Archives - March 2006 archives -- index by author -- index by category -- favorite books -- links

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• Kate Elliott, the Crown of Stars series: King's Dragon, Prince of Dogs, The Burning Stone, Child of Flame, The Gathering Storm, In the Ruins, Crown of Stars: excellent chewy epic fantasy, with vivid characters and a well thought out and deep setting, which shares elements with but does not replicate medieval Europe; the differences are interesting to explore. I particularly liked that the series looks at what happens after the event that could easily have been the big climax, which is where most epic fantasies seem to end.
  
  
• Gillian Bradshaw, The Elixir of Youth: This may be the last one of her SF thrillers I try, because they just don't work as well as her historical novels do for me. I liked main character and relationships, but wasn't gripped by the main plot, which had to do with the heroine's father inventing an anti-aging serum.
  
  
• Daphne de Marneffe, Maternal Desire: Oddly, I don't have much to say about this. There were some interesting insights, and I'd probably recommend it to anyone interested in mothering and feminism.
  
  
• Lois McMaster Bujold, the Vorkosigan series: Falling Free, Shards of Honor, Barrayar, The Warrior's Apprentice, The Vor Game, Borders of Infinity, Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Memory, Komarr, A Civil Campaign, "Winterfair Gifts" (in Irresistible Forces), Diplomatic Immunity: my first reread, and I think they were even better this time, given some familiarity with the characters and history. I hadn't previously read "Winterfair Gifts", which comes chronologically between A Civil Campaign and Diplomatic Immunity and is included in Irresistible Forces, a collection of fantasy/romance novellas by various authors; I liked "Winterfair Gifts" quite a lot, read the next story (by Mary Jo Putney) and didn’t like it much, and skipped the rest.
  
  
• David Austin, The English Roses: the third edition (I think) of his book on the roses he breeds. This one is just gorgeous, with stunning photography. It was expensive, but worth it for me.
  
  
• Suzanne Enoch, Don't Look Down: a good followup to her Flirting with Danger, which I read in February. Enoch manages to keep up the tension (sexual and otherwise) between the two leads, while continuing to develop their characters and introducing a fairly interesting mystery plot.
  
  
• Julian Fellowes, Snobs: a frothy, quite enjoyable novel about goings-on in the English upper classes, with surprisingly memorable characters and zingy, witty writing (a favorite sentence: "And so the afternoon passed in a litany of duchesses intoned against a background of art enshrined by money").
  
  
• Susan Vaught, Stormwitch: This was excellent. Ruba is a Haitian girl who comes to live with her grandmother in Mississippi in the late 1960's after the death of her other grandmother in Haiti. Ruba's Haitian grandmother trained her in the magical powers of their African ancestors, but her Grandmother Jones is Christian and thinks Ruba's powers come from the devil. When they're caught up together in the sometimes violent fight for civil rights, Ruba and her grandmother have to work out their differences. The magic and the historical background are very interesting, and the characters and relationships are well done and powerful. I got this from the library, but I'll likely buy a copy when it comes out in paperback, as I'd definitely like to reread it sometime.
  
  
• Geraldine Brooks, March: I'm often not a fan of books based on the books of other authors, but this one really worked for me. It's based on Little Women and tells the story of the experiences of Mr. March before the Civil War, when he travelled in the South before meeting and marrying Marmee, and during the war, when he left his home and family to become a chaplain for the Union Army. Brooks blends her narrative and characters beautifully with those of Little Women; I didn't catch any missteps, and I just reread Little Women a couple of months ago, so it's fresh in my memory. The book is so well written, though, that I think even non-Alcott fans would enjoy it; the prose is elegant and evocative, and the historical details excellent.
  
  
• Meredith Ann Pierce, Birth of the Firebringer, Dark Moon, The Son of Summer Stars: I wanted to like these more than I did, because I like her Darkangel books and her short stories so much. It's about unicorns, which I was a little worried about, but I thought Pierce pulled that off pretty well, actually; her unicorns aren't pretty, fluffy things, but warriors who fight for their lives and land against other beasts, gryphons and wyverns. I think what I mostly didn't like was the main character, Jan the unicorn prince, who was all too often (particularly in the last book) incredibly dim, in a way that seemed to serve the plot (so that the big reveals could happen at the right time) more than the character. Come to think of it, that's rather how I felt about Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood, too. Still, I love Pierce's writing and find her worldbuilding absorbing, so I'm not at all sorry I read these.
  
  
• Elaine Showalter, A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing: Someday I will have to acquire some newer feminist literary criticism, but I'm really enjoying reading some of the older stuff, including this (and Ellen Moers's Literary Women a few months ago). The down side (if it's a down side) is that my list of books to read increased exponentially after looking through the Biographical Appendix, which lists what Showalter calls "the 213 women writers and activists" who are "the most prominent literary women born in England after 1800".
  
  Oh, hey, I just looked this up on Amazon and discovered that there's a new edition, from 1998. (Mine is the 1977 second printing.) I guess I'll have to get that too, since the new intro and afterword (which includes Angela Carter, not mentioned in the original book) sound very interesting.
  
  
• Robert B. Parker, Sea Change: the latest in his series about Jesse Stone, police chief in a small Massachusetts seaside town. I've gone off Parker's Spenser books, but I still like these (although I didn't think this one was as good as the last couple). I was thinking about why the other day and decided that it's because Spenser doesn't change anymore, so unless Parker comes up with a really great plot, I have no interest in reading more about the same old unchanging hero. Stone, on the other hand, is flawed, and working through his flaws; he changes in response to his cases and to events in his life.
  
  
• Robin McKinley, The Outlaws of Sherwood: my first reread in a long while, as this is probably my least favorite McKinley book (which doesn't mean I don't like it, it just means I like the others more). It's clear from the start that McKinley's Robin Hood is very different from the traditional figure. As the book opens, Robin, a forester of Sherwood Forest, is practicing his archery in preparation for an archery contest at the Nottingham fair; unfortunately for him, "[Robin] was not a bad archer, but his father had been a splendid one, and he was his father's only child." His skills take a turn for the worse quickly, when in a skirmish with other foresters who bear him some enmity, he accidentally kills a man when he meant only to injure him in order to escape.
  
  Robin's personality is very different from the swashbuckling, Errol Flynn-like archetype. He is intelligent and brave, but also cautious and pessimistic, which makes me like him very much. Much of the initial action of the story comes from Robin's best friends, Marian and Much (son of the local miller, and not a character I've encountered in Robin Hood stories outside of this one -- I'd be interested to know if he's a McKinley creation or if I simply haven't read enough Robin Hood to recognize him, which is certainly possible). I like his quiet, unsure romance with Marian, but I like the secondary romance (which I won't go into further for spoilery reasons) much more.
  
  Really, I think the book's main flaw is lack of action. The plot doesn't really get going until at least halfway through, and though I love McKinley's sense of place and exploration of character, I really need more action to stay totally engaged.
  
  

Books read: 34

Total books read this month: 34
Total books read this year: 111

Last updated 13 April 2006. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.