More Books than Time

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

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman Retell Ancient Myths and Stories

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Neil Gaimon wrote Norse Mythology using the ancient stories of the Aesir and Vanir gods, giants, huge wolves, world trees.  His characters include our familar Thor, Odin, Frey and Loki, and the less-familiar Kvasir and Aenir and still more.  Gaiman does an excellent job merging his own style into the narrative flow of the legends and is faithful to the overall feeling that these stories are oral tales.

If you’ve read any of the old myths you know that Thor and Odin and the rest are nothing like the brave and clever heroes in the movies.  Instead they are rather stupid, gullible and greedy, easy pickings for someone like Loki or the dwarf craftsmen.  Gaiman shows us these folk as they were in the legends.

The book includes 15 stories spanning from the creation of the world to Ragnarok and the world that comes after.  It includes some of my favorites featuring Loki and his genius for manipulating and deceiving the other gods.

Relationship Between Loki and Thor

All the movies and books stress the love/distrust between Thor and Loki.  Loki can’t help scheme; it is what he does and Thor can’t help getting mixed up in Loki’s maneuvers.  Gaiman keeps their relationship central to the stories.

My favorite was Freya’s Unusual Wedding.  One of the best passages is “There were things Thor did when something went wrong.  The first thing…was ask himself if what had happened was Loki’s fault.  … So he did the next thing he did when something went wrong, and he went to ask Loki for advice.  Loki was crafty.  Loki would tell him what to do.”

Loki discovers the ogre Thrym stole Thor’s hammer and wants Freya to marry him in exchange.   After several lively discussions Thor dresses up like Freya and goes with Loki to marry Thrym.  Of course Loki and Thor trick Thrym and manage to kill the ogres and escape with virtue intact and hammer in hand.

Finally Loki goes too far.  He causes Hod to kill his brother Balder; he refuses to go along with Hermod when she requests Balder back from Hel; he murders Fimafeng at one feast and gets drunk and insults every god at the next.  Thor captures him in the form of a salmon and takes him back to be punished.  The other gods imprison him with a giant serpent to drip venom onto his face unless faithful Sigyn catches the venom as it drips.  Gaiman added detail and color to this tale, including Loki congratulating himself on hiding so well.

Overall

Norse Mythology is easy to read because the individual tales are all short, making it easy to pick up for a few minutes before dinner or read before bed.  The stories themselves are true to the original which makes them a little hard to read.  We can see the train wreck coming and watch the gods’ cupidity destroy their world.

4 Stars

 

Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell – Sleeping Beauty What If? Fairy Tale Retelling

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I wasn’t expecting much from Once Upon A Dream by Liz Braswell.   I didn’t care for her take off on Aladdin in A Whole New World, and Disney published both books, and they are marked YA.  Still I had a 5th borrow available from Hoopla, was sick and Dream sounded OK, so why not?

Let’s be clear.  Once Upon A Dream is not stellar fiction for adults and it’s not going to go on teachers’ lists of books their students must read.  Once Upon A Dream is basically a fast, easy read that is pretty entertaining.  Don’t pick it up if you are hungry for deep thoughts but do read it if you are in the mood for a light story with some engaging characters and interesting plot lines about reality and dreaming.

Once Upon A Dream retells the original Sleeping Beauty story and Disney movie with a twist.  The princess does not wake up and the prince falls asleep.  In Dream, Maleficent tells Aurora that her parents destroyed the country and everything surrounding it, and that Maleficent protected the people and castle behind the rose briars.  Of course this is not true.

Aurora must struggle to wake up; each time she thinks she is awake she realizes that in fact she is not.  In this book she meets Prince Phillip in the woods who travels with her and works to confound the enchantment.

Characters

Don’t look for depth and you’ll be fine.  Braswell portrays Aurora and Phillip as basically what teens think happens when you fall in love, with plenty of drama and not much common sense.  Both have more screen time in this retelling than in the movie but are still rather flat, 2-dimensional.  Aurora does get one good lick in when she tells off Maleficent for cursing a baby just because she felt slighted.  Note that Aurora complains about what Maleficent did to her, not what she did to the kingdom.

Braawell changes the three good fairies the most.  In her retelling we don’t see much to admire:  They are weak, foolish, manipulative.  I thought the sections with the three fairies were the weakest.

Overall

Once Upon A Dream was a pleasant way to spend a couple days while I recovered from an illness.  I wouldn’t seek out more of Braswell’s books, but if I have a free borrow available again and don’t feel good enough to think, well, why not?

3 Stars

The First Global Collapse: 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline

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1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) by Eric Cline is both readable and scholarly, a difficult combination for any author.  Cline looks at the 300-500 years before 1177 BC and shows how ancient peoples interacted before several kingdoms mysteriously faded or collapsed around 1177 BC.

For example, he has an interesting chart showing the different individuals that Pharaohs and ancient rulers communicated with – based on actual letters kept in royal archives.  It is eye-opening to see Egyptians talking to Mitanni (northern Mesopotamia) and Cretans and Mycenaean (Greece) and Hittites (Turkey) and Canaanites (Israel, Syrian).  The different rulers addressed each other as “brother” if they were about the same rank, or as “father” or “son” if unequal.  It is fascinating to see who equated themselves with whom!

Rulers were not the only ones who communicated.  Traders sent vessels from the Ageaen to Egypt with luxury goods and even food and prosaic items, and used land routes to get tin from the Afghan mountains for bronze, the essential metal in these cultures.  Archaeology shows Egyptian walls painted with Cretan frescoes; finds Mycenaean beakers in the Near East; unearths Cypriot trading goods across the arc stretching from eastern Italy to the Babylonian cities.

I especially enjoyed Cline’s coverage of this Late Bronze Age culture that occurred about 1500 to 1200 BC.  He used this to show the backdrop for the collapse that occurred sometime around 1177 BC, the year the Egyptian pharaoh writes of the Sea People incursion.  Cline offers several theories for the fall of this interconnected civilization – after first showing that it was indeed a fall – and suggests that the barbarians were not the only cause.  He doesn’t land on any one reason and stresses that it is unreasonable to think Sea People invaders would be responsible equally for wrecking civilizations far inland such as the Kassite empire in Babylonia as for ruining Mycenaea and Ugarit (Syrian coast).

Climate change, drought, famine occurred around this time, but kingdoms had recovered from those before.  Invaders came before, but people had recovered.  Earthquakes happened before but people had recovered.  Yet something happened that caused about a dozen civilizations to contract and some even to collapse over a 10-30 year period.  Cline examines each possible reason for the collapse and rules each of them out as the sole cause.

Instead he posits that the sheer interconnectedness – the early globalization – of the late Bronze Age was part of its downfall.  Once one or two states fell into disarray then trade routes were hurt, possibly even cut completely, and the occasional drought and famine were exacerbated.  It is an interesting idea and one that implies we today need to be careful as we are even more globalized.

I highly recommend that you read the physical book and not the E version so you can flip between text and maps.

5 Stars

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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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Two New Science Fiction Novels: Prominence by A. C. Hadfield and Fringe Runner by Rachel Aukes

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Prominence: A Space Opera Adventure (Blackstar Command Book 1) by A. C. Hadfield.

When I think “space opera” I think of grand vistas and complicated plots, books that are uplifting, showing human endeavor amid deadly danger.   The original Foundation trilogy is perfect example.

Prominence lacks the feel of grandeur.  Instead it feels like YA fiction where things just happen, and teen heroes save the day. For instance, our protagonist, Kai, is able to contact not one but two military leaders – admirals and equivalent – in a war zone, insult one and make demands on the other, and both admirals take his call and listen.  Further the military leadership sends Kai to find his missing father and retrieve a rumored piece of very high tech left behind by the mysterious Navigator aliens.  How realistic is this?

The blurb indicates the Coalition is fighting for its life against the Host, that the Host seeks its annihilation. Yet we learn near the end that both groups include aliens and some humans, that the main difference is the Host values life above all while the Coalition is “more pragmatic”.  That does not jibe with the annihilation bit.

I managed to finish it although the last third was difficult.  Hadfield had a reasonable story in the first third or so, then it got unbelievable and boring.  The characters are stock folks from the shelf.  Pacing and style are OK.

Overall 2 Stars

Fringe Runner (Fringe Series, #1) by Rachel Aukes

Fringe Runner is better than Prominence.  The novel’s main problems are uneven pacing and a thin plot with too many people acting far too gullible.  It wasn’t boring exactly but I never felt connected to the characters and the backstory was far fetched.

The two main planets in the Collective are Alluvia and Myr, both originally colonized by Earth, and a few smaller colonies called the Fringe  Earth allowed Alluvia and Myr their independence immediately but the two did not treat their colonies with the same pragmatic respect..  Alluvia and Myr keep the Fringe worlds and their people in tight control and treat them as little more than cheap forced labor or cannon fodder.

What I kept wondering:  Where is Earth?  If Earth colonized Alluvia and Myr, then it presumably is still around.  Why does Earth have no role or voice in the Collective?  No ambassador, no trade, nothing.  That doesn’t make sense.

Characters were a notch above cardboard but they didn’t feel real to me.  Main character Aramis Reyne should be fun to read about.  He’s older, arthritic, tired of living on the edge of bankruptcy, tired of his former friends think him a traitor.  Somehow I just couldn’t get interested in him.  In the last third of the novel Reyne is extraordinarily gullible, first falling for the old “my friend told me” and then following a complete unknown to a set up ambush.  Nope.  Sorry, but if Reyne is that stupid then he wouldn’t have lived past the earlier uprising.

The backstory was a touch unbelievable too.  Sure, I can see Myr and Alluvia acting like overlords and treating the Fringe like serfs, but I can’t see the Fringe members of the Collective military going along with it, or at least not making some trouble along the way.  The political situation described is too fragile to last as long as it supposedly has.

Writing style was OK.  Dialogue and pacing were problematic but again the biggest issue is sheer lack of compelling interest.  I kept putting the story down and having a hard time remembering who was who and what was happening even just a day later.  I won’t pursue the series.

3 Stars

I received both books for free through Instafreebie

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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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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