Bar Tales

Hola Readers!  Rambling time!!!  Let's see...hmmm...I have a huge stack of books here to ramble about...Let's go with After Hours: Tales From the Ur-Bar  edited by Joshua Palmer and Patricia Bray.  This is an awesome little collection of stories centered around a bar run by the legendary Gilgamesh and is set in many times and places.  All of the stories are pretty cool, but here are just a couple of my favorites.

An Alewife in Kish by Benjamin Tate - This is the first story in the collection and tells the tale of how the previous proprietor of this magical eternal bar essentially tricks Gilgamesh into taking over for her.  In this story we learn the rules, which is essentially the proprietor is immortal, but may never set foot outside of the bar unless he/she can convince somebody else to willingly take over.  We also learn that the bar shifts around as time marches on, appearing in various places in various incantations...which sets up the rest of the collection beautifully.

Why The Vikings Had No Bars by S.C. Butler - Vikings rock!  Vikings who get introduced to liquor fight.  Vikings who get introduced to liquor and then messed with by one of their gods just makes for a great bloody story.  This early entry into the collection was just fun and bloody and perfectly Viking in every way.

The Tavern Fire by D.B. Jackson - Tiller is a simple man who earns his food by buying and selling stuff he can gather from the townsfolk.  He stops by the Brazen Head Tavern where Miss Jackson is uncommonly kind to him.  Turns out she wants information about Janna, who works at Gil's bar (which is called the Fat Spider in this story).  Tiller goes to Gil's bar and is given food and drink.  Miss Jackson comes in to try and get Janna to cast a spell to bring a married man to fall in love with her.  Janna refuses and Miss Jackson  threatens to expose her as a witch.  Gil offers a spell instead.  This results in the man coming to Miss Jackson, but his wife follows and it is implied that she sets the tavern on fire...solid story.

The Alchemy of Alcohol by Seana McGuire - This is probably my favorite story in this collection.  It combines the world of fae, science, cooking, potion making AND includes two very yummy drink recipes.  The Summer King brings The Winter Queen to be woken early so she can help battle her obnoxious sister.  Furniture, drinks and magic fly in this fabulous story.

Forbidden by Avery Shade -  A woman from the future comes to the present to collect genetic samples.  She comes from a place where individuality and extremes have been eliminated leading to a bland and safe existence.  With the help of a chat with Gil and some experience in the bar she decides to stay and live a full...if possibly unsafe life.

I really enjoyed all the variety this collection had to offer.  I also like the common thread running through them all, kind of like reading a complete story with little tales tucked inside.  I am now going to join my friends for a drink and create our own stories.  I give this collection 7 out of 10 magic elixirs and recommend it to anybody who likes a great ale tale.  Happy Reading Everybody!

You Must Allow Me To Tell You How Ardently I Admire And Love You

Hola Readers!  Time for some more Jane Austen and today I get to ramble about my favorite of her books, Pride and Prejudice.  This was the first Austen book I read and to this day it is still my favorite, especially when I remember the era it was written in.  It is the most retold of all the Austen novels and I'm just gonna jump right in.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

I'm gonna try and keep this brief as there are a zillion sources for really cohesive synopsis...or of course you could just read it.  We open with the news that the Netherfield Manor has been rented by a man of considerable fortune, a Mr. Bingley.  This news allows us to get acquainted with all the Bennet family, who are the main players in the family.  Jane, the eldest daughter is all sweetness and kindness with a beauty to match.  Our girl Elizabeth is smart, fiery and not unattractive.  Mary, moral and scholarly, Kitty a kind of petty and bland follower.  The youngest is Lydia, spoiled, selfish and clueless.  The five girls live with their mother, the over the top, yet very loving Mrs. Bennet, and their father, the calm and detached Mr. Bennet.  The girls are introduced to Mr. Bingley, his two sisters and his friend the soon to be infamous Mr. Darcy at a local ball.  Mr. Bingley is charming and already half in love with Jane, but Mr. Darcy is proud, arrogant and makes the mistake of snubbing Elizabeth, leading the family and the town in general to dislike him.  Jane continues to be a favorite of Mr. Bingley and is invited by his sisters for dinner.  At Netherfield, Jane catches a bad cold and is forced to stay. Elizabeth goes to stay with her and consequently spends time with the family.   Mr. Darcy finds himself intrigued by the spirited Elizabeth, while Mr. Bingley's sisters...especially Caroline...the single one are not as thrilled to find themselves in competition with her fine eyes.  Meanwhile the militia has come to reside in town, bringing with it the dashing and charming Mr. Wickham.  Wickham has the prior acquaintance of Mr. Darcy and regales Elizabeth with the details of his abuse at the hands of said gentleman.  This further colors Elizabeth's bad opinion of Mr. Darcy.  Bingley holds a ball at Netherfield where it is evident that he is very much in love with Jane, and that Jane feels the same.  Unfortunately the rest of the Bennet family (excepting Elizabeth) acts in a very un mannerly way.  A few days later word comes that the family has left Netherfield for London and has no idea when...or if they will come back.  Amidst this chaos, Mr. Collins, a nephew of Mr. Bennet comes to stay with the family. Mr. Collins is ridiculous, simpering and completely unaware.  He is also the fortunate clergyman of the formidable Lady de Bourgh...who takes an undue interest in him and his house.  He comes with the intention of marrying one of the girls, as when Mr. Bennet dies the whole of Longbourn estated (the Bennet family home) will go to him due to an entail.  He chooses Elizabeth, who wisely refuses him based on so many factors.  He does not take the rejection well and ends up at Lucas Lodge, the home of Charlotte Lucas, a friend of Elizabeth's.  He "falls in love" with Charlotte and the two are married.  Jane goes to London to try and recover her spirits at the loss of Mr. Bingley.  Elizabeth travels to visit with Charlotte after her marriage.  While there Elizabeth meets the Lady de Bourgh, who turns out not only to be Mr. Darcy's aunt, but hints that her sickly daughter is intended as his bride.  At some point during her stay, Mr. Darcy and his cousin come to stay with Lady de Bourgh and Elizabeth and he once again are thrown together.  Mr. Darcy comes to Elizabeth and his famous proposal was made.  Elizabeth's equally famous rejection is given.  Mr. Darcy
delivers a letter or Elizabeth addressing her accusations of him separating Mr. Bingley and Jane, and the bad stuff he did to Mr. Wickham.   He cops to separating the couple based on his being convinced that she did not really love him, also on the complete and utter lack of propriety shown by most of her family.  As far as Mr. Wickham goes...well let's just say he was a very bad boy and is lucky that Mr. Darcy didn't do more to utterly destroy him.   Ok moving on (we are only halfway through...)  Elizabeth returns home to the news that the militia....including Mr. Wickham are to be moved to the sea town of Brighton.  Lydia is desperate to go, as they are essentially her whole source of entertainment.  For once Mr. Bennet denies his wife and daughter and staunchly opposes the deal.  Lydia however is given another chance when she is invited specifically by one of the officers wives.  Though Elizabeth begs her father not to let her go, he gives his consent.  Elizabeth's aunt and uncle take her on a trip to visit the county of Derbyshire...which just happens to contain the famous Pemberly, of which Mr. Darcy is master.  After learning that the family is gone for the summer, the trio decide to visit it.  Of course since this is a book....Mr. Darcy comes home early much to the embarrassment of Elizabeth.  Mr. Darcy surprises everybody by acting the perfect gentleman.  He comes and visits Elizabeth, bringing with him his sister and Mr. Bingley.  A couple of visits shows us that Mr. Darcy still has feelings for Elizabeth, and she finds herself warming to this improved Mr. Darcy.  Of course we need some sort of drama so Elizabeth receives a couple of letters from Jane.  They detail the saga of Lydia and her potential elopement with Mr. Wickham...then further news comes that they are somewhere in London most definitely not married.  Elizabeth tells Mr. Darcy the news then goes home with her aunt and uncle to deal with the crisis.  After much ado word comes that Lydia and Wickham are finally married and to be sent up North.  The pair stop by Longbourn on their way North and Lydia lets it slip that Mr. Darcy was the reason for their marriage. This of course just adds to Elizabeth's growing love.  The Bennet family is surprised to receive a visit from the Lady de Bourgh.  She pulls Elizabeth aside with the intent of securing a promise from her to never marry Mr. Darcy...to which Elizabeth pretty much just laughs.  Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley come back to Netherfield.  Mr. Bingley immediately renews his attentions to Jane, resulting in an engagement.  Shortly after, Mr. Darcy feels out Elizabeth and finding her own feelings changed to a much more loving tone also proposes.  The girls get married to their men, continue to take care of their families and live ever after.   Whew...sorry....that was really long.

World Building - This story is set in 17th century England, mostly in the countryside.  It is what most people consider historical fiction...except it wasn't written as historical fiction...so it's just fiction.  Anyways.  Mereton, Longbourn, Kent, Rosing Park, Pemberly, Netherfield, all of these places have been created so well that many people think that they are real.  I find it interesting that the author mixes real places (England, London, various counties) and places of complete and utter fiction (see above).  The seamlessness of these two types of places just adds to the overall completeness off the world.  Not bad for world building.

Story - As always, Ms. Austen likes to have multiple threads of story, usually all culminating together.  I like how at first glance there seems to be several disparate story lines, but by the end of the book we see how they are all connected.  While there are several slightly overly convenient moments, overall the story actually makes some sort of sense.  The various storylines keep it from being to simple or boring and it is markedly different from the authors previous work.  Also...I have just always really loved this story...so yeah...awesome.

Character - Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are by far the most dynamic of characters, with both of them going through legit changes in opinion and belief.  The rest of the characters are a bit one note.  A few of them show some growth or layers, but for the most part any non Elizabeth/Darcy character seems written to illustrate a certain point or characteristic.  The other four sisters embody either a virtue (Jane - beauty and goodness) or a flaw (Lydia wild and reckless).  Mr. Collins is the foolish suck up, Caroline is petty and jealous...so on and so forth.  The two saving graces of characterization for me is a) the two main characters do go through significant change and b) with the plethora of characters in this book the one noteness is not as apparent as we do not spend an inordinate amount of time with anybody but our main duo. So Ok on Character.

Editing - For as huge (apx 375 pages depending on the edition) as this book is, it flows really well and even the first time through I read it pretty quickly.  This tells me that I did not need to spend time going back and forth or trying to remember who or what was going on.  It also helps that all the story and character threads are being continually tied together to make a tapestry of a book.  Good job.

Love Stories - I love the variety of ways to "fall in love" that are shown in this book. We have "prudent love" in which Charlotte Lucas marries Mr. Collins in a bid to make a comfortable home for herself in a very practical manner.  "Puppy love" in which Lydia throws herself in the arms of Wickham deciding it to be true love in a moment.  Jane and Bingley give us pure and innocent romantic love that just makes us smile.  "Uneven love" in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet is a warning against a mismatched pairing.  Of course we have the piece de resistance in Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.  This is my kind of love story, they start of with a dislike of each other and both form an opinion on very little information.  Over the course of the book they learn to communicate and accept new information about each other.  The biggest part of this developing relationship is the ability of both parties to admit where they are wrong and grow from it without losing who they are.  I think this is why I love this book so much.

Upper Class - This book is most defiantly about the upper class.  I think the militia and maybe Mr. Collins are the lowest "class" of citizens in this book and none of them are suffering.  The vast majority of the characters have no actual occupation other then some vague business having to do with their estates.  The few who do work are intellectuals or sermon givers, and none of them do any real sort of manual labor.  I guess it could be said that the militia could potentially go to war, but the general feeling was of men at leisure for the most part.  This is all and well and works for the story, but probably leaves a dimension out.

Adaptability - One of my favorite things about this book i the adaptability of it.  I have seen and read a bunch of versions of this story and have loved many of them (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies anybody?).  The movies are hit or miss with of course the BBC version being the best (and also 6 hours long), but I have to admit I'm a bit in love with Bride and Prejudice a Bollywood version of the book that just makes me happy.  I love a story that can be set in many times and places and I am open to any suggestions.

Overall Impression - I think it's pretty clear that I very much love this book.  It is one that goes on my favorites shelf and has such great readability I don't think I will ever get tired of it.  I give it 10 out of 10 pianofortes and recommend it to anybody who wants a solid classic story, characters to fall in love and hate with and a world to become completely immersed.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Book Beyond Imagination

Hola Readers!  Who's ready for another rambling?  I am YAY!  Today let's ramble about...The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers.  It is part of his Zamonia series but can be read as a stand alone like I did.  I think this one was recommended to me by my baby sis...which is always a good thing.  Let me tell you people this book hit all my literary emotions.  It was not at all what I expected in a very very very good way. What the heck do I mean?  I'll tell you, but first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

First of all, let me just warn you that I am not going to be able to get a billionth of this book into the synopsis 'cause every page, every word is dripping with meaning and story and well...yeah.  So instead I'm gonna try and just give you enough of an outline to not be too lost, but seriously you just should go read it. Our story is narrated by Optimus Yarnspinner, a Lindworm (a being that resembles a dinosaur) from the fabled Lindworm Castle, home to many a worthy author.  Optimus has just lost his authorial godfather Dancealot and has set out on a quest to find the author of a fantastic manuscript left to him.  This manuscript has the ability to run the reader through every emotion known to living beings and yet it has not been published.  To find this mysterious author, Optimus heads to Bookholm which is essentially a city devoted to all things books.  It is filled with book sellers, book binders, book publishers, cafe's with book themes, literary music, ink, pens whatever you can possibly relate to books you will find in Bookholm (kind of like my blog lol).  Upon arrival Optimus is thrust into an adventure that any book hero would envy.  He starts by showing his book to a couple of very interesting book vendors in the hope that they will recognize it.  This leads him to various other places and to aquiring the book The Catacombs of Bookholm by the famous Book Hunter Colophonius Regenschein and we as the readers learn along with Optimus all about the catacombs of Bookholm.  Optimus is finally directed to Pfistomel Smyke a collector of the rare book brought up from the catacombs and also a kind of literary scientist.  He turns out to be one nasty dude and after reading the manuscript reveals his nefarious plan to Optimus.  Smyke's whole goal in life is to essentially turn all art mediocre, to eliminate any greatness and essentially control everything.  To this end he drugs Optimus and traps him in the catacombs beneath Bookholm...and this is where his adventure really starts.  Optimus uses the knowledge he aquired to try and traverse the catacombs, but disaster keeps befalling him.  After several misadventures he is rescued by the not so malicious

Booklings, who despite their fearsome reputation, choose to care for Optimus.  They show Optimus many of the safer wonders of the catacombs and inspire him with their dedication to memorizing all the works of all the authors.  Tragedy strikes when an unusual alliance of Book Hunters finds the Booklings Grotto and destroy it along with killing many of the Booklings.  Optimus is shoved into a bookshelf contraption and sent spinning through the catacombs to more adventures.  He eventually ends up in the Hall of the Shadow King, a mysterious character that plays a part in almost all the scary tales of the Underworld of Bookholm.  After even more adventures (are you sensing a theme here?) we finally get the Shadow Kings story.  Turns out that he is the author of the fantastic manuscript, but that it was also his downfall.  The Shadow King started out life as a human who had the misfortune of running into Smyke, who of course could not stand the idea of such great art outside of his control.  Smyke then used many arcane techniques and wondrous supplies to turn the human into what is now the Shadow King.  He was made to be pretty much immortal, strong, smart, literary and unable to ever enter sun or moon light on the dire consequence of bursting into flame.  More conversation and writing and adventuring and book stuff and Optimus and the Shadow King decide to go back up to the surface regardless of the consequences.  They face down a hoard of Book Hunters, discover a confession and will and finally confront Smyke.  The Shadow King allows himself to catch on fire, burning down a good portion of Bookhom and Optimus escapes, inspired finally to write his first masterpiece.  This does not even BEGIN to remotely tell the rich and full story of this insanely wonderful world...but then short of reading the book, I don' think anybody could do it justice.

World Building - This book is set in the fictional world of Zamonia...which I cannot wait to read more of!  We got to visit Bookholm and the insane amount of detail was just fantastic!  I felt like I could find myself in any section of this city and know exactly where I am.  It felt whole and complete and layered.  There were customs, cultures, rules, consequences, legends, language, all in abundant variety.  There were notes that added to the depth of this world and for having so much shoved into one book, the world was not confusing in the least. I loved the little touches, like the cafe's with the literary inspired treats, or the various parts of the city dedicated to different area's of the book process.  It was just so full in a good way, it felt almost endless, like there was always another nook or crany or passageway to explore, new treasures to find, so cool.   Again this is just one part of whole world and this one book has made me very eager to explore the rest of it...such amazing world building.

Story - The story was whole and complete.  It had a beginning, middle and end.  It was in some ways your typical adventure story, but more along the lines of an epic saga like Beowulf with many small adventures, meetings and incidents adding to the whole adventure.  The story had a fairly classic structure with a lot of original ideas, giving the reader the comfort of structure and the thrill of discovery, very cool story.

Character - Variety is the word I think best describes the characters in this book.  In this book we see so many species (Lindworms, Booklings, Uggly's, Spinxxx and so many many many more), characters from different backgrounds, classes, shapes, sizes, needs, modes.  Again you would think that this would detract from actual character development, but I found that the characters that mattered where very fully formed and all the other characters added some delicious flavor.  Yay characters.

Editing - I'm shocked at how well this book is edited.  Again (are we getting sick of me saying this yet?)  it is just stuffed full of so many things that it should feel cluttered or choppy or overly long...but...it doesn't.  I found myself reading every single word, trying to absorb as much of the literary goodness that I could.  It was a page turner and I had very few complaints about the pacing.  Not sure how this happened, if the author is just that amazing, or his relationship with his editor is that good or some combination, but epic editing.

Book Lovers Dream - This book was written for lovers of the written word.  The language, the setting, the story, everything about it seems tailored to bibliophiles.  I seriously want to go wander into one of the bookshops and get me a stack of books, curl up in a cafe with a cup of Midnight Oil Espresso and a Book pastry and read my brains out.  The amount of literariness that has been poured into the book makes me feel like the author loves books and all things literary as much as I do.  It is finally a book about books that doesn't drive me nuts.  It is not just about reading books either, it is about how they are written, how they are published, the materials, the variety and the idea that there are types of books we can only imagine out there somewhere if we can just look hard enough.

Wordplay - If forced to choose a favorite component about this book, I would say it is the language.  The author uses a MASSIVE variety of words....and if there was no human word that was sufficient, he made one up and attributed it to one of his zillions of non human races.  On top of that the author would constantly list numerous books and their authors...I kept waiting for this to get annoying...but somehow it worked perfectly with the story.  To make it even better, he cleverly disguised some famous authors by anagraming their names.  For example:  Selwi Rollcar = Lewis Carroll, Aliesha Wimperslake = William Shakespeare, so very cool.  I love words, and when an author uses them correctly it just makes my little literary heart go pitter patter.

Not What I Thought - So to be honest I wasn't 100% sure what I was getting into when I started this book.  From the description and the titles of the authors other books in the series I thought it might be a kids book.  Then the illustrations and mostly almost silly animalistic characteristics of most of the characters led to me thinking it might be a light hearted tale....Nope.  This is definitely a book for at the very least older kids.  There is violence (so much violence), betrayal, complex ideas...not a book for 7 year old.  It was great though and the juxtaposition (sorry this book makes me pull out my big girl words) of the simple illustrations, the fun characters and the adult writing were very original and a great read.

Overall Impression - Ok, so I don't think I have been able to impart even a tenth of what I want to about this book.  In the end all I can say is that it is an experience, and one I think anybody who loves books should have.  I give this book 9 out of 10 Animatomes and really encourage every book reader to pick it up....even if it's just to figure out what the heck I'm talking about.  Happy Reading Everybody!!! 

Firebird Once More

Hi Readers, here I am with promised rambling.  I'm excited to finally get back to it!!!!!   Ok so today let's ramble about Firebirds Soaring edited by Sharyn November, the last in the trilogy of Firebird short story collections.  As with the previous two installations, this book contains a wide variety of short stories in what we now call speculative fiction...which is essentially an encompassing genre that includes all manner of sci fi, fantasy and all the wonderful gray areas in between.  Here are a couple...well more then a couple of my favorites in this collection.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Kingmaker by Nancy Springer - This opening short story shows us a young woman who is desperate to keep a potentially bad ruler off the throne.  She stumbles upon an object that will not only allow her to keep said baddie away, but potentially rule the world herself.  She realizes this is not the way and takes the hard route instead.  A lot of story is packed in these few pages but it feels complete...like and old school tale you tell the young warriors around the camp fire.

Egg Magic by Louise Marley - I always love a magic story that involves either everyday items or everyday jobs.  This story hits the spot telling us about a girl, her hens, their sometimes magic eggs, a wild magic mother and the need to figure out how to fit in with a life not of her choosing.  I really like the mix of domesticness and magic in this story.

Flatland by Kara Dalkey - Set in the future, kids/teenagers are recruited right out of school by huge companies to essentially live/eat/sleep/breath work.  These kids get paid, room and board and access to all kinds of services in return for almost around the clock computer work.  Our girl is essentially told to go on vacation, here through various means she realizes how much she misses actually having a life, breathing fresh air and just having time to herself.  This is a very for the moment story that explores the new way people work, having the means to always be connected to work is not always the best thing.

Ferryman by Margo Lanagan - The tale is short, sad yet awesome.  We get to see the daily life of Charon as his wife and daughter make him lunch, bring it to him, almost making the ferryman of the dead a regular working stiff...until he falls into the river and becomes a real stiff.  Although very sad...I don't know...I really really liked this story.

The Ghosts of Strangers by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - This is more of a novella then a short story, but it was epic.  In this world the people of the village have a deal with the dragons.  We learn that when the human bond mate of a dragon dies, he/she has the option of being fed to their dragon and become part of the dragon.  We follow our heroin as she has a special gift of being able to see and capture ghosts which she then feeds the dragons.  Awesome story and now I want to see if it ever got expanded to novel form.

Three Twilight Tales by Jo Walton - Not a lot to say about these other then they read as pure magic.  To me this type of dream land story telling is exactly what the short story format is all about.  There are three tales all interwoven and beautiful and just wonderful.

The Dignity He's Due by Carol Emshwiller - A mom, her daughter and her son wander through out the state, never settling down.  Mom is convinced that her son is really a long lost Prince and treats him accordingly.  Sister is just trying to make some sort of life for them.  This story really gets to me as it shows us how easily the line between reality and fantasy can be blurred.  It also shows us the importance of family and how anybody can be their for anybody else.

I'm kind of sad that this series is over.  I have found many many many new stories, authors and books from these three collections.  However I am glad to have had the chance to discover and read all these gems.  I recommend this collection to anybody who likes a good story and I give it 8 out of 10 kitsune.  Happy Reading Everybody!

"Know Your Own Happiness"

Finally finished my first Jane Austen book of the great reread!  It took me a while mostly 'cause the weather was being dumb and when the weather would cooperate I was on an ambulance keeping people alive.  Anyways a couple of nice days with some free time and I've finished Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.  Are we ready for my thoughts on this first novel by our famous lady?  But first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

I'm not gonna go into a ton of detail as full on synopsis are available in a zillion places, but here is the bare bones gist.  Our story centers on the Dashwood women.  We have Mrs. Dashwood, the widowed second wife of a gentleman.  She has three daughters, the sensible Elinor, the passionate Marianne and the young Margaret.  Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters must find a new living under diminished means after the late Mr. Dashwoods son from his first marriage inherits almost all of his assets.  The ladies are fortunate enough to be offered a cottage by a distant relation, Sir John Middleton and his wife.  Though much less the they are used to, the women find a way to get comfortable.  Elinor is stoically nursing a secret attachment to her brother's wife's brother...that makes sense right?  Anyways the gentleman in question is Edward Ferrars, who is even more stoic and controlled then Elinor.  Unfortunately for our stalwart couple, his mother and sister are set against any marriage that does not improve the family fortune.  The family is continually invited to the main house of the Middleton's where they make the acquaintance of Colonel Brandon, a man out of his 20's who very much admires Marianne and her free spirit.  She of course being young and wild does not consider the man a true prospect.  While out exploring her new surroundings, Marianne falls and injures her ankle and is rescued by the dashing young Willoughby.  With what feels to Elinor a lack of propriety the pair begin a very obvious flirtation, spending as much time together as humanly possible.  One day at a party headed by Colonel Brandon, he is suddenly called away on urgent business.  Elinore learns from the effusive Mrs. Jennings (Sir John's mother-in-law) that the Colonel has a tragic past that involved a young free spirited girl that he was not allowed to marry, leading to the young woman landing in very dire straights.  Not much later Willoughby with an apparent sudden change of heart bids farewll to the Dashwoods in a very abrupt and painful manner, leaving Marianne a not so happy creature.  Meanwhile two young lady's by the name of Ann and Lucy Steele have taken up residence with Sir John and his family.  Elinor is taken into the confidence of Lucy and is informed that Lucy has been engaged to Edward for several years.  The engagement has been kept a secret as his mother would not be pleased to see her eldest son wed to such a low person.  Marianne and Elinor are invited to London by Mrs. Jennings and they agree to go.  Upon arrival Marianne promptly does her best to get in touch with Willoughby to no avail.  The Steeles also arrive to plague Elinor with Lucy's continual talk of her engagement.  Marianne eventually gets to see Willoughby, but he is very cold and very formal with her.  This is followed by a letter letting her know in no uncertain terms that there is nothing between them.  Marianne is devastated and succumbs to a crippling emotional melancholy.  Colonel Brandon arrives soon after to tell Elinor that the reason he and Willoughby left was because Willoughby and seduced, impregnated and then abandoned Colonel Brandon's ward.  After much back and forth, it finally comes out to Edward's mother and sister of his engagement to Lucy...and it does not go well.  He is essentially disinherited in favor of his younger brother, but Edward shows his true colors by refusing to break of he engament just for the sake of money (good job Edward).  Elinor is resigned that he should follow his honor instead of his heart and prepares herself to live with the idea of him married to Lucy.  The Dashwood sisters start their journey home, but are stalled when Marianne falls very ill.  She is tended by Elinor, Colonel Brandon and eventually her mother. At some point Willoughby comes to seek if not forgiveness, then at least understanding.  Mariann starts to recover and they head home with Mariann being clamer and wiser for her illness.  Upon arrival they are greeted with the news of Lucy becoming Mrs. Ferrars.  Everybody believes that Edward and Lucy married...until Edward shows up to refute that idea.  Apparently after shifting the inheritance to Edward's brother, Lucy found she preferred him and left Edward.  This has the happy consequence of allowing Edward to follow his heart to Elinor, who agree's to be his wife.  They soon marry.  Marianne eventually grows to love the Colonel who has stayed by her through thick and thin and also finds happiness.  Everybody gets what they deserve, learn to be better people and live mostly happily ever after.

World Building - Set in the late 1700's in various parts of England, this at the time could be considered contemporary.  Of course we all now think of it as historical fiction...but yeah.  Anyways, the author does a good job of setting the various scene's, making us feel like we are in the various locations and really really making me want to visit 18th century England.  I always feel like I could walk the streets or parks or paths of whatever place the characters happen to be.  One of my favorite things about this author.  In this book in particular I am always enamored with Barton Cottage and the surrounding areas.

Story - With the exception of a few overly convenient plot points, the story is very well done.  We have the weaving of several story lines, a bunch of characters and a setting the brings everything together in a fairly believable fashion.  This is one of the more full on romantic of this authors novels, focusing mostly on the love lives of the main characters, but so many other things are also taken into consideration.  The ability of the author to balance romance, everyday living, practicality, humor, pathos and every other literary thing is pretty awesome.  It is even cooler when I remember that this was at the time a contemporary novel so it was written for the time, and yet still resonates now.

Character - The varied and complex characters are for me what really make a Jane Austen novel.  She has the ability to create characters that at first glance seem to be stock or even extreme, but as the novel goes on we notice nuance and growth for almost every single character.  Take the two main characters for example.  Elinor is portrayed as stoic and sensible.  This is mostly a good thing, but we see where her inability to share her feelings with the people she loves leads to miscommunication.  Marianne on the other hand is overly emotional leading people to try and calm her or tame her, yet at the same time she is shown to be able to truly enjoy life in a way most people can't.  We see Mrs. Jennings as portrayed to be a well-meaning gossip, yet by the end of the book both Elinor and Marianne see that she acts with genuine love and care.  I LOVE that everybody has a motive, arc and even in most cases some sort of redeeming quality.

Editing - To me this book makes perfect sense.  Some people have a bit of difficulty with some of the language...not Shakespeare level trouble, but enough to turn some people off.  There are several editions that contain footnotes and blurbs that explain some of the more arcane language or turns of phrase.  I find this both helpful and enlightening and find it a smart editorial choice.

Love - This book is chock full of love.  Family love, sister love, friend love, but most prominently love love.  I like this book because it shows us the many ways a person can fall in and out of love.  We have Elinor and Edward who take there time and fall in love with the whole person.  They also suffer because they are both stoic and honorable and are constantly giving each other up for various noble reasons...I'm just glad they finally got together.  Marianne shows us violent young love that does not wait for true knowledge of the other person, but rather falls in love with idea's and circumstances.  Marianne's later acknowledgement and acceptance of the slower, deeper, yet way less passionate love of Colonel Brandon shows a maturity in here way of thinking.  Lucy Steele shows us a more selfish and catty love as she attaches only to improve her station AND to make people (mostly Elinor) feel bad.  Willoughby's flirtations, seductions, abandonment's and finally marrying for money show us the worst of immature love where one only loves to gratify ones own feelings.  By exploring the various kinds of love and their consequences I feel like every teenager regardless of gender/identity should read this book to get an idea of the craziness that is what we call love.

Humor - When one talks about classics or even more specifically Jane Austen one does not necessarily think of humor.  I will probably address this again, as it is one of my favorite things about Austen's style, but let's start here.  Ms. Austen has a very subtle tongue in cheek style that can catch one of guard if you are not paying attention.  There is more then one occasion when I have laughed out loud at a turn of phrase or a well placed pun.  Also certain characters (the elder Ms. Steele and Charlotte Palmer comes to mind) that seemed to be placed in the book for comic relief.  It is this well roundedness that adds a lot to the overall reading experience.

 Ages - This is just a bit of a personal thing for me.  I know that the era that this was written in was vastly different then ours is now...but still.  In this book in particular, the ages of the girls who are looking to be married are very young, like 17 years old young.  In this book Marianne, who is 17 marries the 36 year old Colonel Brandon...who has a 15 year old female ward...who has a baby of her own...so essentially he married a girl who is the same age as his adopted daughter and made her an instant grandmother...kinda ew...and I like Colonel Brandon...but ew...and apparently lots of ellipses...Anyways.  I know there are probably worse things, and that the age difference still happens today and there are many happy couples who have a significant age difference.  I think it's the idea of a 17 year old grandmother that really gets to me...so...yeah.

Overall Impression - This first novel of my beloved Jane Austen does not disappoint.  I love the complicatedness of it, I love the humaness of it, I love the eloquance of it, I don't love the overly convenient plot fixes...but that is minor compared to the awesomeness of this debut novel.  I give it 8 out of 10 painted screens and recommend it to anybody who wants a great story, loves a classic or is looking for a non vomit inducing romance.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Duty Heart Power

Hola Readers, I've just come off of 60 hours straight so if today's rambling is a wee bit incoherent...well let's blame it on that shall we?  Today I'm gonna ramble about Eona by Alison Goodman.  This is the sequel to the amazing and awesome Eon, which I absolutely loved.  In fact I had to run out buy and read the sequel ignoring my already overwhelming TBR pile.  How did the second book stack up?  Let's find out, but first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

We catch up with our favorite Dragoneye Eona as she is on the run from Sethon, the usurper Emperor.  She is with the Contraire Dela and her body guard Ryko.  Ryko was brutally injured in the previous book and at the behest of Dela, Eona tries to use her dragon power to heal him.  While in the dragon realm, Eona is attacked by the bereaved dragons of the other 10 slaughtered Dragoneyes. The attacking dragon are held off by unexpected help from Ido, the only other Dragoneye and his Rat Dragon.  Eona manages to heal Ryko, but the dragon battle that ensued, destroyed the village, killing many innocent people.  The other consequence of the healing is that Eona now has a connection to Ryko allowing her to use and control him.  There is a bunch of traveling and sneaking and Ryko being understandably pissed.  The group finally meets up with the young, true Emperor Kygo.  Eona and Kygo share a moment and Eona discovers that she has an insatiable urge to rip the Imperial Pearl from Kygo's throat...which would kill him.  More traveling and the group meets up with various resistance groups and Kygo makes Eona his Naiso, which essentially is the only person allowed to treat the Emperor like a human.  The Naiso is expected to speak hard truths to the Emperor without fear of reprisal.  Kygo is injured and Eona assists the physician in healing him using non-dragon power medicine.  Eona is summoned and in a very disturbing scene is forced to control Ryko to prove that she did not use her healing/control powers on Kygo.  Eona is upset that Kygo did not trust her word and one of the first of many lover vs tool fights takes place.  Eona and Kygo both have a hard time balancing their personal feelings vs their duty to the country.  Meanwhile Eona convinces Kygo that they need to rescue Ido from Sethon as he is the only person who can train her to use her powers. The rescue happens and Eona's training begins.  Since she used her power to heal him, Eona can control Ido, but has to use a more sensual compulsion that leads to some confusing feelings.  The group continues to travel and Eona is reunited with a mother she hasn't seen since she was sold at the age of six.  All through out this, Dela has been working on decoding the red folio that was left 500 years ago by Eona's ancesteor and the last Mirror Dragoneye, Kinra.  Eona knows just from the rage filled swords that Kinra had a huge part in why the Mirror Dragon disappeared. We discover that Kinra was the lover of the Emperor, but really loved the Rat Dragoneye.  We also find out that she was executed as a traitor for trying to rip out the Imperial Pearl from the Emperor's throat.  Eona uses her compulsion of Ido to bring the black folio and the binding power it contains to her.  She gives it Kygo as a huge sign of trust as the folio can use royal blood to bind the Dragoneye's power.  Kygo is greatful and it seems the two lovebirds are starting to figure stuff out. Eventually enough of the folio's are decoded for Eona to finally discover the truth of the dragons.  It seems that the Imperial Pearl is actually the egg of renewal that the dragons need to regenerate.  The original Dragoneyes stole it and bound the dragons with it.  Kinra learned the truth and tried to free them and was executed for her trouble.   Unfortunatly, Eona is taken prisoner by Sethon after they are betrayed by Kygo's trusted general.  Sethon uses his blood to bind Eona, and cause Kygo, Ido, Dela and Ryko to be captured. Sethon removes Kygo's pearl, leaving him to bleed out.  Eona uses the distraction of the pain of sewing the pearl into his throat to break free of Sethon's control.  Ryko gives his life so that Eona can take down Sethon.  Sethon is killed and Kygo is healed by Eona.  She then goes to give the pearl to the dragons so that they can regenerate and be free.  Ido however is not so into giving up the power and tries to get Eona to instead bind the dragons with the black folio for the ultimate power.  She refuses and Ido morally wounds Kygo, making her choose to either free the dragons and lose Kygo, the love of her life or to bind the dragons with him for the ultimate power and save Kygo.  After a moment of angst, she chooses to free the dragons.  Ido is killed and Kygo is looking to be in pretty bad shape.  The dragons go through a pretty cool renewal ritual and the young reborn dragons leave the Empire.  The new Mirror Dragon however seems to retain some memory of Eona and her gift of freedom and heals Kygo before leaving.  Kygo and Eona head home to clean up the pieces of the broken and now dragonless Empire.  Whew that was really long and not even remotely close to everything that happened...but you get the gist.

World Building - This book continued on the world building of the first book.  In this book we leave the city and the palace and move into the poorer outlying areas of the Empire.  We get to learn more customs, beliefs and other tidbits that continue to make this world feel very complete.  I appreciated the level of detailed that was very artfully slipped into almost every encounter, giving us an even more complete picture of the world this book is set in.  I found that although the main theme of the world is an Asian style medieval type world, that the author definitely incorporated some very original and varied pieces to differentiate this world from a carbon copy of any real country.

Story - Compared to the last book, I felt that this story was a little bit slow/cluttered.  I felt like we focused a lot more on Eona and her feelings and angst instead of the story as a whole.  There was a lot of traveling, a lot of introspection and a lot of things that felt repetitive.  I also wanted to get to the story of Kinra a lot sooner, I felt that knowing more would have given the story a bit more direction.  That being said this book did deliver on the previous books premise AND the story actually wrapped up in a very coherent way.  I'm not sure if I am sad or happy about the dragons leaving.  One one hand, it's pretty gutsy to so definitively end the books with the removal of the main conceit of the books...on the other hand no more dragons WAHHHH!  Overall not as compelling as the first story, but still well done.

Character - The development of characters in this book was vastly different then in the first book.  In the last book it was all about finding yourself and being true to yourself.  In this book it seemed to be more about how people responded to different situations.  Unfortunately I found myself liking some of the previous characters less in this book then in the last one.  We did meet a couple new characters that added some depth to the group and for the most part the characters stayed true to the way they were written.  Nobody really did anything out of character just for plot development, and every character had motivation, a story and presence so good job on the characters.

Editing - Editing was well done.  Again as with the last book multiple story lines were abundant, yet meshed together in a wholly readable way.  This book may have been a tad too long, a bit of paring down on some of the introspection and the repetitiveness would have been welcome, but overall very readable, very understandable good job.

Duty, Heart, Power - Along with being the title of this post, I feel like a lot of what was going on in this book was people trying to make choices based on these three things.  Eona especially spent a lot of time in the book trying to walk the line between these three.  She felt a duty to her country, her family and friends and her dragon...but sometimes these various duties did not align and doing her duty to one would make it impossible to do her duty to another.  She was constantly tempted with power, while at the same time being used, or people trying to use her to gain their own power.  Finally she had to try and learn when to listen to her own needs, what her heart wanted and weather or not it was compatible with her duty or her need.  Pretty much any time characters interacted with each other one or more of these three things came into play, and the choices that were made were based on what each character choose to make important.  Ido was constantly seeking power and most of his choices were skewed by this view point.  Dela and Ryko clashed constantly as Dela want to follow her heart, yet Ryko insisted on putting duty first...even if it hurt Dela.  Eona and Kygo were constantly struggling with all three as they both wanted/needed power to accomplish their goals, were in love with each other, but understood that their duty to everything else needed to come first.

Love Triangle - This book brought us the dreaded love triangle.  In some ways the triangle at least made sense.  Eona was the only person that Kygo felt was on his level and the trauma of their experiences together made them a natural pair.  Eona's control of Ido brought her into very intimate contact with him on many levels, coupled with the fact that he represented something very different from Kygo also made sense.  Unfortunately it came off a little juvenile for my taste.  Considering everything that was going on and everything that was at stake, a lot of Eona's angst came from dwelling on all the little stupid stuff.  Her musings about Kygo especially drove me nuts as she would dwell on the tiniest little things...It is actually pretty accurate for how it goes down in real life, but reading about it was kind of obnoxious...especially when there was so much other info I wanted.  It's not that the romance was a bad thing...I just wanted a little less of it.

Kinra - I both loved and hated the Kinra aspect of this book.  We were set up a bit for it in the first book when we learned that Eona's ancestor was the last Mirror Dragoneye, that she imbibed her swords with her anger and then wrote the red folio.  I assumed that she had something to do with the disappearance of the Mirror dragon, but was both pleasantly surprised and a bit eyerolly at how it all came out.  Her discovery of how the dragons came to be enslaved and her decision to try and free them at the cost of her own life was pretty awesome.  The convenience of her being Eona's ancestor and the way she could speak to and through her was a bit to pat for my taste.  Also I think the way things were revealed was frustrating, a bit here, a flash here.  I am still not sure how she influenced Eona even when she wasn't touching her belongings.  I'm also not sure why they didn't find a new Mirror Dragoneye, or how that type of history was forgotten but...yeah.

Overall Impression - I definatly liked the first book better then this one.  However this was still a good book.  It was a fair continuation of the first book, it answered most of the questions posed in the first one and the quality of world and characters remained high.  I have a feeling I would have liked this book even more if I didn't have the near perfection of the first one to compare it too.  I give it 7 out of 10 death plaques and recommend it to everybody who has already read the first book. I am vibing this author and will be picking up some of her other stuff to read. Oh yeah, also not as into the cover of this book as much as the last one, a bit to hip/modern teen looking for my taste. Happy Reading Everybody!

Jumping The Pages

It is snowy, cold and blech outside...seems to be the perfect time to curl up with my computer, a cup of coffee and write a rambling.  Today I shall ramble on about a book that caught my eye called The Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser.  I was at the bookstore looking for a completely different book, when the cover jumped out at me...and seriously with a cover like this I pretty much had to buy it.  It ended up being a bit hit or miss for me, though it did re inspire the return of my book journal...but before we get to that, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Amy and her young mother Alexis are both in the throes of heartache.  Alexis has been dumped by her married boyfriend and Amy is experiencing the teenage angst of betrayal and embarrassment by a friend via social media.  They flee from their town in Germany to the tiny Scottish isle of Stormsay and their family home called the Lennox House.  They arrive fittingly in a storm and are greeted by the stern matriarch of the family Lady Mairead, Alexis's mother and Amy's grandmother.  They are welcomed on the condition that Amy learn how to become a book jumper.  What the heck is a book jumper?  I'm glad you asked.  You see on this little tiny isle there are two families, the Lennox family and the Macalister family.  These two clans have been responsible for hundreds of years for caring for the storylines of books.  They accomplish this by lying in a circle of standing stones, laying a book over their face then voila! they are in the book.  Amy chooses The Jungle Book as her practice book, but finds that she can easily move between stories, making friends with various characters.  Amy also discovers that she can jump into her e-reader and that she does not need to be in the standing circle to do so.  She is in a class with Betsy and William, the daughter and nephew of the current Laird of the Macalister clan.  Betsy is not a fan of Amy's, feeling she is too old to be properly trained...also she is a Lennox.  Will is cordial.  The three are taught by three guy's who are kind of monk like and are all scarred by burns.  While exploring the various literary worlds, Amy discovers that idea's are being stolen, altering the storylines in all the books in the world (yeah...we will discuss this later).  Nobody believes her, until she and Will discover the body of Sherlock Holmes in the real world.  Apparently Will would pull Sherlock out of the book to talk to him.  He vanished one day and it turns out he was murdered.  Apparently the Sherlocks in the other stories agreed to help out in the dead ones book so all was well.  The three students are taken to a place deep in the library and shown a story that explains a lot.  Apparently the Lennox family used to have a castle, but after a tussel, a fire broke out and destroyed it along with a one of a kind manuscript of a story not written down anywhere else.  The three teachers turn out to be the only characters rescued from the destroyed story and now live on the Stormstay teaching the new jumpers.  Amy discovers her mother making out with Desmond, one of the rescued book guys,  and after a bunch of angst and back and forthness learns that he is her father.  Yep, I guess when you spend most of your life on an island that only houses two families and a less then a dozen other people, you fall in love with the ageless book character...and then have a kid with him.  This helps explain why Amy is such an advanced jumper as in reality she is half fictional...yeah...anyways moving on.  We continue to go back and forth, Will and Amy fall in teenage love, accusations and suspicions fly 'cause nobody actually talks to each other and finally we figure out what is going on.  The old burned manuscript that had only fragments of pages and the three men saved had one more surprise.  Somehow the princess in the story also managed to escape the destruction and has been hibernating on the island.  She is a young, spoiled petulant thing who enchanted Will to be her Knight and jump into the stories to steal ideas.  She is trying to use these ideas to restore her story.  Once we know this we are able to piece together her story...which is not a very nice one. Most of the info finally comes from Desmond, who was the original Knight in the story.  Essentially the princess, when she get's bored, enchants a man to be her Knight, sending him out to slay a monster that is ravaging her kingdom.  The sick part is that the princess has actually turned the Knight into the monster, having him commit heinous acts, then sending him out unknowing to find the monster.  The only way to stop the monster is for the Knight to kill himself...starting the cycle all over again.  Will finds a way to stop the princess, getting himself killed in the process and Amy is able to return the idea's back to their original books.  She takes Will's body into his favorite book, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell is able to bring him back to life as a story character.  Amy spends most of her time in the books, exploring them with Will and that is how the book ends.

World Building - There is a lot of different ways to look at the world building in this book.  The island of Stormsay is fairly well realized, I could probably find my way around it if I needed to, and the atmosphere of it is complete.  The rest of it however is patchy.  I never got a full sense of the family, the history or the mechanics of the book jumping.  I felt I wanted either more information, or better merging of the different pieces of this complicated world.  I unfortunately did not get the feeling of full immersion that is the hallmark of a well built world.

Story - We have the problem of too many stories to accurately judge this category.  Some of these stories are more successful then others.  The best story in my humble opinion was the one of the ruined manuscript.  Through out the book, there are fragments given to us that make it sound like a fairly typical fairy tale, to find out that it is a pretty dark and twisted story is pretty awesome.  I feel like I did with the world building that if we had more information it would have been easier for the reader to see where all the various disparate stories tied together.  For me it was a bunch of flipping back and forth and wondering if I missed something.  In general, each story line was pretty good, they just didn't completely gel to create a whole.

Character - This book had a ton of characters in it.  Some where created just for the book and some were pulled from the literary world.  I was pretty ambivalent about most of the characters, didn't really hate any of them...but didn't really fall in love with any of them either.  For the most part, most of the characters where just there to further the story without a whole lot of personality, history or motivation.  Will, Amy and Alexis where the most formed of the characters, and I liked Will the best of those three.  Amy and Alexis where your fairly typical young mom/teenager duo that seems to be popular lately, didn't hate them, didn't love them.

Editing - So this book was translated from it's native German, which is pretty cool 'cause I love getting view points that are not typically American.  That being said, the flow of the book was not my favorite.  I felt that the there were to many storylines and not enough information.  While this is mostly on the writer, I feel an editor can maybe point out to an author that maybe the reader isn't in the author's head and needs some background, or history, or consistency for the book to work.  It isn't horrible editing, but like the rest of the categories...meh

Book Jumping - Ok, here we have one of my biggest issues with this book, and a particular literary peeve in general.  For me the overall concept of the book jumping left me with a ton of questions and very few answers, in fact it inspired me to get out my book journal again so that I could write down all my questions about book jumping.  Here are just a few thoughts I had.  Who discovered it? Why only these two families?  How diluted can the blood get?  Seriously how do these two tiny families keep track of EVERY book?  What is their purpose again?  If they are the only ones who can jump...aren't they the only ones who can mess up the story? Why are the characters aware of the jumpers?  Umm...about the timelines?  How do you turn the page?  Seriously, other then the mechanism of lying down and putting the book on your face there is not much given to us about the jumping.  I hate it when an author has a concept, especially a potentially good concept and then the execution is poor.  I understand that I will never have all the info or answers I want for things like this, and I don't always need them...I just want a concept to make sense. Since the book jumping was such a huge part of the book, I don't feel like I am wrong in wanting to know how it actually works.

Books About Getting Into Books - I have not yet found a book that has successfully executed a concept where characters from the real world can get into book worlds.  I have read some great ones that deal with elements of books in the real world, or authors or things like that, but anytime I read about a character actually getting into Wonderland, or Neverland, or Pemberly...it just does not work for me.  I think it's cause for me a good book world is complete and personal to the reader.  If you asked me to draw, or describe Pemberly and then you asked my baby sis to do the same thing, I bet you would come up with two equally valid, yet very different pictures.  So when an author tries to put a character into that world it infringes on my view of the world.  As for my own personal self, I'm always torn.  If I had the opportunity would I want to jump into a literary world, or is the bigger appeal the fact that I am completely outside of it?  Ok this is getting very philosophical and may require it's own post.

Fictional Father - After all of my mehness about the book...I have to admit I kind of liked the idea that Amy had a father that was a fictional character. Aside from the zillions of questions it brings forth, it also had the added advantage of me paring up literary characters and wondering what their offspring would be like.  I may have also had some literary fantasy's on which literary crush I would allow to father my fictional kids...

Overall Impression - Overall I feel pretty meh about the whole book.  It seemed to have a ton of stuff in it without really going anywhere.  There were moments of awesome and the concept was pretty cool, but the overall muddledness, lack of info and too many literary pet peeves made this book disappointing.  I feel that it had a lot of potential and if this author exports any other books over the pond, I will probably give her another chance 'cause I feel like she has good ideas.  I give this book 5 out of 10 inkpots and realize that other people enjoyed it more then I did which is also awesome.   Also the book cover is worth it just to have on my book shelf.   Happy Reading Everybody!

Bite Me

Hola Readers!  Who is ready for a promised rambling?  Cool, let's get to it.  Today's book is one that was given to me by one of my favorite firehouse buddy's waaaaaaay back in October.  It has been on my TBR pile since then, but various circumstances have conspired to keep pushing the book back until this last month.   The book is The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey and ended up being both exactly what I thought it was going to be, yet at the same time entirely different...As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Melanie is a just a school age girl living in a post apocalyptic world...except that her life is limited to a cell and a classroom.  Melanie it turns out is part of...a test subject group of children...(the ellipses are 'cause I don't know how else to describe them.) Anyways during the week Melanie and her classmates are taken from their individual cells and strapped into wheelchairs.  They are also masked and muzzled.  The kids are then wheeled into a classroom where various teachers teach various topics with various degrees of success.  Ms. Justineau is Melanie's favorite and is probably the most effective teacher of the bunch.  Ms. Justineau is also drawn to Melanie, feeling as if she is special in someway.  So pretty quickly we find out that the world has been ravaged by humans turned zombie and that the children are a weird mutant strain of said zombie that are being studied on the military base they are being held.  Turns out that a strain of fungal infection that has mutated from Iphigenia In Aulis (which is a real thing) has jumped species and turned humans into some form of zombie carrier for the fungal spore.  The kids that are part of this strange class are all high functioning infected group called hungriest.  Melanie is by far the smartest and most inquisitive of the group.  Dr. Caroline Cadwell is our resident mad scientist who is willing to do whatever it takes to find a cure for the infection and that includes cutting up the infected kids, using the excuse that they haven't been human since infection.  Eventually the base is over run by humans known as "junkers" that are so far uninfected humans that live off the grid.  The only people to escape are Melanie, Dr Cadwell (who had been just about to dissect Melanie), Ms. Justineau (who went to rescue Melanie), Sgt. Eddie Parks (the hard ass with a heart of gold guy in charge of this whole circus) and Kieran Gallagher ( a young and borderline idealistic soldier).  The group progresses through the landscape in the hopes of reaching the main human settelment on the British Isle called Beacon.  Along the way each member of the group has to cope with what Melanie is, a hungry that has the appearance and mannerisms of a child.  She is intelligent, able to make her own choices and yet still has the hunger for living flesh that her "hungry" counterpoints all have.   Each person deals with it in a different way.  Ms. Justineau essentially believes that she is all little girl who just has an unfortunate disease and needs to be protected.  Dr. Cadwell see's her as her ticket to scientific glory and nothing more then a case to be dissected and studied.  Sgt. Parks see's Melanie as a both an insurmountable danger and an assets and is constantly torn between both view points.  Mr. Gallagher usually just forgets that Melanie is anything more then a child.  As the motley group progresses they come across all manner of hungries.  Most of them are mindless flesh eaters, but a few seem to retain some semblance of their old humanity to varying degrees.  Eventually they end up in London and discover hungries with weird gray stalks growing from their bodies.  Turns out that eventually the fungus eats up the body and starts to grow itself to release new spores.  After much intro and extrospection (that's a word...right?) the group ends up attacked and reduced.  In the end, right before she dies, Dr. Caldwell discovers that some few humans hang on to enough humanity to reproduce and those kids who are born with the infection are much more intelligent and human like...hence Melanie.  The remenents of the group run into a strange grey wall that appears to be massive amounts of fungus stalks with seed pods that burst when set on fire.  More fighting, dying and expounding and Melanie comes to a realization.  She puts Ms. Justineau, the sole remaining human in a bio suit then proceeds to set the grey wall on fire, releasing the spores.  See, Melanie figures that the more human infected hungeries are the next generation in human evolution and started spreading the spores to hasten the process, keeping Ms. Justineau to teach the new hungry children.

World Building - The world is fairly complete, with nothing to original until we get to the gray stalk wall, which adds a bit of surreal otherworldlyness to the whole deal. It is pretty much a destroyed modern day London and surrounding areas in a slightly futuristic and destroyed vibe.  Pretty whole and complete zombie apocalypse with a fungal twist.

Story - The story was an interesting mix of run of the mill zombie with bits of originalness (I'm just making up words all over this post).  The mechanism of the zombie infection was pretty original, and I liked that it had real origins (more on that in a minute).  The real story though is Melanie and everybody's reaction to her.  I have read various thoughts on what the supposed "twist" was in the book, and I would say the ending, with Melanie essentially dooming the whole British Isle and possibly all of humanity, while still possibly saving them was perhaps the most unexpected part of the book...at least for me.

Character - One of the best and worst parts about this book is probably the characters.  On the one hand you have characters like Melanie, who is very accepting of what she is, practical and able to adapt.  She is able to understand what she is without letting it overwhelm her, which is more then I can say for many adults.  On the other hand most of the other characters come across and pretty stock.  We have our mad scientist ho is willing to go way to far in the name of science.  The sweet teacher with a past that just wants to love the poor abandon child, the super gruff with a hidden heart of gold soldier...etc...That being said, even with the...tropieness of most of the characters, I still found myself engrossed in their story and sympathizing with most of them...so...yeah.

Editing - For the most part the editing was fairly decent.  The story moved forward and mostly made sense.  The chapters skipped around with different view points, which for the most part was pretty cool as we didn't only see the story from one perspective.  Every once in a while the transition between chapters was a bit jarring, but mostly it was pretty readable.

The Fungus - Ok, so my logical brain both loved and hated the explanation for the zombie plague.  On one hand the idea that the infection stemmed from a real fungus that really does turn living

creatures (albeit ant's) into fairly legit zombies is pretty cool.  It gives a fairly realistic way for this usually unrealistic plague to happen.  The progression of the fungus also is pretty well thought out and did not trigger any of my "oh right, like that would ever happen" bells.  On the other hand, the piece I do take issue with is that these monster flesh eating creatures would on occasion be lucid enough to get pregnant, carry the kid, give birth, not eat the baby, and then the baby would survive long enough to become the next step in the evolutionary process...not so much...Yeah.

The Author - This is the book that actually inspired my previous post.  I was reading it and thinking it was written for YA by an author that writes for that genre (I don't know why that was my assumption, but their you go.).  Anyways, I was actually a bit on the fence 'cause while I don't feel our youth should be sheltered or talked down to...this book just did not really vibe as one I would hand to a 12 year old.  Then I did some research and discovered who the author was and who the real intended audience was and magically the book totally changed tone for me.  In this case it made the overall experience infinatly better.  It is a gritty book that does not pull any punches and it fit's the authors more comic book style very well.  I also learned that the author wrote the screeenplay for the movie simultaneously, and that he stated that it was purposely different from the book.   I have not seen it yet, but if it is worth it, I'll post about it later.

Expectations - This book was a weird dichotomy for me because it was both exactly what I thought it would be and surprising at both the same time.  I was expecting a book about a kid who was a zombie but not,,,and that is exactly what it was.  On the other hand, the book was much much darker and grittier and philosophical then I had anticipated.  It was strange to read a book that pretty much did everything I expected it to, and yet still had the power to surprise me with various tidbits and actions.  I also feel like the genre/age group that this book was intended for gets muddled.  The idea of the whole book, leads me to feel like it should be a YA book, but the reality is that I feel it is intended for a bit more of a mature audience

Overall Impression - Almost two weeks later I still haven't gotten a handle of how I really feel about this book.  I know that it made me think, which I love.  I know that it made me spend most of a flight talking Hubbins ear off about various things, also good.  I know that it frustrated me 'cause it could have been even better, the ending could have been phenomenal instead of merely great.  The expectations could have been set differently...who knows...I guess I give the book 7 out of 10 bowels of maggots and recommend it to anybody looking for a good zombie book with a hint of something different.  Happy Reading Everybody!

The Circle Of Marsh House

Hi Readers, who's ready for a rambling?  I am...and since it's my blog...let's get to it.  I am a Studio Ghibli and always enjoy the fact that several of the movies are inspired by books.  One day while looking through movies I found one I had never heard of before, and lo and behold it was based on a book called When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson.  The premise sounded interesting, and I always love discovering new books...especially older ones so both the book and movie got put in the basket and onto my book shelves.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Anna is a foster child in England who has withdrawn from everybody.  Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was very small, and her beloved grandmother died just a few short years later.  She has been taken in by a very loving couple who do their best to make her feel like their daughter.  Unfortunately between her natural reticence at getting close to anybody, and her discovery that the couple get a stipend from the government, Anna comes across as very cold.  Anna's foster mom decides to send her to her friend who lives in a sleepy little beach village.  The couple are pretty relaxed, letting Anna run around as she pleases, which suites Anna just fine.  Anna finds herself drawn to an old manor known as the Marsh House.  It is old and abandoned, yet still draws the quiet and withdrawn girl.  One day, as Anna is exploring the marsh area, she see's a girl with pale yellow hair being brushed by a maid at one of the windows of Marsh House.  This image sticks with Anna, and lo and behold one day that same girl appears in the sand dunes.  The girls name is Marnie and she makes Anna promise to keep her as her special secret friend.  As Anna is naturally quiet, this suits her just fine.  The girls have a couple of adventures and learn more about each other.  We learn that Marnie lives in the Marsh House with her nurse and two maids, all of which are borderline abusive.  They threaten Marnie with a trip to the abandon windmill if she misbehaves, which absolutely terrifies the girl.   Marnie's parents are away most of the time, leaving her all alone with the staff.  One night Marnie and Anna end up in the windmill, and get stuck.  When Anna wakes up, she is alone and very upset that Marnie would leave her.  Anna is rescued and taken back to recover as she is very sick.  As she recovers she sneaks out to try and find Marnie.  Marnie is at her window and yells down a heartfelt and tearful apology and tells Anna that she is being taken away.  Anna is understandably devastated and takes to her bed.  Anna finally decides to get back to exploring and heads to the Marsh House.  She is surprised to see a lot of activity and discovers a family with five kids has moved in for the summer.  She is drawn out of her shell and spends a lot of time with the family, finally finding a place she belongs.  One of the girls, after acting a bit weird, finally shows Anna an old diary she found in her room.  The diary belongs to Marnie and in it there are references to a special friend and a few of the events that Anna and Marnie experienced together.  They bring the diary to the mother and discover that it is over 50 years old...which puzzles Anna 'cause her hazy memories are from recent times.  Eventually they get to talk with an old family friend who grew up in the area of the Marsh House.  The whole story comes out and it turns out that Marnie was a girl who grew up with a lonely life until she got sick after a night in the windmill.  Her parents brought her back from the Marsh House, but more tragedy struck when her father died.  Marnie married her friend Edward, but he was killed in the war when their own daughter was only a couple of years old.  The daughter was sent to America to keep her safe and did not return until she was 13 years old.  At that point her relationship with her mother Marnie was strained.  The daughter ran away and had a daughter herself, who she brought back to be raised by Marnie.  The daughter and her new husband then died in a car accident leaving the child to be brought up solely by Marnie who was the only family left.  Unfortunately Marnie never got over the death of her daughter and died a few short years later...sound familiar?  That's right, Anna is Marnie's granddaughter!  Anna is very happy to finally have her family history and is able to warm up to her foster parents, who really do want her to be happy.  Anna herself becomes much happier and able to let people love her again.

World Building - The setting of this story is pretty small, a tiny little village, a marsh/beach, the house Anna stays at and the Marsh House.  That being said the world is perfectly complete.  The author was able to create not just a world, but an atmosphere that was able to transport me as a reader so completely that it was sometimes a shock when I put the book down to realize that I wasn't actually at a little English beach.  I can totally see why somebody would be inspired to make a movie after reading this, just to capture the world.

Story - The story was good.  It was a little different then I originally anticipated, as most of the blurbs tout it as a ghost story.  I feel like it is more of a circle of life type deal, with family and friends being when and where they are most needed.  The story made sense and other then a few overly convenient moments was well done.  Combined with everything else it worked well.

Character - I really liked the characters in this story.  There was a lot of introspection and growing and feeling and variety.  Each character was fully formed, each character had a story, each character stayed true to themselves, and nobody acted out of character just to further the story.  I also really liked how every single character felt well thought out was necessary for the story.

 Editing - The editing was fairly well done.  The story could have become very confusing, especially with the dream like quality that permeated the whole book, but overall the whole thing was readable and sensical.  Like I said before, other then a few small overly convenient details the book read beautifully and stayed with me.  Good editing.

Movie - The movie was made by the famous Studio Ghibli whom I love for their ability to translate atmosphere into a watchable movie, and this film was no exception.  There were a few notable exceptions from the book to film, the biggest being that it was set in Japan instead of England which was both odd and kind of cool, it was like seeing the same story in two different views.  The thing I didn't like so much is that they made Anna a bit more aggressive and almost mean, where in the book she was just withdrawn and stoic.  I also felt the movie was a wee bit rushed compared to the book.  Overall though the signature atmosphere, introspectiveness and sheer beauty were all there, just like I wanted.

Nostalgia - So one of the things that really struck me about this book was the sense of nostalgia it gave me.  This is totally a book I would have LOVED and read over and over back when I was in the 10-12ish age.  I really enjoyed reading this book now, but really wish I had been able to read it when I was younger because I can see it becoming one of my favorite.  I'm not 100% sure why I am so sure my younger self would have been so into this book.  Maybe it reminds me of the books I read when I was younger, maybe I can see myself pulling it off of the library shelf and curling up in my yard, maybe I can see myself forcing my siblings to act it out, maybe it was my affinity for imaginary friends, who knows.  Every once in a while I will get a book like this, where as much as I enjoy it as an adult, I really want to go back in time and give myself some of these books.

Ghost Story - This book was touted as a ghost story...but it really wasn't...but it kind of was.  It is really hard to really put this in any one category 'cause it really doesn't follow any rules...which I love.  The mechanism of the interaction between Marnie and Anna is never fully explained.  We know that they both had the same experiences because Anna remembers them, even if it is a bit muddled and Marnie records them in her diary, even if Anna's name is never actually mentioned.  I don't think that this pairing needs a "scientific" or "realistic" explanation.  I like to think that these two souls that were connected by blood and love found each other at their loneliest and helped each other survive.  I am good with the idea that love can transcend time and space and I'm gonna leave it at that.

Overall Impression - I really enjoyed this book, it was different and surprising and atmospheric and stuck with me in a good way.  I will probably reread it in late spring/early summer as it feels like it should be a seasonal book, but regardless I really liked it.  I give it 8 out of 10 sand castles with gardens and recommend it to anybody who wants a story with heart or is looking for one for their kiddos with out too much of the yucky stuff.  Happy Reading Everybody!