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Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

The Invisible Library – A Fantasy for Us Book Lovers

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I wanted to be a librarian until I learned that they had to work, not read the books.  Ugh.  Surrounded by books and not one to read, like a castaway with salt water everywhere and not a drop to drink.  The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman solves the problem of working vs. reading.  Librarians work until they get too old or die or are too badly injured, then retire to read as much as they want as long as they want.  Their library is The Library, the library that connects all the worlds by holding books from every world on its shelves.

The catch is the “work” that Librarians do.  Stealing, buying, stealing, copying, stealing, absconding with, stealing, trading, acquiring books, however it takes to get those elusive copies into the Library.  Think of Shakespeare’s Agamemnon, yes, that type of book, books that are rare even in their home worlds.  Which is why stealing is such a handy skill.  I can’t think of too many other libraries that hire Librarians for their martial arts skills and none where death in the line of duty is common.

If this sounds fascinating, well, it is.  Cogman hit the trifecta on this novel:  Intriguing back story, solid writing, interesting characters.  And it’s all tied up in a nifty plot.

Backstory

There are many worlds that span from extreme reality with order and logic, to extreme chaos with magic and unusual creature.  Dragons rule the reality worlds and Fae own the chaos worlds.  Humans exist in all but are basically powerless in the worlds at either end.  Fae are completely engrossed in their own, individual stories and humans play bit roles controlled by glamour and the Fae will.  Dragons enforce Reality with a capital R; I’m not sure what that would look like other than probably not a lot of fun.

Cogman contains the action in the Library (briefly) and in the London of a single world, one with roughly 19th century technology and considerable magic, also lots of dirt and smoke.  Women wear long skirts and aren’t supposed to be in charge.

Cogman uses the characters to show the world and the magic that underpins this London and the Library.  It takes skill to show a complicated world and backstory without pages of tedious explanation and she does so.

Characters

Heroine Irene is a young Librarian, sent to acquire a version of Grimm’s fairy tales that is unique to one world.  This world is on the normal/chaos boundary, where humans have self will, Fae abound and rule certain countries and London is full of vampires and werewolves.  Irene has a new apprentice, Kai, a very young dragon, which is helpful in this London as otherwise no one would take her seriously.  Irene loves Sherlock Holmes and is excited to meet Vane, a Sherlock look-alike who wants to solve the mystery of the book’s location after it is stolen (although not by Irene).  Irene, Kai and Vane are helped and thwarted by Silver, the Fae ambassador from Lichtenstein (a major power in this world).

As you can see from the characters The Invisible Library is complicated.  And it is delightful.

4+ Stars

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Excalibur Rising – Book 4 – Denouement for King Arthur’s Heirs

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Eileen Enwright Hodges developed a unique twist on the Arthurian legend with her 4-volume Excalibur Rising fantasy.  We see modern Americans and British, thugs and historians, chase after Excalibur, chase all the way into Albion where two of them, Marcus Ryan and Violet, are present when Arthur reclaims Camelot.  Of course it is not to last as Mordred’s descendants have maintained their antipathy and violent ambition and are determined to rule Albion.

The first book was excellent, introducing us to the characters and the fascinating back story Hodges develops that explains the enduring legend despite little historical evidence.   Book 2 was weaker although still enjoyable.  We find Arthur has a legitimate heir, in fact an heir who has a better claim to the throne than Arthur himself.  Given this is a fantasy the claimant is a kid so we have the usual teen angst and drama.  Book 3 disappointed me because all we did was rush from Albion to England, then seek to rush back to Albion, this time with a few more people also fleeing mob retribution.

I wanted to like Book 4.  The writing style is sound and Hodges does a good job building the characters.  Unfortunately the novel has plot holes, situations where stuff just happens and the story problems detract from what should be a solid 4 star story.  Instead of focusing on the people I get annoyed with the situations and that’s not what the author intends.

Book 4 has several “oh brother” moments, with improbable coincidences.  (For example, do we really believe Captain Hannon would just happen to land his runaway ballon next to Marcus?)  Plus we still have a few fundamental problems that paint Hodges into a corner.

  • Is it really likely that Mordred’s family would maintain their obsession for 800 years?  That is 40 generations!  Few families have father-to-son direct lineage for 40 generations, not to mention that the obsession doesn’t make a lot of sense.  Modern Mordred can live here, in modern England, complete with running water, indoor plumbing, comfortable clothing, and he’s educated and familiar with our world.  If I were Mordred I’d have stayed here.  Forget about Albion and make a life here.
  • As Book 4 opens Mordred has been king for 6 years.  He’s rebuilt part of Camelot and levied taxes, a lot of taxes.  But he’s done nothing to modernize his new kingdom, built no roads, established no trade, no patronage of skilled artisans, encouraged no learning.  Granted Mordred is nasty, but why leave a kingdom in ruins when you know how to improve things.
  • Dristan is still 16 on the inside although he looks 22.  Some medieval monarchs succeeded at 16 but they usually had benefits such as training, wise counselors, familiarity with the world.  Dristan is the blacksmith’s son, intelligent but uneducated.  Do we think he’s up to ruling a land torn by dissension and facing invasion from far more modern (and ruthless) neighbors?
  • Merlin tells Dristan to toss away Excalibur, which he does.  We don’t get much explanation.

On the plus side Hodges wraps up the story rather neatly.  Everyone ends up more or less where they should and the good guys mostly win.

Hodges reintroduces Meleanore, the noble woman Mordred intends to marry.  In Book 2 Meleanore sailed away through the mists to claim her family’s birthright, the Far Isles.  She’s back in Book 4 with romantic entanglements; in fact Hodges asked her ARC readers to comment which of two possible suitors Meleanore should choose.  I didn’t like Meleanore in Book 2 and like her even less in Book 4.

Hodges states Book 4 is the last in this series but that leaves us with a kingdom in Dristan’s inexperienced and ignorant hands, an implacable enemy-to-be on the European continent, people and trade and religion in disarray.  Merlin hides Albion once again but it will last only 4 generations, enough that Albion could prepare if it dedicated itself.  How will Dristan prepare the land for the coming conflicts?  Hodges has many more stories to tell should she wish to do so.

3 Stars

Lost Child of Lychford by Paul Cornell – Store Kindness to Defeat Evil

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Lost Child of Lychford is sequel to Witches of Lychford (reviewed here), a short, suspenseful novel of three ladies working to thwart demonic plans to break the barriers that protect our world.  The three ladies managed to defeat the demon but there are many worlds and many entities who threaten ours.  We meet two more in Lost Child of Lychford.

The lost child in the title is a toddler who originally appears as a ghost to Lizzie, who is the Lychford vicar cum apprentice border protector.  Lizzie must find within herself the strength to save the child and her town and her friends from the latest evil entities.

In some ways Lost Child is less powerful than Witches because we don’t really see how the new evil entities (again masquerading as people) manage to exert so much control over the three women.  It just happens, and all the while the three are dimly aware something is wrong but cannot save themselves.  Autumn, who was the weakest character in Witches, is stronger here but she still felt more like a character than a person.

Since we’re reading a fantasy suspense novel and not a crime whodunit, Cornell can get away with sparse explanations, providing just enough of a frame that we can suspend disbelief and go along with the story.  Still I would have preferred a little more meat on Lizzie’s story since she was being led to perform horrors in her church upon a child.  It was just a bit unsatisfying.

The ending was interesting because Lizzie manages to save herself with help from the ghost whom she had befriended.  Because she had been kind to the ghost child earlier, the ghost was able to give her back the strength to push off the control.  Judith later explains that Lizzie used the little boy ghost as a battery, storing kindness and goodness, then withdrawing when needed.  I love that metaphor.

Lost Child of Lychford is even shorter than Witches of Lychford, about 133 pages.  That’s the size of a long novella and I do wish Cornell would tie these stories together into one satisfying novel.  Reading these short books is a little like eating appetizers for dinner.

Overall the novel is well written with strong mood contrasts and good dialogue.   Characterization is moderately good with Lizzie confronting her own faith (or lack of it) with stress of her first Christmas as the vicar, while Autumn looks for romance and Judith deals with her own ghost.

4 Stars

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Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell – Moody, Magic and Money

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I bought Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell by mistake (hit “Buy” vs “See”) and what a happy mistake it turned out to be!  The characters live in Lychford, an English town fallen on harder times.  A big chain store wants permission to build a store on the edge of town, promising jobs and an economic boost that have bedazzled most town folk.

The problem is that Lychford sets on a locus, defining boundaries between multiple worlds.  Destroy the town boundary and you destroy the world boundaries.  That sets the story.

Characters

Cornell sketches in the characters enough to capture our interest but the book is short and we don’t really know any of them.  None of them are witches in the traditional sense, more guardians of the borders.

Lizzie is a modern vicar, meaning she believes more or less and wants to overlook sin.  She is new to her parish and learning to tread among the factions in town and church and looking for a friend.   We see the tension between her belief (a bit tenuous but real) and her moral sense and her training to not “judge” anyone.

Autumn spent a year in Fairy and can’t quite believe it.  She has been in and out of mental hospitals and is a thorough skeptic.  The book doesn’t show why Autumn owns a magic shop since she doesn’t believe in magic (or God or anything).

Judith is an interesting old lady, antisocial and rude, the sort of person kids make fun of.  She is the only one who has any clue about Lychford’s special nature or any training in magic.  She takes the other two ladies on as allies only because she is desperate.  Judith is the most complete character.  Our knees ache along with hers as she walks home and climbs the steps to her apartment on misty nights.

We know a little more about each lady at the end of the story.  Cornell does a good job on dialogue and interplay among them; Lizzie and Judith feel like real people while Autumn isn’t fleshed out.

Mood and Setting

Witches of Lychford could be a bit creepy or full of fake magic-y stuff.  It’s not.  The mood is somber.  We know the situation is dire and we know Judith has spent the last 70 years alienating everyone so she has no allies and no one will listen and take her warnings seriously.  Cornell shows us the town’s spooky side only once, when the three walk through the surrounding forest and Judith points out the boundary lines.

The political wrangling and outright bribery feel all too real.  We can feel exactly how uncomfortable the seats are in the town hall and feel the tension as friends and family fall into opposing camps.  That part is good.  The scenes in Autumn’s shop do not feel quite right.  Autumn is much the weakest character and her shop the weakest setting.

Overall

Witches of Lychford is short, only 144 pages in print form.  Cornell tells his story and ends when the incident ends.  He leaves tantalizing clues that Judith, Lizzie and Autumn are not done with each other or with their duties to maintain the borders of Lychford.

Per Amazon Witches of Lychford is the first book in a 3-book series.  All three books are short and fast reads, about 1 to 1 1/2 hour each. I would like to see Cornell publish them as a single book.  I was able to get the second book from our Michigan wide Melcat library system.

4 Stars

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Excalibur Rising: Book 3 Flee the Crime Boss and the One-Eyed Man

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I loved the first book of Eileen Enwright Hodgetts Excalibur Rising series for its intriguing take on King Arthur and its quirky characters who felt like real people. Book 2 was a bit of a let down and Book 3 drops us with a thud.  In Book 2 Marcus and the peasant boy Dristan flee Albion to Earth; now in Book 3 Marcus and Todd and Freddie flee from two mob bosses.

Book 3 isn’t much fun.  Marcus and Freddie and Todd clutch at straws to find a way back to Albion.  Since Marcus just got back to Earth the whole thing feels like we are on a giant treadmill, rushing around and going nowhere.

The basic flow of the book is Freddie and Todd are on the run; Marcus and Dristan get back to Earth; everyone ends up at the inn with a dragon sign; Freddie, Todd and Marcus are now desperate to get back to Albion; Dristan sneaks off and Bors threatens everyone and acts nasty.  And at the end we on Earth might have a dragon hatching.

The writing as usual is good and Hodgetts introduces a couple new characters. Kevin, the local crop circle expert is great and Dristan develops as a character.

I am not sure whether I’ll read Book 4.

Book 3 is hard to rate.  Let’s say 3 stars.  Here are my reviews for Book 1 and Book 2.

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Excalibur Rising Book Two: What Happens When King Arthur Returns?

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I was eager to read Excalibur Rising Book Two, sequel to the unique Arthurian novel Excalibur Rising Book One by Eileen Enwright Hodgetts .  Excalibur Rising had unusual twists and characters, from a newscaster on the skids to a crime boss and a second world, one where Arthur truly reigned in the 1200s.  Book Two picks up right were Book One ended, and we spend the entire novel in Albion and meet a peasant family who finds a surprising sinkhole on their property.

Mordred is long dead but his heirs are very much alive and dedicated to killing Arthur and taking over the throne of Albion.  Violet and Marcus joined up with Arthur at the close of Book One, and now join him and his knights in Camelot.  Of course Mordred, after spending much time in our world, has excellent ideas for low-tech methods to bring down the castle.  Along the way his army conscripts all the peasants it can, including the blacksmith father we meet at the start of the book.

One problem that King Arthur has in all Arthurian legends is his lack of an heir.  He has Mordred, illegitimate and nasty, but no legitimate child.  Even if Arthur defeats Mordred Albion still faces a succession crisis and likely civil war.  Hodgetts finds a solution which is obvious and, to be blunt, a bit trite.

In this sequel we learn a little more about Albion along with Marcus and Violet, and as they do, decide it isn’t quite the place we want to live.  Albion is at war and Mordred will win.  Also, the ladies of the lake have hidden Albion from the rest of the world behind a mist.  What happens when Albion suddenly catches up with 800 years of history?

Characters and Setting

We don’t get much character development in Book Two.  People who are nasty get nastier, sneaky ones get sneakier, frightened ones get more scared.  The author keeps the characters we know and simply strengthens their characteristics.  The new peasant family are stock characters who didn’t engage me.

We learn more about Albion in Book Two and decide it’s not exactly the romantic paradise of the Arthurian legends.  Instead Marcus and Violet decide to return to Earth and start searching for a way home.  The way home is tied in with the Arthur’s solution to the succession, part of the reason the plot disappoints.

Overall

Overall Book Two is OK.  It is not as good as the first book which I rated 4+ stars to in this review.  Book 2 is good enough to finish reading and interesting enough that I looked forward to reading Book Three.

3+ Stars

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Not Dead Enough: The Windhaven Chronicles, Dark Fantasy

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Not Dead Enough: The Windhaven Chronicles by Watson Davis is a novella written as a series of short stories that fit together – and it is not the type of book that normally appeals to me.  It is dark.  How dark?  Very.  The main characters are a semi-dead demon trapped in a book and a vampire and the vampire is the better of the two.

I decided to read this after getting Watson Davis’ newsletter.  I get a lot of newsletters and most end up in the trash with me unsubscribed.  If the writer lavishes exclamation points or features teen girls I’m out of there!!  Like, totally out of there!!  (Teen-speak and exclamation points.  Ugh.)

Davis’ newsletter was good with light humor so I asked for the book – but didn’t know what Not Dead Enough was about until it arrived.  I opened it with a sinking feeling and ended up staying up an hour late to finish.  It was good, readable, with many interesting characters and an intriguing back story.  I am glad to have taken a chance.

The Empress has used sorcery to compel Gartan to obey her, to assassinate and kill and bring pain to himself and everyone else.  She is now semi-dead, trapped in a book that Gartan wants to destroy.  The stories feature Gartan’s creative methods for bibliocide, from tossing it into a volcano to feeding to a sea monster to magic.  Gartan slowly sheds his Empress-driven cruel madness and regains some humanity.

Initially he wants to destroy the book because he wants to destroy the Empress, but as he progresses he accepts that he is in part responsible for the mess and responsible to keep the book from relaunching the Empress.  There are hints that Gartan was not always a vampire and I’m curious whether he eventually is able to free himself from that curse.

Overall this was a very good surprise, well written, with deft handling of scene changes and many varied minor characters who pass in and out through Gartan’s parade.  I enjoyed the dialogue which was refreshing, down to earth and written the way you can imagine someone speaking.

I would give this a solid 4.  It was enjoyable and well written.  I intend to read more by Watson Davis (and stay subscribed to his newsletter.)

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Painted Pathways – Fantasy with an Artistic Flair

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Painted Pathways by Melinda VanLone and Sonja Field is an intriguing fantasy with a different feel to it.  Lark Previn is an artist who moved to New York from a small rural town and like most artists, she is broke and worried.  She’s not able to recapture the free spirited art she did as a child and her work is not good enough to keep her scholarship.

Things change when she receives a mystery gift in the mail, a set of brushes and paints.  With those she is transfixed, completely taken over by the need to paint.  Several days later when she wakes up she finds she has recreated the carnival she had envisioned as a child.  But these paintings are magic.  They have real paths to the carnival and someone threatening wants them.  And her.

The story flows well although the plot is somewhat confusing.  People die.  Or do they?  She meets a hawk who is a man, and a man who is a type of vampire.  Lark wants to understand the paintings and how she makes them but is terrified of losing more days in a fugue, forgetting to eat, to drink, to feed her cat.

Overall this is an intriguing novel; in fact I looked at more by Melinda VanLone.  The plot could use a bit more clarity and the character is somewhat flat.  We never learn why Lark is connected to the carnival, why she continues to see and paint it.  She learns to paint stories as they occur, or do the stories happen because she paints them?  This isn’t a great novel, still a pleasant read.

3 Stars

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A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnson, Subtle Magic, Quiet Fantasy

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A Thousand Nights.  Doesn’t that sound like Scheherazade with the king who lets his wife live another night as long as she spins a tale he wants to hear?  E. K. Johnson’s A Thousand Nights is closer in spirit to Naomi Novik’s Uprooted than to the original Arabian Nights.

As in Uprooted girls are seized and taken from their homes, but unlike Novik’s tale the women are to marry the king and die after one night.  Our heroine – who is never named – knows that the king’s servants will choose her beautiful sister and instead puts herself forward to go in her place.  The wife doesn’t know what will happen or why the king takes his wives.  The other similarities lie in the grudging romance, the constant threat in the background of an otherwise placid country, fear, and sheer bloody mindedness that the heroine uses to keep her life and her wits.

I particularly liked the subtle magic and the nuances the wife must thread.  For example, she decides to stay with the king because she can survive but realizes no other lady could.  She gets a chance to kill her husband, but she knows a kingdom without an heir is a kingdom in chaos when contenders tear the country apart to grab the throne.  She realizes the kingdom tolerates the king because he is a just ruler who brings prosperity and peace despite sacrificing a young lady every month or two, so decides to conquer the demon…somehow.

Be warned that the story is slow in the beginning.  The wife does not know she will survive and she views everything she sees as the last time she sees it.  We go along with her as she wanders her palace suite, as she remembers her family’s tales, as she lets her husband hold her hands to eat her life.

A Thousand Nights is not for action junkies.  Don’t read this expecting fierce sword fights or blasts of magic.  Our heroine develops her magic as her sister builds her a memory shrine, in effect making her a small god while alive.  Her magic works from visions, where she is able to weave a fabric by imagining it, where she finds the metal that demons cannot tolerate by a waking dream.

Instead of action we have a bit of mystery, well-developed settings and emotion. A Thousand Nights delivers simple magic and understated romance, duty and emotional appeal.  And like Uprooted this is listed as YA, older teens but adults will enjoy it too; in fact it is likely more appealing to adults than to teens.

Overall this is an excellent novel.

4 Stars

 

A Couple of So-So Novels – Devan Chronicles and Jyra

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The God Decrees: Devan Chronicles Book 1 by Mark E. Cooper is classical epic fantasy set in a quasi-medieval world.  Cooper writes well and tries a few twists on some standard fantasy elements.  Lord Keverin’s best friend and most capable wizard gives his life to bring a strong wizard from a distant world into Keverin’s castle to help defend and defeat invaders.  The twist is the champion turns out to be Julia, a dedicated gymnast practicing for the Olympic games.  Julia does not want to be in Keverin’s world and certainly does not want to defeat the oncoming army by killing them with magic.

Add to the mix the normal me-Tarzan you-Jane nonsense, feuding and treacherous neighbors, an archbishop who accuses Julia of witchcraft and heresy and you have the first novel, The God Decrees.  Somehow the mix just didn’t work for me and I abandoned the book about 3/4 through the first book in the 4-book series.  It felt trite and not compelling enough to read; I couldn’t care about the characters.

2 Stars

I read Jyra because author Blake B. Rivers sent a request to join his advanced readers group; the email was friendly and short so I moved Jyra up and read it the other evening.

Rivers noted Jyra is his first ever novel.  Unfortunately main character Jyra is dry and factual, who knowingly struggles with social clues, sarcasm, nuances in conversation and motives.  I’m not sure why he chose such a challenging heroine because the story itself is actually quite good and would have been enjoyable with a more interesting character.

Jyra’s story is about parallel or nested worlds all under attack from Something.  Jyra knows this Something is real because she has seen it.  I would like to see Rivers explore the seeming contradiction between the dry, factual Jyra and her readiness to believe in and act upon what almost anyone else would believe a dream.

Overall the story is decent.  Rivers has the germ of a good plot here and I hope he develops it, perhaps along with developing Jyra into a real person instead of a facsimile.

3 Stars