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!

Magic Sleep

Hi all, how is your fall going?  Have you broken out the boots yet, or are you stuck with 90 degree heat like I am?  To make myself feel better about this icky heat, I'm gonna ramble about a book 'cause who doesn't love a good rambling.  The book is The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey and is part of the Elemental Masters series.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Marina Rosewood is born to Alanna and Hugh Rosewood, two Earth Masters who have looked forward to her birth very much.  They are having a private christening party where several of her godparents...who also happen to be Elemental Masters are giving her various gifts that compliment her own Water powers.  Just as they last godparent is getting ready to give her gift, Hugh's estranged sister Arachne (how is that for a villain name?) curses the child to die before her 18th birthday.  The family understandably freaks out a bit, but one last godparent, Elizabeth, a Water Master is able to modify the curse so that if the curse is not activated by the time the child is 18, the curse will rebound on Arachne, and if the curse is activated, then Marina will only sleep until a cure is found.  To try and keep the curse from taking effect, Mariana is sent right then and there with Margahrita (Earth Master), her husband Sebastian (a Fire Master) and her brother Thomas (also an Earth Master) to live in an artist cottage in the woods.  Marina is raised with much love, art and magic by these three until tragedy strikes when she is 17.  Marina's parents die in an "accident" and she become the ward of her aunt Arachne who summons the child to live with her.  Marina is hauled away from her godparents and the only life she has ever known and thrust into a "high society" world that she is entitled to.  Arachne determines that for some reason Marina is clueless about the curse and has no real idea why her parents sent her away.  Arachne keeps a very tight leash on her niece under the guise of prepping her to enter society.  Marina's only break is when she goes to the vicar to work with him.  Marina meets Dr. Andrew Pike, an Earth Master who has built a sanitarium dedicated to actually helping patients instead of just warehousing them.  He also takes in children with Elemental Magic that do not have the benefit of parents or guardians who understand that the kid's are not crazy, just gifted.  Marina helps Dr. Pike when she can and the two fall in love.  Meanwhile Arachne and her odious (I love that word) son Reggie split their time between trying to keep Marina in line, and working on their dark arts in which they steal magic from those who have it by slowly poisoning them in their pottery factories.  Eventually Arachne activates her spell by getting Marina to accidentally prick her finger on a needle hidden in her childhood cradle.  Marina's godparents find her and along with the vicar, and Dr. Pike help Marina defeat Arachne when they are both pulled into the spirit world.  Archacne is defeated, Marina FINALLY learns about her own history and they all live happily ever after.

In case you didn't get it from the synopsis, this installment of the series was based on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.  Of all the books I've read in this series so far this is the most straight forward retelling, with the story following very closely to the original tale.  That made it...I don't want to say boring...but maybe a tad to predictable for my taste as I could pretty much figure out exactly what was going to happen every step of the way.  This was also one of those books that uses a lack of information to further the story.  The whole thing pretty much hinged on Marina not knowing of the curse and ways to counter it.  I would think with all the other things the godparents taught to her, and the way they treated her as an adult most of the time, that they would have pretty much trained her since birth to protect herself.  The love story was also a wee bit forced, but it could have been worse.  What I did like about this particular installment of the series is the almost minimizing of the Elemental Powers in certain characters.  The godparents were essentially artists who used their powers in small, domestic ways...almost as an after thought.  They are more focused on perfecting their art, no their powers and are therefore weaker then a practitioner who spends all their time practicing with their Elements.  I loved that this book showed that there were other less epic ways to wield the elements and still have a great life.  I liked the portrayal of both the vicar and Dr. Pike as men of gentleness, open mindedness and sensibleness.  Many times, especially in Victorian era books, the church men are portrayed as either lecherous power hungry dictators, or bumbling simple comic relief.  The vicar in this book was none of this AND helpful as well.  Dr. Pike along with the sanitarium he ran was also awesome as the evil torturous crazy house is a trope seen way to often in Victorian era books.  Learning about how a person could steal magic using the dark arts was interesting and the two different beliefs of mother and son when it came to the same rituals was cool as well. I did like that Marina could appreciate both the simple artists colony, but still want to have the modern pretty clothes and some part in society.  I think this shows how most people feel, enjoying more than one type of lifestyle and liking pretty things, or wanting to be a part of something different does not make you a bad person, or even lessen your love for another way of life.  Overall it was an ok book, it fits in with the series very well, but is not my favorite one.  I would recommend it to anybody who likes a fairy tale retelling, the Elemental Masters series, or certain tropes turned on their head.  I give this book 7 out of 10 carved cradles.  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?

Fairytale Horror

I have heard a couple people talk about how a lot of the new re-tellings of the classic fairy tales are so much darker then the originals.  I guess they must think that the Disney versions, or the little pretty picture books are the originals, because seriously, the original tales could almost all be part of a Halloween Horror Fest.  For example

Cinderella - A tale of a girl who works hard and finally gets the prince and palace she deserves...or is it a tale of how even after getting her prince and crown, a flock of birds comes and pecks the step-sisters and step-mothers eyes out.  This of course after the step-mother aids her girls in mutilating their own feet for a chance at the prince.  That's happily ever after for you.

Sleeping Beauty - A lovely story of a princess woken up by true loves kiss...awwww.  Wait, there is more.  Yep the rest of the story is about how the princess Ogress of a mother attempts to eat Sleeping Beauty's children, and not being happy with that, tries to eat her too!  Yay cannabalism.

Hansel and Gretel - Speaking of cannabalism, what is with fairy tales and child eating witches hmmm?  Here we have two sweet innocent kids, who not only get abandonded, but then live through the terror of the witch's house, where one child has to sit by helplessly as her brother is fattened up to be eaten,  Talks about your dread and horror.

Rapunzel - Rapunzel, Repunzel let down your golden hair...ooops another evil witch, and depending on the story several princes died, or in a "happier" version the poor princes gouges his eyes out on thorns.  Of course we then have the requisite wandering in the desert wilds until they find each other, and hopefully a good phsyciatrist.

The Red Shoes - If  you want a good old fashioned horror story, look no further then this moralistic beauty.  The poor girl in this story is punished for her vanity by being forced to dance with no rest, and then to try and get some relief she chops her own feet off.  She then in pennance allows her self to be viewed and humiliated as a lesson to the other until she dies.  Happy Times.

These are just a few examples of stories that have every element of horror in them.  Death, ghosts, witches, warlocks, evil parents, torture, pain, loss.  Seriously I don't know why we don't get out the old Grimm's Fairy Tales as our traditional book of horror every Halloween. Happy Reading Everybody!

Tick Tock Tales

Awsome Hubbin got me a pretty cool book for our anniversary.  It is a collection of steampunk fairytales called Clockwork Fairy Tales edited by Stephen L. Antczak and James C. Basset.  My last collection of steampunk stories was a bit hit or miss for me so I was bit nervous to start this one, but it turned out to be awesome!  Here are some of my favorites.

La Valse by K.W. Jeter - This gory tale is based on The Red Shoes (which is a pretty gruesome story to begin with) is a bit of a nightmare scenario.  It involves decrepit old nobles locked into a giant music box type apparatus.  A mentor killed.  Revenge taken and so much blood.  Great story!  Just be warned this is not your typical happily ever after fairy tale.

Fair Vasyl by Steven Harper - Lately I've really been into the old Baba Yaga tales and this one based on the old Russian story of Vasilisa the Beautiful captures the essence of the old witch perfectly.  Along with one of my favorite villains, this story really captures the perfect essence of what a family should be, a group of beings who love and need each other.

Mose and the Automatic Fireman by Nancy A. Collins - Mose the Fireboy is the inspiration for this fantastic story of a small boy who becomes a major hero.  The firefighter/EMS girl in me cheered the whole time I was reading this.  It has a fantastic rollicking American Tall Tale feel that is perfect perfect perfect.

The Steampiper, the Stovepiper and the Pied Piper of New Hamelin, Texas by Gregory Nicoll - This story is what I always think of when I think steampunk.  It has humor, it has sass, it has rats and it has so many clockwork toys!  The American West has been used a lot in steampunk as an alternative to the normal Victorian England steampunk we see so much of, and in this story it works to its advantage.

There were several things about this collection that worked for me.  First of all the stories were really steampunky, with lots of actual devices used to change or further the plot.  Unlike a lot of supposed steampunk books I have read, where they toss in an airship, or goggles and call it a day, there was an actual building of alternate worlds using clockwork devices.  The other thing I really liked was the combination in ever single story in this collection of sticking to the original tale they were based on, I mean every single story was recognizable, even down to some of the small details.  While doing this, each story was also wildly original, I'm not sure how these authors pulled it off every single time, but they did.  I give this collection  8 out of 10 wind up birds and recommend it to anybody who loves fairytales, steampunk, or a well told story.
What good steampunk stories have you read?  How do you think the authors managed to stay true to the original tale, while still being completely original themselves?  How bad do you want a clockwork pet?

A Twist Of Grimm

Picked up a book on impulse the other day (shocking I know).  It was just to pretty not to and I figured even if the book sucked, it would at least look super cool on my shelf.  Lucky for me the book did not suck.  The book is called Grim, a collection of short stories edited by Christine Johnson. According to the blurb on the back they are supposed to be a dark twist on some of the classic fairy tales, which it accomplishes with varying degrees of success.  Here are the stories that really stood out in this collection.

Figment by Jeri Smith-Ready - This was one of my favorites, a fabulous modern twist on The Puss In Boots that keeps all the feel of the original and adds the perfect bit more.  I like the characters in this story, especially the main guy who is a fun mix of angsty musician and weird kid.  This kind of story is the type of retold fairy tale I particularly enjoy because it retains the essence of the original, but feels like a new story all at the same time.

The Brothers Piggett by Julie Kagawa - Three Little Pigs with a truly dark twist!  The story starts out fun and a bit humorous and it took me a few minutes to figure out what story it was.  Then as your reading, smiling BAM!  The wolf comes in a most unexpected form.  I would have never guessed in a million years that reading The Three Little Pigs would ever be more then a funny simple story...I was wrong.

Untethered by Sonia Gensler - If we are going off of the idea that most of these stories are rewrites of Grimm Fairytales then the closet story I could find was The Shroud to base this one off of.  I don't want to say to much about this story as it will ruin it for you, but I loved it.  The twist was actually surprising, but that was only one small part of its appeal.

Better by Shaun David Hutchison - I am still trying to decide if this story was based on Pinocchio or Frankenstein.  This story about a man trying to save his son and all the other children by experimenting on a bio cyborg goes horribly wrong when the boy and girl fall in love and use some pretty controversial techniques to keep him alive.  All of this and a scene with proverbial pitchforks makes me think the author had more then the classic fairytale in mind when he wrote this.

Light It Up by Kimberly - AWESOME twist on the Hansel and Gretel story.  It is the perfect reminder that while it may have been a children's story, it is still about a homicidal guardian and a cannabalistic baddie.  Seriously even the original story was dark and scary, and this one has even more of the elements that make this such a dark story.

I found this collection to be hit or miss in a lot of the stories.  The ones I like, I loved, the ones that didn't do for me were not worth reading again.  There were a couple instances where the story was kept almost exactly the same, which seems to negate the idea that they were supposed to have been rewritten.  The book itself is beautiful with a gorgeous cover, old school font, creepy trees, and even a bookmark!  I recommend it for anybody who likes a re-written fairy tale and does not mind some darkness, violence, or cannibalism (seriously so much cannibalism).  Definitely one you do no read to your kid before they go to bed at night :-)  I give it 7 out of 10 Brothers Grimm
How hard do you think it is to make some of these tales darker then they already are?  Do you like your tales to have a happy ending?  Do I need to quit buying books based solely on their looks?

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

Hello all, sorry for the screwy posting schedule this week, but I have been having issues scheduling stuff...but I think I have it under control.  Some times I wish I could just click me heels together and say "the blog post is done, the blog post is done", which brings me to today's rambling (did you like what I did there?).  I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to read something that did not require a lot of effort and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank. Baum fit the bill perfectly. As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Dorthy is transported from her home in gray Kansas to the wildly colored land of Oz.  Dorthy, her little dog Toto, and her house all land on the Wicked Witch of the East who had been enslaving the blue loving Munchkins and in the process obtaining her magic silver shoes.  They are all happy, but Dorthy just wants to return home, a kindly old woman who turns out to be the Good Witch of the North tells her that the only person powerful enough to do that is the Wizard of Oz who lives in the Emerald City.  Off Dorthy and Toto go, following that famous yellow brick road.  They meet up with the Scarecrow who wants brains, a tragic Tin Man who wants a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who wants Courage.  The three stumble upon many adventures, and through their natural kindness make several friends who help them along their way.  They finally arrive in Oz which is all green, so very green, thanks to the green spectacles that are locked on to every person who enters the gates.  One by one the group finally meets the great wizard, each seeing

someone or something different, and each being tasked with killing the Wicked Witch of the West. Though none of the group want to actually kill anybody they go off to see what they can do about this pesky witch.  The witch seeing them coming uses her magic to conjure up numerous things to try and stop the group to no avail.  She finally uses her golden cap to summon the flying monkeys one last time (as you only can use it three times) to scatter the Scarecrow, lose the Tin Man and bring the Lion and Dorthy to her.  The witch keeps the Lion in a cage and Dorthy as a servant, but is secretly afraid of her as she has the silver shoes.  She tries to trick Dorthy into giving them to her, but Dorthy douses her in water, inadvertently melting her. Dorthy frees the Lion, and uses the golden cap to get the flying monkeys to help her find and reassemble her friends.  They head back to Oz, whom they discover is a fraud.  He finds a way to help them anyways and builds a balloon to take him and Dorthy back to Kansas.  Unfortunately the balloon flies away before Dorthy an get on board, leaving her trapped.  It is suggested that she go and visit the Good Witch of the South, Glinda, who can help her.  Off the four friends go and after a few more adventures the arrive at the Good Witches castle.  Glinda tells her that she had the power to send herself home all along, just by clicking her heels together and wanting to go home, she does this promptly, getting home, but losing the shoes in the process.  The Scarecrow becomes the king of the Emerald City, the Tin Man goes to rule the Winkies liked they asked him to, and the now courageous Lion becomes the King of the Beasts.  They all get what they wanted and live happily ever until the next book.

I have always loved this book for it's perfect simplicity and child like imagery.  This is not to say this is a simple book in a bad way, it is just nice to read a book that is fairly straight forward.  What strikes me the most about this book is how it feels like a story a little kid would make up...in a good way.  Hmmm I'm trying to think how to best explain what I love about this book.  Think of when you were little and you were making up games and the weirdly logical creatures and countries you would come up with and to me that is what reading this book feels like, playing a great game like I used to when I was little.  I know most people associate the story of Dorthy with the famous and wonderful movie, which I also love, but it loses so much of the little stories of all the side characters.  This is the other thing I love about this book, every single character mentioned in the book has a story and that gives an unexpected depth to the whole thing.  I like how the

different countries are all represented by a different color.  The Munchkins by blue, the Winkies by yellow, the Gillikans by purple, Quadling country by red and of course the Emerald city by Green.  There are also interesting little places like China Country and the field of deadly sleepy poppies.  Most of the places and people mentioned are used in the later books, eventually making a whole history and geography of this amazing and mythical land. This book has been reffered to as an American Fairytale, which is pretty cool, considering most of the older classic fairytales are European based.  If there are any downsides to this book it would be that the good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad.  It was first published in 1900 and is a bit of a morality tale for children, with the good and virtuous always winning over the bad and corrupt, not entirely surprising in a book written in this era, but still pretty black and white.  I love reading this book and the others (though I have yet to finish the whole series, but that will soon be remedied) because it reminds me of the pure imagination one can have. Also the wonderful illustrations by William Wallace Denslow add the perfect touch.  I give this book an 8 out of 10 silver slippers and recommend it to anybody who is need of a good imagination boost.
What book sums up childhood for you?  What is your favorite Oz character/race?  Where your childhood games as full of mixed up wonderful weirdness as mine were?

Maleficent

Hello all, how was your weekend?  I got a ton of reading done YIPEE, so be ready for a deluge of convoluted ramblings in the near future.  As much as I love reading, my sweet Hubbin was in need of a hot dog so of to the movies we went (the movies is the only place he eats hot dogs...).  Since I am spoiled my wonderful and amazing Hubbin took me to see Maleficent, which is supposed to be the back story to the evil faery in Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty.  I was both excited and dreading seeing this movie.  I was excited because Maleficent is by far my favorite Disney villain, followed by Ursula the Sea Witch, and Captain Hook (I am a fan of Disney films and I am not afraid to show it).  I have always loved the story of Sleeping Beauty, more for it's brutal villain's then for its passive princess and the Disney version of Maleficent was everything I wanted, she was strong, beautiful, powerful, even a bit sexy, and completely unapologetic for being as she puts it "the Mistress of Evil".  I was dreading this movie because in the new tradition of humanizing our villains I was afraid they would lose everything I loved about my Maleficent.
WARNING SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE AHEAD! 

Unfortunately I was right for the most part.  They took a powerful and strong female bad ass villain and made her a good guy who just had a bad moment or two.  Seriously I would say that you only get the feeling that Maleficent is any sort of villain for about five minutes of the entire movie.  Her history is not near as extensive as I would like to see, both beginning and ending with the would be King Stefan (Aurora/Sleeping Beauty's dad) and the reasoning behind a lot of what is done is flimsy at best.  She spends the first third of the movie as a good faery, the protector of her realm, which is actually pretty awesome visually.  She meets Stefan, a human whom with she falls in love with, but is heartbroken when he, you know does the whole human greed/ambition thing.  It is very obvious in this movie that humans are bad, destructive and greedy, while every thing else is magic and awesome and the petty humans must destroy it 'cause you know that's what humans do.  Stefan comes back to lull his old friend Maleficent to sleep to kill her so he can be king.

Of course his childhood feelings prevent murder so he just cuts off her wings instead.  He becomes king and she becomes pissed, with a penchant for black pleather.  One of the few cool things she does is create a servant out of a crow that is pretty awesome (I want a crow dude).  Using this crow dude she spies on the king until she learns he has a daughter.  Maleficent in a fit of revenge and pissed offness go swooping into the castle casting a completely watered down curse about sleeping until true loves kiss.  Yep she didn't even give the bumbling "good" faeries a chance to lessen the curse from death to sleep, she just did it herself.  The three colorful faeries take the kid into the woods (which I never understood...why not just take her away for the year between 15&16, how does raising her away from the castle protect her at all?!? Also that never actually happens in the original tales...but then those are not fit for children are they?) and make the most hilarious attempt to raise this squalling infant.  Seriously the best part of the movie is the three "good" faeries, their bumbling attempts to raise a human, and the funny, yet oddly harmless for the Mistress of Evil" tricks Maleficent plays on them.  Maleficent ends up completely enchanted by Aurora, and tries to remove the curse to no avail (note to self, don't cast unbreakable curses unless you really mean them) but offers to let Aurora live with her in the faery side of the giant thorn bush.  Aurora meets a boy, but there is no singing so I'm not sure if it was true love.  Aurora rides to the castle where she finally meets her father, only to find him a bitter, obsessive freak, bent on the destruction of Maleficent.  Aurora pricks her finger, Maleficent brings her the prince she met, but alas no true love there.  Maleficent is sad and kisses Aurora goodbye...which is of course true love and the princess awakens.  King Stefan is still hell bent on killing Maleficent, even after he see's his daughter alive and well, and of course conveniently forgetting the whole reason they are in this mess is 'cause he cut her wings off!!!!!!  Aurora finds the wings, Maleficent is healed, the crow turns into a really cool giant crow/dragon thing (I WANT ONE SO BAD), and the bad evil king is defeated and killed.  Aurora moves in with Maleficent and they all live happily ever after?!?

Yeah, so in case you didn't pick up on it, not my kind of movie.  It was visually stunning, but the gentling of one of the best villains out there just made me sad.  I like my villains to have a back story, very few beings (even fictional ones) are born evil, and knowing their journey usually adds a great dimension.  This however...I don't know...it seemed like they were trying to change history a bit, like in Star Wars when they change it so Greedo shoots first, Maleficent is supposed to be a glorious, bad ass villain, not a sweet earth mother with horns and a bad taste in pleather (though I totally want a giant pair of horns to go with my wings

 now).  The lack of any true badness in Maleficent made it very hard to associate her with the Mistress of Evil in the original movie...she didn't ever really take it out on her subjects.  In fact the only really bad thing she did was the watered down curse...which she tried to lift.  King Stefan on the other hand got a really bad take, in almost every story he at worst harmless and at best a loving and doting father.  I understand that it is popular to villainize the privileged white male, but this was just not the way to do it.  The reasons for his actions were again flimsy at best, and unexplained most of the time and made any reason for his hatred moot.  Over all I loved some of the visuals, want to watch a spin off with the three faeries, need a crow dude of my own,still love dragons, and want to completely rewrite this movie to give it its teeth back.  Instead I will go pick up one of my numerous, fantastic adaptions of the story and remember why I love the story in the first place.  Enchntment, Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep and Spindles End along with rewatching the original movie with all of the Mistress of Evil awesomeness (and maybe a quick rewatch of Enchanted with the fabulous Susan Sarandon showing the world how a villain should be done) will restore my faith in this twisted fairy tale.
What did you think of the movie?  Is it alright for villains to be bad, or are they better with a redeeming factor? What is your favorite villain?  Is it bad that at age 8 I was already preferring the Mistress of Evil to the princess?

Faery Reel

Sometimes I find a book that redefines how I may look at reading, or a genre, or life in general. The book The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling was one of those books.  I picked it up 'cause it looked pretty and was hooked.  I had never been into short stories before this collection, but the sheer magic of a lot of these stories is why I started reading in the first place and it has become a go to book for when I need a dose of magic in my life.  Here are a few of my favorites.

CATNYP by Delia Sherman - This story may have had a lot to do with why I kept reading the collection. Libraries, books, New York and faeries, I'm not sure a story can get a whole lot better.  Add in my favorite library lions and you have the recipe for a perfect story for me.

Tengu Mountain by Gregory Frost - This take on traditional Japanese demons is both cheeky and a wee bit scary in turns.  This is also one of the first stories to make me want to go research beyond the English/Celtic faeries.  I love to read this out loud to my Hubbin.

Never Never by Bruce Glassco - I love this take on the Peter Pan story.  This one focuses on Captain Hook and Tinker Bell (my two favorite characters) and shows us the importance of villains, finding your place and the eternal need to find lost things.  Also makes me want to go chill on the moon.

Screaming for Faeries by Ellen Steiber - Another story that blends humor and something much deeper.  This story is one I automatically flip too every time I open this book.  The idea of screaming for faeries appeals to me and seems like a good way to attract the little buggers, and I have to admit that the more traditional faery in this nontraditional tale makes me smile big smiles.

The Dream Eaters by A. M. Dellamonica - This quirky tale involves an eccentric clothing designer, a street kid turned cop, and a world that faeries decorate using the dreams of humans.  I love the look and feel of the faery cities within our own cities and the rules and bargains one must make to visit there.

To be honest only picking a couple stories to share with you is hard as I love pretty much every story in this book.  I love that there is a combination of old school faeries, Japanese demons, elves from the Philippines, kitsunes, undines, oak things, and every type of fae from every country you can think of.  This book has at least one story for everybody and is my happy place faery book.  It is also chock full of authors who's other books I am now eager to read which makes it a win for every body.

What is your go to faery book?  What book got you into a new genre?  Do you believe in faeries?

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?

Faerie History

When I first read Isaac Asimov's Magical World of Fantasy: Faeries (edited by Isaac Asimov) I was in Hawaii.  We all know how I like my books to match my environment, and let me tell this book did NOT match at all. I had started it when I was still in Seattle, where it matched perfectly and continued to read it on the plane and then decided I may as well finish it, which gave me a weird, skewed memory of the whole experience...I know, I know I'm weird.  I have just finished rereading it, the lure of spring begging me to find some good tales of the Fair Folk and this anthology provides just that.  Here are my favorite stories in this collection.

How the Fairies Came to Ireland by Herminie Templeton - This story sets the tone for the book, with many of the story's being told in the old style of an oral history.  This little ditty of how fairies are angels that did not take sides in the war between Lucifer and God is told by the fairie king Brian Conner to Father Cassidy and reminds us that the line between religion and myth can be blurred.

The Manor of Roses by Thomas Burnett Swann - Epic tale, that is the best way I can think of to describe this story.  It tells of three children, each with their own stories that conflict and collide.  It tells of a kindly woman who misses her son.  It tells of a history.  It tells of the mandrake people.  It is a very well told tale that blends history, fantasy and story-telling.

The Ugly Unicorn by Jessica Amanda Salmonson - This is one of the few tales not set in Europe and is also one of my favorites in this book.  You get a sweet love story, a multitude of unicorns, miscommunication, a blind girl and of course fairies.  This story makes me smile every time I read it, and also reminds me how many other types of "fairies" their are in other countries and cultures.

Flying Pan by Robert F. Young - This is a quick and simple story.  The crux of the whole thing is a young woman's encounter with what she thinks to be a diminutive alien, who in fact turns out to be a local faerie trying to get her to return to her home.  Funny, quick and awesome.

The Long Night of Waiting by Andre Norton - I have been getting into Andre Norton lately and this haunting tale of lost children is one reason why.  It plays on the classic old fear of your children dissapering without a trace and adds an even more melancholy element of loss and fear on the part of the children.  A heart wrenching, yet wonderful story.

I like this anthology as a whole because it reads very old school to me, as in an oral history of actual events passed down.  There are some stories that take place in modern times (and even one in the future), but they are all told in a way that makes you feel as if you are sitting and listening to a history instead of reading a faerie tale.  I am glad I reread this anthology, the stories in it are classic and original and harken back to the true roots of the Fair Folk. Now I need to go find the rest of the books in this series.  I recommend this to anybody who wants to experience the true telling of tales, loves the Fair Folk, or just can't resist a good Irish accent.  I give it 7 out of 10 pots of gold.

How much does environment affect your memories of a particulate book?  Do you ever go back and reread books that you read in the wrong time or place?  Does a frying pan resemble a spaceship at all?

Dancing With Frogs and Frustration

Hello all of my lovely and hopefully caffinated readers.  This is gonna be a long rambling with lots of gushing and talking and comparing and happiness and...well, lets just get on with it shall we?  The book Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier.  I initially picked it up for its beautiful cover and then realized it was a young adult novel by the author of one of my favorite adult books Daughter of the Forest which I obviously loved.  This book was absolutely wonderful in so many many many ways.  But first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Tatiana (Tati), Jenica (Jena), Iulia, Paula, and little Stela are five sisters who live high in the mountains in an old castle called Piscul Dracului (Devils Peak) in the far reaches of Transylvania (yes the same one our friend Bram Stoker set his famous tale in).  The castle sits on the edge of the wildwood, a place rumored to be filled with the folk from the Other Kingdom.  It is a wild, isolated place where the old ways still thrive and magic is still alive.  The girls know all this to be true because every night at Full Moon if they all place their hands just so, in the right place in their bed chambers a portal to the Other Kingdom opens.  Through this portal and across the lake named Taul Ielelor and known to the locals as the Deadwash the girls are

escorted by various denizens of this Other Kingdom.  Once their the girls dance, talk, mingle and play with various folks according to their interests and age.  Jena (who is our narrator for this story) is the level headed one, who while thoroughly enjoying her visits to the Other Kingdom, lays down rules to keep her and her sisters safe.  This includes not eating or drinking anything, staying in sight at all times and if one sister says it is time to leave, they must all obey with no hesitation. In this manner the girls have enjoyed themselves on many a Full Moon, dancing the night away and reveling in the magic.  On this particular trip things start to take a turn.  The Night People have been allowed into the fairy queens court and are very disturbing to Jena.  Even more disturbing is a young Night Person called Sorrow who seems to have taken an interest in Tati.  The girls head home happy and exhausted and having to say goodbye to their beloved father, who is a merchant and is very ill.  The doctor told him that if he is to survive he must find a warmer climate for the harsh winter.  He leaves the care of the castle, lands and goods to Tati and Jena, trusting them even though they are female.  He also asks his cousin Nicolae to help with anything the girls may need.  We then learn that many years ago Jena was playing with Nicolae's two boys Costi the elder son and Cezar the younger son.  They were playing in the wildwood near the Deadwash when they were approached by Draguta the witch of the wildwood.  She tells them if they give her something precious they can have their hearts desire.  Young Jena gives up a toy crown she had made and wants to be queen of the fairies.  Costi gives up the ring that is passed down to the heirs and wants to be King of the Lake.  Cezar does not say anything but before disappearing with the gifts Draguta says she understands and vanishes.  The children continue their game and it ends in tragedy when Costi drowns in the Deadwash.  Cezar tells a young Jena (who had her eyes covered the whole time) that Costi was pulled down by hands in the lake.  Fast forward back to the present and we come to learn that Cezar has never been able to let go of his angst and hatred for the Others who he holds responsible for his brothers death.  Jena also carries a pet frog by the name of Gogu with her.  He can speak to her in her mind and has been with her since after Costi died.  Nicolae is killed in a hunting accident leaving the overbearing Cezar in charge of his affairs and with their father gone, takes it upon himself to manage

Piscul Dracului as well.  He is angry, heavy handed and utter unwilling to believe that the girls can manage themselves.  To make matters worse Tati has fallen in love with Sorrow of the Night People and is wasting away with the want of him.  Jena tries desperately to regain control of her and her sisters lives, but she is thwarted at every turn. After a local villager is killed by a Night Person, Cezar's hate becomes inflamed and unreasonable.  He puts together hunting parties to hunt down the Others and decides to fell the wildwood.  Jena continues to try and protect her family and the Other Kingdom, but in a time and place where being female meant you were essentially a second class citizen she has little recourse.  Cezar's heavy handed matter comes to a head when he tries to get Jena to marry him.  Her refusal just angers him more and he tells them he knows about their trips to the Other Kingdom.  To prove it and get information he pays a local villager to be locked in the room and follow them.  Jena hunts down Draguta and obtains a sleeping potion to give to the villager and their chaperone.  She also kisses Gogu who turns into a man. This man is one Jena has seen becoming a monster in a magic mirror and it frightens her thoroughly.  She tries to get the man to tell her who she is, but since he can't talk she decides not to risk it and leaves her old friend behind.  In the Other Kingdom the girls learn that Sorrow is actually a human who along with his sister Silence was taken by the Night People long ago.  He has been set a task that if he completes by the next Full Moon will allow him to marry Tati and have her live with him in the Other Kingdom. This delights Tati, and makes her sisters sad as they know they will not be able to see her again as this is their last trip to the Other Kingdom.  The man that Gogu has turned into is also their, the Queen releases the silence spell and he claims to be Costi, not drowned just turned into a frog.  Jena obviously has a hard time believing this and Costi leaves hurt. After a sorrowful goodbye, Jena's sisters encourage her to go after Costi/Gogu, Jena misses him but runs into Draguta who tells her that she gave the three children their wishes when they were little.  Jena could not be the real queen of the fairies so she was allowed to come visit the Other Kingdom, Costi was made a frog, which is King of the Lake, and also to teach him some humility.  Cezar it turns out wanted to be King of the Land and his most precious possession was his brother Costi...yep.  The girls go back home to an enraged Cezar who was thwarted in his attempts to gain access to the Other Kingdom.  Costi shows up, there is a bit of a showdown and Cezar runs away.  Costi will not speak to Jena, though he is kind enough to help her with the castle.  Tati takes a turn for the worse, refusing to eat or sleep, just wasting away in fear for her Sorrow.  To try and rally her Jena goes and makes up with Costi and they return to find Sorrow injured but with his quest complete if he can just get to Tati.  The sisters say their good-byes and she is whisked of to be Sorrows wife in the Other Kingdom.  The remaining girls are overjoyed when their father returns home to them safely and they all continue to live mostly happily ever after.

Told you this was gonna be a long one, and we haven't even started yet!  I very much enjoyed this book.  To start with the blending of one of my favorite fairytales Twelve Dancing Princesses with the famous Frog Prince tale was pretty flawless.  I loved how the author kept so many classic elements from the tales while making a completely new and engaging story that showed some of the older, darker origins of these tales.  Lets talk about the sisters.  First we have Tatiana the oldest, a beauty and one that becomes our typical helpless princess.  The fact that among other types the author kept in a classic damsel pining for her love story was kind of ballsy and and interesting choice.  She makes Tati sympathetic, yet at the same time she clearly shows how her uselessness and lack of engagement is not to be lauded as "oh that poor beautiful girl, pining for her lost love", but as a burden and worry to her sisters who desperately need her at her best, this seems a realistic portrayal of the all to real phenomenon of people abandoning all for love. Jena, our heroine is not flawless, she is bossy, a bit cold, and a bit of an over thinker.  Her main talent is being level-headed which is portrayed as a good thing.  She is able to see the big picture and not become lost in the pretty veneer of a thing.  That being said she also is not able to just let things be, she fights her instincts and

sometimes makes herself work twice as hard as she needs to.  Her happy ending comes after the end of much hardship and pain, but it is so very apparent that she loves her sisters, her people and her land and will do what she needs to to protect them.  Iulia is kind of awesome, she is the "sexy" one of the bunch.  A 13 year old girl/woman who is trying to grow up, but does not have any woman to guide her.  She wants to use what she has, she is not ashamed of her body and realizes that it is an asset, yet does not yet have the wisdom on the best way to use it.  She is sometimes coy, sometimes strong, she is a great example of a girl becoming a woman.  Paula is a bit of a stereotype, the scholar with glasses who would rather talk philosophy with the old folk then dance. That being said, she is the one who steps up and takes charge when the older girls start getting caught up in their own personal problems (and as a reward the author gives her her own story in the next book Cybele's Secret) she also has the best sense of humor.  Stela is the youngest by a couple years and add's a touch of innocence to the proceedings, yet is treated as an equal member of the sisterhood, she is encouraged to add her own opinion to the mix while being allowed to have a childhood.  This mix of personalities is used to great advantage in this story, adding various voices, opinions, and view points to every situation.  On to the FRUSTRATION!  This book made me feel so frustrated, not the story, but for the girls.  The author stayed true to the time period and place where a female only had as much power as her father, husband, brother or protector allowed her.  In our story the girls are given much freedom and trust by their unusual father who never remarried after their mother died.  His absence and the death of Nicolae left the care of the girls in the hands of Cezar who thought he had their best intentions in mind when he essentially made them prisoners in their own home.  Since he was not only their closest relative, but also the owner of a powerful house he pretty much had complete control and the girls would have had little recourse.  Jena especially is frustrated by this short leash and the writer makes her frustration so palpable and so hopeless and so realistic that I found myself feeling frustrated for her.  This is good, because a lot of times I am frustrated AT a character, their is usually something you can do, or try to do and so many times an author will create a stupid and

unrealistic situation just to further the story, or put our poor heroine in some dire straights when all they would have to do was make a choice to woman up.  This is not the case with this story.  In this story Jena and most of her sisters do everything in their power to change this impossible situation (except Tati...but even her self-induced helplessness makes a point).  I will say the solution to the girls problems being a frog turning back into a long lost prince who just happens to be in love with Jena is a bit deus ex machina for my taste, but the author set up the story well so it was there the whole time if you were looking for it.  The cover which was done by the talented Kinuko Y. Craft who's cover art has inspired many book purchases and has made my bookshelves just that more beautiful.  In summation, the setting was wonderful, the story fantastic, the characters fully realized, the pages kept turning, I loved it.  I recommend this for fairy tale lovers, kick-ass heroine lovers, history lovers, and book lovers.  I give it 9 out of ten beaded wire crowns!
What fairy tales would you like to see merged together?  What do you think of the author putting in the various types of heroines?  How much help can a heroine get and still be kick ass?  Do you want to go find the Others with me?

Growing Up Sucks

Hello all, flipping through my completed book stack (I love watching it grow) and realized there are a bunch of books I finished on my trip that I haven't rambled about yet.  To remedy that let's ramble about Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu.  This is a novel length retelling of The Snow Queen (which has always been one of my favorites).  This book is a perfect one to read in the winter, as the cold and icy atmosphere are very much part of the story.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Hazel is having a rough time, her whole entire life has been turned topsy turvy by the divorce of her parents.  She has been taken out of her private school that encouraged individualism, creativity and other unorthodox methods of learning and plunked into the local public school into the fifth grade class taught by Mrs. Jacobs who likes things to be as orderly as possible.  Hazels only consolation is that her best friend Jack is in the classroom next to hers and sometimes plays with her at recess.  Hazel has a hard time making friends as she is a dreamer and a bit of a geek (seriously the references in this book to other books and geekdom are
pretty cool), even when she is approached by other kids, she tends to not really know how to interact with them. Jack on the other hand does have multiple friends, two other boys in particular whom he hangs out with when he is not with Hazel.  One of the boys is pretty mean to Hazel, ensuring that Jack must constantly choose one or the other.  To make matters worse, her teacher is constantly on Hazel to pay attention, which Hazel finds difficult and her mother is constantly after her to try and be more "normal" or at least try and live in the real world a bit more.  In an interlude we learn about a nasty little goblin who made a mirror that reflects only the worst in people.  He then purposely shattered it, sending pieces of it all over the world to wreak havoc.  One day when they are playing in the snow Jack gets hit in the eye with a snow ball and all of a sudden gets kind of mean.  He starts ignoring Hazel and hanging out exclusively with his guy friends.  This really gets to Hazel, who always felt she could depend on Jack to be there for her, to be creative with her and to always accept her for who she is.  This new Jack is not the one who was her friend.  Hazels mother tells her that sometimes as you grow up people change, and maybe Jack is just starting to outgrow some of the "childish" (Mom's words) games they were playing.  This upsets Hazel in multiple ways, and she tries to "grow up" herself.  This results in her giving up all of her imaginary worlds, and creative games.  Her grades improve and she quits getting in trouble, but
everybody notices that she does not seem to be herself anymore.  Jacks friend Tyler gets a hold of Hazel and tells her he thinks that something is wrong.  When Hazel goes to try and visit Jack they make some vague reference to him going to help an elderly aunt.  Tyler tells Hazel he thinks he saw Jack go into the woods with a snowy white lady.  The second part of the book has Hazel going into the forest and into what seems like a fairy tale world...except for that it is all twisted.  The people who seem most helpful are the ones who want to keep her there, or have some sort of twisted revenge. It is actually the wolves in the end that are the most helpful.  Through out her journey Hazel learns more about herself, and also has to face the possibility that Jack might not want to return home (his mother is suffering from sever depression, making his life very hard), or that even if he does he and Hazel may not have the same relationship.  Hazel eventually finds Jack in the middle of the Snow Queens realm.  Hazel challenges the Snow Queen who tells her that if Jack chooses to leave of his own accord that she will not stop them.  Hazel finally convinces Jack to return home and leads him back through the forest.  When they get back, it is like they never left.  Jack goes home and Hazel is now ready to face growing up and what lies ahead.

I have always loved the Snow Queen stories.  I think it is one of the few old ones that actually has the girl rescue the boy.  I have also always loved that the Snow Queen is not really the villain in this story (that would be the evil goblin who made the mean glass mirror), but a person who allows people to try and work out who they really are.  This version of the story was a bit sad, a bit frustrating, a bit melancholy and a bit dreamy.  For being a book about 5th graders I found it to be a bit depressing.  Every kid had some serious emotional stuff to get through, this is unfortunately realistic, but did not make it an escape book by any means.  Even when we switch to the more magical second half we see Hazels happy idea's of fairy tales take a hard downward turn, with the characters that inhabit these woods all having horrible things of their own to deal with.  I'm not sure how I feel about this, I know again that this is all real stuff that people have to deal
with, but there did not seem to be a lot of hope for something better anywhere in the story.  I couldn't tell if the author was telling us that you should be who you are, dreamy, creative and lost in your own world, but that you won't have any friends and nobody will understand you.  Or if maybe the point was we all have to
grow up sometime and that these things are childish and have no place in the real world...I never really was sure what I was supposed to get out of the whole thing.  The ending was pretty abrupt and open ended, not really telling us if Hazel and Jack ended up as friends, or started growing apart.  We never learn if Hazel took her experiences in the woods as a lesson in growing up or proof that the imaginary could be real or some combination of the two. There are some bright spots in the book, the author manages to incorporate some awesome books into the story, like A Wrinkle in Time, Harry Potter, and a delicious little jaunty wink to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Hazel also makes a bit of a new friend in Adelaide who proves that being rich does not necessarily make you snobby and that ballet can be awesome, not just something for feminists to rail against.  I also like that Hazel was adopted from India, giving her a bit more of an identity crisis, giving her one more reason she felt like she did not belong.  Over all I found this to be a good little read for the winter months and enjoyed the literary references (the author obviously loves her books).  I did however find it to be a bit depressing and while I do not always need my books to end with pat answers and a perfect ending, a little more hope at the end would have been nice.  I give this book 6 out of 10 frozen tiaras.
What is your favorite old fairy tale?  Do you find books like this realistic or depressing?  Is ballet something wonderful and magical, or something that is forced upon to many little girls?