The Book Smugglers

Book Review: Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis

Ana — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:36:09 +0000

Title: Tiger Moon

Author: Antonia Michaelis

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, PoC

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Publication date: Published in English in 2009
Paperback: 464 pages

This bewitching story within a story, set in magical India, explores the power of narrative to change the course of lives. Raka, the doomed young bride of a violent merchant, weaves a tale of rescue so vivid, it might just come true. She tells a servant boy the story of Farhad, a thief and unlikely hero, who must retrieve a famous jewel in order to save a kidnapped princess from a demon king. Farhad’s unforgettable companion on the journey is a wisecracking white tiger with an unnatural fear of water. It is their unusual and funny friendship, and the final sacrifice that they must make, that is the heart of this grand, beautiful novel about summoning the hero within.

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: I was looking for Fantasy books with non-western settings and I came across this one on Amazon. It is an ALA award winning book and I thought it sounded great.

Review:

Warning: this review contains spoilers, SmuggleRAGE and Caps Lock of Fury

Trigger warning: rape

Set in magical India, Tiger Moon pays homage to Arabian Nights and Scheherazade by featuring a story within a story. Raka, a young bride married against her will to a powerful merchant who will surely kill her once he discovers she is not a virgin, tells a tale of rescue to a young servant boy (a eunuch, who is not actually a eunuch) called Lalit. She tells the story of another young boy called Farhad, a brilliant thief and reluctant hero who is engaged by the God Krishna to rescue his kidnapped daughter from a demon King. With the help of a talking white tiger, Farhad must cross India in search of an infamous, cursed jewel who will buy the princess’ freedom. Raka hopes that the story of how the reluctant hero Farhad becomes a sacrificing, courageous hero will inspire Lalit to summon the hero within in order to rescue her from certain doom.

At first glance Tiger Moon seems to be an innocuous read for children – it features a talking tiger, a sweeping adventure across the magical country of India with near-deaths, daring escapes and tales of love and hope. Plus a talking tiger whose funny banter with Farhad might just be the one good thing about Tiger Moon. But once you start peeling back its layers and carefully examine the narrative, the topics the story addresses, the meta-text and the way the story wraps up, the result is simply rage-inducing.

I don’t even know where to start: perhaps with the most obvious problem I had with the book. The narrative voice is extremely simplistic and childish. The feeling I had was that this oversimplification had a double objective: to make it accessible to children and to add a fairytale feel to the story. I think it backfired in many ways. I don’t believe in pandering to children and oversimplifying a story tends to lead to generalisations (more on that later) and therefore removing complexity from the story (please note: there is a difference between simple and simplistic. Narrative and writing can be simple and still extremely complex). This also means that the narrative voice was very childish and the characters sound very, very young to the point where I felt I was reading a book about 11 year old characters. Obviously this is not a problem per se, but the characters were much older than that and when they started getting married and having sex, it was extremely jarring as I had pictured them as children. It doesn’t help that for the vast majority of the story, the main characters are addressed as “boy” and “girl”.

That said here is a caveat: the original book was written in German and then translated into English. I don’t know how much of the prose was lost in translation.

But moving on to more important issues.

You will probably have noticed how I italicised the word magical twice so far in this review when in conjunction with “India”. There is an element of exoticising (did I just make this word up?) India that drove me UP THE WALL. Tiger Moon is professed to be a bewitching story set in magical India and from the get go the story is peppered with generalisations, words and descriptions that show how exotic, magical and chaotic India is. Incredibly offensive things like:

“Life is worth so little in India”

“In India, all stories are outlandish”

“Life in itself isn’t valued highly in India”

are presented as truths to the reader. N. K. Jemisin wrote a brilliant article for the blog a few weeks ago addressing this very issue and the following passage exemplifies exactly the problem I had with Tiger Moon:

Calling something exotic emphasizes its distance from the reader. We don’t refer to things as exotic if we think of them as ordinary. We call something exotic if it’s so different that we see no way to emulate it or understand how it came to be. We call someone exotic if we aren’t especially interested in viewing them as people — just as objects representing their culture.

Also worth of mention and on the point: two roundtable articles published this very week at The World SF Blog in which a group of non-westerners authors and bloggers discuss (among other subjects) the issue of “what are the problematics of some Western writers tackling non-Western settings for their novels, and do they result in exoticism?” . These are quite a propos of this review and fascinating. But note: I want to make it clear that I have absolutely nothing against Western authors writing about non-western cultures. But you have got to be way more careful than the generalist, appropriative tone of Tiger Moon.

But back to the review. You know what else? The exoticism of India doesn’t even MAKE SENSE IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS NOVEL. Because the vast majority of this story is being narrated by an Indian girl to an Indian boy. WHY, in the world, would two Indian people be describing India as though they don’t know their own country?

Which brings me to my final point and the climax of the novel. This is where things get REALLY spoilery and SHOUTY. Up until the last 15 pages of this novel, I was offended and angry, already knowing this was going to be a negative review for the reasons stated above.

The final pages of Tiger Moon took it into full-on WALL-BANGER, ENRAGING, I-need-to-find-Picard’s-screencap-now territory.

The book has 448 pages. On page 433, Raka, the main character is SURPRISE! RAPED by her husband. But this is ok because she is rescued immediately after by Lalit, who is now a hero and it all magically disappears as they ride into the horizon together. There is NO reaction, repercussion, mention, NOTHING about the rape. Nothing. It is like it never happened merely ONE SECOND before they take off. It is completely gratuitous and STUPID and demeaning, it serves the story no purpose whatsoever because it has NO IMPACT on the character. It is problematic because it is gratuitous, it is even more problematic because the story and characters never address it. It made me sick.

Not to mention that the whole book ostensibly pays homage to Scheherazade. But in the end, the whole point of the story is to make the BOY become a man in order to rescue the girl and all the talk about being a “hero within” applies only to the BOYS. Obviously. Because GOD FORBID the girl be the heroine of HER OWN STORY. To the point where the hero is described as a MAN in the end because he has grown so much whereas Raka, the main character and narrator of the story who was once described as strong and fearless, remains a girl and diminishes and lets him FINISH HER STORY. How can you pay homage to Scherezade and miss the CRUCIAL POINT of her being THE INSTRUMENT OF HER OWN SALVATION?

I wish I were making this shit up. I have nothing more to say so I will leave you with the words of Captain Picard:

Notable Quotes/ Parts: NO notable quotes but as I was looking for an excerpt online I came across this AWESOME review which you must read.

Rating: 1 – One of the worst books I have ever read; I want my money (and a few hours of my life) back

Reading Next: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Buy the Book:

Book Review: Happy Families by Tanita S. Davis

Ana — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:30:42 +0000

Title: Happy Families

Author: Tanita S. Davis

Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, LGBT, PoC

Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Publication date: May 8 2012
Hardcover: 240 pages

Teenage twins Ysabel and Justin Nicholas are lucky. Ysabel’s jewelry designs have already caught the eyes of the art world and Justin’s intelligence and drive are sure to gain him entrance into the most prestigious of colleges. They even like their parents. But their father has a secret—one that threatens to destroy the twins’ happy family and life as they know it.

Over the course of spring break, Ysabel and Justin will be forced to come to terms with their dad’s new life, but can they overcome their fears to piece together their happy family again?

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

How did I get this book: Review copy from publishers via Net Galley

Why did I read this book: I’ve had this book on my radar for a while. Not only because I loved Tanita S. Davis’ Mare’s War but also because this is a LGBT book with African American protagonists. Diversity in YA for the win.

Review:

Teenage twins Ysabel and Justin are struggling with the revelation that their father has recently come out as a Male to Female transgender person. Their family has been strongly affected by it, their father has moved away and their personal lives are in shambles as they don’t really understand what it all means. Now it’s spring break and the two are expected to spend the week with their father so they can talk, using this short time together to try and figure things out. The three go to therapy together, and this father arranges a rafting trip with other transgendered parents and their kids. The narrative alternate between the two and we see the week from each of their perspectives.

Happy Families is a short, focused, highly important book. In terms of plot, it follows the Nicholas family in this moment of transitioning. The book hints at each twin’s personal, separate lives and how this moment impacts on how they behave. Justin for example, has broken up with his girlfriend, because he doesn’t believe she will be ok with his father’s transition. It is obvious that neither twin is happy about the situation mostly because they don’t know how this will impact their lives. There is a lot of questioning which they address over the course of this week and this questioning is the real focus of the novel: what does being a transgendered person mean? Their father wishes to be called Christine: does this mean he is a woman? Does this mean he is gay? Will he be getting surgery? Will their parents get divorced? Will he be dressed up as a woman all the time? How can they go to church like that? How can they go to school when everybody knows about this?

Although the story can be a little didactic sometimes and somewhat restricted to the issue it addresses, this didacticism is more enlightening than informative – I hope this makes sense. I mean that the story is never dry or purely instructive because it perfectly encapsulates this wondrous moment and its mixture of shock, betrayal, hope, shame, guilt, love. I particularly loved the fact that theirs is also a religious family and this is part of their questioning – especially with regards to divorce as their parents don’t believe they should get divorced.

This is quite a serious yet hopeful book and heart-wrenching without being tragic. Despite the fact that at times I felt the twins’ voices were indistinguishable, I truly enjoyed reading it and feel this is an important, accomplished book for teens. Happy Families is not a book that offers easy answers but is one that acknowledges the hard questions and treat them with the careful consideration, compassion and honesty they deserve.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

The Phoenix Fire Festival at The Crucible, last May

Ysabel

The surge of chattering, pointing, gawking people pours into the massive auditorium, and I feel a shiver crawl up my arms. Rather than stand here, watching the watchers, I’m going to do some torchwork.

There’s a table set up at the back of my booth, covered with a square of galvanized metal and lit with a desk lamp. At the edge of the table there’s a small glass kiln, a miniature propane blowtorch, a handful of tweezers, metal rods, a graphite block, and a couple of terra-cotta flowerpots filled with sand and rods of glass in all shades. I sit down, my foot automatically moving to tap the switch for the small fan under the table. Checking to make sure my glasses are still on my head, I grab my box of matches and light my torch.

An older couple approaches my booth but instead of speaking I pick up the thin metal mandrel and turn it in the flames to warm it. The glass always sticks better if the mandrel is warm. My hands hover over the glass color choices, and I select a clear, bright blue. As I reach up to tug down my pink-tinted sunglasses, they catch on my hair, and the pins Grandmama put in the French roll she thought would look so elegant poke into my scalp. Muttering under my breath, I gently untangle the glasses and put them on, then start heating the glass. In no time at all, I’m putting down a small bead of molten glass, turning my mandrel until I’ve made a disk. I make another disk, a half inch away, and then, turning the mandrel all the time, keep laying disks of glass until the heat slumps them together to make a hollow bead. One down, a few hundred to go. I set the mandrel and the bead into the annealing kiln to slow bake and choose another rod of color. I want something with a streak of metal in it this time.

Read the rest of the Excerpt HERE.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis

Buy the Book:

Ebook available for kindle US, google, nook and sony

Book Review: The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

Ana — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:03:13 +0000

Title: The Uninvited Guests

Author: Sadie Jones

Genre: Historical, Paranormal

Publisher: Chatto & Windus / Harper
Publication date: May 1st 2012
Hardcover: 272 pages

One late spring evening in 1912, in the kitchens at Sterne, preparations begin for an elegant supper party in honour of Emerald Torrington’s twentieth birthday. But only a few miles away, a dreadful accident propels a crowd of mysterious and not altogether savoury survivors to seek shelter at the ramshackle manor – and the household is thrown into confusion and mischief. One of their number (who is most definitely not a gentleman) makes it his business to join the birthday revels. Evening turns to stormy night, and a most unpleasant game threatens to blow respectability to smithereens: Smudge Torrington, the wayward youngest daughter of the house, decides that this is the perfect moment for her Great Undertaking.

The Uninvited Guests is the bewitching new novel from number one bestseller Sadie Jones. The prizewinning author of The Outcast triumphs in this frightening yet sinister drama of dark surprises – where social codes are uprooted and desire daringly trumps propriety – and all is alight with Edwardian wit and opulence.

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: One day last week, I was moaning to Thea about not wanting to read any of the books on my TBR and she sent me the link to The Uninvited Guests because it looked like an Ana-book. And I bought it straight away because I have a thing for historical novels that sound so quirky.

Review:

The country state of Sterne: the house of the Torrignton family.

This story begins and ends on the last day of April in 1912, the day Emerald Torrington turns 20. To celebrate, a small dinner for family and friends (Emerald’s stepfather Edward the only obvious absentee) and as the day starts, the entire household prepare for the evening. Florence, the housekeeper runs the show along with Emerald, whilst her mother Charlotte (still a great beauty, remarried to Edward after Emerald’s father’s death) and brother Clovis proceed on their usual self-absorbed ways. Unbeknownst to them all, Smudge, the youngest member of the family is taking advantage of the fact that no one pays attention to her to start her Grand Undertaking. In the meantime, they expect the invited guests: John Buchanan, a rich neighbour who may or may not be interested in Emerald and Emerald’s best friend Patience and her (pleasantly matured) brother Ernest, both budding scientists whose company Emerald enjoyed greatly when they were all children.

But then a train accident occurs nearby and since theirs is the closest house, the survivors – all of them from the third class but for one man, a Charlie Traversham-Beechers – are to be received at Sterne. The uninvited guests –apart from Charlie, now Clovis’ best friend and invited for dinner with the family- are hastily stowed away in the morning room while the family pretends they are not there, hoping they will be gone soon and without too much disruption to their dinner party.

As the night progresses, those hopes are quashed. The survivors grow loud with hunger and neglect; Smudge’s Grand Undertaking goes awry and on centre stage, the dinner party becomes increasingly strange and dark as Charlie entrances and perplexes everybody with his uncomfortable games.

The Uninvited Guests was not at all what I expected but its combination of an Edwardian comedy of manners with a surrealist ghost story (and a dash of adorable romance) worked really well for me. I really do wish I had literary equivalents to compare but alas, it seems that my Edwardian and Surrealist knowledge are informed by movies and TV shows so the best way to describe The Uninvited Guests is: this is like an episode of Downton Abbey directed by Spanish surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel.

There are huge differences between this and Downton Abbey though. Despite appearances the Torringtons are not well-off: their staff has been dwindling over the years with only enough servants to keep the house running, part of their house is inhabitable, their furniture have seen better days and most worrying of all, they are on the brink of losing Sterne to debts. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that their future lies on the hand of Edward Swift, their mother’s new husband whom Charlotte married after Emerald’s father’s death. Although Edward is obviously a good man, Emerald and Clovis resent him. Above all, the biggest difference is that the Torringtons are not aristocrats and although they love Sterne and wish to keep it, this love is new as new is their position in society:

Charlotte had built her life so that she might avoid third-class train carriages and she wasn’t going to wring her hands over those who made use of them now.

The quote below is emblematic for two reasons. It shows how much Charlotte wishes to dissociate from lower classes as she literally separate social classes by pushing the third class passengers away from their eyes for as long as they can. If the aristocrats of Downton Abbey are portrayed as magnanimous do-gooders who help their servants that is only because they can effectively be separated from them and there is absolutely no danger for those aristocrats to be thought as lower class. There is a lot of danger for Charlotte after she made her way up the social strata.

This is also emblematic of Charlotte’s character. She is completely unsympathetic as a character and yet not completely vilified – not even when her past is revealed. This bit is probably too spoilery but I don’t feel I can write this review without addressing it. I will leave aside HOW and WHY these come into play but there are revelations about her past as a prostitute and these revelations are moved by a need for revenge – as though by revealing the truth about her past, all the other characters are supposed to revile Charlotte. This thankfully doesn’t happen – except for one character that reacts with disgust to this information but is subsequently confronted by his hypocrisy. Charlotte is someone who has incorporated ideals of what constitutes the “feminine” realm as she climbed the ladder: she abhors Emerald’s friend Patience for her intellect and hopes that Emerald will not follow her lead (Patience is attending university : how is that a place for a woman?). Emerald herself has a keen interest on science but has put it aside when her father became ill and the narrative explores – albeit subtly – her present situation which is almost like limbo: where will she go from here? Is there a place in this society for women scientists? So gender and class relations abound in the narrative but in a subtle, clever way and I loved it.

There is a lot more though and I loved the prose:

‘This helpless grief over what amounts to a few rooms and a rather poor roof is irrational,’ she began, ‘and frankly –‘ she stopped walking, ‘ – ludicrous.’

She turned her face to the house, the windows of which glowed variously. ‘There’s no use looking at me like that,’ she said to it.

She crossed the gravel, and went towards the other part of the garden, where were the thick borders and sundial. ‘And there’s not even the excuse of ancestry!’ she said out loud again, and indignant.

And it was true; no generations of Torringtons had lived at Sterne. No generations of Torringtons had lived anywhere particularly, as far as they knew. They were a wandering, needs-must sort of family, who made their livings disparately, in clerking, mills or shipping; traveled to France for work in tailoring, or stopped at home in Somerset, Shropshire or Suffolk, to play some minor role in greater projects; designing a lowly component of a reaching Cathedral or girdered bridge. Some had been in business, one or two in service; there was an artist, some soldiers, all dead. All dead.

In terms of plot, the story starts off light and becomes increasingly tense as the story (and the evening) progresses. Charlie obviously plays an almost devilish role and when he starts his mind games and the story takes a turn to the surreal, the good-natured characters show their potential for cruelty inside. Although there seems to be little consequence to what these characters show of themselves, there is a degree of choice too: the characters pick which face they wish to carry in life and from that moment on, that’s who they will be. It is as though cruelty and darkness are potential, not facts set in stone as the story reaches its climax on a high note.

Although at times I thought the surrealist parts were a bit too extreme (there is some barking involved) and the ending too tidy (I still loved it though), overall The Uninvited Guests was a surprising delight.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

Since her marriage to Edward Swift, three years after the sudden death of her first husband Horace Torrington, Charlotte had changed her position at the breakfast table in order to accommodate her new husband’s needs; specifically, aiding him in the spreading of toast and cutting of meat, owing to his having suffered the loss of his left arm at the age of twenty-three in an unfortunate encounter with the narrow wheels of a speeding gig, out of which he had fallen on the driveway of his then home in County Wicklow. Having always faced the window and wide view, now Charlotte sat on Edward’s left, and faced him.

Her eldest children, Emerald and Clovis, aged nineteen and twenty, respectively, but for whom the word ‘children’ is not inaccurate at the point at which we discover them, did not like this new arrangement. Nor did they like or approve of Edward Swift; single arm notwithstanding they found he did not fit.

Clovis Torrington balanced the pearl-handled butter knife on his middle finger and narrowed his dramatic eyes at his mother.

‘We can’t leave Sterne,’ he stated.

‘It would be a great shame,’ acknowledged his stepfather.

Clovis curled his lip, loathingly.

‘Clovis…’ His mother growled.

Edward thoroughly wiped his mouth with a napkin.

‘It’s all right, Charlotte,’ he said, kissing her forehead as he stood up. ‘I’ll know more when I return, Clovis. And neither you, nor your sisters – nor your mother – need worry about it until then, but enjoy Emerald’s birthday and try not to fret. I’m sorry I can’t be here for your guests.’

Charlotte stood, too, and linked her arm through his.

‘You’re both very naughty,’ she said, over her shoulder as they left the room.

Emerald had not spoken, but sat throughout breakfast rigid with self-restraint. Now she glanced at Clovis, tears blurring both the scowling sight of him and the vast tapestry that hung behind his head. It was a hunting scene of stags and hounds, a faded, many-layered narrative she knew by heart in all its leaping chases across the flowered forest floor.

‘”Fret!”’ said her brother with contempt at the word, stable-mates as it was with sulk and pet.

Emerald shook her head. In his present mood he was the very personification of all three. ‘Oh, Clovis,’ she said.

From the hall, Edward’s voice carried easily to them,

‘Clovis! Ferryman needs to be taken out. If you’ve time today I’d be very much obliged to you.’

His good-tempered authority would have been impressive – lovable – had the very fact of the man not been intolerable to them. Clovis was mutinous, ‘He ought to take his damned horse out himself.’

Emerald pushed her plate away.

‘He can’t very well if he’s in Manchester trying to save the house, can he?’ she said, and she got up and left the room by the other door so as not to encounter her mother or step-father again.

He did not go after her. Clovis wasn’t somebody who went after people, rather people tended to go after him.

Additional Thoughts: Any Sadie Jones’ fans in the house? Wondering if her other books are as good! The Outcast sounds like it could be the thing:

1957, and Lewis Aldridge is travelling back to his home in the South of England. He is straight out of jail and nineteen years old. His return will trigger the implosion not just of his family, but of a whole community. A decade earlier, his father’s homecoming casts a different shape. The war is over and Gilbert has recently been demobbed. He reverts easily to suburban life – cocktails at six thirty, church on Sundays – but his wife and young son resist the stuffy routine. Lewis and his mother escape to the woods for picnics, just as they did in wartime days. Nobody is surprised that Gilbert’s wife counters convention, but they are all shocked when, after one of their jaunts, Lewis comes back without her. Not far away, Kit Carmichael keeps watch. She has always understood more than most, not least from what she has been dealt by her own father’s hand. Lewis’s grief and burgeoning rage are all too plain, and Kit makes a private vow to help. But in her attempts to set them both free, she fails to predict the painful and horrifying secrets that must first be forced into the open. As menacing as it is beautiful, The Outcast is a devastating portrait of small-town hypocrisy from an astonishing new voice.

Rating: 8- Excellent.

Reading Next: Happy Families by Tanita S Davis

Buy the Book:

Ebook available for kindle US, kindle UK, google, nook, kobo and sony

Smugglers’ Stash & News

Thea — Sun, 13 May 2012 19:01:36 +0000

Hello everyone! We hope you’re all having a great Mother’s Day! Just a few things today…

Giveaway Winners:

We have a few giveaway winners to announce! First up, the winner of a copy of The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi is…

melissa @ 1lbr

The winner of our Bitterblue book and tote bag giveaway is…

Miranda West

Congratulations to the winners! You know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address and we’ll get your winnings out to you as soon as possible!

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

On Monday Ana reviews the unexpectedly delightful novel Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones.

On Tuesday, Ana is back with a review of YA LGBT novel Happy Families by Tanita S. Davis.

Wednesday, Ana reviews Indian fairy tale Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis. Later, Thea reviews scifi post/pre/apocalyptic novel After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress.

On Thursday, Thea reviews the highly anticipated conclusion to the newsflesh trilogy, Blackout by Mira Grant.

On Friday we close out the week with a joint review of Grave Mercy by Robin LeFevers.

It’s a busy week! Until tomorrow, we remain…

Geek Art Gallery

~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers

On the Smugglers’ Radar

Ana — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:01:28 +0000

“On The Smugglers’ Radar” is a new feature for books that have caught our eye: books we have heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. Thus, the Smugglers’ Radar was born. Because we want far more books than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?), we thought we would make the Smugglers’ Radar into a weekly feature – so YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Ana’s Radar:

I am MOST excited about this week’s radar afetr perusing Fall Catalogues as well as featured BEA titles. First up, two more books from Strange Chemistry. It’s official: I now want to read ALL THEIR BOOKS. And seriously – these guys are making a tremendous effort with their covers. I love them all so far.

15-year-old Julie Richardson is about to learn that being the daughter of a witch isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it’s pretty obvious to Julie there’s a supernatural connection.

In fact, there’s a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie’s high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it’s a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won’t just lose her mother’s soul, she’ll lose her mother’s life.

The distant and unloved colony world of Russalka has no land, only the raging sea. No clear skies, only the endless storm clouds. Beneath the waves, the people live in pressurised environments and take what they need from the boundless ocean. It is a hard life, but it is theirs and they fought a war against Earth to protect it. But wars leave wounds that never quite heal, and secrets that never quite lie silent. Katya Kuriakova doesn’t care much about ancient history like that, though. She is making her first submarine voyage as crew; the first nice, simple journey of what she expects to be a nice, simple career. There is nothing nice and simple about the deep black waters of Russalka, however; soon she will encounter pirates and war criminals, see death and tragedy at first hand, and realise that her world’s future lies on the narrowest of knife edges. For in the crushing depths lies a sleeping monster, an abomination of unknown origin, and when it wakes, it will seek out and kill every single person on the planet.

Moving on to three titles from Tor’s Fall Catalogue. First up is The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman. I really liked The Hald-Made World and will definitely be reading this one as well.

In The Half-Made World, Felix Gilman took readers deep into a world on the cusp of forging an identity. The Line, a cult of Industry, and the Gun, a mission of Chaos, were engaged in a war for dominance, one that The Line was winning city by city, enslaving the populations it conquered. A doctor of psychology, Liv Alverhuysen, was caught in the middle, unknowingly guarding a secret that both sides would do anything to have. Now Liv is lost on the edge of the world with Creedmor, an
agent of the Gun, and the powerful Line will stop at nothing to
find them.

But Harry Ransom, half con man, half mad inventor, is setting the edge of the world aglow. Town by town he is building up a bank roll and leaving hope in his wake because one of his inventions is actually working. But his genius is not going unnoticed, and when he crosses paths with the two most wanted outlaws in the “unmade world,” his stage becomes even larger and presents an opportunity more lucrative than any of his scams or inventions combined.

Mixing Jane Eyre, Fae and Steampunk: it could go right but it could also go SO wrong. I am a bit wary BUT excited:

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin.

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a “delicate situation”—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.

Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio…and come out as beautiful as the fey.

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discover just how far she will go to become whole again.

And OMG SUPERHEROES. I have a thing for Superhero books so I am definitely looking forward to this one:

in the future, genetically engineered superhumans, inspired by classic earth comic book heroes, fight to keep the peace in the wild and wooly space habitats of the Asteroid Belt.

2107 AD: A generation ago, Earth and the cislunar colonies banned genetic and cybernetic modifications. But out in the Asteroid Belt, anything goes. Dozens of flourishing space habitats are spawning exotic new societies and strange new varieties of humans. It’s a volatile situation that threatens the peace and stability of the entire solar system.

Emerald Blair is a Troubleshooter. Inspired by the classic superhero comics of the twentieth century, she’s joined with other mods to try to police the unruly Asteroid Belt. But her loyalties are tested when she finds herself torn between rival factions of superhumans with very different agendas. Emerald wants to put her special abilities to good use, but what do you do when you can’t tell the heroes from the villains? Only Superhuman is a rollicking hard-SF adventure set in a complex and fascinating future.

Listen, the blurb for Elsewhens says: “theater, magic, art, and politics all ble..” SAY NO MORE. You had me at theater!magic!art!politics!

theater, magic, art, and politics all blend in this amazing new high-fantasy series from the imagination of Melanie Rawn.

Touchstone, the magical theater troupe, continues to build audiences. But Cayden is increasingly troubled by his “elsewhens,” the uncontrolled moments when he is plunged into visions of the possible futures. He fears that his Fae gift will forever taint his friendships; his friends fear that his increasing distance will destroy him.

But worldly success follows them—an apparent loss in the Trials leads to Touchstone being selected to travel to the Continent with a Royal Embassy to collect Prince Ashgar’s new bride. They are the first theater artists to appear outside Albeyn for at least seventy years—for magic is suspect and forbidden elsewhere, and the Kingdom’s easy race mixing and magic use horrifies the people they are to travel among.

Meg Rosoff has a new book coming out and already an awesome cover! No set release date yet and no official blurb BUT here is how the author describes it:

“It’s way too early to talk about what the book is about, but I will say that it’s a heartrending future classic, soon to be a major motion picture, not to mention a thoughtful, insanely sophisticated exploration of the relationship between adults and children. It contains a gigantic easter egg, lots of French toast and a weed whacker. No one dies in the end. No animals were harmed in the writing. None of the children has cancer. And yes, there is a dog. But no Eck.”

OH MY GOD. I want this so badly. And here is the awesome cover:

Finally, a new Brandon Sanderson book! Yay!

From the bestselling author of the Mistborn Trilogy and co-author of the final three books of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series comes the tale of a heretic thief who is the only hope for the survival of an empire.

Shai is a Forger, a foreigner who can flawlessly copy and re-create any item by rewriting its history with skillful magic. Though condemned to death after trying to steal the emperor’s scepter, she is given one opportunity to save herself. Despite the fact that her skill as a Forger is considered an abomination by her captors, Shai will attempt to create a new soul for the emperor, who is almost dead from the attack of assassins.

Delving deeply into his life, she discovers Emperor Ashravan’s truest nature—and the opportunity to exploit it. Her only possible ally is one who is truly loyal to the emperor, but councilor Gaotona must overcome his prejudices to understand that her forgery is as much artistry as it is deception.

Skillfully deducing the machinations of her captors, Shai needs a perfect plan to escape. The fate of the kingdom lies in one impossible task. Is it possible to create a forgery of a soul so convincing that it is better than the soul itself?

On Thea’s Radar:

OH MY GOD THE NEW SANDERSON!!!!! Ahem. I want many, many of the books Ana does. But onto my radar! First up, a retelling of Tarzan, but from Jane‘s perspective. HELL YES. Also, love this cover. LOVE.

The legendary story of tarzan told from Jane’s perspective,
authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate

Cambridge, England: 1905.

Jane Porter is hardly a typical woman of her time. The only female student in Cambridge University’s medical program, she is far more comfortable in a lab coat, dissecting corpses,
than she is in a corset and gown, sipping afternoon tea. A budding paleoanthropologist, Jane dreams of travelling the globe in search of fossils that will prove the evolutionary theories of her scienti?c hero, Charles Darwin.

When dashing American explorer Ral Conrath invites Jane and her father on an expedition deep into West Africa, she can hardly believe her luck. Rising to the challenge, Jane ?nds an Africa that is every bit exotic and fascinating as she has always imagined. But she quickly learns that the lush jungle is full of secrets—and so is Ral Conrath. When danger strikes, Jane ?nds her hero, the key to humanity’s past, and an all-consuming love in one extraordinary man: Tarzan of the Apes.

Jane is the ?rst version of the Tarzan story written by a woman and authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. Its 2012 publication will mark the centennial of the publication of the original Tarzan of the Apes.

Cory Doctorow + Charles Stross. HELL. YES.

Welcome to the fractured future, at the dusk of the twenty-first century.

Earth has a population of roughly a billion hominids. For the most part, they are happy with their lot, living in a preserve at the bottom of a gravity well. Those who are unhappy have emigrated, joining one or another of the swarming dense thinker clades that fog the inner solar system with a dust of molecular machinery so thick that it obscures the sun.

The splintery metaconsciousness of the solar system has largely sworn off its pre-post-human cousins dirtside, but its minds sometimes wander…and when that happens, it casually spams Earth’s networks with plans for cataclysmically disruptive technologies that emulsify whole industries, cultures, and spiritual systems. A sane species would ignore these get evolved-quick there’s always someone who’ll take a bite from the forbidden apple.

So until the overminds tire of stirring Earth’s anthill, there’s Tech Jury Service: random humans, selected arbitrarily, charged with assessing dozens of new inventions and ruling on whether to let them loose. Young Huw, a technophobic, misanthropic Welshman, has been selected for the latest jury, a task he does his best to perform despite an itchy technovirus, the apathy of the proletariat, and a couple of truly awful moments on
bathroom ?oors.

And another title from Tor’s fall catalog…

The start of an original new urban fantasy series starring human chameleon Ciel Halligan

Snagging a marriage proposal for her client while on an all-expenses-paid vacation should be a simple job for Ciel Halligan, aura adaptor extraordinaire. A kind of human chameleon, she’s able to take on her clients’ appearances and slip seamlessly into their lives, solving any sticky problems they don’t want to deal with themselves. No fuss, no muss. Big paycheck.

This particular assignment is pretty enjoyable… that is, until Ciel’s island resort bungalow is blown to smithereens and her client’s about-to-be-fiancé is snatched by modern-day Vikings. For some reason, Ciel begins to suspect that getting the ring is going to be a tad more difficult than originally anticipated.

Going from romance to rescue requires some serious gear-shifting, as well as a little backup. Her best friend, Billy, and Mark, the CIA agent she’s been crushing on for years—both skilled adaptors—step in to help, but their priority is, annoyingly, keeping her safe. Before long, Ciel is dedicating more energy to escaping their watchful eyes than she is to saving her client’s intended.

Suddenly, facing down a horde of Vikings feels like the least of her problems.

I love the look of this Agatha H. style steampunk novel:

From the award-winning creator of Hollow Fields comes the start of an all new, steampunk adventure trilogy!

London, 1895: Riots in the streets!

Erasmus Croach’s miraculous factory, Ember, has flooded London with steampowered automatons. The already suffering working class take to the streets to protest the jobs lost to these machines, and to quell the riot, Captain Thorn of Scotland Yard calls in Ember’s latest and greatest creation, the automatic police boy, Sky!

Meanwhile, Sally Peppers, Croach’s headstrong and brilliant niece, dreams of a life beyond manners and marriageability. When she escapes her overbearing governess on a motorized velocipede and joins a no-rules road rally through the slums, Croach sends Sky to bring her back, preferably alive.

Together, the impulsive Sally and the naive Sky crash headlong into a mystery involving rogue automatons prowling the sewers, children disappearing without a trace, and a dark secret so big it could overturn all of London. But the biggest mystery of all is why Sky is the first robot who can dream….

I have The Clockwork Rocket on my TBR and I *will* read it soon – just in time for the release of The Eternal Flame:

Greg Egan’s The Clockwork Rocket introduced readers to an exotic universe where the laws of physics are very different from our own, where the speed of light varies in ways Einstein would never allow, and where intelligent life has evolved in unique and fascinating ways. Now Egan continues his epic tale of alien beings embarked on a desperate voyage to save their world . . . .

The generation ship Peerless is in search of advanced technology capable of sparing their home planet from imminent destruction. In theory, the ship is traveling fast enough that it can traverse the cosmos for generations–and still return home only a few years after they departed. But a critical fuel shortage threatens to cut their urgent voyage short, even as a population explosion stretches the ship’s life-support capacity to its limits.

When the astronomer Tamara discovers the Object, a meteor whose trajectory will bring it within range of the Peerless, she sees a risky solution to the fuel crisis. Meanwhile, the biologist Carlo searches for a better way to control fertility, despite the traditions and prejudices of their society. As the scientists clash with the ship’s leaders, they find themselves caught up in two equally dangerous revolutions: one in the sexual roles of their species, the other in their very understanding of the nature of matter and energy.

The Eternal Flame lights up the mind with dazzling new frontiers of physics and biology, as only Greg Egan could imagine them.

Next up, a YA SFF version of the Minos & Minotaur myth:

In The White Oak, the first book in the Imperfect Darkness series, Cora Alexander falls through a sinkhole and enters the underworld still alive. Her living presence threatens the tyrannical rule of Minos and the infernal judges who have hijacked the afterlife and rebuilt it, trapping human souls in a mechanical, computer-controlled city that lies at the core of the earth. To survive, Cora must rely on her untrustworthy guide, Minotaur, an artificial intelligence built by Minos. She is helped by a mysterious voice, and by Sybil, underworld librarian and author of each person’s book of life. Sybil’s collection holds the key to humankind’s intertwined life stories. When Cora’s own book is destroyed, Sybil gives her a magical golden pen and sends her to the underworld city to write her own destiny. Along the way, Cora finds the ghost of her dead brother, Lucas, a genius programmer who alone is capable of finding the chink in Minos’s armor. But will he be able to get Cora out alive, or will they both succumb to the seemingly inescapable underworld trap?

And that’s it from us! What books do you have on YOUR radar?

Book Review: Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Ana — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:01:28 +0000

Title: Struck

Author: Jennifer Bosworth

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR
Publication date: May 8 2012
Hardcover: 373 pages

Mia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her.

Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.

Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in the Struck series but can be read as a standalone

How did I get this book: Review copy from the publisher via Netgalley

Why did I read this book: Oh man…it sounded so good! A lightning addict! I really thought this was going to be a Scifi-superhero kind of read. I got religious cults instead.

Review:

The short version of this review would go something like this:

Such a fabulous premise wasted on clichéd writing, a daft story and stupid insta-love romance.

Here’s the long version:

Mia is addicted to lightning. She’s survived countless strikes, her entire body (apart from her face, obviously) is covered in veiny scars and despite the danger and the fact that she has (unintentionally) hurt people because of it, she still craves lightning more than anything. Living in LA – a place where lightning rarely strikes – was supposed to cull her addiction but wouldn’t you know, not only a lightning has caused a 8.6 magnitude earthquake that has DEVASTATED the city but prophecies – from religious cults, tarot cards and the Book of Revelations – predict that MOARS lightning are coming. And they will precede the end of the WORLD. Or at the very least the end of Los Angeles. And Mia and her lightning addiction, as per the prophecies, will be at the centre of it which make her a very sought after person by the aforementioned cults.

There are good things about Struck. The premise of someone being addicted to lightning is cool in itself and strikingly visual – not only when lightning strikes Mia but also in terms of the effects it has on her: her veiny scars, loss of hair, her insomnia. I also thought that the description of a devastated, post-earthquake Los Angeles – with the widespread destruction, poverty and social divide that ensued – to be, if not exactly original, at least gripping. I am not certain if this is a parallel world to ours or if this LA is a futurist one but there are hints that other parts of the world and of the USA are in dire straits as well which presumably explains how the people of LA are isolated and left to fend for themselves. I also liked the fact that Mia would do anything to help her family to survive especially her PTSD-suffering mother (after being under rubble for three days after the earthquake). In terms of character, Mia’s mother is possibly the better developed one with her trauma and the need to find answers and hope leading her to join a religious cult.

Those good things – the cool Sci Fi premise, the potential of a pre-apocalyptic world and its social problems that will in itself help the actual apocalypse to take place – are however, squandered away by focusing the story on the warring cults. One of the Cults is called the Seekers and they think Mia will be the key to STOP the apocalypse as per the Book of Revelations and the visions and Tarot readings of their gipsy ancestors. They are not supposed to be religious but they talk about and mention the Bible so…yeah, I don’t know how that mix works either. The other is called the Followers who well, follow a guy who calls himself simply Prophet and it’s a religious cult of brainwashed people who believe that the apocalypse is near and we all need to repent. To this faction, Mia is the key to BRING on the apocalypse. And everybody can do stuff with or via lightning.

There is a certain immediacy and localised aspect to this story that just didn’t work. If the whole world is going through shit, why is this plot so concentrated in LA? WHY LA as the apocalyptic centre of the world? Is it only because Mia is there? WHY is she so important? Is it only because of how she can take on more lightning than anybody else? BUT WHY? Why is lightning so important to this story? I never bought the premise or understood it beyond: “that’s how it is written in the book so suck it up”. Not to mention that the story is simply not developed enough for me to believe that LA is completely cut off from the world just like that. Everything is just so vague and then we have this entire build up to the end of the world – the whole book takes place within the 3 days preceding it – and then the story is wrapped up easily and inconsequently within a couple of pages.

But to be honest this is only the beginning of my problems with the book:

1) Although I appreciated how it is shown that a charismatic leader that speaks to the fear and hopelessness inside people and can give them a measure of comfort and control at a time of need, this complexity is completely and utterly undermined by the fact that the leader of said cult has in fact, actual brainwashing powers (brought to you by lightning. No, don’t ask. I don’t know either).

2) The book opens with someone trying to kill our heroine. Which she conveniently forgets soon after by thinking it is only a dream. Of course, this is only because the guy who tried to kill her turns out to be the Romantic Interest who looks like a “European underwear model” with “tortured blue eyes”. Despite the fact that he has indeed been following her, and tried to KILL HER, she doesn’t think he could be a stalker because and I quote:

A guy like Jeremy didn’t need to stalk.

Take note people: apparently only bad-looking guys could possibly be stalkers.

3) Their relationship has no development whatsoever. They fall for each other basically instantly, she forgets he tried to kill her very easily because he looks good and I quote:

I let my eyes linger on Jeremy, studying him, trying to decide if I could see past the knife incident to trust him. But the only thing I could think about when I stared at him was how I wanted to keep staring, never take my eyes away.

Someone tries to kill you and that is an incident? Ok then.

But of course, their relationship wouldn’t be complete without SOME angst. Which comes from Jeremy having visions of the future. The visions happened every time he touched Mia and when that happens she passes out. BUT that ONLY happens if he touches her with his hands so they can do everything as long as he doesn’t touch her with his hands and somehow this is still an impediment because he can’t control himself, therefore a reason for EXTRA angst and my brain went into overdrive with GLOVES!!!!!!!!!!! HOW ABOUT GLOVES, IF IT IS ONLY THE HANDS HOW ABOUT GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES!!!!

Ahem. Not to mention the fact that Jeremy KNEW what was happening, knew loads of secrets and still he did not tell Mia (for her protection) even though they only had THREE DAYS to stop the end of the world. Oh Lord of the Books, please save me from contrived conflict.

4) The pseudo-science behind the causes of the earthquake:

There was a geological survey going on at the time—which, ironically, had something to do with earthquakes—and a crew had opened up a hole in the ground that went way down into the earth, supposedly for miles, all the way to the Puente Hills Fault that runs right beneath downtown. Lightning struck straight into the hole, and immediately afterward there was an 8.6 magnitude earthquake that lasted over three minutes. The top seismologists in the world had formulated a theory that, hypothetically, the friction along the Puente Hills fault line might have acted like a beacon for lightning. When the fault was struck, it increased the pressure on the fault exponentially, setting off the earthquake like a nuke buried miles underground.

Let me get this straight: there is an ACTUAL FAULT beneath LA that is due to cause a massive earthquake soon and yet this story needed lightning to set it off?

Not to mention: lightning causing earthquakes? Hummm, how about NO?

Sorry, but the whole thing is just daft.

Oh well: NEXT.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

When you’ve been struck by lightning as many times as I have, you start to expect the worst pretty much all the time. You never know when that jagged scrawl of white ? re, charged with a hundred million volts of electricity, might blaze down from the sky and find its mark on you; sear a hole like a bullet right through you, or turn your hair to ash; maybe leave your skin blackened to a crisp, or stop your heart; make you blind, or deaf, or both.

Rating: 4 – Bad, but not without some merit.

Reading Next: The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

Buy the Book:

Ebook available for kindle US, kindle UK, google, nook, kobo and sony

Book Review: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Thea — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:29:49 +0000

Title: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

Author: Written by Christopher Healy, Illustrated by Tod Harris

Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling, Middle Grade

Publisher: Walden Pond Press
Publication Date: May 2012
Hardcover: 293 Pages (US)

nter a world where everything, even our classic fairy tales, is not at all what it seems.

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You’ve never head of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as “Prince Charming.” But all of this is about to change…

Rejected by their princesses and cast out of their castles, Liam, Frederic, Duncan, and Guztav stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms. Now it’s up to them to triumph over their various shortcomings, take on trolls, bandits, dragons, witches, and other associated terrors to becom the heroes no one ever thought they could be.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in the League of Heroes series, following the adventures of Liam, Frederic, Duncan, and Gustav (and hopefully Ella?).

How did I get this book: ARC from the Publisher

Why did I read this book: I am a huge fan of Walden Pond Press and eagerly await their middle grade new releases. When I learned about this book – in which four unusual and un-heroic Prince Charmings must figure out a way to save the day (with help from their princesses, of course) – I was instantly hooked.

Review:

Bards almost always get things wrong.

Sure, they manage to convey the general storyline, but they get all the details wrong. Like the names of the people involved. Across four different kingdoms, bards have been singing their tales of great deeds and romance…but lumping all the heroes together under the name of “Prince Charming”. Prince Charming is, in fact, four different princes – Frederic (of Cinderella fame), Gustav (who tried to save Rapunzel but she ended up saving him, in reality), Liam (the guy that woke up Sleeping Beauty), and Duncan (Snow White’s hubby).

After the magically romantic evening of the grand ball and finding his true love in Ella (Cinderella, that was), things seem to be going just swimmingly for Prince Frederic and his new fiance. However, what is fun for Frederic (picnicking on castle grounds) proves to be not so much fun for Ella, who grows weary of her fiance’s penchant for sleeping until noon, his focus on wardrobe, and most of all, his aversion to adventure. Ella leaves Frederic for her own grand adventures – but Frederic is determined to get her back. Embarking on his own grand adventure to win back his beloved, Frederick soon runs into other similarly disgruntled princes who have been, for varying reasons, left behind by their princesses.

Gustav, while tall and strong, has a bit of an inferiority complex compared to his older brothers – and things didn’t get any better when he tried to rescue Rapunzel from the clutches of the evil witch, only to get pushed out the tower window, blinded, and saved by the very same Rapunzel after she singlehandedly her witchy captor. Frustrated by the jeers of all of those in his kingdom, Gustav pushes Rapunzel away and sets off to do something truly heroic to earn some respect.

Liam is every bit the handsome, heroic, storybook prince, but after saving Sleeping Beauty and her kingdom from the sleeping curse and besting a different witch, he finds out that his betrothed princess is actually a terrible person that starts willfully spreading malicious rumors about Liam’s character.

Duncan is perfectly happy with his wife Snow White and a bit of an oddball. To be fair, Snow is an oddball, too. Their combined oddness makes them a perfect pair, but there’s still an adjusting period to go through and things are a little off for Duncan and his new bride.

Together, the Prince Charmings (ok, actually “Princes Charming”, as Liam would interject) team up to thwart a nefarious plot from a familiar witch (and a Bandit King and his posse), win back the girl and earn the respect and thanks of their various kingdoms. And they’ll have some fun and learn a little something along the way, too.

Charming. In a word, The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is fittingly, utterly charming. I love the imaginative spin on classic fairy tales and the fitting attention paid to the Princes Charming as they embark on their own adventures to be considered worthy of their respective princesses. Even cooler, I love that this attention to the princes and getting them a fair shake as heroes does not come at the expense of the princesses. Ella plays a major role in the book and leaves her own Happily Ever After in pursuit of something greater – but when Frederic and her friends are in trouble, she rushes to the rescue. (Sure, there are less palatable female characters, but such is life!)

I love the four different types of princes we are presented with in The Hero’s Guide and the qualities they add to the story – Liam with his traditional Prince Charming-ness, the goofy and endearing Duncan with his magical good luck, Gustav and his brash pigheadedness, and Frederic with his surprisingly huge heart and devotion to Ella. (My favorite Princes are Duncan and Frederic, naturally.) More than just the characters, though, The Hero’s Guide is so effective because of the wonderfully engaging narrative voice and fast-paced plot. The glib narration, employing different foreshadowing (in the first chapter, we are given a glimpse into the twentieth chapter, for example), blending contemporary phrasing with a storybookish touch. The book is illustrated throughout, too, with gorgeous sketches (which put me in the mind of the recent Disney film, Tangled):

Gorgeous, right? And finally, of course, there’s a good healthy dose of the absurd, too. An unlikely Bandit King, a gentle Giant, vegetarian Trolls, and a few surly dwarves? Of course there’s absurdity involved!

What else can I say? This is a wonderful, delightful middle grade adventure novel that should be read and loved by young readers everywhere. Preferably out loud. With voices. Absolutely recommended.

I cannot wait to follow these particular Princes Charming (and Ella!) on another their next adventure.

Notable Quotes/Parts: You can listen to the first chapters via the widget below!

Additional Thoughts: Make sure to stop by and check out Christopher Healy’s guest post, in which he discusses his inspirations and influences for The Hero’s Guide!

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Before the Fall, After the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

Buy the Book:

Ebook available for kindle US, kindle UK, nook, kobo, sony, google & apple

At Kirkus: Railsea by China Miéville

Ana — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:17:49 +0000

Yay! This is very cool: our first post for Kirkus is up and running!
It’s a review of Railsea the new YA novel by award-winning author China Miéville:

A snippet from the review:

When invited to go on a life-changing adventure, Sham Yes ap Soorap, the main character of Railsea, ponders:

“What if it’s terrible? What if it all ends in tears?”

That’s exactly how I felt when picking my first China Miéville book to celebrate the momentous occasion of our debut at Kirkus. Thankfully, Railsea wasn’t terrible—far from it—and the only tears shed were the ones upon the realization that no, I cannot have a pet bat called Daybe.

Go HERE to read the rest.

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom Blog Tour: Christopher Healy Guest Post

Thea — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:01:54 +0000

“Inspirations and Influences” is a series of articles in which we invite authors to write guest posts talking about their…well, Inspirations and Influences. The cool thing is that our guest authors are given free rein so they can go wild and write about anything they want: their new book, series or career as a whole.

Today’s guest is Christopher Healy, debut author of the charmingly wonderful middle grade novel The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom – the untold story of four Prince Charmings (and Cinderella), as they break free of their Prince Charming anonymity and become celebrated heroes that save their kingdoms (sort of).

Please give a warm welcome to Christopher, folks!

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is an extended fairy tale with four Princes Charming as its protagonists, so it should come as no surprise that The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Charles Perrault were among my influences when writing the book. But they’re far from the only ones. I’ve always been something of a pop-culture sponge, and so much of what my brain sucks up ends up impacting my writing. Occasionally, I’ll throw in conscious references or allusions; other times I only discover upon re-reading my own work that unplanned allusions have leaked onto the page.

Here are just a few of my many influences.

Star Wars.

Not just the original trilogy, but the entire expanded universe. Star Wars is the true never-ending story. Every seemingly inconsequential character can be the protagonist of his own tale somewhere along the way. Someone, for example, wrote a trilogy of novels featuring Bossk, a scaly-skinned bounty hunter seen for approximately two seconds in The Empire Strikes Back.

When writing Hero’s Guide, I had that thought in my head. Every character who appears — or who is even mentioned — has an entire backstory in my mind. And as the series continues, who knows? Some of those stories may come out.

There’s also one line of dialogue in Hero’s Guide that, in its phrasing, is a direct allusion to Star Wars. Anybody spot it?

Winnie-the-Pooh.

I have been a Pooh fan for most of my life, but it was only as an adult, when reading the stories to my own children, that I think I truly realized what a genius A. A. Milne was. No one has ever been better at doling out gags based around the misspeaking, misunderstanding, or misuse of common words. I will forever hold Pooh’s utterance of “crustimony proceedcake” as the funniest mispronunciation in literary history.

The Simpsons.

Sure, the humor matches my sensibilities very well, but The Simpsons also influenced me in the way it stocks its world with utterly insane characters. No one is normal. While you always need straight men in comedy, The Simpsons proved that the straight men can have quirks of their own and have their moments in the wacky spotlight. Everyone in Hero’s Guide is a little “off” (though some show it far more than others).

Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I’ve watched the full three-season run twice now and still think it’s one of the best TV shows ever. It’s got masterful storytelling and fantastic characters. Plus, the show is like a master class in how to switch gears between laugh-out-loud, hilarious gags and suspenseful, dramatic, action scenes. If I can manage even a fraction of that deftness in balancing the comedy and the action of Hero’s Guide, I will be a happy writer.

Lego Video Games.

I could say that video games in general have been an influence — I’ve been reviewing them since the days of the Sega Dreamcast — but the Lego games (Lego Harry Potter, Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman, etc.) are particular favorites of mine and I know for a fact that they’ve impacted my plotting. In these games, you always control a team of characters, each of which has his or her own special skill. And as you play, you need to switch between characters, choosing the one who will be best suited to getting past a certain obstacle. In concocting some of the princes’ battle plans and attack strategies, I used exactly the same type of thinking: Gustav (the strong one) can break down a door, then Frederic (the talker) takes over to trick the enemies inside, and so on. In my wildest fantasies there would someday be a Lego Hero’s Guide game.

Christopher Healy spent years reviewing children’s books and media online and in print before setting off to write The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, his first children’s book. He lives with his wife and their two children in New Jersey. You can find him online at www.christopherhealy.com.

For more about The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, make sure to check out the remaining stops on the tour here. And, if you’re lucky enough to be in one of the book tour cities, you can meet Christopher in person:

Sunday, May 6th – 2:00pm
Words Bookstore
179 Maplewood Ave.
Maplewood, NJ

Monday, May 7th – 7:00pm
Anderson’s Bookshop Downers Grove
5112 Main St.
Downers Grove, IL

Tuesday, May 8th – 4:00pm
Magic Tree Bookstore
141 North Oak Park Ave.
Oak Park, IL

Wednesday, May 9th – 7:00pm
Books & Co. at The Greene
4453 Walnut St.
Dayton, OH

Thursday, May 10th – 7:00pm
Little Shop of Stories *Children’s Book Week Event with Sarah Pennypacker*
133A East Court Square
Decatur, GA

And, for a little more about The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, check out the audio excerpt below.

Finally, make sure to stick around for our review later today!

Book Review: The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

Thea — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:15:50 +0000

Title: The Hunt

Author: Andrew Fukuda

Genre: Dystopia, Horror, Post-Apocalypse, Young Adult, Vampires

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (US) / Simon & Schuster (UK)
Publication Date: May 2012
Hardcover: 293 Pages (US)

Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.

Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.

When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in The Hunt series

How did I get this book: ARC from the Publisher

Why did I read this book: I am always a little wary when books are pitched as the next Hunger Games (or any super-popular series/film/book), but in the case of The Hunt, I was intrigued. I liked the I Am Legend/Daybreakers sound to the novel – plus the last post-apocalyptic vampire-like monster novel I read was kind of awesome (see The Passage). I’d also heard some great things about Andrew Fukuda’s prior novel, so, obviously, I was so very in.

Review:

Since birth, Gene has known that he must be careful. With the careful guidance of his father and a strict code of rules – no facial expressions, no sweating, careful hygiene rituals every day to mask their scent – he has managed to survive in a world where he is the lone outcast. An animal. A meal. A dirty heper.

Should he forget any of these rules, even for an instant, it will mean his sudden, violent death – just as his mother and sister were killed, and just as his father was killed. He lives a simple, solitary existence and avoids drawing attention to himself…until the day a rare Heper Hunt is announced. A tradition that sparks the bloodlust of the people, the Heper Hunt is a dream come true for any normal person. Hepers – those delicious, blood-filled creatures that look like people but aren’t people – have long been thought to be extinct, so the announcement of a hunt sets the world achatter. A lottery will be held to select those who will be honored with the ability to participate in the hunt – and Gene’s number is called as one of the lucky few.

Whisked away to prepare for the hunt, Gene’s life has never been in a more precarious position and it is only a matter of time before his secret is out. His only hope might be with the few Hepers that are the prey for the hunt, and a girl – whom he calls Ashley June – that could eviscerate him in an instant.

The Hunt is a completely…unexpected book. Blending familiar elements from the current crop of dystopian and YA fiction (e.g. vampires, a national lottery that involves a hunt to the death of humans, slightly lovestruck teenage protagonists), Andrew Fukuda’s novel is both familiar and distinctly alien, both in substance and in theme. On the most basic level, I loved the otherness of these…well, for lack of a better word, vampires (though they simply call themselves people). There are certain vampire conventions that are upheld – the fangs, the sleeping upsidedown in bat-like fashion, the deathly/combustible reaction to sunlight, the strength and speed – but for the most part, vampires are very different in The Hunt than their traditional counterparts. While they have a set society, in which kids go to school and participate in extracurricular activities, a ruling leader and a governing structure that resembles human civilization, vampires are also markedly different from humans in other ways. Everything from their mannerisms to their diet is slightly different. For example, there is no such thing as smiling or laughing; rather, wrist scratching is used to convey amusement. Vampires have no formal names or singular identities, either; instead, people are referred to by where they sit in class, or the position they hold or occupation they fulfill (even our protagonist remains nameless throughout the book, until near the end when a lost memory surfaces). Other differences abound, too – apparently vampires are terrified of the water (or being submerged underwater), apparently they don’t sweat, and so on.

This oddness juxtaposed against the familiarity of almost-human tendencies for the most part works, but to varying degrees of efficacy. There are some scenes which are verge on the comical (most notably, in the vampric version of seven minutes in heaven, elbows and armpits are involved, which is…interesting and I’m not quite sure why or how that works as it’s never explained), and on a larger level, I’m a little uncertain as to how this world actually fits together. Do the vampires procreate (and how do they do so)? It also seems like they age like humans, going through childhood and adolescence and then reaching adulthood. They eat regular food, but also like to drink blood (I’m not quite sure how that works either). Upon close scrutiny, the rules and tenets are even more porous – for example, how on earth did our young narrator get through childhood and puberty without a single pimple? How could a female human “pass” for vampire at the onset of puberty, when bleeding on a monthly cycle is kind of a dead giveaway signifying heper status?

Needless to say, there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief that is asked of readers.

But *if* you can get past some of the more glaring questions in terms of worldbuilding and plausibility, The Hunt is an incredibly entertaining book, with a solid protagonist. I love the Matheson-esque I am Legend (the original story, not the movie) feel to the novel and to our hero Gene, as he is, to the best of his knowledge, the lone human in a world that is full of a new kind of people. He is legend. With that realization comes a palpable isolation that seeps through Gene’s narration – never being able to let anyone in, never being able to relax or let down his guard, Gene is utterly, totally alone. He even thinks of himself as a monster, and wishes more than anything that he was a “normal person”. This self-loathing and inversion of “monster” versus “normal” is incredibly clever and I think done very well by Fukuda – this is an effective metaphor for high school, for otherness, and for anyone that has ever felt marginalized by their very nature.

And beyond the strength of character, there’s also an undeniable popcorn-ish appeal to the story itself. The training for the hunt, the revelations, and the fast-paced action and story make for a very quick read. There are some pretty outlandish twists along the way (particularly at the end of the novel), but it’s all very fun and exciting, if slightly manic and not particularly plausible. I was willing to push aside my skepticism and enjoy the ride.

And ultimately, that’s what it comes down to in the case of a book like The Hunt – it’s all about how much you enjoyed the experience. Personally? I find myself entertained and my own crazy vampire-action bloodlust sated. I’ll be around for book 2.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From the official excerpt:

THERE USED TO be more of us. I’m certain of this. Not enough to fill a sports stadium or even a movie theater, but certainly more than what’s left today. Truth is, I don’t think there’s any of us left. Except me. It’s what happens when you’re a delicacy. When you’re craved. You go extinct.

Eleven years ago, one was discovered in my school. A kindergarten student, on her first day. She was devoured almost immediately. What was she thinking? Maybe the sudden (and it’s always sudden) loneliness at home drove her to school under some misbegotten idea that she’d find companionship. The teacher announced nap time, and the little tyke was left standing alone on the floor clutching her teddy bear as her classmates leaped feetfirst toward the ceiling. At that point, it was over for her. Over. She might as well have taken out her fake fangs and prostrated herself for the inevitable feasting. Her classmates stared down wide-eyed from above: Hello, what have we here? She started to cry, they tell me, bawl her eyes out. The teacher was the first to get to her.

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Make sure to stop by and check out Andrew Fukuda’s guest post, in which he talks about his (very fitting!) Inspirations & Influences for The Hunt. We’re also giving away 5 copies of the book (UK only).

Make sure to check out the other subsequent stops on the blog tour for other goodies.

Rating: 6 – Good

Reading Next: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Buy the Book:

Ebook available for kindle US, kindle UK, nook, kobo, sony, google & apple