Maggie Furey

I finally finished Maggie Furey's Shadowleague trilogy sometime in November. When I first started the series with "Heart of the Myrial," I thought it was a pretty stereotypical, predictable fantasy series. It ended having a few surprises, getting progressively better with the final two books -- "Spirit of the Stone" and "Echo of Eternity."

The story centers on a group called the Shadowleague who are supposed to be the only beings on the world that can penetrate the barriers between the different countries on the planet. Each country is divided by a curtain wall that keeps the different elements and geographical landscapes separate. Some are rainy and mountainous -- others, dry and arid. Specifically designed to cater to the species living in each different location, every country is perfectly suited for its inhabitant. The dragons, who need sunlight to survive, are located in the dessert. Humans who rely on cattle and farming are in a green, lush plains. But then something begins to destroy the curtain walls separating the different climates, causing all of the species to begin to deteriorate. The destruction of the curtain walls wreaks havoc in each country as normally dessert lands become rainy and mild, tropical climates turn bitterly cold. Humans, centaurs, aliens, and dragons all begin to suffer and die.

Later on in the series, the main characters discover that the world was actually built by a superior alien race -- it is a giant machine that is slowly breaking down, destroying the curtain walls in the process and mixing the weather. The Loremasters of the Shadowleague are specially selected members of each race on the world, the gate keepers of the knowledge of the planet. They alone know the secret to penetrate the curtain walls, as they alone have shared knowledge of all the different countries, so of course they alone can save the planet.

It sounds cheesy, I know. It is a straight up adventure fantasy, but a good one, with likable, well-rounded characters and an enjoyable, entertaining storyline. Simple enough, but a quick read and one that keeps the reading interested.

lesen

This started out as a post about the Shadowleague trilogy (original intent, anyway), and ended up like this:

The entire living room is filled with books: only science fiction. Four bookshelves, and we still had to stick two more in the spare bedroom.

And that only covers science fiction/fantasy. The rest of the spare bedroom is children and young adult. The dining room is poetry. The bedroom is just two shelves of all the books we want to read "soon." The basement is fiction, but only the first three shelves of it. Behind the fake bamboo room in the basement, Neil has 40,000 comics and graphic novels.

And I still haven't gotten to the boxes of books we have yet to unpack -- history, philosophy, the rest of fiction. We can't use the garage, because it is filled with bookshelves we won't have room for until we finish the basement.

It's kind of disgusting, really. This is why I sit at home, alone on Friday nights, reading and writing about what I read.

The Turn of the Screw

I like to think that I read a lot of books - certainly more than the average person. back in the day, I might have considered myself well-read ... but now, not so much. Being told to write for an audience with a fifth-grade reading level ... and eventually reading on basically the same level, must have had an effect eventually.

Anyway, I haven't read a "real" book a while. I used to love the classics, but now all I read are books that don't take much brain power ... teen fantasy, science fiction, graphic novels. Don't get me wrong: clearly I love the teenage brain sludge, otherwise I wouldn't read it ... but when I went back to the classics with "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, I think it made my head hurt a little.

James was a wee bit over my head. I have absolutely no idea if the narrator (the governess) was insane and imagining the whole thing, or it was supposed to be just a straight up ghost story. How can you tell when the narrator is reliable?

Quick summary: the novella begins with a friend recounting a tale of a dear friend he had, now deceased, who was a governess for a wealthy gentleman out in the country where she is instructed to care for two children, but never to contact their guardian for any reason. The story soon switches to this governess' perspective. And of course, she meets the two children, Flora and Miles and they seem perfect. Pale, blue-eyed, the whole package. And then the governess starts seeing dead people around the house. Oh, and they happen to be the previous governess and her lover. And she is the only one who can see them. And she is convinced the children can see them, too, and are being "influenced" by them ... and are just pretending to not see them.

But maybe it doesn't really matter. Either the governess was crazy or it's a straight up ghost story. I'm just not completely sure if the governess was supposed to be the bad guy, or the ghosts were supposed to be the bad guys.


Either way, it was a short novella and a nice ghost story of sorts to read in October.

Books I've read recently, but have been too lazy to write about

So, hey, you get the condensed versions:

• Percy Jackson and the Olympian's "The Battle for the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan. I love this series. A lot. It just keeps getting better and better - sad to be only one away from finishing. I guess I will have to check out the Red Pyramid and some of his other new stuff.

• "The Lions of Al-Rassan" by Guy Gavriel Kay. I love every Kay book, and this is one of his best (doesn't quite beat Tigana but it is definitely up there.) This has to be the most historical book of his I've read, not nearly as fantasy-like as most of his other works. There are real parallels here to Spanish history and the wars with Christians, Jews and Moors. Well worth a look if you are at all into historical fantasy.

• "The Heart of the Myrial" by Maggie Furey. Another Maggie insisted that I read this book a long, long time ago. It took me about 7 years, but I finally got around to it. While it began as a rather typical fantasy, it packed a few surprises. The writing gets better with the series.

• "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins - The entire Hunger Games series was excellent. As with anything that gains the slightest bit of notoriety, critics wailed about how violent and "adult" the books are. Death? Corrupt politicians? Noooo! So beyond a teenager's reach. But, seriously, the entire series is impossible to put down, and the ending didn't disappoint.

• "Girls in Trucks" by Katie Crouch. Crouch's debut, another one I picked up at a GM meeting a few years ago. I had heard nothing about it since I got it three years ago, so was surprised when people approached me saying they had heard good things about it. A national bestseller - who knew? What started out as a somewhat stereotypical YA about a high school girl took a few surprising turns. Deep, probing -- it asks all the tough love questions. Crouch just came out with her second, this spring. I will have to check it out.

A good Shannon Hale book!

You might think I would have given up on Shannon Hale after starting with "Austenland," but I decided to try "Princess Academy," as I already owned it.

I should probably be a little ashamed at how much I like this book. I REALLY loved it. A lot. It had surprising depth for a YA novel. Not only was it a great fairytale princess story, but it also portrayed teenage insecurities, classism, and typical childhood rivalries exceptionally well. I guess I shouldn't have doubted a book that got a Newberry Honor nod.

Austenland

I picked up an advanced copy of "Austenland" at one of the last meetings I attended before being forced to leave the book world. Like nearly every other hopelessly romantic female in the world, I gravitate toward all things Austen, but this one was too much for me. I can't imagine this book appealing to anyone who isn't an Austen fan (or at least Pride and Prejudice -- be it the book, BBC or 2004 film version).



It is such a short, quick book (basically the only thing I've been reading, this summer. surprise surprise!) that I did manage to get through the whole thing, but it was trite and predictable the entire way.

Don't get me wrong: generally, I can't get enough of horrible, predictable romantic comedies, but even I have my limits. Ugh. This is the worst post ever (and that's saying something, since all I do is ramble about my personal opinions of the books I read without any sort of critique whatsoever) but man, sorry. I'm done.

Alison Croggon

Alison Croggon's Pellinor series begins with "The Naming" (released outside the U.S. as "The Gift").



There is nothing remotely original about the series, drawing heavily on LoTR and Harry Potter (right down to defeating a sea dog monster by singing it a lullaby in the second in the series). But, the writing's better than average and the characters are interesting.

I read the first one really quickly but am having a hard time getting through the second in the series, "The Riddle." I am struggling with the same issue I faced when reading "The Historian" -- I just feel like the same stuff keeps happening over and over again, without really going anywhere. Maerad and Cadvan are traveling. They're faced with a force of evil and banish it. She talks about the weather and landscape. They get to where they're going. They hear bad news, then they travel again. They're faced with a force of evil and banish it. They travel some more. They meet another bad guy. They travel some more. She talks about the weather and landscape. Then they get to where they're going. (In "The Historian" -- oh! another dead end and lost clue. Noooo!). "The Historian" dragged forever without really going anywhere -- Croggon's second is just repetitive.

This series has been recommended to be several times; a good bookseller friend of mine raves about it. So maybe I'm the only one who thinks it is a little too Lord of the Rings/Star Wars (don't go to the dark side, the light is all about "balance"/Harry Potter?

Ah well. With any luck, it will get better as the series goes on (again, like HP).