Cinderella's Little Finger

Feeling like a bit of a fairy tale this week so I read Phoenix and Ashes a book in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series.  This book, like the others in this series is a take on a classic fairy tale, in this case Cinderella, combined with the ongoing thread of the Elemental Masters.  This entry was a solid read that did the job for more, read on as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Eleanor Robinson is the only daughter of a factory owner who has been sent to the front during WWI.  Before heading out to war, he brought his daughter a new step-mother in the form of Allison and her daughters Lauralee and Carolyn.  Allison is a very upscale sort of woman and she instantly begins to marginalize Eleanor in favor of her daughters and starts to get the village to do the same thing.  News comes from the front of Eleanor's fathers death.  After learning of this, Allison attacks Eleanor, cutting off her little finger and uses it to bind Eleanor to herself and to the house revealing her to be an Earth Master, albeit one who practices Dark Magic.  The effect of this is that Eleanor must now do whatever Allison requires and can no longer leave her own house.  After a couple years of this Eleanor learns how to "bend" the boundaries of Allison's spells and start to venture out of the house and create a little bit of better conditions for herself.  One day a woman by the name of Sarah, the village midwife who also has a bit of small magic.  Sarah let's Eleanor know that her mother was a Fire Master and it appears that she has inherited the same talent.  Sarah begins to teach her what she can and Eleanor continues to learn on her own, not just about her own Fire element, but about the other three elements as well.  Meanwhile we get glimpses of the absolute horror of the war, including the direct effects it is having on the various populace.  We see the people deal with rationing and trying to run their businesses without any men between 16-50.  We see men coming back from the war wounded and mentally destroyed.  We watch as women and young men take up where the other's left off to try and create some sort of life for themselves.  One of these young men to come home with wounds both physical and mental is Reggie Fenyx, a pilot who is also an Air Master.  He comes home to recover and remembers Eleanor from before the war.  He finds her easy to talk to and quit intelligent.  They meet when they can, but both of them have other obligations.  Allison and her daughters continue with their plans.  We discover that the reason they did not kill Eleanor outright was that she is still the only person on her father's will and if she dies all of his assets go to a random cousin.  Allison devises a plan to make Eleanor go mad so that she can claim guardianship over her and of course all her assets.  Allison also uses her dark Earth powers to try and ensnare Reggie for one of her daughters so that she can continue to climb the social ladder.  Allison also uses her Earth power to unleash sickness and misery to obtain more power for herself.  Everything comes to a head at a ball held at the manor of Reggie and his mother.  Allison and the girls go to try and snag Reggie.  Eleanor, who has finally come into her power goes to obtain the aid of Reggie's god-mother who is a powerful Air Master to assist in her breaking Allison's hold on her.  And Reggie invite's Eleanor 'cause she is about the only person he can actually stand.  Reggie decides he doesn't care about class and rank and asks Eleanor if she would consider marrying him.  Before she can answer, the curse reasserts itself and she can barely manage to choke out that she loves him before she must go home.  She leaves behind a glove with a missing finger.  Reggie goes to find Eleanor, finally figuring out that Allison and her girls are up to no good.  Allison and company do everything in their power to make Eleanor and Reggie go mad so that she can continue with her nefarious plans.  She is eventually defeated after she sucks the life force from everybody, including her daughters.  She loses control of her giant earth elemental who turns on her.  Eleanor finally gets to go to Oxford like she always dreamed and she and Reggie continue to grow in their powers.

World Building - The world is set in an alternative history version of England during WWI.  The world if very very very (sometimes overly) detailed with every bit of everything spelled out for us.  There is a fantasy element with the Elemental Masters and other magics appearing as a normal thing.  The author details every bit of the world, giving us everything from the setting to the machinations of the various things going on.  It actually has the feeling of being over stuffed with description sometimes...so yeah.

Story - The story had it's basis in the fairy tale of Cinderella, but the execution of it was wholly original.  This is a great example of how to take a well known and loved tale and turn it into something completely new and yet familiar enough to know what the source material was.  There were several layers to this book and the stories were both very personal and world sized.  I love it when an author can tell a story that encompasses both views giving us perspective from all sides. My only real complaint about the story is that like the world building, it felt over done.  I love multiple stories, but the author took it to an extreme degree, to the point I just wanted to get back to the story lines I cared about.

Character - This book did a pretty good job with various characters.  For the most part the characters were well developed and did not fall too much into standard tropes, which considering this is a fairy tale retelling is a pretty mean feat.  I especially loved Allison and her girls 'cause let's face it, a well fleshed out bad guy is pretty awesome.  I also liked how the author would use pairs of characters to contrast the strengths, weaknesses and uniqueness of every individual.  Overall pretty good characters.

Editing - I always feel like this author could use somebody who maybe put's a hand on her shoulder and points out that maybe we don't need to describe every single engine configuration of every single plane flown at any point during the war.  The author does this with every aspect of the book, from cooking and cleaning, to flying, to fighting, to the work of the Elemental Masters, to the social hierarchy, to every major and minor action in this book.  I like it when there is a realistic amount of detail that describes the world and I really like when the focus of the book is well thought out, but there is a limit and I think an author needs to focus on what is the interest and focal point of the book.  Other then the overkill of detail, the book was very easy to follow and very readable.  It just needed to be about 150 pages shorter (the book clocked in at a whopping 468 pages).

Cinderella - I thought that the author did a great job incorporating the familiar story of the serving girl turned princess without essentially just telling us the same story.   I especially liked the bit's that hearkened back to the original (and a wee bit gory) story.  For instance instead of a tiny glass slipper, our "Cinderella" had a glove with only three fingers.  To try and trick Reggie into believing it was her instead of Eleanor, Lauralee actually cut off her pinky to "fit" the glove!  This is a direct nod to the step-sisters mutilating their feet to fit into the slipper in the original.  I also enjoyed the fact that both Eleanor and Reggie had "fairy god-mothers"  it added a nice not to the original and a balance to things.   This is how I love my retellings, with direct nod's to the originals, but with new and inventive ideas.

Elements - In this book we got to focus on the dichotomy of the Elements.  We got to see Allison,  an Elemental Master, use her power for evil and we got to see how and why she did it.  The author brought back Maya, and Earth Master from the first book with her healing Earth Magic and we saw how intent and usage can change an Element from one type to it's opposite. I also enjoyed the alternative versions of how certain things may have come about.  For instance, the Spanish Flu, which just added more chaos and death to the already decimated Europe, got a bit of a supernatural treatment when Allison used it to put a dent in the forces to prolong the war for her own purposes.  We got to learn about all of the Elements, their Dark and Light uses, and how they can help or hinder each other thanks to Eleanor and her unique learning process.  I really liked how she purposely learned about all four elements, not just her own Fire element.  This helped her in the long run AND gave us the reader a more well rounded view of the Elements.

Preachy Preachy - So...this book get's really preachy on occasion.  One of the main events is WWI.  I think we can all agree that in general war is bad.  I think we can also agree that WWI had it's won special brand of awfulness.  The tactics that were employed during this war essentially turned soldiers into fodder in an attempt to stop the other guys by any means possible.  The men who came back from this war...if they came back...were broken physically, mentally and emotionally.  We are still dealing with this issues today.  Ok so in one paragraph I have made my views on war and especially WWI fairly clear right?  In this book we essentially get a repeat of this same thing in EVERY CHAPTER!  There are 30 chapters, so that's at least 30 times that the author felt that she had to tell us war is bad, 30 times that she didn't trust the reader to read and understand her the first times she told us.  I understand that this may be a very personal issue for her, and that is understandable, but as a reader I start skipping these parts, not because I disagree, I just already heard what she had to say and want to get back to the story.

Overall Impression - I have mixed feelings about this book.  I felt that it was overly long, overly descriptive and overly preachy.  That being said the story was fresh and original (well as original as a retelling gets), the characters well developed and varied, and the Elemental...well elements were fascinating.  I guess I liked it well enough and would recommend it to anybody who likes this series, fantasy or alternate reality and doesn't mind a couple of extra pages.  I give it 7 out of 10 tarots.  Happy Reading Everybody!

How To Become A Fairy Godmother

Hello All!  I hope everybody had a great weekend, mine was busy and fantastic and long and wonderful and just what I needed before the crazy crazy crazy week that starts today.  To start of the week/month of busy as all get out, I thought I would do a bit of a rambling on a book that combines all the comfort of a traditional fairy tale (or ten or twelve) with the freshness of a new idea.  The book is The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey, the first book in the Five Hundred Kingdoms series.  I picked it up a while ago 'cause I liked the idea of a world where people were forced to live the life of a fairy tale character.  I really enjoyed it for several reasons, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Elena is feeling a bit frustrated, she has lived with her stepmother and two stepsisters in pretty horrible conditions.  She is forced to cook and clean while they spend all the money her father had made before his death, and continued to spend into deep debt.  Now the family is fleeing to a new town, leaving Elena on her own.  Does this sound vaguely familiar to you?  Sounds like the start of Cinderella right :-)  Anyways Elena decides she is going to hire out as a maid, but instead gets apprenticed to Madame Bella, the fairy godmother to several of the Five Hundred Kingdoms.  Elena learns that in the Five Hundred Kingdoms a force called the Tradition tries to force people and events to follow certain patterns that we know as fairy tales.  Some of the tales are great, like Cinderella, other's can have awful deadly consequences like Rapunzel, where at best a guy ends up with his eyes gouged out and at worst, several men die before she finds her true love.  In Elena's case, due to her circumstances, she was being pushed into the Cinderella role, but the fact that there were no Princes in her age range in her, or the surrounding kingdoms, thwarted the pattern.  Instead Elena learns that Fairy Godmothers can use their magic to try and alter or influence the Tradition to produce a more favorable, or at least less deadly out come.  Elena learns enough to take over as Fairy Godmother and we see her work her magic in several cases.  Eventually she sets the tasks for three brother's to determine their suitability to marry a princess and actually be able to rule a country with kindness and competency.  The youngest brother passes and is sent on his way.  The oldest brother is turned into a servant until he learns humility and the middle brother is so cocky that Elena turns him into a mule and brings him home with her.  Eventually he learns his lesson, while falling in love with Elena.  Elena returns his affections and once again breaks tradition by marrying him, providing her own happy ending.  The two, with some help of friends, assist his youngest brother and his new bride in repelling an invasion and everybody finds some sort of ever after until the next book.

I very much enjoyed this book for many many reasons.  The best part was the whole concept.  It is a well thought out concept that kind of gives a reason why so many stories follow a predictable pattern.  My favorite part of the whole book was watching Elena use her own wits and cleverness to come up with viable ways to thwart the powerful Tradition.  This is the type of stuff I love reading about, taking a rule, or law, or tradition and finding the loopholes to re purpose it to ones own end.  I loved how the Tradition was not to be defeated, but to be worked with.  The flow of the book was a bit different then I am used to in stories like this, it was less of a beginning middle and end, all though it had all three, but it was more of an explanation, or an almost manual of how Elena does her job.  Ok that makes it sound boring, which it is not at all, it's just less about Elena (even though she has her own compelling story) and more about the Kingdom's and what Elena does to help them.  It is different in a good way and the angst is kept to a minimum.  It is fun to see all the variations of fairy tales that the author managed to put in without overcrowding the plot.  I also liked how Elena did not feel the need to make every Tradition about romantic love, often times going for the more practical friendship or allies.  A lot of some of the stupid stuff was also addressed in the book, at one point Elena tells the kind brother that while sharing your food with an old woman is all well and good, make sure he saves some for himself, because he can't help anybody if he starves to death.  The author makes her heroine practical, human and smart and I loved reading this book and can't wait to get the next one!  I recommend it to anybody who likes fairy tales or smart capable characters.  I give this book 8 out of 10 flying donkey's.

How would you change a fairy tale?  How refreshing is it to see characters who have some logic behind their actions?  How coherent do you think I'm gonna be by the end of the week?

Moon Wolf

Hello all, sorry about the weird posting schedule lately, but life has been a bit on the crazy side...and it will probably continue to be crazy.  I will still do a daily post, but no guarantee on what time the post will go up.  That being said, all the craziness has actually given me some extra odd moments to read so my TBR pile is finally dwindling.  One of the books on that list was the second book in the Lunar Chronicles.  The book is Scarlet by Marissa Meyer and it continues the story of Cinder, our cyborg lost Lunar princess and introduces us to Scarlet, a young farmer who turns out to have an interesting connection to Cinder.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Scarlet is frustrated, her Grandmere has been missing from their small town outside of Paris, France for several weeks and nobody seems to be taking it seriously.  She is doing her best to keep the farm that she runs with her Grandmere running in her absence while also pursuing leads to what may have happened to her.  On one of her deliveries she meets Wolf, a tortured and conflicted fighter.  He tells Scarlet that he wants out and wonders if she has a job for him on her farm, which she does not.  She heads home to find her estranged father tearing the house apart, looking for something.  When Scarlet confronts him, he claims that he had been captured along with Scarlet's Grandmere and had been tortured to try and get her to reveal something. He also reveals that the captors had a numbered tattoo.  Meanwhile back in New Beijing, Cinder has recruited a rouge American captain/cadet/fellow prisoner named Carswell Thorne to help her escape.  Using her new hand and foot implements that were smuggled to her in her cell, she and her new friend make good their escape.  This of course causes the current Lunar Queen Levana to freak.  She blames the Emperor Kai and tells him if they do not recapture Cinder then there will be war.  Cinder continues to learn to use her new found Lunar power of manipulating bio-electricity to get her and Thorne away.  Back in

France, Scarlet has found Wolf, and noted his tattoo, linking it with her Grandmere's captors.  She receives news that her father had died under mysterious circumstances and is more determined then ever to find her Grandmere.  Wolf decides to go with her and much running and hiding occur.  Wolf tells her that he is part of a pack, that he and his brother were taken at a very young age and trained and molded into these wolf like creatures.  Wolf himself is an alpha or top dog in his pack, while his brother Ran is a lowly Omega.  They run into Ran in the forest and a pretty brutal fight occurs, with Wolf coming out the winner.  He and Scarlet have a moment or five and then he reveals to Scarlet where her Grandmere is.  He begs her not to go on the rescue mission, stating it is too dangerous.  Scarlet is determined and Wolf agrees to go with her.  When they arrive at a bombed out museum/theatre and then the big reveal...Wolf turns out to be a Lunar and has lured Scarlet to the lair on purpose to try and get more information.  Scarlet is understandably hurt, angry and betrayed and now a prisoner.  Back with our cyborg Cinderella, she is trying to get some answers about her past, she stumbles upon some information about Michelle Benoit, who just happens to be Scarlets Grandmere.  They make there way to the farm, which at this point is empty and find a secret chamber.  Cinder then has flashbacks as she looks at all the equipment which kept her alive from the age of 3 to 11, this is why she has no memories of that time.  She was in an induced coma for 8 years while they repaired her burned and broken body.  Scarlet is questioned and imprisoned, while Wolf is praised for his deception and cunning in getting Scarlet to the lair.  Queen Levana decides to use her wolf packs (which we learn are Lunars taken at a young age and mutated into wolf like creatures that are ferocious and bound to a single leader)  that she has positioned all over the world to start a devastating attack on the humans and Wolf is given the honor of leading the Paris attack.  He is feeling remorse and a romantic attachment to Scarlet and slips her a key chip to help her escape.  She finds her Grandmere, who is in pretty bad shape and is with her when she dies.  Scarlet escapes and is saved from an attack by Wolf, who ends up killing his brother Ran.  Chaos ensues and Scarlet and Wolf end up with Cinder and Thorne in their ship and make good their escape just in time to watch Emperor Kai pledge to marry Queen Levana if she promises to stop the attacks on humans.  She agrees and Cinder realizes that she has to quit running and make a stand.  Thus ends book 2.

I am gonna put this out there right now and say I did not like this book near as much as I liked Cinder, the first book in this series.  The first book did a great job putting in every element from the traditional Cinderella story into a futuristic tale that mostly made sense (I am still confused over a lot of the Lunar stuff).  This book was a lot more jumbled with the story of Little Red Riding Hood (kind of) combined with the continuing story of Cinder.  I really enjoyed the parts of the book that dealt with Cinder and also liked the addition of Thorne who added some comic relief.  I was not as into Scarlet and her story, it felt a bit forced, like the author wanted to get another fairy tale into the series at the expense of the story.  Most of the whole Michelle Beniot helping rescue Cinder story could have been done with out Scarlet and Wolf, and Scarlet was a character I wanted to shake on a regular basis. Until the whole backstory of Cinders rescue came out near the end, I could not figure out what Scarlet had to do with anything...even Wolf had more of a direct impact on the Cinder storyline.  Again I felt like Scarlet was needless and the story could have been told with out her.  The book felt like nothing happened for 2/3 of it then all of a sudden EVERYTHING HAPPENED AT ONCE AND IT FELT LIKE I WAS READING THE BOOK IN ALL CAPS.  The "love" story between Wolf and Scarlet felt forced into a super short amount of time, and I could never get a read on Wolf.  Is he a tough, alpha Lunar who is willing to betray Scarlet?  Is he a sad little puppy who misses his mommy and

daddy, but puts on a good front?  Is he a depraved killer with a poets soul?  Over all he seemed a bit whimpery to me. I had to go back and read a quick synopsis of Cinder to remember what was going on, and I still don't have a great grasp on the whole Lunar thing...if they can manipulate everybody, and the Queen is especially strong, then why don't they just take over Earth in like, 5 seconds?  Why have a whole bloody war when Queen Levana could just ask nicely for the world and it would be handed to her? Are Lunars aliens or mutated humans? You definitely need to have read the first book to read this one as it is a direct continuation of the story and doesn't make a whole lot of sense on its own. I still love the combination of traditional fairytales and the future, I love the world that has been built and the technology makes sense, which is awesome.  Overall I am still into Cinders story and hope the next book focuses more on the over all story and less on forced characters.  I give it 5 out of 10 red hoodies.
How do you feel about sequels that veer away from the main story line?  Why do I feel the need to edit every book I read?  Do I sound like I hate everything all the time?

Around The World In A Zillion Variations

One of my favorite things about fairy tales, mythical creatures, and fireside stories is the prevalence of them around the world.  I love to see the differences and the similarities between these old familiar tales and characters told in different places and through out time.  Some characters, creatures and stories are specific to a place or time, but most have a similar counterpart in most places.  To further my research on my favorite at the moment I acquired a book by Heidi Anne Heiner who also runs the SurLaLune site.  This book in particular is about the mermaid tales from around the world.

Mermaid

This is a nifty not so little book that is an incredible resource for people who want to delve into the stories of these fabled creatures.  This book contains observations, history, analysis and most importantly stories from around the world and through out time.  

Sleeping Beauty

There are several of these books, each focusing on a different story, it's origins and variations.  These are not sit down and read like a regular book type of books (does that make sense?).  They are more of a pick it up and find out interesting tidbits here and there. They also make for great resources if you are trying to write a new story, or just want to find out more about the originals (there is always more than one).

Cinderella

Unfortunately the hard copy editions of these books are pretty pricey which sucks 'cause I would like to see all of them lined up on my book shelf looking all pretty. However here is where e-readers are awesome because I can get all of these (there are like 15 of them so far) for closer to 10 bucks a pop instead of the 30-40 bucks the hard copies were costing (and that was for paperbacks!).  Like I said before, these are long, non linear, research type of books.  The content is wonderful and the illustrations awesome!  So anybody who wants to know more about there favorite fairy tale would enjoy the thoroughness of these books.  Anybody want to loan me a couple hundred bucks to buy the set?

Bratty Cinderella

Haven't been to bed in about four days so please forgive me if I am a tad incoherent (at least more so than normal).  Finished Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George.  This is a sequel/follow up to Princess of the Midnight Ball and mostly follows Poppy, the extroverted twin and one of the twelve Princesses forced to dance for the King Understone.  This is a blended story, partially a retelling of Cinderella and a bit of a continuation of the first story.

Spoilers Ahead For Both Books

Quick plot points.  We start with a creepy prologue in which a women is viewing a dark haired girl and a prince by magic.  It appears that these two are perfect for whatever nefarious plot she is thinking of.  Moving along we find that in the wake of the war that tore this part of the world apart and the untimely deaths of several of the princes owing to the curse of the twelve Princesses a sort of Princess/Prince exchange program has been put into place.  As a result the Princess Poppy ends up with a cousin in the country of Breton.  We see that although a master at it, Poppy refuses to dance now that the curse on her and her sisters has been lifted.  It seems while many people know that there was a curse, the exact nature of it is not widely known.  Meanwhile the Prince of Damerhavn , Prince Christian is also sent to Breton, where the king is determine to marry him to either one of his own daughters or some other woman of his kingdom.  To this effect several balls are thrown to try and get a suitable girl for the Prince.   At these dances and dinners that they attend, Poppy adamantly continues to refuse to dance, preferring conversation or shockingly cards

when they are available.  Prince Christian meets her and is taken in by her easy manners and lack of stuffy decorum.  Poppy's cousin Marianne is in love with Dickon and both sets of parents approve whole heartedly to the match.  It is decided that Marianne shall have her own birthday ball in between the Queens Gala and the matchmaking ball set up by the King of Bretnor for Prince Christian.  While all this has been going on a new maid has been employed by the house hold.  The lady Eleanora, now known as Ellen was an Earl's daughter who had fallen on hard times after the ruin and death of her family.  She is now in the employ of the house as a servant and she sucks at it.  She burns things, breaks things, drops things and to make it all worse she is sulky and sullen about her new position.  One day the household receives invitations to the gala, with the invitation going to every eligible lady.  Ellen asks if she may go and is given permission by Marianne's mother the Lady Margaret, she even offers to help the girl get a gown.  Ellen refuses, saying she won't take charity and she will find her own gown.  Lady Margaret reveals Marianne's and Poppy's gowns to them, Poppy's being a beautiful stunning dress embroidered with red poppies.  When they arrive at the ball everybody is very much enchanted with Poppy's beautiful and unique dress, when in comes a mysterious girl, wearing a glittering, dazzling version of Poppy's dress.  On the mysterious girls feet are glass shoes that shine like rubies.  From the moment she walks in, every males is instantly obsessed with her and every female hates her.  The girl, who is called Lady Ella, monopolizes the Prince for the whole night.  Only Poppy and the newly returned Roger, brother to Marianne's Dickon, can see that Lady Ella is actually the maid Ellen. Suspecting magic is at work, the two go to work on countering the effects.  Much to Marianne's dismay 

Dickon along with the Prince and all the other men are obsessing about the Lady Ella.  Poppy tries to confront Ellen about the ball, but the maid claims that she did not go.  We switch to Ellen's perspective and see her call to her "godmother" by walking through a doused fire, ending up covered in soot. She arrives at a palace of glass and is dressed and pampered by this mysterious benefactor.  The only bad part is when she is ready for shoes, her godmother pours molten glass directly on her feet to make them.  At Marianne's birthday ball, Lady Ella once again puts in an appearance, but this time copying Marianne's dress and stealing all the attention for herself.  Fed up with this affront to her friend, Poppy and Roger make a potion, and knit charms to protect their friends.  As the friends start shaking off the enchantment, Poppy and Roger follow Ella and see that she is indeed Ellen the maid, transformed by magic.  Poppy goes to confront the girl again and finds her in her bed, her feet turning to glass as a result of the spell.  Eventually they figure out that the godmother is actually a witch called The Corley who is trying to make up for her goddaughter's death.  After they figure out the plan, they decide that Poppy will take Ellen's place and try and stop the curse.  Poppy dresses up in Ella's dress and slippers and goes to the ball.  The witch figures out the plan and captures both Poppy and Ella.  She challenges Prince Christian to figure out which one is his true love, he correctly identifies Poppy even while under the spell.  A merry chase ensues, the witch is dealt with and the three couples (yes there are three couples, it does makes sense...kind of)all live happily ever after.

Lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me so making sense is totally optional from here on out :-)

I liked this book for the most part.  It was not earth shattering, or life changing, but I did enjoy reading it.  I liked that the story of Cinderella was actually parceled out over three girls, each one having a piece of the original story.  I liked how the flavor of Cinderella was clear through out the story, but the plot did not necissarly follow the original. Poppy was one of my favorite sisters from the first book, so having her be the main character in this book was fun.  I found myself appreciating the fact that the author showed us the after effects of the war and the curse from the first book.  Acknowledging that even thought he curse is broken, that does not mean everything just goes back to hunky-dory land.  The long lasting effects of decisions is a major factor in these books and is dealt with in a way that is usually not seen in YA books. I also like the way the author allows her characters to be of mixed temperaments  and to see the good and bad in different ways of thinking.  Poppy is a bit brash and used to doing as she pleases, but when Lady Margaret gently corrects her in certain situations, Poppy realizes that a bit of gentleness and courtesy are not bad things.

Marianne is shown as a bit of valley girl, but has her own mind and knows how to use it.  Ellen, our poor tragic fairytale princess is a brat, and I loved it.  Eventually you feel sorry for her and wish her well, but I loved that she wasn't all sweet and good and humble, accepting the lower status life had given her.  In real life I do not know a lot of people who could go from a lady with maids to being a maid to a lady without some sort of issues.  It would be humiliating, heartbreaking, and sad and Ellen reacts in a very realistic manner. I love the examples of families being there for each other.  So often in fairy tales we get wicked stepmothers, scary overbearing fathers, and jealous siblings.  In this book Ellen's employers are not only kind and generous, but try and help her get to the ball, and it is her own fault she gets into trouble.  A refreshing change of pace from the normal noble cruelty we see in the originals. As with a lot of books of this genre, the magic/curse plot resolution got a bit confusing, another example of how a good idea is hard to resolve in any coherent manner.  The love between Christian and Poppy was a little rushed for my taste, but not as bad as some I've seen.  Overall I enjoyed it and would recommend it to people who like retellings,  fantasy, magic, and a quick easy read.  I give it 7 out of 10 glass slippers.

I Think It's The Plauge

Blech blech blech, I've been pretty sick these last couple of days.  To sick to even read, which for me is like being at deaths door!  I am finally starting to feel a bit like a human being and am ready to get back to my reading and rambling.  All of this ickyness got me thinking about books I've read, were illness plays a major role.  I like books that feature a disease, mostly because I am in the medical field and find all of that stuff fascinating.  I like how a disease can be used in many ways, it can be a weapon, an equalizer, a catalyst.  Sometimes the goal of the story is to find a cure for the disease, other times it is trying to make a life after the disease has ravished the world.  Sometimes it is used to bring various people together in tragedy that would never even look at each other before and other times it is used to tear loved ones apart.  I like how different genre's deal with illness, depending on if you are reading fantasy, scifi, historical fiction, etc. there are a ton of different ways to approach it.  Here are a few of my favorite books were sickness, disease and illness play a main role. (I know most of these are part of a series, but they are still really good!)

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern- This book is a stand alone novel in the Dragonriders of Pern series of books.  This book deals with an illness brought over from another part of the world that very few people had immunity to.  The book shows us the progression of the disease from it's first victims all the way to finding a cure in the blood of the few people who have a natural immunity to it.  This is the first major world wide illness to hit this planet in a very long time, and it is awesome to see all of the different and creative things they do to not only find a cure and vaccine, but to figure out how to get it out to the people as well.

Briar's Book- This is one of the books in the Circle of Magic series.  When a plague comes to Summersea, Briar and his friends must use their specific magic to assist the scientists in finding a cure before the whole country dies.  One of my favorite parts of this book is the mixing of magic and science and the feeling that both are just pieces of the same puzzle.  I always felt that magic and science were buddies in real life and this book does a great job showing that.

The Two Princesses of Bamarre-The Grey Death is a fatal disease that is ravaging this imaginary country.  The shy and quiet Princess Addie is content to stay safe in her castle, away from the disease and all it's nasty effects.  When her beloved sister falls ill with this fatal disease, she decides to be the one to try and fulfill an ancient prophecy to try and save her sister.  This book is less about the illness itself and more about the effects it has on the people who are not sick.  The fear they have for themselves vs the fear for their loved ones and the lengths one is willing to go to try and fix it.

Cinder- This retelling of Cinderella has the unusual twist of a plague that is ravishing the home of our heroine. When Cinder's adored stepsister falls ill, she is sent to the futuristic scientists to "volunteer" as a test subject.  This is totally acceptable because Cinder is a cyborg and not seen as fully human.  The implications that a person can be classified as less then human because of certain mechanical body parts, and the ability for this government to condone the often fatal testing of cures on these beings makes a pretty hefty political statement that one is not used to seeing in a fairy tale.  This is a good one for thinking about cost vs benefit in finding a cure for a disease that could kill millions, is it worth it to lose a few lives in the search for a cure?

Star Trek: Double Helix Series-This series of six books set in the Star Trek universe span a whole timeline and touch every piece of the franchise.  It is essentially a series about a tailor made disease that pops up over different times and places.  Over the six books the disease evolves and is meant to do different things, but their are pieces that tie them all together.  These are some of my favorite Star Trek books, not only do they touch on every character in every time period, but they again focus on every aspect of the disease.  Everything from it's origin, to the cure, to the social and class repercussions, to the motive in making and using such a heinous disease, all kinds of cool fun stuff!  I loved all six books and now that I have been talking about them, think that this may be my summer reread series.

What do you think of books about diseases, illness and plague's?  What aspect do you find most intriguing, the scientific, the moral and ethical, the social, the emotional?  How weird am I that I find all this germy stuff to be so fascinating?

Cyber Cinderella

Finished Cinder the first book in the Lunar Chronicles this week.  I broke my rule about waiting to start a series until a couple books are out so now I have to wait for the next one :-(  The book was pretty cool, it was probably one of the more original retelling's of Cinderella I have read in a while, and there are A LOT of those out there.  This version is set in the future after World War IV and the story is set specifically in New Beijing giving a cool futuristic Asian flavor.  Cybernetics have become advanced enough for use in humans, but they are considered second class citizens to a lot of the population.  Our heroine Cinder has even more cybernetics then your average cyborg, and is stuck as the ward of a woman who wants nothing to do with her...except of course the money she brings in as a mechanic. Cinder has no memory of her life before the age of eleven when she woke up from the surgery that turned her into a cyborg.  Cinder meets Prince Kai when he brings in a robot for her to fix and they hit it off pretty quickly.  Meanwhile a plague is ravaging Earth and the cyborgs are being drafted to be experimental guinea pigs for a cure. After her stepsister falls ill, Cinders stepmother "volunteers" her for the experiments while gaining a payment for the sacrifice.  Cinder

Glass Slipper

turns out to be immune from the virus leading the main doc on the project to change her status to one of a true volunteer.  She runs into Prince Kai again (who still has no idea she is a cyborg) and more awkward flirting ensues.  On the political side of things, Prince Kai is dealing with the devastating illness and eventual death of his father, which makes him have to assume the role of Emperor very quickly.  To complicate matters is Queen Levana of the Lunars.  The Lunars are a people of Earthen origins who moved to the moon many years ago and have evolved the ability to manipulate bio-electrics as a result, essentially they can make almost anybody see, hear, and feel what they want.  Queen Levana is especially skill at this and has used the ability to establish a malevolent dictatorship over the Lunars going as far as to kill her sister and niece to secure her throne.  Queen Levana has her sights set on Earth and is trying to trade a cure for the plague in exchange for a marriage to Kai.  This part gets a little weird and not quit clear for me, so we will move on.  Eventually Cinder finds out some shocking things about herself that most of the readers will have guessed at long before it is revealed to her and the book ends with Cinder escaping and a set up of the next book.

Video Trailer is a little cheesy, but it gets the point across

The author Marissa Meyer did a pretty good job, especially considering this is her first book.  She kept almost every element of the original Cinderella story, while still coming up with a fairly original plot and setting. There also seemed to be bits of other fairy tales in the story as well, a strong Snow White vibe and a bit of Rapunzel as well.   The characters were pretty good, I especially love her little robot Iko.  The plot twists were not to suprising, I could see them coming a mile away, but that did not affect the story too much.  The whole Lunar thing was a bit sketchy, it seemed like there "gift" was just a way to justify some things that would never fly without some sort of reason/excuse, but the idea was still pretty solid.  I am glad that I knew it was going to be a series ahead of time so the ending wasn't as abrupt and I am looking forward to reading the next one.  I give this one 8 out of 10 white chocolate raspberry stars :-)

What do you think of a futuristic cyborg Cinderella?  Is throwing mutated alien/humans into a classic fairy tale insane or genius (or a little of both)?  What fairy tale would you like to see set in space?

Simply Enchanting

On a high school trip a long long long time ago I ran out of books to read, anybody who has been anywhere near me without some sort of reading material knows that this is just a disaster in the making.  So a huge search was sent out for a literary distraction resulting in a book that would become one of my all time favorites, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. 

This book was my first full blown introduction to world of retold fairytales and it was wonderful! 

The story keeps all of the elements of the beloved Cinderella story, the dead beloved mother, fairy godmother, glass slippers, wicked stepmother, evil stepsisters, a midnight spell and of course the glass slippers.  While keeping all of the elements Ms. Levine completely recreates the world, situations, and characters in the book.  Ella (the main character) and Prince Char actually meet, know each other and fall in love through out the whole book, giving some actual plausibility to there happy ending which is always a sticking point in the old fairy tales (True lasting love at first sight...really?!?)  Ella's fairy godmother is also with her the whole time, making the reasoning behind the magical help also more realistic (at least as realistic as a magic fairy godmother gets).  This re-telling also involves ogres, giants, elves and an exceptionally bossy parrot.  The element that really ties it all together for me is the curse our heroine has been put under.  When she was born another fairy

heard her crying and gave her the "gift" of obedience and immediately ordered her to stop crying.  This "gift" had the effect of forcing Ella to obey any order or command given to her.  This leads to some very hilarious and tragic consequences and again goes a long way in making our feisty protagonist plausible (I'm using that word a lot, sorry to lazy to pull out my thesaurus)  I really like it when an author at least makes an attempt to explain some of the more bizarre aspects that are usually needed to get a story moving.  In the end Ella has her happily ever after, which is how it should be.  I really loved this book and have read it many many many times, in fact I've gone through about three copies of it :-)  If you like traditional fairytales, humor, retellings, or just a nice light read then go get this book!  There is a movie which I was very excited about 'cause I think this is a very filmable book and the cast was amazing (Hello Cary Elwes!) but I have to say I hated the movie, in fact if they hadn't called it Ella Enchanted I wouldn't have even known that is what it was supposed to be BLECH!  Anyways I give this book 10 out of 10 pieces of Godiva chocolate.

Do you think this book did a good job retelling Cinderella?  Was the movie as awful as I think it was?  Does my mixing of tenses mean I should go back to grade school English?