as the Elvenbane is because of the efforts of the Kin.  This type of thinking and discussion always makes me happy because it gives so much thought to the difference between magic, religion, human thinking, science and practicality.  I don't know, I just like it.

Various Factions - I think the think that held my interest the most in this book was that there was no good vs evil.  Instead we were introduced to three (well four if you count the halfbreeds) very different races.  Within each of these races were groups and individuals with their own agendas.  This leads to so much mass chaos that you totally understand why the real world is so messed up.  It was great to see that just because you were a human or an elf or a dragon that the you did not necessarily think the same as the rest of your race.  This added so many layers and possible combinations of individuals and plans that you felt that almost anything was realistically possible.  This made a fantasy book about humans, dragons and elves into an epic examination of motivation and environment.

Overall Impression - Overall I really enjoyed this book, it was complex and interesting.  I stopped several times to consider various ideas that the book brought up.  For a supposed "fantasy" novel I feel that this book brings up a lot of very in depth and layered things to piece together.  I found it engaging, entertaining, page turning and overall worthy of picking up and finishing the series.  I give it 8 out of 10 beryls and now need to scour the bookstore for the next book in the series.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Hail The Lack Of Shooting, Stabbing And Flame

Hey guess what I got in the mail the other day?!?  My newest Incryptid book  Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire!!!!!  This is one of those series that no matter what I'm currently reading I promptly ditch it in favor of devouring the latest series installment and this book was no exception.  Was it worth interrupting my reading cycle?  Let's find out shall we?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

First off, if you haven't read the first four books this is gonna be confusing as I'm not gonna recap them...so either go read these excellent books or go read my ramblings...go on...ok you all caught up...good.  After a couple of books with Alexander Price we are back with our girl Verity.  While we were away she has married her ex-Covenant boy Dominic in a shot gun Vegas wedding and headed back to the family home in Oregon.  Verity gets a phone call from the producers of a dance show that she was on in her alternate persona of Valerie Pryor.  They are doing a reunion show and want her back.  Surprisingly her family supports her decision to give her ball room dancing shot at normalcy one last go so off she and Dominic go to California.  Verity is reunited with some of her fellow contestants and friends from previous seasons and gets right into the swing of things as Valerie on the dance show Dance or Die which is a very very very thinly disguised homage to the show So You Think You Can Dance (Which on a side note I adore!).  We learn that Brenna is actually a dragon princess and she has a favor to ask Verity.  Brenna's nest of dragon princesses is desperate for a male and wants Verity to help broker a deal with the New York dragons to obtain one.  Verity agrees to help and recruit's a disguised Dominic to help.  More rehearsal, competing and dancing ensue.  The night after the third elimination a very disturbing discovery is made by a couple of Verity's cryptid friends/fellow competitors.  It seems that the eliminated contestants were brutally and ritualistically murdered for some reason.  Verity discovers some very sketchy runes and sends them to her family for some help and they in turn send her, her grandmother Alice Price-Healy...who due to travelling through various dimensions appears to be the same age as her granddaughter Verity.  The rough and tumble Alice, Verity and Dominic along with the various friendly (and not so friendly) cryptids proceed to investigate the murders.  After every elimination, the eliminated pair gets murdered in an ever increasing complicated ritual.  The team discover that the rituals once completed will culminate in s giant snake god/demon/being coming through from another dimension for reasons that are definitely not good.  Most of the rest of the book is a combination of Verity as Valerie attempting to be a normal contestant and Verity with her team trying to save everybody.  We get to the big showdown and find out that Verity as Valerie's partner Ander's is actually the producers son and he along with one of the judges are the the "masterminds" that assembled the snake cult.  The snake comes through the inter dimensional portal after one last brutal murder and blood and chaos ensue.  There is an epic fight...all caught on camera and now Verity is exposed to the Covenant and all the other cryptids who happen to be watching...can't wait for the next book!

World Building - The setting is urban fantasy mostly placed in and around the set of Dance or Die.  The world is built through out the series and continues to build in this installation.  The author does a great job really getting us into the thick of the new setting that we plop our people in.  What I really like about this author is how she gives us plenty of touch stones and frame work through out the series while still managing to give us new and interesting places in each book that are fully realized. The cryptid world is fairly consistent, varied and well thought out.  Love it.

Story - The story was well done.  It combines the ongoing story of the Price family, with the "story of the book" which while being ANOTHER snake cult, was still well done and made sense in the context of this book and the overall series.  We finally got to see Grandma Alice which gave us some glimpses into the overall family story which is at the heart of this series.  Good solid story.

Character - I feel that the characters are the biggest strength in this series and this boo.k does is not any exception.  Verity and Dominic were awesome as always.  I loved Pax and Malena and the weird dichotomy of them being completely "normal" dancing contestants and really weird mythical
creatures.  It is this two sided coin of characterization that makes this book tick.  Alice was just pretty much the awesomest thing ever!  Having her show up and really show us where the Price psychosis comes from was great...also her dedication to her husband is pretty great too.  Yeah pretty much I love every character in the book and how they all have motivation, depth and a sassy sense of humor to boot. The only objection I have is that I want so much more Antimony!  Seriously where is her book?!?

Editing - This series is in the dreaded first person, in this case we see it through Verity's eyes.  For the most part this isn't as bad as a lot of first person but even as awesome as she is...we still get stuck in her head on occasion.  Other then the occasional angst and introspection from Verity, the overall story flows.  The book is consistent with the rest of the series and I didn't need to flip back and forth to figure out where I was in the story.  The pacing was great and the ratio of dancing and the cryptid stuff was pretty spot on.  Good job.

Dance or Die - I can tell that the author loves the show So You Think You Can Dance and this book is seriously a direct homage to the production.  Since I also love the show, this book made me happy happy happy.  I liked how much music and dance that was in the book.  Since I have a theatre background which includes dance, all the nuances and details really made this book pop for me.  Verity realizes that both of her loves, dance and the family business are mutually exclusive.  To be a professional dancer would take up so much of her time that it would be the only real thing she could do.  On the flip side, the family business takes up just as much time and dedication.  It was nice to see her get into her dance and for us to see her love for it.  It was also good to contrast her current position with other dancers who have no other concerns and how that affects her decision.  Anyways this book really appealed to many parts of my own self so YAY!

Aslien Mice - I love the mice!!!!  There quotes, rituals, and record keeping make these little dudes essential to each book.  In this book they get to travel with Verity to California and the little guys make the most of it.  One of the things I most look forward to in these books is finding the best quote for the post title.  They also provide a way to catch us readers up on various Price family history.  There is also the most perfect timing of humor with my rodent friends.

Marriage - I like how marriage is treated in this book.  Getting married to Dominic did not in any way shape or form reduce Verity, her strength or her personality.  Dominic also did not completely lose him self to the dominating Price family either.  We see Grandma Alice spend most of her life
traversing the various dimensions to find her husband who was lost.  Verity's parents are both smart, strong and in love with each other.  It's really nice to see an author who does not discount love and marriage as a giving up, or a diminishing, but rather a vibrant part of life.  I truly believe if you find the right person, marriage turns into an adventuring partenership with some really awesome benefits and this book seems to share my views.

Overall Impression - As with the previous books, I devoured this one in a couple of days.  It kept up the energy, the spunk, the adventure and the humor that I have loved so far.  I am ready for an Antimony book, but I still love any book set in this series.  I recommend it for anybody who needs a great read, strong characters and likes a bit of urban fantasy.  I give this book 8 out of 10 barley there fringed dresses and can't wait for the next book.
Happy Reading Everybody!

Not Quit Haunted House

Alrighty folks, it's gonna be a beast of a week.  Without being held over, or overtime I'm on the ambulance for at least 96 hours this week...so if I miss a few days of posting you know why.  In the meantime, here is the first of my spooky October ramblings to tide you over.  The book is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and I have had my eye on it for quit some time.  It took me a bit to get into it, but it was worth it.  I will try and do my best to get my feelings down...but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD! (seriously if you haven't read the book yet do yourself a favor and read it first 'cause half the coolness of the book is the surprises)

The whole book has a bit of a dreamy feel to it, but I will do my best to get the basic story across.  We start the story with our unnamed narrator (we never learn her first name...or her maiden name) giving us the famous opening line of the book "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again."  This sets the stage for our story.  The narrator takes be to when she first met the older Maxim de Winter when she was no more then a shy poor girl, fresh from school in the 1930's.  She is the paid companion of a loud and brassy American woman who has decided to spend some time in Monte Carlo.  When the lady falls sick, our narrator is left to her own devices and ends up spending time, and falling in love with the quiet and reserved Maxim de Winter.  She finds out that his wife Rebecca died the year before, drowned in a boating accident and that he has left his beloved Manderly to get away from his memories.  He decides to marry her, making her the second Mrs. de Winter and takes her back to Manderly with him.  Once there our narrator spends most of her time just trying to figure out how to fit in to this new high class life.  She is haunted by the memory of Rebecca, constantly comparing herself to dead woman and coming up short.  This is not helped as most of the people in the surrounding area are constantly telling the second Mrs. de Winters how different she is from Rebecca, how Rebecca was beautiful and vibrant and personable and polished and pretty much everything that the narrator feels she is not.  The house itself holds many memories of the late Rebecca, kept alive by the mysterious house keeper Mrs. Danvers who keeps the west wing of the house exactly as it was when Rebecca was alive.  Maxim himself seems to be distant and occasionally angry now that they are back at Manderly and the narrator is concerned that he regrets his impulsive decision to marry her.  This all comes to a dramatic head when at a fancy dress party, Mrs. Danvers convinces the narrator to unknowingly wear the same costume that Rebecca wore to her last party before she died.  Maxim understandably is upset, further convincing the narrator he is not happy with her.  After the party, a boat runs ashore and subsequently a diver finds the boat Rebecca died in...with her body in it.  Maxim admits to his new wife that Rebecca didn't drown in an accident.  Maxim tells her that he shot Rebecca down at the beach after she told him she was pregnant with another mans child.  Maxim reveals that while to the world Rebecca was wonderful, she was actually quit awful and made Maxim miserable.  He shot her, put her body in her boat and sank it.  Instead of being horrified, the narrator is relieved that she no longer has to compare herself to the dead woman.  She is now confident in Maxim's love for her, precisely because she is so very different from his first wife.  The death is ruled a suicide and it seems that the de Winters can live their life in peace.  Unfortunatly, a cousin of Rebecca's declares that Maxim killed her and he has proof in the form of a note from Rebecca asking him to come see her.  He says that she would not have written the note if she planned on killing herself.  Mrs. Danvers is called in and she produces a notebook with all of Rebecca's schedule in it which shows a mysterious doctors appointment.  Maxim and the narrator are sure that when the doctor is interviewed he will tell of the pregnancy, casting doubt on the suicide story.  When the doctor is finally tracked down, it is revealed that Rebecca actually had ovarian cancer, which back in that day was untreatable and motive for suicide.  On their way home the de Winters speculate that it was possible for Rebecca to have goaded Maxim into killing her after hearing her diagnosis...one last bit of revenge before she died.  Maxim gets a call at their hotel informing him that Mrs. Danvers has disappeared after the verdict and is assumed to have moved on to another house.  The narrator has a very bad feeling and encourages Maxim to get back to Manderly.  They arrive just in time to watch it burn down.  The pair then take to the road...taking us back to the beginning of the book.

I initially chose this book because many people who recommended The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson which I adored, said it had a similar feel.  I agree with that assessment to a point.  The book defiantly falls into the atmospheric category, with much of the suspense coming from the environment itself.  Unlike Hill House, which felt mad and haunted, this book felt sad and desperate...in a good way...I'm not making any sense am I?  Ok let's try this again.  I mentioned before that the book was a little hard to get into, and this is really its only salient bad point.  It took me a while to get into the rhythm of the flowey, dreamy language which in my opinion tended to get way to overly descriptive of scenery and such.  Oddly enough once I got into the story just sort of flowed, it was one of those books that even when you put it down for a few minutes, you kept thinking about it, kept wanting to go back to it.  I absolutely LOVE this kind of book, because it feels living and breathing to me.  The author made the choice to never name the main character/narrator, leaving her as only the second Mrs. de Winters if she was named at all.  I think this was brilliant as it gave us even more of a feeling of this poor girls feelings of inadequacy.  In the end I feel that this is what this book is really about.  One girls journey into owning her own life and becoming a woman.  She starts completely powerless and then when given the opportunity to become the mistress of a very important house and family she is constantly made to feel inferior.  Lack of information, communication and encouragement from anybody at all connected with her just keeps her feeling sad and desperate to be happy.  It is not until she finds a way to posses herself and actually force communication to happen does she finally grow up.  The sequence of events in this book, while not necessarily horrifying are definitely suspenseful and surprising.  I will say I did not see most of what happened coming and that made my enjoyment of the book even more complete.  The ending of this book is the kind that I love because it ties right back to the beginning, making it possible to have a real ending without it feeling rushed or contrived.  I call this a loop ending and it is one of my favorite ways to end a book or series.  This book will not be everybodies cup of tea (or coffee), the style of it is very specific and you have to be able to let yourself just kind of get swept into the book to really enjoy it.  While not the spine tingling madness of Hill House, this book did deliver suspense and a few chills and was a great October read.  I give it 8 out of 10 cold lunches and recommend it to anybody who loves an atmospheric book, full of tension and imagery.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Game Of Thrones...So This Is What All The Hype Is About

I have to admit that I had never heard of A Song of Fire and Ice series ,or George R. R. Martin until the TV show (which I have not seen yet) came out.  This is a little bit embarrassing as I am usually a snot about the whole TV/Movie/Book thing.  Normally I am the one in my family who likes the...darker books, but my Mamma (who is not at all into blood and gore) actually got into these books ahead of me and was surprised I hadn't read them yet, so off I went to get and read the first book A Game of Thrones. 

My first reaction to reading this was " I can't believe my Mamma liked all this blood and gore!"  My second reactions was "I can't turn the page fast enough!"  I usually have mixed feelings on epics that feature a billion characters and a zillion story lines, but Mr. Martin has formatted the books exceptionally well.  It almost feels as if you are reading a lot of short stories that all end up coming together without too much thinking.  He has broken up the book into chapters that are focused on a single character in the book, the chapter is named for that character so you know exactly who and where you are in the story with out to much trouble.  For example if you start with a chapter called Arrya, then you know you are in her part of the story.  The world itself is pretty cool and the history is given out through each character so you get the idea the characters actually live there according to what is important to them.  The story is a bloody mess of murder and mayhem.  Essentially the throne was taken from a mad king in recent history and this series chronicles the King that took it and all the people trying to take it for themselves.  It's pretty cool, there are dragons and sword fights, and the author writes in a surprising amount of clothing and jewelry detail considering that he is a guy mostly writing about people getting there heads chopped off and everybody getting laid as much and in every way possible.  I think besides the format one of my favorite things about these books so far is that he keeps you on your toes, main characters get killed off on a regular bases so you learn not to get attached to anybody, I think at least three major characters, including one you don't ever expect get killed before the book is even 2/3 over.  He has no problem killing off children, animal, women and yet amidst all the yuckiness and getting-it-onness a really riveting story is told.  OK so that is my extremely long winded thoughts on the first book in this series.  I am sure I will come back to it later as I progress through the series.  What I really want is to hear some discussion of it in the comments for those of you who have read it, why you love/hate it. Or if you haven't read it why you wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole :-)