Shelly's Book Shelf

Started Early, Took My Dog

2012-01-03T13:04:00.000-05:00

Ah, the last book of the year. It was a bit of an unusual year for me, in that I mostly read series. Few authors, but more books than in recent years, for a total of 15 books, which is more than a book a month, which for me lately, is good. And I was happy to end the year with the most recent Jackson Brodie book.

TITLE: Started Early, Took My Dog
AUTHOR: Kate Atkinson

Jackson Brodie is often a poor excuse for a detective. He can be so dense sometimes. And he's often his own worst enemy. But he's honest, has a good heart, good instincts, is a decent guy, has a habit of hooking up with women who are wrong for him, and ends up always doing the right thing. He also has baggage. A lot of baggage. His sister was murdered when he was a boy and he's never gotten over it, especially because her killer was never found. Both his parents are dead, his older brother killed himself. He's got a teen daughter, an ex-wife, an ex-lover and a son by the ex-lover, and a fake wife who emptied his bank account. Then there's the near-death experience in a train wreck in a previous book, and it's understandable that Jackson has issues.

In this tale, he's looking for the true identity of a woman who was adopted as when she was a toddler. Concurrently, a retired policewoman, Tracy Waterhouse, buys a little girl from a prostitute, an event that propels the action of much of the story. As the story progresses, a series of events, small and large and amazingly coincidental, knit together to form a whole that is riveting and emotional. How Jackson's investigation ties into a 30-year old murder of a prostitute that Tracy and her partner discovered forms the backbone of the plot. Add in an aging actress sinking into dementia, a dog Jackson rescues from his abusive owner, and a mysterious man in a gray car, and you've got a typical Atkinson novel, one with stories that reach into the past and lead back to an explosive climax when all the scattered elements come together.

The mystery isn't the point, exactly. I figured out most of it, even if I didn't nail the actual killer. This is more than a mystery. It's a novel with a mystery driving it. It's more the story of lost and found children, abuse and survival. And it makes for addicting reading.

Labels and Tagging

2011-12-18T14:41:00.002-05:00

I just noticed I've been remiss around here when I post reviews. I once tagged the books for genre and somewhere along the line, I stopped doing that. I'm going to start again and I've gone back and tagged some. I hope to go back and do the rest. So a big mea culpa from me to all tagging fanatics, of which I'm one, so I really have no excuse. Not even laziness (I have labeled the entries "reviews") or forgetfulness (well, maybe this one) can be blamed.

Faithful Place

2011-12-18T14:24:00.002-05:00

TITLE: Faithful Place
AUTHOR: Tana French

Tana French is writing mysteries set in Ireland, with overlapping characters but standalone stories, which is a nice twist on the mystery series. And as was the case with the first two (In the Woods and The Likeness), this one is more about the main character than the mystery that sets the story in motion.

Faithful Place is the impoverished neighborhood where Frank Mackey grew up. Mackey was once Cassie Maddox's boss when she worked undercover. Cassie appeared in the first 2 books, but not in this one. When Frank was 19, he was going to run away to London with his girlfriend, the love of his life, Rosie Daly. They'd arranged to meet at the top of the street, but Rosie never showed and Frank, believing she'd jilted him and gone off without him, went off on his own, turning his back on his dysfunctional family. Now, 22 years later and a divorced father of a young daughter, he's called back by his youngest sister, the only one in his family he's in touch with, because Rosie's suitcase has been found by workers in a long abandoned house on the street.

It isn't long before Frank is drawn back into the drama of his past life with his alcoholic father, crazy mother, and the dysfunction of his four siblings. When Rosie's decayed body is found in the basement of the house where her suitcase was discovered, Frank is also forced to question the things he'd long believed, about her, about his family, and about himself. This book is very much Frank's story and that of his love for Rosie and the antagonism between their families that had led them to that fateful decision to run off together.

Who killed her is almost beside the point, though the truth does come out, and while it wasn't much of a surprise for me, it was far simpler than the more complex solution I'd come up with. If you like intricate mysteries that challenge your powers of deduction, Tana French probably isn't for you. But if you like well written character studies wrapped around mysteries, you can't do wrong with her and with Faithful Place.

They Sure Didn't Know My Mother

2011-11-22T16:45:00.001-05:00

Random House has a list of books mothers would love. My mother, who read a lot of thrillers, mysteries, spy fiction, and the occasional science fiction novel, might read a book or two on this list, were she still alive, but I doubt it. Well, maybe the Grisham. She was the one, after all, who told me back in the '70s, to read Robert Ludlum and who let me read the James Bond books she and my father had in pb back in the '60s. Unless Grisham bored her they way he does me. Hard to say. What about your mother? Would she read/like any of these books?

Intriguing Blog

2011-11-09T21:16:00.001-05:00

I happened upon A Pretty Book when the blogger let me know she used one of my photos. It's a celebration of books and reading.

Brilliance of the Moon

2011-11-09T00:04:00.000-05:00

TITLE: Tales of the Otori, Book Three: Brilliance of the Moon
AUTHOR: Lian Hearn

I really need to stop procrastinating about writing these reviews, especially when I love the book. As often happens with series, I'm reluctant to finish reading the last book because I hate for the saga to end. In this last of a fantasy trilogy based on medieval Japan, the plot threads woven in the first two books come together as Takeo, a young man of mixed heritage, fulfills his destiny. His mother was one of the Hidden, an outcast religious sect, and his father had been a Tribe assassin. But Takeo is also heir to the Otori domain, and with the love of his life, Kaede, heir to the Mauyama domain, he uses his preternatural talents and his cunning to lead a patched together army against a variety of enemies to unite the Three Kingdoms in peace.

It's so hard to sum up a series like this because it's so much more and I don't want to spoil any of it. It's a tale of betrayal, battles, love, suffering, coming of age experiences, death, honor, and more. Only a couple of years are covered in the three books, yet it feels like so much more time passes as Takeo matures, finds his place in his world, and accepts his destiny while accepting the consequences, good and bad, that are part of it.

If you haven't read this series, give it a try. The fantasy element is minimal. It's more an alternate history with a touch of magic, told in a clear, straightfoward manner that aims right for the heart.

Grass for His Pillow

2011-09-18T17:13:00.004-04:00

TITLE: Tales of the Otori, Book Two: Grass for His Pillow
AUTHOR: Lian Hearn

The sequel to Across the Nightingale Floor, set in an alternate medieval Japan, picks up a few months following that book. Takeo has reluctantly left the love of his life, Kaede, and gone with The Tribe, his father's people, as part of a deal he made with them to allow him to avenge Otori Shigeru who had rescued him from certain death in the first book and become his adopted father. The Tribe claimed him due to his father having been a Tribe assassin who'd run away from that life.

In this book, Takeo, whose special talents and heightened senses surpass that of most of the Tribe's people, is being trained as an assassin, but the elders don't trust him, nor does he trust them. He believes his destiny lies elsewhere, but he's obligated by the agreement he'd made, to stay, until his heightened hearing reveals to him that he'll be killed on an upcoming mission. He escapes, instead, and sets out on a journey to claim Shigeru's domain from Shigeru's deceitful uncles and unite the many lands of the island realm.

Meanwhile, Kaede has returned to her home to find her mother dead, her father a step short of madness, and the estate in disarray. Though it goes against the laws of society for a woman to act like a man, she sets out to unite her family domain with that of her recently deceased kinswoman's, and the book follows these parallel story threads until Kaede and Takeo meet again, setting up the action for the final book of the trilogy.

This is a fully realized realm, with well-drawn characters, young people who make mistakes yet believe in their cause. The writing is plain and crisp and the book rarely lags. I've just started reading the next one and can't wait to read the fate of Takeo and Kaede.

Too Bizarre Not to Do

2011-09-15T14:51:00.001-04:00

You Are an Imaginative Thinker

You are a nonlinear thinker, and you're even surprised by the places your mind takes you.
You love to get lost in a story, whether it's your own or not. You love fantasy.

You are a positive and uplifting person. You inspire others to be better.
You are full of wonder and curiosity. You feel a strong connection to the world.

The Library Test

Blogthings: Free Quizzes for Everyone

In a few short months, I'll be on the other side of the equation, but for now, I'm the one saying "Have a nice day." But I'm not really a library user. My library card is gathering dust in my wallet. I much prefer to buy books and have my own library. No due dates that way. What I want is always on the shelf. And no one's grubby hands touch the books but mine! :)

Happy reading!

Across the Nightingale Floor

2011-08-07T18:22:00.000-04:00

TITLE: Across the Nightingale Floor, Tales of the Otori, Book One
AUTHOR: Lian Hearn

The first book of a fantasy, or quasi-fantasy trilogy that was named a New York Times Notable Book, published in 2002. The setting is a fictional, feudal realm that seems based on Japanese culture, along with a tribe of people who have magical abilities. Tomasu has those abilities, and is only fifteen when a warlord's army destroys his village, including his mother and stepfather. Tomasu's people are The Hidden, a religious sect feared and despised by many, but as he later learns, his father was of The Tribe, a people with heightened senses who can control the perceptions of others.

Rescued by Lord Otori Shgeru and renamed Takeo, Tomasu is taught how to best use his skills, while plotting his revenge against Iida, the warlord who killed his family. But Takeo's journey toward his fate isn't the only one being told. There's also Kaede, a girl around his age who has been sent into indentured servitude in order as part of a deal made by her father, an arrangement typical of the times. Kaede's awakening awareness of her place in society and her growing desire to rebel against it, coupled with Takeo's coming of age to fulfill his destiny forms the heart and soul of the book as their paths cross and love blooms. But the end is just the beginning, as both learn of the dangers and risks in their society and the political intrigues behind those dangers, a society that won't allow them to be together.

The writing is clear if a bit slow-going, but worth reading. These are wonderful characters coming of age in tough times, whose destinies are slowly revealed to them, destinies they would not have expected or chosen for themselves as circumstances force them into roles they were born to play.

Sarcasm on Amazon.com

2011-07-21T16:21:00.003-04:00

I honestly had no idea there was so much entertainment in reviews on Amazon.com. The ones posted on one book in particular are hilarious.

Bookmark Quiz

2011-07-17T13:37:00.003-04:00

Silly, frivolous fun. Partly, not fully accurate, but then, that's true for most of these. There's a bit of truth in them for most people, but not enough to make them reliable.

You Read to Learn

You are more than happy to help others with your skills and knowledge. You have a lot of wisdom to share.

You're very old fashioned. You have a strong set of values that you follow carefully.

You are continually acquiring new knowledge. You are a quiet and persistent learner.

You are a reserved and careful person, but you don't let that stop you from doing your thing.

The Bookmark Test

The First Rule of Blogthings Is: You Don't Talk About Blogthings

The Likeness

2011-06-14T18:00:00.000-04:00

TITLE: The Likeness
AUTHOR: Tana French

The Likeness picks up a few months after the end of In the Woods, with Cassie Maddox, one of the detectives on the case in that mystery now working in the Domestic Violence division. When a woman's body is found in a remote spot, Cassie is called in because not only does the woman look just like Cassie, but she's identified as Lexie Madison, an identity created by Cassie's former boss, Frank Mackey for Cassie when she was working undercover on a drug case. Frank gets the idea to pretend "Lexie" recovers from the stabbing and then have Cassie assume once more Lexie's identity, moving in with Lexie's grad school roommates at Whitethorn House. Reluctantly, Cassie agrees because she feels connected to this woman who looks like her and assumed her cover ID.

As the case progresses, the detectives working behind the scenes -- Frank and Cassie's boyfriend, Sam, from the Murder Squad -- discover the dead woman had a history of changing identities, so along with the mystery of who killed her and why is the added mystery of who she really was.

Although the book has a few plot twists, the killer isn't all that hard to figure out, although the how and why could've gone a few ways, and things did turn out to not be quite as dastardly as I'd figured. What makes the book special is the writing and characters. Cassie becomes enthralled with Whitethorn House and the life she begins living with Lexie's four friends. It's an idyllic existence until cracks start to appear as Cassie's investigation progresses. Cassie has to face what she, herself, wants from life as well as solve the crime.

The book starts out slowly. A hundred or so pages are mostly setup, but once Cassie arrives at Whitethorn House as Lexie, things start to pick up. What made me enjoy this book more than In the Woods, though, is that unlike the first book, this one resolves both mysteries it introduces. Once the murder is solved, we do learn who Lexie really was. Now if only French would write another book with Rob from In the Woods and resolve what happened to him and his friends when he was 12, I'd be a happy camper.

Beautiful Bindings

2011-06-11T11:16:00.002-04:00

Some stunning book bindings.

For Young Adults

2011-06-10T11:12:00.000-04:00

Otherwise known as Teens. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal decrying the state of YA fiction had the literary internet all abuzz this past week. Tor has a good overview. I was a YA librarian for 8 years, back in the '80s, and believe me, YA lit wasn't exactly pristine and upbeat even then. And that was fine! Because the books were what kids wanted to read. What's published now is what kids want to read. And on average, teens are a lot wiser and resilient than some people want to give them credit for.

Of course, there are exceptions. Lots of them. And parents usually, or should, know their child and what they can handle. Age and maturity factor in, but so does whether or not a parent is trying to protect their kid from life's harsh realities so much so that when the kid grows up and is smacked by harsh reality, he or she isn't prepared to handle life's disappointments.

When I was in my teens, in the '60s, the division was mostly between books for children and books for adults, with some exceptions. In the first half of the '60s, we had book clubs where we could, as a class, buy pbs written for our age level. We had Arrow Books for the first 3 grades and from grade 4-6, we had Tab Books. I think Scholastic published them. They were pretty tame. I read a few. But mostly, I read library books and what my parents owned. And comic books. Lots of comic books.

I was pretty heavily into Nancy Drew, The Dana Girls, and Trixie Belden. For Nancy and the Danas, it wasn't the later, sanitized versions, but the originals that were hand-me-downs from my mother's friends and then later titles published in the '50s and early '60s, when Nancy routinely got chloroformed/knocked out. Back then, that was pretty dark. I loved it!

I aged out of books for kids when I was 10 or so. While I still read Nancy Drew and other kid books (Little House books, especially), I also started reading Agatha Christie and such titles as: The Martian Chronicles, Rebecca, and Sherlock Holmes (too boring for me), among others. I was blessed with parents who knew I was reading 3-4 grades above my grade level and who didn't care what I was reading as long as I was reading. Which is why, when I asked, my mother agreed that I could read the James Bond books my parents owned. I was 11 at the time. Those books got me into my late teens, but Doctor No, which I read when I was 11, is still my favorite.

The best way to grow a reader, in my opinion, is to get them excited by the written word. Readers typically want to be entertained, to be thrilled, to laugh or cry by what they read. If reading about vampires (not my favorite topic), then let them read about vampires. Would I give the Twilight books to a 10-year-old kid? Probably not, unless that kid is exceptional. But I'd have no qualms with the average 14 or 15-year-old reading them. Having recently read the Hunger Games trilogy, I can't think of a single thing in them that would not be appropriate for the average teen. But then, it's an imagined future.

To be honest, I've been away from YA work for many years now, so I'm not as in tune with what's out there now, but reading The Hunger Games reminded me how much I love good YA fiction. At its best, it's a clean form of writing, getting right to the heart of things, without burying the characters and themes under a barrage of poetic prose. YA fiction has always been about a good story and in trying to not be art, it becomes art just the same.

Book Shelves Heaven

2011-06-05T12:06:00.000-04:00

What reader wouldn't want these bookshelf units? Found on Neatorama.

Dystopian Literature Week

2011-05-02T16:05:00.000-04:00

Ack! I thought I'd posted this already, but it was left languishing in "drafts." And now, it's a bit out-of-date, but still, here it is. Which means, as usual, it's either feast or famine on this blog. No posts or a glut of them. :)

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Tor.com announced it would feature dystopian literature week.And since dystopian literature is among my favorite genres, typically closely related to science fiction, I thought I'd share my favorite dystopian novels. A number were assigned in school, but I started reading dystopian novels back when I was a kid, even before being assigned them in class. I even took a course in college on Utopian and Dystopian Literature to fill my lit requirement for my BA.

As with the best science fiction, dystopian fiction sheds a light on society, and the best seem so tuned in to human nature that the stories still resonate decades after their publication. George Orwell's 1984 is one such book, its doublethink so relevant today with a media that distorts the news to fit a political agenda. As for what qualifies as dystopian fiction, that's subjective. I have a few quibbles with this list on Wikipedia.

A lot of books for me are more post-apocolyptic novels, rather than dystopian. And some fall under both categories. The YA books Wolf of Shadows (by Whitley Strieber) and Z for Zachariah (by Robert C. O'Brien) are both excellent post-apocolyptic novels, while David Brin's The Postman (much, much better than that awful movie they made of it) works as both post-apocolyptic and as a dystopia.

My parents had a lot of books, including an old pulp paperback of 1984, which is the first books I read in this genre. I loved it, but it was that cover that sticks with me, putting an odd spin on the book that I would not have gotten from a blander cover. The book was very noirish to me.

Another favorite was Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Another favorite was Zamyatin's We, which I read in college (for a course on utopian and dystopian literature!), although that apparently was a poor translation. I have a later edition that is supposed to be closer to the original and will read it one of these days.

I'll put the "just finished reading them" Hunger Games trilogy on my favorites list, too.

Do you have any favorite dystopian novels?

In the Woods

2011-05-02T14:39:00.000-04:00

TITLE: In the Woods
AUTHOR: Tana French

I've read books that disappointed me before, but they were books I basically didn't like on most levels. This one disappointed me for a completely different reason.

I picked up this psychological mystery because of the background of the main detective/protagonist, Adam Ryan, now going under the name Rob Ryan. When Adam was 12, he and two friends disappeared while playing in the woods in a small town in Ireland. A while later, Adam was found, near catatonic, his socks and the inside of his shoes full of blood not his own, and with no memory of what happened. He never was able to recall the events of that day and his friends were never found. That was the story I wanted to know about, the mystery I wanted to see solved.

In the present, the murder of a 12-year-old girl in that very town, brings Det. Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, from Dublin's Murder Squad into the investigation. Ryan knows he should tell his superior that he's really Adam Ryan and that he shouldn't be on this case that will bring up bad associations, but he doesn't. Cass is the only one who knows the truth, and when she expresses concern, he assures her he can handle things. However, it becomes clear, in Rob's first person narration, that he can't.

For a while, it looks like there might be a connection between the two cases, and for the first time, he actively tries to remember what happened that day 20 years ago. Some memories of that summer do surface, but the crucial bits do not. The present-day mystery gets solved and while I'd guessed at some of it, it was still satisfying. And the book was beautifully written. French has great command of her narrative style. But other than hoping she'll revisit Ryan's past in a future book, I am left unsatisfied. I've enjoyed a wonderful meal, but the dessert sitting in the window, enticing me in, has been denied me.

I'll read the next book, The Likeness, which focuses on Cass now that she's no longer Ryan's partner, and I hope it will be a fully satisfying reading feast. But the disappointment of In the Woods will linger for a while.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

2011-05-02T13:49:00.000-04:00

TITLE: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay
AUTHOR: Suzanne Collins

It's been years since I've read any Young Adult literature, not since my days as a YA librarian back in the '80s, and I'd forgotten just how wonderful YA books can be. The writing, when good, is clean and crisp, and the plots aren't convoluted. Not that I don't like convoluted, but sometimes, you just want to read a good, easy-to-follow, solid story, and this trilogy is that and more.

It's hard if not impossible to review a trilogy without some spoilers, so, you've been warned. :)

In typical YA fashion, there's the usual teen angst. But this being science fiction, there's a larger realm to deal with. In a future world, in a place that might once have been the United States, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, has had to grow up too fast, hunting to put food on the table so her family can eat after her father's death while working in the mines. Of the 12, cordoned-off districts (the 13th was destroyed in a failed revolt against the Captial), hers is the mining district, the poorest and also the one with lax regulations, allowing Katniss and her friend Gale to slip under the wire fence to hunt in the wild.

In the first book, The Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta, the baker's son, are forced to participate in a fight to the death tournament. The Capital instituted the Hunger Games after defeating the rebels and every year, each district sends a boy and girl tribute, chosen by lottery, to the games. A large part of the story deals with the pomp and pageantry involved as the games are viewed as great sport by the Capital and the rest of the districts are forced to watch as their loved ones are put on display, then dropped into the arena. The second half of the book is devoted to the games, with Katniss not only fighting for her life, but dealing with her conflicting feelings for Peeta.

Catching Fire picks up a few months after The Hunger Games. Katniss, having found a way to defy the President and the Gameskeepers, saving both herself and Peeta, has made an enemy of the President who cannot allow a mere girl to have embarrassed him, as well as becoming a symbol for rebels in other districts. As Katniss, touring the districts with Peeta and the past winners of the games as part of the annual ritual, comes to learn how bad things are in the other districts, the President is plotting his revenge. The lax Peacekeepers of District 12 are replaced by strict ones and her friend/maybe boyfriend Gale is whipped after being caught with game he illegally hunted, showing Katniss and her people that things will only get worse. But the ultimate revenge is a clever bit of manipulation that gets Katniss, Peeta, and other former winners back in the arena for a games to end all games.

Mockingjay finds Katniss and her people refugees in the midst of full-blown rebellion. Now the Mockingjay, a symbol of and inspiration for freedom from the Capital, Katniss reluctantly joins the fight while dealing with personal tragedy and her feelings for both Gale and Peeta.

There is a positive ending to the series, but not a happily ever after ending. The resolution felt real, as did the characters. Collins built a believable world, even without detailed explanations as to how it evolved, focusing on Katniss and her struggles as good YA books should. This is a coming-of-age tale in the midst of great horrors, as well as a story about survival and hope. Katniss, as narrator, has a clear voice that conveys the wide range of teen emotions, fears, desires, and confusions that are universal in their appeal. With the movie being filmed of the first book, you'll want to read the books soon. I highly recommend them, because they're not just for teenagers.

Old Man's War

2011-03-27T14:09:00.000-04:00

TITLE: Old Man's War
AUTHOR: John Scalzi

First, it's a pleasure to find a science fiction novel that's under 400 pages these days. But since I tend to like novels that are longer rather than shorter because I hate saying goodbye to characters I love, that's not always a good thing.

Second, Scalzi delivered in this relatively slim tale of a future Earth where retirees are recruited in a never-ending war against alien races in the outer reaches of the galaxy.

The story follows John Perry, taking him from his first days as an enlistee at 75, including receiving a new, young, enhanced body built from his DNA, through his training, and finally, through battles with all manner of aliens. And upfront, he's told only a few survive. The reward at the end of the contracted term of service is a young body and the chance to start over on one of the colony worlds. John figured he had nothing to lose. His wife was dead, and the chance for a second life was one he couldn't pass up. He learns quickly that survival will be tough, but he's got the smarts, and the wit, to succeed.

In John Perry, Scalzi has crafted a true survivor, who never loses touch with his humanity despite all the horror and gore he witnesses and participates in. At the end of this small, surprisingly moving book, I was reluctant to say goodbye to John, and really, what more can one ask of a book?

Written Portraits

2011-03-22T11:12:00.002-04:00

These are very cool sculptures made from books.

Another Book Quiz I Had to Do

2011-03-21T15:50:00.002-04:00

You Are a Book

You are a very intellectual and logical person. You like to think, and a lot of your thinking is quite deep.

You are both philosophical and idealistic. You think it's interesting to imagine how the world could be.

You enjoy spending a good deal of time alone. In fact, you tend to go sort of crazy if you don't get your space.

While you may seem distant, you care very deeply for humanity. You're trying to figure out how to save the world.

Are You a Book, Magazine, or Newspaper?

Blogthings: Free Quizzes for Everyone

You Are What You Read

2011-03-19T15:12:00.000-04:00

Well, I read a lot of genres, but this was too appropriate to not share. (Cross posted from my writing blog.)

You Are Fantasy / Sci Fi

You have an amazing imagination, and in your mind, all things are possible.

You are open minded, and you find the future exciting. You crave novelty and progress.

Compared to most people, you are quirky and even a bit eccentric. You have some wacky ideas.

And while you may be a bit off the wall, there's no denying how insightful and creative you are.

What Kind of Book Are You?

The First Rule of Blogthings Is: You Don't Talk About Blogthings

A Couple of Cool Links

2011-03-03T18:53:00.000-05:00

What Happens on Your Bookshelf When You're Not Looking (a nifty animation)
Best SFF Books of the Decade, poll results from tor.com

The Doctrine of Labyrinths

2011-03-03T18:34:00.001-05:00

TITLE: The Virtu, The Mirador, Corambis
AUTHOR: Sarah Monette

According to Sarah Monette's LiveJournal, Melusine and the books following are The Doctrine of Labyrinths series, which refers to the labyrinths that play an important part of the magic in her universe as well as important roles in each of the four books.

I can't remember when I've devoured a series as quickly as I read these 4 books and rarer still, that as soon as I finished reading Corambis, I wanted to start all over again. I can't get these books or their principal characters out of my mind. I thought about reviewing them individually, but for me, they are really one long book broken into 4 volumes, and therefore, am combining my thoughts on the last 3 volumes.

In Melusine, which I reviewed previously, the characters of Felix Harrowgate, a Cabaline wizard, and Mildmay the Fox, a cat burglar, were introduced. Felix was used by his evil mentor, Malkar, a blood wizard, to destroy the Virtu, the globe that channeled the magic powers and spells of the Mirador's wizards, an act which drove Felix insame. It isn't giving much away to say that Felix turns out to be the half-brother of Mildmay, a development that even I, an inexperienced fantasy reader, figured out early on. By the end of the book, Mildmay, and the mad Felix, after a series of misadventures, reached the magical gardens where Felix could be cured.

The Virtu picks up almost immediately after the conclusion of Melusine, and details how the half-brothers journey back to the Mirador, in the city of Melusine. Accompanying them on their travels is Mehitabel Farr, an actress with a secret past. Felix is convinced he can fix the Virtu and hopes he will have the chance before tried and executed for its destruction. Back in the Mirador, Mildmay becomes a pawn in Malkar's plot to ensnare Felix once again.

The Mirador jumps two years past the end of The Virtu, and focuses on political intrigue and on Mehitabel who is forced into being an unwilling spy on the Mirador's doings for one of Melusine's enemies. And Corambis, picking up soon after the events of The Mirador, is the story of Felix's exile, with Mildmay, and the terrible magical engine that could destroy the nation of Corambis.

To do justice to these books without giving much away or without going into details that might spoil the joy of reading these books is darn near impossible. The characters are what makes this series. Felix and Mildmay, both sold to thief keepers by their prostitute mother, grew up in Melusine's Lower City, but the paths their lives took were very different. After being a thief, Felix ends up working in a brothel, where he's found by Malkar and taught how to pass for an aristocrat, which led him to become a wizard of the Mirador.

Mildmay also began as a kept-thief at an early age, but by the time he was 14, had been trained as an assassin, finally breaking away from his keeper and earning a living as a cat burglar and cardsharp. Where Felix is arrogant and vain, the taciturn Mildmay is humble to a fault, living on the edge and old beyond his years. Where Felix is educated, Mildmay is barely able to read. Where Felix has magic, Mildmay has his fists and his tenacity. Their strengths and weaknesses are both complementary and cause for conflict, with each causing the other pain, both intended and not. Entwined in their adventures is the slow progress of their relationship over time as they learn to trust each other and their own feelings. Throw in various forms of magic and magic theory, and the books have a strong foundation.

Told in alternating first person povs, the narratives have distinct voices that will get into your head and stay with you a long time. Because I have a lot of books still waiting to be read, I'll resist the urge to reread these now. But I doubt I'll be able to hold out for long.

Melusine

2011-02-25T15:44:00.000-05:00

TITLE: Melusine
AUTHOR: Sarah Monette

First, an admission. I don't read fantasy as a rule. I have read some. Urban fantasies mostly. This isn't an urban fantasy. And I read it only because I read the author's LiveJournal and I like to read the books of authors I get to know online. And I've been sitting on this book for a week since finishing it, trying to digest it and figure out what to say about it.

See, because I don't read much fantasy, I'm not up on all the tropes of the genre. And that affects how I want to describe what I experienced reading it. I can say this: I devoured this book. And it's sequel, and I'm already reading book 3 of what appears to be a 4-part series.

Plot-wise, there's Felix Harrowgate, a disciple from a young age of an evil wizard. Felix has left his gutter life past behind, becoming a powerful and noble wizard of the Mirador in the city of Melusine. But his past won't let him escape, and Malkar, the evil wizard, uses Felix's magic to destroy the Virtu, the huge crystal that channels the magic of the Mirador's wizards. Felix, driven mad by the act, is the one blamed for the destruction.

Then there's Mildmay the Fox, a former kept-thief and assassin now making his living as a cat burglar. And things are not going well. But they get far worse when a crippled wizard's summoning spell snares Mildmay instead of its intended target: Felix.

And here's where I figure some fantasy tropes kick in big time. Felix and Mildmay's lives intersect (and I figured out how, but that might have been standard fantasy fare for all I know) as the two of them, mad Felix and pragmatic Mildmay, wind up on a quest that could doom them both.

I don't want to give anything away. I'm not sure how to review the second book without revealing too much of this one. Suffice it to say Melusine has magic, violence, sensual sex scenes, lush prose, and well drawn characters. I grew quite fond of Felix, but I fell in love with Mildmay. And I've been very happy to spend time in their company.