Sins Of The Father

Time to review Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore.  It has taken me a while to put the review for this one together, because I am still trying to figure out the best way to review it.  I don't think I will go overboard with the synopsis in this one, because there is so much to it that I would just muddle it all up.  So let's start with a bare bones summation.

As always some Spoilers for all three books ahead.
Bitterblue has been the official Queen of Monsea one of the Seven Kingdoms for 8 years now.  At present her biggest struggle is to find a way to break free from the oppressive council of her advisers.  Bitterblue was thrust into the ruling of her country at the tender age of 10, when her mother was murdered by her father Leck, who had been using his Graceling power of mind control to keep a horrifying grip on the country.  Leck was killed during events in Graceling and Bitterblue assumed leadership of the broken country. While the people helping her run her country while she was still a child mean well, they have forgotten that children grow up, and Bitterblue is now an adult.  To try and learn more about her own kingdom, Bitterblue decides to go out at night in disguise among the people of her city.  Here she meets up with a clever thief, a Graceling with unknown talents and his printer friend.  Through these two Bitterblue learns that the reports she has been getting from her advisers have been falsified for some reason.  Bitterblue also starts to learn just how much havoc her father wrought upon the country.  The majority of the book is a mix of Bitterblue trying to find out who is trying to squash information from the past from being reveled, trying to become an

independent ruler, juggling her feelings for her Graceling thief, and missing her friends.  After much searching, Bitterblue finally discovers some truths about her fathers past. At some point in time Leck and his father had lost their way in the mountains that cut off Monsea from an unknown country and ended up in the Dells (which is the setting for Fire) which is more advanced then the Seven Kingdoms.  Leck spent most of his childhood in this country of Monsters and medical advancement, honing his Grace of mind control.  In a fight with Fire, the human monster, he was sent tumbling back down the mountain into Monsea where he used his powers to get adopted into the royal family.  Missing the Dells, Leck tried to recreate what he could, building his castle in the glass roofed style of the Dells, commissioning sculptures and artwork incorporating the landscape and Monsters, and terribly trying to bring about scientific advancement through experimentation on humans.  It is this last thing in particular that made Leck so horrifying and perverse.  He would use his mind powers to not only torture and kill his people, but he would compel his own advisers to do the actual harm to people.  It is the memory of what they were forced to do under the kingship of Leck that has made Bitterblues advisers (who were all around when Leck was king) to try and bury any breath of what happened during his reign. Rembering what they had done, drove most of them mad.  This cover-up was wide spread and included arson, and even murder as a way to keep the heinous past hidden.  Eventually Bitterblues friends find a tunnel that leads from Monsea to the Dells and Fire from the previous novel comes to visit Bitterblue.  The young Queen realizes what it was her father was doing and decides to spend the rest of her reign trying to heal her country through revealing the history and then addressing the problems.  There are side plots, and love stories, and all that good stuff scattered throughout the novel as well, but this is essentially the gist of it.

This is not a happy, fun-filled story by any means.  It is fairly dark and I have heard many people complain about the brutality featured in certain parts.  I understand that some people are more affected by this then others, and certain experiences may make this a painful book to read.  I did not find any of the descriptions gratuitous  I thought any mention of violence, rape and torture where done only when the story needed it to point out certain aspects of Leck's mentality.  There is also the after effects to deal with, and Bitterblue herself is border line depressive on occasion.  All this together makes it a bit of a difficult book to get through.  This book is also much less action packed then the other two book were.  The whole of the story takes place in one city, and most of it is driven by discovery and conversation   There is a heavy dose of politics and enough hemming and hawing to drive a person crazy. It seemed that most of the characters had forgotten to take their happy pills and were constantly snipping at each other in very childish ways.  The level of the arguments usually amounted to "nyah nyah nyah" which did get a tad tedious after a while.  All this being said it is not a bad book.  I actually liked that the author was willing to take us to a bit of a darker place.  The realistic after math of such a twisted leader would be pretty bleak.  The idea that some people

would just like to bury the past and try to move on, versus the people who need to have answers before any healing can properly take place is one that rings true.  The notion that people would go very far, even to the extent of murder to try and cover up a shameful past is also something we know happens in real life.  I also really enjoyed getting some insight into Leck's head.  He was a monster of epic proportions  he used his powers to hurt everybody else, and even worse took great pleasure in it.  His true talant lay not so much in mind control, but in his ability to know what would utterly break a person.  You see where even with this power Leck was unhappy, you see glimpses of a person trying desperately to get back to a time and place where he thought he was happy.  This does not give even the slightest excuse to the atrocities he perpetrated, but it makes his character that much better and gives him a motive for his cruelty.  Bitterblue herself was a decent character.  I wanted to shake her sometimes and say "You are the Queen you dummy, just do what needs to be done, you don't have to ask permission!", but when you have had guardians watching over you your whole life, it is not as easy as that.  She retained some of her sassyness from previous books, and is of a different cloth then either Katsa or Fire, so it is nice to see an author not reusing the same hero mold.  The author tries to bring in a lot of politics from the real world into the books (gay rights, education, ruling styles, etc.) to varying
degrees of success  a few of them seemed forced into the plot.  Some of the plot got muddled and confusing, I'm not 100% sure I actually understood everything I was supposed to, and the ending came on fast and disjointed. Over all I would say it was a decent book and fit into the world the author created in the previous two books very well.  It was a nice link between Graceling and Fire, which when first read do not seem to have a lot in common. This book also has some cool illustrations and maps, and a fun tongue in cheek type of glossary included, which I really enjoyed.  I give the book 6 out of 10 monster statues.
What did you think of this book?  Did it help tie the first two together?  Do you prefer action or intrigue?  Do these darker books make you think, or just cringe? How awesome was the cover of this book!?!

Pretty Monster

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday.  Everything came crashing down at once and I had to spend the day in bed thinking unpainful thoughts.  Plus side is I finished up the book I am rambling about today so there is always that :-).  On with the rambling.

I had reread Graceling in preparation for reading Bitterblue knowing it was more or less a direct sequel.  I had not intended to reread Fire right away as there was not to much of a connection between it and Graceling. However after rambling about Graceling I decided that for Bitterblue to make sense I should go ahead and ramble about Fire first.  Ok I know that was all very confusing, but by the time I'm done rambling about all three books it should hopefully make some sort of sense.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

We start our story with a prologue about a man and his strange son who live in Monsea of the Seven Kingdoms.  The young boys eyes change colors settling into gray and red marking him as a Graceling.  Larch, the boys father does not want him to be taken by the king, and decides to run and hide with the boy.  The odd thing is that Larch is continually in a fog, doing whatever it is the young boy wants him to do.  The child convinces his father to give him most of the food and sacrifice his comfort and well being to protect him.  The two end up stumbling through hidden tunnels in the great mountains and come out the other side in the Dells, a country that is more advanced then the one they came from.  Here the boy sets up a small reign of terror, constantly recruiting weak minded people to help take care of him and further his goals.  His father, after too much time in the brain fog his son produces, has a moment of clarity and realizes that his sons

Grace is essentially mind control.  The boy kills his father for the discovery and taking the name Leck, continues his pursuit of obtaining greatness.  This in general is our only link to the Seven Kingdoms and the first book.  Moving on to the main story we meet Fire.  Fire is a monster, which is to say she is a special type of being that only exists in the Dells.  A monster is a fantastic version of a normal being, they are characterized by intense, unusual coloring, possessing powers of mind control, and an insatiable hunger for other monster blood.  Every type of living being has monster versions of it, cats, dogs, insects, rabbits, horses, and humans.  At this point in time Fire is the last human monster in existence.  She possess a face and body that drive people to distraction with longing, and when she lets her hair (which has glorious shades of pink, orange, red and gold in it) be seen few living creatures human or otherwise can resist her.  She is the daughter of Cansrel, a male human monster who used his influence to bring the former king Nax and his kingdom to the brink of ruin.  Both the king and his monster advisor have died, leaving the kingdom in the hands of the young king Nash, his spy advisers his brother Galen and sister Clara, and the military in command of his youngest brother Brigan.  The country is holding together and preparing for a war against two lords  Mydogg to the north and Gentian to the south.  Sheltered from all this by distance, Fire lives near her best friend and sometimes lover Archer and his father, the former military advisor Brocker.  Archer and Fire have an unequal relationship.  Fire lover Archer as a best friend, and respects his incredible skill with the bow.  Archer is desperately in love with fire and jealously guards her, to the point of obsessiveness, going as far as to fire on of her guards because she like the color of his hair.  Fire puts up with the excursiveness of Archers jealousy and love, in part because he is one of the few friends she has that is not wholly controlled by her appearance.  Fire and Archer travel to the

Queen mothers fort and meet the king Nash (who behaves horribly in the presence of Fire) and Brigan who is incredibly cold towards her.  Fire risks herself to distract a huge group of monster raptors, earning some trust and respect from Brigan and his army.  Brigan asks Fire to come to the capital city to try and use her mental powers to get some information from some prisoners he has.  She agrees, much to the displeasure of Archer, who cannot go with her until he has finished taking care of his estates.  Fire is assigned a guard and is escorted to the city.  Along the way she discovers many things, her love and skill at music helps her cope with things, her guard, in particular Musa and Mila are willing to also be her friends, and Brigan is much kinder then she ever imagined.  At the palace king Nash declares himself in love with Fire and she forbids him from being in the same room as her until he can learn to guard his mind.  She makes friends with Garen and Clara and helps them try and infiltrate the minds of the prisoners.  Fire also meets Hannah, Brigans young daughter with whom she bonds with quit nicely.  Archer arrives for a visit and Fire tells him that they can no longer be lovers, that she does not love him the same way he loves her and that it is ruining their friendship.  In retaliation Archer (who is a lady's man at the best of times) sleeps with both Clara and the young guard Mila, impregnating them both.  Furious with her friend the two of them fight and Archer decides to leave and search out a mysterious archer who has what Fire describes as a "foggy brain" that is wreaking havoc in the country.  With two of her friends pregnant, and bonding with the young Hannah, Fire's resolve to never have children starts to weaken.  Fire does not want to have children,
because a monster will always bear a monster, no matter who the mother or father is.  She does not want to bring a person into the world who can be so destructive as her father was.  She ends up taking a medicine that will leave her barren, ensuring she will never succumb to her temptations.  The group eventually stumbles upon a plot and a plan is formed during a party to try and assassinate a few key players.  They succeed in killing Gentian and his son (the real brains), but not before they learn that they are actually allied with Mydogg and his sister.  Fire is kidnapped and taken north.  She learns that her kidnapper is none other then Leck, the boy who controls people with his words.  He wants Fire to join him and between the two of them they can take over the kingdom by using the rulers as puppets.  Fire of course rejects his proposal and makes good her escape.  While escaping she finds the body of Archer, who was killed by Jod, the foggy brained archer that he set out to find.  Out of her mind with grief she stumbles back (with the help of a wild river horse) causing Leck to fall down a crack in the mountain at some point.  She eventually makes it back to the fortress where her friends help take care of her.  She slowly heals in body, but her mind remains pretty shattered over losing her friend, and the potential loss of her friends to war.  It is especially difficult with Brigan, as she loves him so much, but he is always in danger.  She starts helping in the hospital, easing the pain of injured and dying soldiers, and subsequently helping herself as well.  In the end after a fierce battle and some plots gone awry king Nash wins the war and a sort of peace settles over the kingdom.  Fire and Brigan end up together, making a little family along with his daughter Hannah.  King Nash rules much better then his father ever did, and everybody pitches in to help raise the two children born to Archer after his death.  There is also a sub story of how Brocker had an affair with the Queen, and King Nax shattered his legs and sent Jod to rape his wife in revenge and that is how Archer was conceived.  Brigan was the result of the affair between Brocker and the Queen.  It is all very twisty and a bit convoluted.

Whew, on to my impressions and arbitary thoughts about this book.  I liked it better then Graceling and I liked that book alot.  I think I like the country of Dells better than I like the Seven Kingdoms and that has a lot to do with it, world building has always been a big part of stories for me.  A lot of people found this book to be more violent and distasteful than Graceling, while others liked it much more.  I agree that this book got pretty dark in places, and the whole Archer/Brigan being the result of affairs and rapes was not only a bit uncomfortable, but it seemed unnecessary as well.  I think the author put it in to a)illustrate just how twisted Cansrel had made Nax and b) how even good people (like Brocker) can do bad things.  I just did not find it  necessary and even a bit distracting.  I like the character of Fire for the most part.  She is capable of taking care of herself, yet constantly finds her self surrounded by people who desperately want to protect her.  I

find her emotional state to be fairly believable, especially for a 17/18 year old.  She spends a bit to much time angsting about things, but is called out on it most of the time.  I got frustrated when she let Archer bully her, but even that at least made sense.  He was her only real friend and she did not want to lose that, she understood that even though it did not make it right, he did his bullying out of love, and never ever ever tried to hurt her.  I liked that she eventually stood up to him, growing up and realizing that it was harmful to allow him to continue to try and run her life.  After reading  Bitterblue I can see how much more this story ties in to the overall "long story" and actually kind of like that while it is tied to the first and third book, it is also it's own story, not dependent on any other.  I loved the concept of monsters and think that between this and the Graceling concept you could probably write a thousand stories.  I also like how Fire has to come to terms with her "beauty", at one point she is frustrated that even with all of the scars and mud and dirt and whatnot, people still find her physically irresistible, she is not capable of not being beautiful.  She even startles herself with her beauty.  She is not vain about it, trying to dampen it down every chance she gets (unlike her father who reveled in it), but to no avail.  This beauty is portrayed as dangerous, not only to others, but to herself as it makes her a target. The best part though is that it is not limited to humans, other monster animals are attracted to her, and normal humans are attracted to other non-human monsters, if your not careful even a hairy tarantula can entrance you if it is monster version.  Over all this book is definitely a bit darker than the first one, but also a fairly realistic one (as much a fantasy book can get).  There are frustrating parts, and roll you eyes parts, and uncomfortable parts, but even on the reread I found it a very intriguing, well written, worth the time book. Between this book and Graceling it sets us up perfectly for the next book.  I give it 8 out 10 monster feathers.

Mismatched Eyes

Just finished rereading Graceling by Kristin Cashore in preparation for reading Bitterblue.  This was and interesting reread because my feelings for the book actually changed with a second reread, but I'll get to that in a second.  First a quick synopsis (Warning Spoilers as Usual)

Katsa is a Graceling, which is a person who possess a very specific skill and is set apart physically by mismatched eyes (in Katsa's case she has one brilliant blue eye and one green eye).  The skill vary by person, some are amazing cooks, some are brilliant gardeners, some read minds, Katsa kills.  Ever since she was little she has been able to defend herself in the most definitive of ways.  In her kingdom the Middluns any person that is Graced belongs to the King.  Katsa is King Randa's niece and also his enforcer, he sends her to hurt or kill anyone whom he deems in
need of punishment.  To counterbalance these heinous acts she is forced to do Katsa along with her cousin the Prince Raffin,  Lord Giddon and Oll captain of the Kings spies form the Counsel, which tries to right the wrongs and protect the people, all in secret of course.  One of these Counsel missions leads Katsa to rescue Grandfather Tealiff the father of the current king of Lienid of of the seven kingdoms that makes up our little world.  All of this leads to Katsa meeting the youngest son of the king of Lienid, Prince Po who is Graced with fighting (his eyes are gold and silver).  The two start to regularly spar, Katsa enjoying the ability to use her full force without killing her opponent.  Po tells the Council that he is trying to figure out who ordered the kidnapping of his grandfather and why.  Katsa gets sent to force a lords daughter to marry for the benefit of the King and finds she can no longer make her self do the King's dirty work.  Katsa runs away with Po to Monsea, a little kingdom separated from the rest by high mountains.  They finally figure out that the King Leck of Monsea, who has a reputation of being extremely kind is actually a monster who can control peoples minds with a suggestion.  They continue on their journey, falling in love in the process and Po reveals that his true Grace is his ability to sense everything and everybody around him.  He has kept it a secret to keep himself from becoming a pawn to any king.  They also discover Katsa does not have a killing Grace, but a survival Grace and that killing and hurting people is just one manifestation of it, she can also heal quickly, go on very little sleep, always catch or find food, and always get a fire lit. This makes Katsa feel more like a person and less like a monster.  They eventually run into King Leck and his army and watch him murder his own wife in front of them (who just happens to be Po's aunt).  King Leck uses his Grace to convince people that it was an accident, including
Katsa, Po's Grace however keeps him safe from Lecks mind numbery (that is really a word...I swear) and grabs Katsa and gets her out of there.  They find the child Bitterblue (King Leck's daughter) who King Leck is hunting and promise to gt her to safety.  Po is injured pretty severely when he goes after Leck on his own and Katsa and Bitterblue must leave him in a cabin hidden in the woods.  Katsa takes Bitterblue (who is one of the best characters in this book) and heads over the impassable mountain pass.  This is one of the most effectively described scenes I have ever read, I actually get cold and tired whenever I read it.  They finally make it over the pass and onto a Lienid ship.  They are taken to Po's castle to try and get help from his family, but it is to late Leck has already beaten them there.  King Leck bends everybodies mind to his will, but when he threatens to expose Po, Katsa's mind clears enough for her to kill him.  Bitterblue is now the queen of Monsea and they take her back to claim her throne and to find Po.  Po however has another secret, the injuries he sustained while fighting Leck have left him blind.  This causes him to be depressed for a while, but then he learns to use his Grace to "see" things with his senses.  The story ends with Katsa setting up training camps for girls to learn self-defense, Bitterblue starting to help her kingdom recover, and Po off to settle things in Lienid with a promise to meet up with Katsa later.
The first time I read this book a couple of years ago, I remember loving everything about it, a kick-ass heroine, a crazy King, a journey across the continent all my favorites.  Reading it a second time I still really like it, but for some reason not as much as the first time.  I'm not sure if I have lost all patience with teenage angst, or if rereading it I picked up on things I did not the first time, not really sure.
Things I loved.  I love the concept of the Graces, I love stories that have a special something that comes in a variety (does that make sense?). The Tamora Pierce series Circle of Magic does this really well too.  I love all the different ways a person could be Graced and the different ways people choose to utilize that Grace.  I like the idea of the seven Kingdoms, each with it's own people and customs, but still all close enough to have an effect on each other.  I like that the main character goes on a personal journey, starting as a pawn of her king with seemingly few options, to putting together the Council, to leaving the king's service all together.  I love, love, love the character of Bitterblue.  She starts as an understandably terrified small 10 year old child, who has witnessed horrible things including the murder of her mother at the hand of her father.  Eventually as she begins to trust people she turns into this snarky, smart, intelligent young lady.  She is nowhere near as physically dominating as Katsa and Po, which is great.  I think the character of Bitterblue shows that there is more than one way to be a kick-ass girl.
Things I did not love quit so much.  The execution of the Graces was a little spotty to me, the few people we meet with Graces seem to have no parameters placed on their skills, it seemed that especially for Po and Katsa a new aspect of their Grace would appear anytime the story needed it to overcome some obstacle.  I'm not 100% sure how hurting other people on the orders of the king is part of survival.  Po seemed a little to perfect at times, always open when Katsa was closed off, skilled, sensitive, even able to overcome his blindness fairly quickly (seriously he went from struggling and depressed over his blindness to the simple "oh I just accept my Grace and now I can sense and make sense of everything" all in one sentence).  The love story was pretty run of the mill, the author tried to make it different by throwing the whole "I will love you, but I won't marry you and I can leave at any time" stuff in there, but as soon as Katsa acknowledged her feelings, it seemed that she fell right into the "oh Po you are the love of my life and all I can think about is you and if you are unhappy so am I and since you are not here your all I can think about sad face" (holy run on sentence batman).  This is all personal dislikes and really most people dig this kind of story so it is not a deal breaker.  I am still not 100% sure the reasoning Leck had for kidnapping Grandfather Tealiff, other than to make his wife miserable.

Overall I am excited to read Bitterblue, I hope the author keeps a lot of the same sass the character had in this book.  I read Fire a companion book to this one and loved it even more than this book so this author has a pretty good track record with me so far.  Also these books have the best covers ever! (well except for Zombies vs Unicorns cause I don't think anything can top that cover).  I would recommend this book to almost any reader, especially people who like fantasy, fighting, kick-ass girls and an interesting fairly well executed premise.
Have you ever been disappointed in a reread?  How many ways are there to actually write a love story?  Do you love secondary characters as much as I do?