An Elf A Halfbreed and A Dragon Walk Into A Book

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Reading To The Beast

Ready for another story?  Cool, today we ramble about The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey, the unofficial first book in the Elemental Masters Series.  This book is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and works pretty well.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Rosalind Hawkins, known as Rose to her friends and family is facing a crisis.  She is a scholar in the 1900's where it was still unseemly for females to do much other then marry, or in dire circumstances be a maid, shop girl or governess.  Unfortunately for Rose she is in just such dire circumstances after her father dies leaving her penniless.  A mysterious proposition appears for a job in San Francisco that just happens to detail her exact qualifications.  Rose packs her meager belongings and heads out to her new job.  She is surprised by the sheer luxury of the position and is just a wee bit uneasy when it turns out the "governess" position is actually a position reading through a speaking tube to a man she has never seen.  Turns out Jason Cameron, the man who hired her has had an "accident" that has left him horribly disfigured and housebound.  What he doesn't tell Rose is that he is an Elemental Master of Fire and that one of his experiments went horribly wrong and he is now stuck in a body that is half wolf and half man.  Jason has dismissed all of his human servants, depending solely on his elemental Salamanders to keep his vast house in order.  The only other human Jason has contact with is the lazy and devious Paul DuMond who is supposed to be acting as Jason's apprentice, but is to lazy to apply himself to the discipline needed to truly become a Master.  After much back and forth Rose and Jason find each others company to be mutually pleasing, adding much to their nightly reading sessions.  Rose quickly discovers the world of Magyk and after a bit of mulling it over decides to accept it.  A mishap brings rose to Jason's rooms where she discovers his state, and surprises him by handling it with more composure then expected.  Rose also discovers her own Magyk, the element of Air and command of the Sylphs which compliments Jason's own Magyk.  Meanwhile DuMond has been in cahoots with Jason's rival, the Fire Master Simon Beltaire.  Simon wants nothing more then to destroy Jason, and by promising DuMond an easier (and more destructive) way to become a Master, enlists his help.  To this end DuMond goes to try and kidnap Rose to use in one of his nasty spells.  Rose is rescued when Jason comes to her aid in full beast mode and rips DuMonds throat out.  This is the first time Rose has seen him act in such a pure beast like manner and is very disturbed.  Recognizing this, Jason sends her to the city on a holiday that had already been planned to give her some space.  Rose is approached by Simon to try and enlist her to his side, but to no avail.  As Rose contemplates her future with Jason, a great earthquake happens and Rose does what she can to help.  Simon again approaches her and tries to force her to go with him when Jason again appears.  Using the combination of Jason's Fire and Rose's Air they finally defeat the evil Fire Master.  They head back to Jason's manor and decide to marry, even if they never find a cure for Jason't half wold state.  Everybody good lives mostly happily ever after and we get to move on to the next book.

I liked this book.  I liked it for several reasons.  The best of course is that it is another retelling of one of my favorite stories, and we all know how I love a good retelling.  This is a good retelling as in it followed all the basic points of the original story, girl left penniless, beastly, yet eventually kind hearted well of man, pride, looks, lessons, even the roses.  I really liked Rose as a main character because she was super bookish, a bit independent, but not super girl.  She defiantly needed help in some of the more physical aspects of this story (though she was by no means delicate.)  and she very much enjoyed pretty clothes.  I liked the mix of intelligence, femininity, stubbornness, and sheer love of books that was mixed into this character.  Jason was pretty cool, he has an arrogance about him that keeps him from being to perfect and is happily willing to admit a female as being at a minimum his equal in all things intellectual.  The setting was pretty neat.  This time period, especially on the American West Coast is one of massive change and opportunities which makes it the perfect place to make a story like this plausible.  There were a few things that were not my favorite.  Jason ALWAYS has a way to see Rose and uses this ability constantly, with out her permission, even after they come to their understandings.  As convenient a of a plot device that this is, it kind of creeps me out a bit.  I know if somebody was constantly observing me, and using that information to their advantage with out my knowledge I would be livid.  If I found out about it later, especially after I had fallen in love with somebody, bad bad things would happen.  I also found some of the introspective phrases (of which there were many) to be a bit over the top and more tell me instead of show me in nature.  There were a lot of "reminiscing" thoughts that were just there to explain stuff...which felt forced.  That being said, one of my complaints in the last Elemental Masters book I read was a lack of understanding of how the Magyk worked and this cleared up a tiny bit of that, so that was good.  Overall I enjoyed this book and recommend it to anybody who like fairy tale retellings, Magyk, and smart people.  I give it 7 out of 10 herb packets and can't wait to read the next one.
What is your favorite retelling?  What Element would you control?  How much do I love bookish heroines?

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?

Healing Magic

I have been looking for some new series to get into as I have thoroughly exhausted my regulars, so I have been scouring the bookshelves for something new to try.  Mercedes Lackey is an author I enjoy, and she has about 1000 different series for me to choose from, so I picked up The Serpent's Shadow, the first in the Elemental Masters series.  I LOVED IT!  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Maya Witherspoon is the daughter of an English military doctor and a high caste Brahmin.  Maya grew up in India, learning the art of healing from her father, finishing school and becoming a doctor in her own right.  From her mother, Maya learned to believe in magic, watching her mother who was a powerful magic user.  Maya herself has magic, but according to her mother it is not the magic of her people, but rather her fathers and to learn it she must go seek out others who use her kind of magic.  After the untimely death of her parents Maya and her household flee to London to avoid the same fate.  Maya gets sets up a practice in her own house, catering mostly to the poor, the theatre workers, the "kept"women, and anybody else in need of a discreet physician who does not mind if she is female.  Maya also works in the charity hospital a few times a week for free.  Maya is lucky enough to have received a substantial inheritance from her parents, allowing her to own a house modified to her own purposes, including a conservatory filled with tropical flowers and the home to several exotic animals.   The animals were another gift from her mother and consist of two

mongooses, a small monkey, a parrot, a peacock, a hawk, and an owl, all who are much more then they seem. Maya along with her friend Ameilia (who is training to be a physician) work against the ingrained sexism to help as many as they can.  Maya has an extra weapon to help her with her healing, she is able to access the magic of the earth to assist her in her physiking.  Maya's use of magic triggers the interest of the White Lodge, a group of men who are considered Elemental Masters, essentially people who have a magical affinity for one of the four elements, Water, Air, Fire or Earth and have mastered the use of it.  There is some controversy as the Lodge has no Earth masters, as almost all the Earth masters are female or lower class and God forbid they allow either of those into their vaunted club.  Peter Scott, a Water Master is one of the rare non upper class magic users allowed in the Lodge and he is tasked with finding out about Maya.  He meets Maya and the two get along well, with Peter offering to teach Maya as much as he can and then finding her an Earth Master to finishing her tutelage.  Meanwhile, Maya discovers her mothers sister Shivani is the one who is intent on killing Maya.  She is intent on this because of the fact that Maya's mother married an English man and gave birth to a "half-breed" daughter.  Maya, Peter, the pets, and a few others band together to defeat the evil through the combination of their various magics and the help of some of the Indian gods and goddesses.  Peter and Maya marry, convince the Lodge to open up and they all live happily ever after until the next book.

I have to admit that I picked this series to start because the book was all yellow and teal and awesome.  I am glad I did 'cause I loved this book, and hopefully will love the rest of the series as well. What I loved the most about this book is that it centered on medicine, one of my passions is medicine (which is also what pays the bills, so that works out well for me) so any story that uses the medical profession in a fairly accurate manner makes me very happy.  I appreciated how the author combined the medicine and the magic together, not using magic as a way to totally skip over conventional medicine, but more of a way to augment what they were doing, getting bones to mend faster after they had been set, encouraging skin to heal after surgery, things like that.  I also really liked how Maya practiced medicine through out the whole book, not just until

Peter found her.  Too many books will really do a great job with whatever convention they are using to launch the story, but then it peters out as the "action" takes over.  This book had Maya working on patients until the very last page, in very interesting and fairly accurate ways.   I loved learning about India (which is one of my favorite countries, just for the sheer diversity of it) and of course now must research all of the various gods, goddesses and other various goodies I read about. I also liked that we got to see things from the "bad guys" perspective, we got to see the motivation of Shivani and why she was so intent on violence and murder.  I love it when this happens because for me it gives a much more plausible feel to the whole thing. One thing that was kind of cool, especially near the end is that you could see where the author payed homage to a few fairy tales, and Snow White in particular with the whole old woman with the poisoned apple bit, the seven small animals/companions, and even the kissing the dusky maiden awake thing (though that was for a reason, not just true love).  The few things I did not enjoy so much were pretty minor, I felt like the author was shoving the women's lib and racism down our throats, it got a bit heavy handed at times, but did not detract from the over all story so it was bearable. A few times I felt that the solution to some of the characters problems were a bit pat, or a bit over the top, but it was still fun.  The other thing that was a bit more of an issue was that the reader does not get a whole lot of info on how the Elemental Masters thing worked.  The focus was more on Maya and her unconventional combining of magics and techniques and her training was glossed over pretty quickly.  We see Peter use his Water Mastery a bit, but again no real insight into how it works.  I am hopeful later books will remedy this.  Overall the story flowed beautifully, the characters where fairly well fleshed out, the little extras that make a book special were all in there, and the cover was just awesome.  I give this book an 8 out of 10 shadow snakes.

How do you choose a new series? Do you love it as much as I do when a book accurately portrays your profession?  What is my deal with yellow covers?

Avian Transformations

Wooohoo, finally getting my reading groove back, after about two months of no time at all or nothing but time I have finally succeeded in returning to my about a book a week rhythm and since I am usually reading multiple books this gives me plenty of variety and fodder for my incessant rambling.  The latest book to fall to my awesome reading powers (I'm feeling a bit loopy this morning) is The Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey which is a retelling of Swan Lake.  I picked this one up because I love retelling's, and I love the original ballet of Swan Lake and so far I have like Ms. Lackeys work so sounded like a pretty good bet to me. Also the cover was awesome.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD

Odile Von Rothbart is the only child of the great sorcerer Baron Von Rothbart and is desperate for his approval. While she herself is becoming an accomplished and talented sorceress, her father relegates her to the role of housekeeper and guardian to his flock of transformed swans.  Von Rothbart has raised his daughter to believe that all women are inherently devious, traitorous wenches, good for only serving a man loyalty.  To this end he finds women who he feels have been unfaithful in some way and transforms them into swans, only allowing them to turn back into humans in the moonlight.  For the most part Odile and the swans live an isolated life in a sumptuous, yet tightly controlled manor far from civilization.  The leader or Queen of the Swans is Odette, a young woman who's father promised her mother on her deathbed that he would never force Odette to marry.  As soon as her mother was dead Odette's father tried to force her to marry an older man who had already gone through several wives.  To avoid this fate, Odette convinced one of her

fathers squires that she was in love with him and persuaded him to help her run away.  As she was on her way to the great Empire to try and plead her case, she was overtaken by Von Rothbart and turned into a swan. All of the other girls we assume have similar stories, but Odette is the one we are most concerned with.  Odile keeps an aloof eye on her charges, never mingling, always keeping herself apart and trying desperately to earn her fathers attention and approval.  Meanwhile in another kingdom the Queen Regent Clothilde schemes with her minstrel to find a way to keep the crown away from her only son the Prince Siegfried when he comes of age in the coming year.  She has tried her best to keep him from becoming a competent ruler by encouraging his interests in drinking, hunting and women.  After an incident with a gypsy girl who kills herself after a carnal encounter with the Prince, he decides to try and change his ways.  He begins by finding places for all of the vulnerable women at court, sleeping only with women who approach him first (yep this is considered better behavior).  He starts drinking less and listening more, earning the respect of many nobles who earlier thought him to wild to make a good ruler.  His mother decides the best way to control him is to marry him off to a young, beautiful, docile, tractable woman, one whom the Queen could control and by proxy control her son.  Back with the swans Odette finally confronts Von Rothbart who then makes a promise that if Odette can make a man love her, knowing everything she did, and keep him from betraying that love for one month, she and the other swans will be free.  To this end Von Rothbart takes the swans and his daughter on a long journey.

 Through out this journey he shows little regard for the well-being or comfort of either his daughter or the flock.  Odile does her best and finds many ways to take care of herself and her little flock of swan maidens.  Every time she starts to feel resentful, her father comes and makes it all seem like a test, giving her the bits of approval she so desperately craves.  Oddly enough though she is left exhausted every time her father comes to visit.  She soon becomes more friendly with the flock and Odette in particular starts to spend time with the pale sorceress.  Odette puts forward the theory that Von Rothbart may be draining Odile of her powers to use for his own purposes.  Odile does not want to believe this, but the suspicion has been planted.  Von Rothbart makes an appearance and informs Odette that the man she needs to woo will be appearing soon.  Back at the castle a hunting party, including six princess hand selected by the Queen who are seeking to become the Prince's bride set out.  The Prince has no delusions about marrying for love and spends his time with the princesses looking for a woman who would make a suitable queen and would not be to upset if he spent time in other beds.  Eventually he and his best friend Benno go off to hunt swans on their own one night, setting up the inevitable meeting between Siegfried and Odette.  Siegfried is instantly struck by the transforming
maidens beauty and wants to know more.  Odette begs him to come back the next night and she will tell him her tale.  Odile listens in on the conversation between the Prince and Odette.  Odette tells him everything, including the reasons she was turned into a swan and the part about him remaining faithful.  Siegfried actually pauses at that one, but decides that it is worth it to be able to marry Odette. They make arrangements to meet at the Prince's birthday party at the castle where he will announce his intentions to marry her.  Odette and all the rest of the swans are overjoyed at this development and Odile is also very happy for her friend.  Von Rothbart appears the day of the party and informs Odile that they will be attending to watch the Prince and Odette.  After fashioning amazing costumes for them the sorcerer leads his daughter into the party, as Soon as the prince sees her he calls her Odette, making her realize that her father has transformed her into Odette's likeness and is now controlling her body.  No matter how hard she tries, she cannot shake her fathers control of her.  Siegfried pledges his love to "the woman at his side", effectively breaking his vow to Odette.  Chaos ensues and Von Rothbart kills the Queen and minstrel, but not before the minstrel confesses everything.  Siegfried and Odette reunite at the lake and confront Von Rothbart who is to strong for either of them.  Rather than be parted the pair plunge of a cliff into the lake.  Odile, finally realizing how evil her father is, kills him and then goes to save the Prince and the Swan Queen.  She is successful and the Prince assumes the crown and marries Odette.  All of the swan maidens are transformed into humans permanently and found places of honor among the Swan Queens court.  Odile is given the lake where the swans were as her own land and the title of Countess in her own right.  She serves as a councilor to the king and Court Magician and they all live happily ever after.

I was excited to read this one because the traditional Swan Lake ballet is one of my favorites and I was interested to see how it would be transformed into a fantasy story.  The author wrote it like it was set in medieval times, in our real world, in real European countries.  She used the actual religious and political ideas of that time period, giving a realistic spin to the whole thing. The story itself was quit lovely, I could actually see scenes of it danced in my head, and up until the end it actually followed the basic story line of the ballet pretty faithfully.  The role of women in this book, while accurate for it's setting, was a little disturbing.  Siegfried relationship with women, and the men's views on their place was definitely archaic to put it nicely.  Von Rothbart's view of women was despicable and we are never really given the real reason for these views other than his wife died when Odile was very young.  I loved watching Odile's transformation from an eager to please puppet to a strong resourceful woman. I also loved that she was already a beautiful intelligent noble who used her own resources to save her friends...who were also intelligent, kind, women.   The six princesses that were selected for the Princes perusal were interesting as well.  I liked the different personalities and the different way they were viewed by the Prince and his mother.  Parts of the book were slow, especially the hunting scenes of which there were many.  I guess if you were interested in medieval hunting techniques this could be interesting, but to me it just added unnecessary pages. Overall it was a good book, it won't be every bodies cup of tea, but lovers of courtly fiction will find much to enjoy, and if like me you like the original ballet, you will not be disappointed. And I personally liked it so much better than the movie.  I give this book 7 out of 10 crowned swans.

What do you think of a ballet being rewritten as a story?  How much leeway do modern writers have when writing books set in different periods of history?  How much do you want to wear Odile's black swan costume?!?