Archives - October 2005

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1 October 2005

Thanks to Girls Gone By Publishing, I've got a new Antonia Forest, The Thuggery Affair, which is the sixth in the Marlow family series. (I rather wish that GGBP was publishing the books in order, but I look forward to rereading the whole series in order when they're all out.) The Thuggery Affair has a suspenseful plot, to do with a gang of young thugs and drug smuggling, and an unusual character dynamic: instead of her usual heroine, the brave Nicola, Forest teams up Nicola's less brave twin, Lawrie, with her brother Peter and their friend Patrick. Forest remarks in the book's foreword that "if Nicola made up the numbers, that meant another brave, resourceful child helping to cope", and I think this was a good decision, adding more suspense to the plot. I wasn't thrilled by the lingo Forest has her characters (largely the thugs) use, because I couldn't understand most of it and was thus missing a lot in the dialogue, but otherwise, this was a good, suspenseful installment in the series.
Kevin Yee and Jason Schultz's new trivia book, 101 Things You Never Knew about Disneyland, turned out to be about 50 or 60 things I never knew about Disneyland, but that was a considerably higher total than I was expecting (given my geekishly high level of Disneyland knowledge). It's slim, but jampacked with interesting facts, and it would make a great companion in the parks - just pull it out and read it in lines.

Books read: 2

2 October 2005

Shaman's Crossing is the first book in Robin Hobb's new Soldier Son trilogy. Nevare Burvelle, second son of Lord Burvelle, has been destined from birth to become a soldier, in a country where birth order determines your career (first sons inherit, second sons are soldiers, third sons are priests, and so on down the line). However, when his father sends him to be trained by a warrior of the Plainspeople, Nevare is unwillingly pulled into the conflict between his people and the people of the plains, a conflict which follows him even as he enters military school to begin his cavalry training.

I've read a lot of reviews of Shaman's Crossing which criticize it for being slow, and I can't disagree with that - compared to Hobb's other trilogies, it does start slowly and spends a lot of time setting up the characters and the world. However, to me, much of the attraction of Hobb's writing is in her superb characterization and worldbuilding, so the leisurely pace didn't bother me at all. This is clearly a setup book for the rest of the trilogy, yet it does have a satisfying plot arc and resolution of its own. The Soldier's Son trilogy may as yet lack the vividness of the Liveship Traders series or the intrigue of the Farseer and Tawny Man books, but it has a fascinating world and well-realized characters, and I look forward to more development of these in the next book.

Books read: 1

3 October 2005

Christopher Hibbert's The French Revolution (US title The Days of the French Revolution) is a popular history which covers the time from the meeting of the Estates General at Versailles in 1789 to the coup d'etat which brought Napoleon to power ten years later. It's concise and nowhere near as in depth as say, Simon Schama's massive Citizens, but it's vividly told and highly readable, offering an excellent overview of the events which changed the course of history. If you know a lot about the French Revolution, it likely won't tell you anything you don't already know, but it would be a very good place to start for those just beginning the subject.

Books read: 1

4 October 2005

Courtesy of Girls Gone By Publishing, I've discovered another old YA author I like: Lorna Hill, who back in the 50s and 60s wrote a series of stories called the Sadler's Wells series, as they were set in and around that dancing school. I started with the two titles GGBP currently has in print: Back-Stage and Dress Rehearsal, the eleventh and twelfth books in the series. I have a weakness for stories about young people in the theatre, and these did a good job of conveying the right atmosphere and coming up with interesting characters. They're not nearly as good as Noel Streatfeild's books (like Ballet Shoes), but I liked them and will probably be trying to find the others.

Books read: 2

5 October 2005

After the success of his four great novels of the 1860s (The Woman in White, No Name, Armadale, and The Moonstone), Wilkie Collins wrote Man and Wife. Here, Collins melded the sensation novel form with a critique of Victorian society: specifically, its inequitable marriage laws and the rights and legal status of women. Unfortunately, the characters are a little too cardboard to make either side of the meld work as well as they might have. The heroine, Anne, who is promised marriage by one man only to believe that she might have unknowingly wed another, is too unselfish and long-suffering for me to feel much sympathy with her. At the same time, the villain is presented as an exemplar of an odd belief of Collins's, that Victorian society was obsessed with physical manliness and strength, which makes the villain feel unrealistic as well. Still, the plot is suspenseful, particularly in the last third of the story, and there was one character (Sir Patrick, who struggles to save Anne from her fate) whom I liked as much as any in Collins's earlier novels. If you've already read the four great novels I listed above, Man and Wife is definitely worth your time.

Books read: 1

6 October 2005

I finished Amanda Foreman's excellent biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, in August with a wish to know more about her devoted friend, Lady Elizabeth Foster, who was also the Duke's lover and his second wife. I wondered whether Foreman's clear partiality for Georgiana had led her to paint Bess with a blacker brush than was warranted. Therefore, I was very pleased to find a copy of Caroline Chapman's Elizabeth and Georgiana: The Duke of Devonshire and His Two Duchesses; Chapman wrote in collaboration with Jane Dormer, a descendant of Bess, and with full access to Dormer's family collection of Bess's journals and letters.

Though there's still a clear element of the scheming social climber who appeared in Foreman's biography, this book does present a more well-rounded portrait of Bess, as a bright, curious, artistic woman, who genuinely loved both Georgiana and her Duke. Where Foreman's biography is full of the social and political world, the realms are where Georgiana reigned supreme, Chapman gives lots of interesting details about other areas in which Bess was more concerned: notably, art, literature, travel (an excellent description of what the Grand Tour was like), and archaeology, in which Bess was interested in her later years. Gaps in the records due to censorship of letters and journals mean that we may never get a full picture of either Bess or Georgiana, but Elizabeth and Georgiana makes an excellent companion to Foreman's biography.
Much Ado About You is the first book in Eloisa James's series of Regency romances about the four Essex sisters, orphaned by the death of their profligate, horse-mad father and newly arrived at the estate of their guardian, the benevolent Duke of Holbrook. Much Ado About You serves as a setup book for the series, introducing the four sisters, but also as the story of Tess, the eldest sister, and her romantic entanglements. Though I liked Tess, she was a shade too passive for me; happily, she's provided with an excellent hero, and as I liked her sisters and their very different personalities more than Tess herself, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.

Books read: 2

8 October 2005

After reading Sue Townsend's new Adrian Mole book, I resisted for a while and then succumbed to rereading the rest of them: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, Adrian Mole: The Lost Years, and Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (those are the US titles; UK titles may vary). Adrian's diaries, from adolescence to adulthood, are very funny, yet often intensely sad, as he deals with issues from the marital difficulties of his parents and the arrival of siblings to his own romantic problems and eventual fatherhood. I think the later books aren't quite as good as the first two, but Townsend has kept them at a consistently high level; in fact, I thought the latest book, which I read in September, was very nearly as good as the first two.

Books read: 4

9 October 2005

I may be on the downhill slope with Wilkie Collins. Poor Miss Finch was written after Man and Wife, and again, Collins tries to mix his familiar sensation novel style with other things, this time with even less success. He does do interesting things with his blind heroine, Lucilla Finch; his presentation of her personality and the effects on her of her blindness have been widely acknowledged to be well-researched and convincing. Unfortunately, the sensationalistic plot she's given, involving identical twins, just didn't work well for me, nor did most of the characters (save for the narrator, the charmingly direct Madame Pratolungo).

Books read: 1

10 October 2005

I've read and liked Ellen Steiber's short stories in several of Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow's anthologies, and my interest was piqued when I read that she'd written an adult fantasy novel. (She's also written a couple of YA fantasies, which I haven't read but probably will.) A Rumor of Gems is an urban fantasy, set in the subtly magical and beautifully described city of Arcato, in what feels very much like our modern time, though in another world. Mysterious things have begun to happen in the city; gems are appearing everywhere, stones with power beyond their beauty and value, and gods and phantoms roam the streets. The plot takes a while to get going, but the characters and the setting are so immediately entrancing that I really didn't mind. I hope Steiber returns to Arcato (and perhaps to some of the characters) for future books.

Books read: 1

11 October 2005

Terry Pratchett's new Discworld novel, Thud!, is part of the Watch subseries, easily my favorites of the Discworld books. Here, Ankh-Morpork is threatened by increasing hostility between the trolls and the dwarves on the eve of the anniversary of the battle of Koom Valley, and Vimes and the rest of the Watch must defuse the tension by solving the mysterious murder of one of the dwarf leaders. I don't think this is my favorite of the Watch novels, but it's as amusing as always, and Pratchett provides interesting sidelights on the character of Vimes by way of his interaction with his baby son.

This is where Where's My Cow? comes in, in fact -- it's based on the book that Vimes reads to his son each night, which Pratchett and illustrator Melvyn Grant have kindly provided to readers as a companion book to Thud!. (Don't read it before Thud!, in fact, as it could provide spoilers of a sort.) It's charming enough, though more for Discworld completists than for reading to actual children, as it's full of references which are likely only to be funny to adult readers of Discworld. (I suppose I should try reading it to Liam to see whether he likes it.)

Books read: 2

15 October 2005

Finally, after almost three years, there's a new book in Robert Jordan's long-running epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time. Before settling in to read the aforesaid new book, Knife of Dreams, I reread the two previous books in the series, Winter's Heart, and Crossroads of Twilight; as I recalled, not a lot of note happened in either book. Fortunately, since it's supposedly the next to last book in the series, Knife of Dreams did have some interesting stuff going on, none of which I can really discuss for fear of spoiling it or previous books. If you read Jordan, you should read it; if not, I suggest waiting to start the series until the next (and last) book is out, which I assume won't be for another two or three years.

Books read: 3

16 October 2005

I read a pair of Georgette Heyer Regencies today: Arabella and Sprig Muslin. Arabella is a Cinderella story of sorts; on her way to stay in London with her rich godmother, the fortuneless heroine, Arabella, is forced to stop at the house of Robert Beaumaris, and out of pique, tells him that she's heiress to an immense forture. Though I'm generally made uncomfortable by plots which are founded on deceptions like this, Arabella's charm rescued it for me, and I quite enjoyed her romance with Beaumaris.

I liked Sprig Muslin even more, with its dual romances and quiet, almost overlooked heroine; this might be one of my favorite Heyers so far. (A note to readers of the Harlequin edition of Sprig Muslin: avoid the foreword if you haven't read the book before, because it's little more than a detailed plot summary, full of spoilers. Happily, I figured this out before I'd read more than a couple of paragraphs.)

Books read: 2

17 October 2005

On a recommendation from a friend, I tried British writer Graham Joyce's The Limits of Enchantment -- it turned out to be a good recommendation. The novel is set in rural England in the 1960s, in a village where Mammy Cullen and her adopted daughter and apprentice Fern use old folk remedies for healing and birthing. Things go sadly wrong, though, when one of their patients dies; the locals turn against Mammy, and Fern must decide whether to continue in the old ways or turn to the new. The touch of magic is nicely done, and the characters are marvelously realized, particularly Fern. I'll be on the lookout for more Joyce.

Books read: 1

18 October 2005

Clare Mallory's Merry books are another discovery from Girls Gone By Publishing. There are three books about a girl in a New Zealand boarding school (sadly, Mallory stopped writing them after the third book): Merry Begins, Merry Again, and Merry Marches On. What I particularly like about these is the unusual New Zealand setting and the range of characters. Mallory doesn't just choose one class and focus on them (although of course she does spotlight Merry and her friends); she includes girls from all over the school in her narrative, making it feel broader and more inclusive than, say, Enid Blyton. Also, the school feels very realistic, undoubtedly because Mallory herself was a boarding school headmistress, and she based her fictional school very closely on the real one. These books aren't easy to get, but they're worth the effort if you're a fan of boarding school stories.

Books read: 3

24 October 2005

Robin Hobb is one of my favorite fantasy writers, and after reading her new book not long ago, I decided to indulge myself by rereading the rest of her books, three related trilogies. I started with the first, the Farseer trilogy, which comprises Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin's Quest. FitzChivalry Farseer is a bastard, a byblow of Prince Chivalry (hence his name), heir to the throne of the Six Duchies. However, when Fitz is cast off by his mother's family at the age of six and brought to court, Chivalry abdicates his claim to the throne, and Fitz is hurled into the political intrigue surrounding his grandfather, King Shrewd, and the rest of his royal family.

One of Hobb's strengths, and a big part of why I like her so much, is her excellent characterization. The story is told by Fitz, looking back at his past as an older man, and the first-person viewpoint allows Hobb to delve deeply into his character as he matures. Even through Fitz's necessarily biased eyes, other characters are similarly solid and real, developing and changing throughout the books.

Another plus is the interesting magical system. There are two main forms of magic in this world: the Skill, and the Wit. The Skill is the ability to communicate and influence other people mind-to-mind, while the Wit allows communication and bonding with animals, as well as preternatural sensing of the natural world. While users of the Skill are honored, especially as the ability is found mainly in the royal family, Witted ones are feared and outcast, generally killed if their abilities are discovered. Fitz is gifted in both areas, and a large part of his character and of the plot has to do with the conflict between them, both in him and in the larger world.

These books aren't for the faint of heart. Hobb's world is a grim one, and bad things happen to good people. However, the marvelous characters and the excellent worldbuilding more than make up for a certain lack of humor and optimism, in my mind. If you're new to Hobb, the Farseer trilogy is a great place to start. If you want to start with something a little less bleak, try the Liveship Traders trilogy instead. Do not start with the newer Tawny Man trilogy, though, because it will spoil you for pretty much all of the Farseer books and quite a bit of the Liveship books as well.

Books read: 3

31 October 2005

Having just gone into some detail as to why I like Robin Hobb, my comments on her Liveship Traders trilogy (Ship of Magic, Mad Ship, Ship of Destiny) are necessarily going to be shorter than those on the Farseer trilogy. The Liveship Traders books feature the same excellent characterization and worldbuilding (in the same world) as the earlier books, but they're a little less grim (though still gritty) and a little more action-oriented. Here the story focuses on the Vestrit family of Bingtown; when Ephron Vestrit, head of the family, dies, control over the family's liveship (a magical vessel carved from wood which eventually ripens into sentience) goes to his son-in-law rather than to his daughter Althea, who has always expected that the Vivacia will be hers. There are sea serpents, pirates, battles, dragons, and action galore, and if you've read the Farseer books already, you'll be fascinated as links to the earlier books develop.

Books read: 3

Total books read this month: 32
Total books read this year: 341


Last updated 4 January 2006. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.