by Nathan Ballingrud

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

“The Monsters of Heaven” is a story that faces the very real tragedy a family has to deal with when they lose a child through abduction. Throw in supernatural monsters and a father slowly twisted by the untenable circumstances into a monster himself and you have one creepy horror story. The short story was published in The Years Best Fantasy and Horror 2008 and Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural.

I have to say “The Monsters of Heaven” was almost more than I could stomach. Reading about the horror the family was put through when their child was stolen from them and the way it twisted and hurt them as both the mother and father dealt with the travesty in different, very unhealthy, ways was hard enough to read about. The father especially finds himself becoming more and more twisted as time passes and his son remains missing.

But on top of that is thrown in an invasion of supernatural being on earth that are being called angels by the news. One enters the lives of the couple with the missing child and that’s when things take a turn. What follows is both heart wrenchingly sad and a little sick and twisted as we begin to wonder who is the bigger monster in the story exactly. This story has won the Shirley Jackson Award in the short story category.

Kindred Reads

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Picking up the third volume in the From Far Away series I thought I had a pretty good handle on where things were headed. We had a teenage couple set up against some pretty corrupt and evil governmental figures and some sort of magical prophecy bound them together. So I was stunned that within the first five pages Izark left Noriko! Their separation allows them to grow individually as they each go on their own adventures and yet something magical still ties them together. Not to mention that even through the language barrier Noriko is beginning to realize it and just how much danger that puts them both in.

There was also some adorable flash backs that showed the couple before they split up and it shows that they have grown in their relationship together. Though Noriko’s grasp of the new language is tenuous at best. They were still very cute to read about, though worrisome too as the more Noriko grows and learns about the world she has been transported too, the more danger there is of her letting slip to others just where she came from and how she got there.

This volume ends leaves you on the edge of your seat as the characters each are in the midst of their own dangerous adventure. But even though they are separated Noriko at least has not been totally abandoned and she finds strength in new allies as tries to survive in spite of an alien world’s political plots and machinations that want her dead, if they only found out just who she was.

P.S. About 1/3rd of this volume cuts away from From Far Away and tells a completely different story set in the real world about unrelated characters. Not sure why but thought I would warn potential buyers about the deviation from the plot. Fourth volume picks up with From Far Away again and we never hear about the real world characters ever again.

Kindred Reads

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I was torn on a lot of this book and I feel very much on the outside because so many people I really respect love this book to absolute pieces. I guess I feel like I am missing something because this book didn’t click with me as it does with many others and so I recommend right off the bat to weigh my words with all the positive reviews given and give this book an honest shot. After all I did finish the book and it’s nearly 500 pages long! Also keep in mind I am reviewing the advance copy of the book which is about 50 pages longer than the final copy that went to press so perhaps much of what I didn’t like ended up on the cutting room floor.

So, Blood Red Road is a unique take on the dystopians that have swept the YA genre for the past several years. The book is written in a “poetically minimal” style which is to say the writing is largely spelled out phonetically in an American southern drawl and there are no quote marks to denote speaking versus action anywhere in the text. The phonetic spelling actually reminded me a lot of reading Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It had a way of bringing you into the world and seeing it more from the characters point of view just because you have a great understanding of the way they communicated and got their thoughts across. That part I loved. I’m being a total kill joy here but the lack of quote marks on the other hand was just frustrating and made reading it a bit of a slog, especially because I was trying to read parts of it aloud to my husband and it just proved frustrating for both of us without that marker showing where speech ends and action begins. I understand where the need for it stylistically came from, but I think the end result, for a 500 page book, was just overkill.

You don’t fool me, he says in a low voice.
Is that right?
       Yea, he says. I see it in yer eyes. All you care about’s yer precious brother.
       That aint true, I says.
       If it’d been Emmi they took, he says, Emmi an not Lugh…would you of gone after her?
       I take in a breath to say of course I would but the look on his face stops me. there ain’t no point in lyin when he already knows the truth.
       He leaves go of me an steps back.
       I thought so, he says. Yer sister’ll be safer with me than she could ever be with you. You jest ride along on yer high horse an leave her to me.

This is a difficult book though, it’s meant to be. It is a difficult story, about a difficult world, in a difficult period of history (well, future), with difficult characters. The main character, Saba, is a rough and tough girl who grew up in a desert next to a constantly shrinking lake. One day a sandstorm blows up and with it comes riders in black. They kill her father, her only surviving parent, and kidnap her brother. Saba must take her younger sister Emmi and find Lugh in a world gone mad from an apocalypse no one remembers and a drug nearly everyone seems to take. Saba is stubborn and fiercely loyal to her twin and incredibly brave. She is also almost cold and heartless and looks upon her little sister with a loathing I almost couldn’t stomach.

Saba must take off across the desert to find Lugh and on her quest we see more and more of the post-apocalyptic world. The thing is while some things were surprising and interestingly new, there is an all female fighting force the Free Hawks and Saba’s experiences fighting to the death in the cages, so much of it was predictable and a little too true to trope. I mean I am a fantasy/sci-fi nut, tropes normally doesn’t bother me and if there is a new and interesting spin on it I will swallow the book in gulps, I don’t care. But there were parts that were just so predictable and then they stayed predictable there wasn’t a twist. It was especially bad when the tropes had their predictable endings foreshadowed in the text. Like the freaky couple Saba and her sister met outside the city, and the deus ex-machina ending to the book.

There was also the really, really, really long beginning before the plot finally took off and the story started. I’m suspecting this is where a lot of the book got cut. It took 173 pages for me to get into this book and that is a very long time to wait to get interested in a story. Your mileage may vary, again, give this book a shot so many people must like it for a reason!

To get into some things I definitely loved about this book first off is Saba and the Free Hawks. I know I listed her as a hard character to like, and she is, but she also doesn’t need you to like her. She is a survivor. She is a fierce fighter, she is wily and smart when she needs to be, and is stubborn (which cuts both ways in her case). The Free Hawks are amazing and fierce and band together and fight for a good cause and what is there not to love in that? The women in this book are in a word awesome. They are everything a woman would be in a post apocalyptic world: fierce, brave, formidable, intelligent, loyal, strategic, they are just incredible and it was amazing to read about them and the havoc they wreck in a world run by a crazy man and his legions of drugged followers.

That’s not to say that all men are bad guys in this book because now we come to Jack. Can I be honest and say the guy came across as a bit of a creep to me? He was condescending, dickish, a bit of a know it all and smug as hell. But he also helped Saba to realize she was being a bit of a prick too, especially to Emmi and that was worthwhile to me. These characters realistically grow and change throughout the novel and that was another huge strong point in the novel’s favor.

But at the end of the day, when faced with the prospect of hunting down a final copy of the novel and reading it all over again, I realized this really isn’t the book for me. I wasn’t even interested in skimming it again. I was so relieved to be done with it. I also have no interest really in continuing with the series as I shrink at just thinking about reading another huge book with no quotation marks and a predictable plot.

Blood Red Road is a difficult book that takes place in a world where just surviving is hard and dangerous work, the characters are prickly and untrusting, and the land is arid and filled with the remnants of a society (ours) that has truly failed. It is a unique premise from every other dystopian YA book published recently and faces a world similar and yet very alien to our own. If that sounds interesting than give it a shot, don’t let me rain on this parade as my views are very much in the minority.

I received this book for free to review.

Kindred Reads

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

It’s always a little difficult to review a fantasy book that is smack dab in the middle of a series and Magician’s Gambit is no exception. Fortunately it is quite different from the two books that came before it. For one the standard plot arc of entering a new kingdom and having Garion be the only one observant enough to notice a coup or a nefarious character attempting to instigate war is not present. Instead the book opens with the story being told from the view-point of Ce’Nedra, the Tolnedran princess who ran away from her father only to find herself mixed up in Belgarath’s quest for the Orb. While both Garion and Ce’Nedra have come a long way since they met, they are still very much teenagers and spend most of this book squabbling in one way or another. It is on one hand cute but on the other quickly becomes mildly annoying.

What was that?” Belgarath asked, coming back around the corner.
       ”Brill,” Silk replied blandly, pulling his Murgo robe back on.
       ”Again?” Belgarath demanded with exasperation. “What was he doing this time?”
       ”Trying to fly, last time I saw him.” Silk smirked.
       The old man looked puzzled.
       ”He wasn’t doing it very well,” Silk added.
       Belgarath shrugged. “Maybe it’ll come to him in time.”
       ”He doesn’t really have all that much time.” Silk glanced out over the edge. From far below – terribly far below – there came a faint, muffled crash; then, after several seconds, another. “Does bouncing count?” Silk asked.
       Belgarath made a wry face. “Not really.”
       ”Then I’d say he didn’t learn in time.” Silk said blithely.

The character that saves the day is Silk, the prince of Drasnia, he is witty and sly and is officially dubbed the Guide of the group by the prophecy that binds them all together. His one line zingers, clever machinations and jokes were very entertaining to read about and he was in danger of stealing the show as he quite nearly outshone our beloved main characters.

The quest in this book proves to take an interesting turn as they are all headed to the Vale of Aldur, Belgarath’s and Polgara’s home. Along the way new countries are discovered that are again unlike any we have seen before, Maragor is a country now devoid of people as they have all been wiped out by the Tolnedrans years and years before. Now the god of those people weeps and mourns their loss and drives anyone mad who dares enter. They also discover Ulgoland, a country that entirely lives underground and worships the god UL. A new character is introduced here, the religious zealot Relg.

Relg is another great character if for no other reason that the stuff he spouts out about his strict religion, his rigid beliefs, and his struggles with his attempts to be pious and prudish while at the same time being a bit of a disgusting man proves to be hilarious religious commentary.

This third book is truly a twist from what has come before and has the adventure kick up another notch in the quest for the Orb with some very entertaining characters brought in along the way. Several major stand offs finally came to a head and ended with a truly stunning surprise that leaves you wondering what must yet be in store for Garion and his friends.

Kindred Reads

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This book caught my eye for its clean, well styled cover and hooked me with its promise of a simple and concise biography of Jane Austen written for young adults. I love Jane Austen and am a huge fan of her novels, their movies, and their many spin offs. But, aside from what I knew from watching Becoming Jane, I didn’t know too much about the author herself. This book was the perfect toe in the pool and revealed Jane Austen in a way that was engaging and interesting and left me eager to re-read her novels again with this new information in mind.

Pride and Prejudice opens with one of the most famous sentences ever written: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” With these words, Jane Austen announced to her readers that they were about to meet such a man and the people eager to marry him off. What was more, they were going to have fun. The dark cynicism of Sense and Sensibility was largely gone, blown away by a clean, fresh wind.”

The biography begins with a summary of Jane’s younger years with her family, her earlier writing, and the many moves she was forced to make throughout her life being both poor and dependent as she was a single woman. It was fascinating reading about her extended relations and their exciting lives. Jane’s life, though, was not as exciting. She was left a constant observer on the sidelines. She was witty though and snippets of her letters showing her sharp, occasionally acerbic wit, are sprinkled throughout the narrative.

The book also has lots of historical background explaining the political and social rules of the day and there are plenty of illustrations both from the period and from Jane’s letters, books, and the movies made from her books throughout.

Finally, the biography takes us through each of Jane Austen’s works. It covers how each was published, the book’s history and reasons for being written, a summary of the book, and its reception in Jane Austen’s time. This re-awakened my interest in Austen’s novels all over again to get this very interesting history of each book, including works that were never finished or published.

The book was accessible and easy to read. The illustrations and explanations kept the events in Jane Austen’s life entertaining and understandable for someone who might only have a passing knowledge of the author and her era. The history of each of the books was the best part of the biography in my opinion and it was fascinating to read what Austen thought of her own books through her letters, and to read about their reception during her life time. I highly recommend this book for teen readers who have just been introduced to Austen, or older readers who aren’t big on biographies but would like an accessible primer to Jane Austen’s life. This is an easy, light read that can finished in only a few hours, but leaves a sparked interest in the author and in her works.

I received this book for free to review.

Kindred Reads

by Karen Joy Fowler

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

“The Last Worders” is a fantasical story with some horror elements that definitely leaves you with a chill at the power of words. The short story was published in The Years Best Fantasy and Horror 2008. The story centers around twin sisters who have journeyed to the fictional town of San Margais chasing after a boy they have both fallen in love with to make him choose between them. On the journey we learn more about the twins, the town, and the poetry that seems to bind them together in a mesmerizing and faintly eerie story that is ultimately about the power of words to unify and to destroy us all.

This was definitely a creepy story more in the strange familiarity and yet alien nature of the town. The girls as well were fascinating to read about as they continuously had their identities mistaken and switched and constantly battled to keep things even between them in a world that couldn’t even tell them apart. The history of the town being interwoven throughout the story was very alien and strange with its talk of the power poetry held in San Margais’ history of slavery and civil war and superstition. The ending tied things back to the beginning in a disturbing way and definitely was one of those fills you with dread horror stories.

You can read this short story for free online at the Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet website. Here is the direct link to the story story “The Last Worders”.

Kindred Reads

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I was expecting things to maybe slow down a little and we step back and really get to see this world poor Noriko has gotten plunked down into but unfortunately for the characters, and fortunately for us, the adventure picks up. Izark is struck by a strange, sudden illness and Noriko finds herself floundering in her attempts to help him because of the language barrier in place. She is forced to mime her intentions and more often than not she misinterprets what is being said around her and reacts inappropriately.

But that isn’t the biggest problem they face, because now that Izark is considered out of commission the robbers we met in the previous volume decide now would be a great time to strike and attempt to kill Izark before he can kill them. What follows is frankly stunning, and I won’t spoil it but it shows some fantastic character reveal for Izark and some real character growth for Noriko. The scared little girl from Japan, actually proves she can do and be more than just a helpless, hapless female in constant need of saving. Her actions are purely defensive and show quick thinking and a lot of nerve. I have high hopes for Noriko as the series progresses.

My only negative points were the same ones I have with a lot of manga and that is occasionally there is too much telling and not enough showing. A man who had been badly hurt in the previous volume gets hurt again and cries out that, “My wounds have reopened!” Another time characters fix tea and one character explains to the other as they are making it that it’s so they can stay up late almost as if he is more speaking to the audience and not the other character. I’m never sure if that is the author putting that in or bad translation or what. Another problem I had was the author put several autobiographical comments in panels throughout this volume. It was disconcerting and kept pulling me out of the story. I love reading author’s notes at the beginning or short fun comics at the end that talk about the author personally or their process, but I have no interest in having injected in the middle of a fight scene that the author likes Jackie Chan movies. It also made me take a moment when we got back story on Noriko to realize what was going on because it was in the same tone as the autobiographical comments before. I almost skipped over the back story thinking it was more author trivia and not character history germane to the plot.

I hate to sound so negative about a series I am really starting to enjoy! The mystery around Izark deepens, Noriko is learning how to stand up for herself, and the fantasy elements and possibilities of the world continue to grow. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to these teens next.

Kindred Reads

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

When you are as much of a fan of fantasy as I am you end up reading about a lot of awesome adventures, surreal magic, fantastical worlds, and thrilling battles, you also unfortunately read a lot of sexist crap. Women can do this, they can’t do that. Women either marry or go into the convent or become a shrew. Women can’t fight, can’t defend themselves, can’t learn certain trades, can’t rule, can’t lead, can’t strategize, can’t go anywhere alone, or do anything without men’s approval. It. Gets. Grating. This coming from someone who loves fantasy but who also gets a little sick of being told what her gender can and can’t do all the time.

Then comes Graceling. What am awesome, surreal, fantastical, and thrilling breath of fresh air! Graceling is set in a medieval era Europeanish world called The Seven Kingdoms. There are wonderfully complex politics at play and fiendish plots afoot and then we get to the people. Certain people within the various kingdoms are called Gracelings, these people have been Graced with a specific talent. Our main character, Katsa, learns at the tender age of eight that she has been Graced with the talent of killing people when she accidentally kills her step cousin who was making unwanted advances.

She knew her nature. She would recognize it if she came face-to-face with it. It would be a blue-eyed green-eyed monster, wolflike and snarling. A vicious beast that struck out at friends in uncontrollable anger, a killer that offered itself as a vessel of the king’s fury.
       But then it was a strange monster, for beneath its exterior it was frightened and sickened by its own violence. It chastised itself for its savagery. And sometimes it had no heart for violence and rebelled against it utterly.
       A monster that refused, sometimes, to behave like a monster. When a monster stopped behaving like a monster , did it stop being a monster? Did it become something else?
       Perhaps she wouldn’t recognize her own nature after all.”

She is then trained by her uncle the King and instead of being given a position of prominence in the kingdom for being Graced she is treated more as a lap dog that gets sent to do the dirty work. This all changes when she meets Po, a prince who has been Graced with combat skills. Plots are uncovered, alliances are threatened, politics come into play and soon Katsa finds herself involved in a quest to save a kidnapped child. Her special Grace is needed desperately, but is it in the way she expects?

I loved this book. Carried all the way through was this fantastic feminist message that shined through Katsa. She was tough and spirited though granted she was a little wild at the beginning, but that’s to be expected after being treated like an animal by her uncle’s court. She was feared and mistreated more for her Grace than her gender, which was refreshing. While she was strong she also had true heart that made her endearing and human. The romance also was wonderful to read about. It was built up slowly and believably and remained respectful of them both, so rare in YA romance. It was a welcome addition to the story.

The world she was in was amazing as well, and not just because of the fascinating concept of Gracelings or the complex politics of the Seven Kingdoms. Marriage was a choice for women, not a need. Men were permitted the luxury of feeling and even of crying when all was lost. Gender conformity was not an over-driving need as it is traditionally in fantasy and that was true straight to the last and I’m glad the author made that tough call. That is not to say that all was roses. There were still unwanted sexual advances and comments made about various young women, there were still attempts at forced/arranged marriages, and there were still kingdoms that chose not to educate or empower their women or teach them how to protect themselves. But for a fantasy book, a genre famous for brutally enforcing gender roles, this book was amazingly progressive. It made Graceling a wonderful and magical rare breed of truly empowering fantasy centered around a truly powerful woman. I loved it and look forward to reading the other books set in this magical world.

Kindred Reads

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Queen of Sorcery picks up where Pawn of Prophecy left off with the ever-growing group headed by Belgarath, along with his daughter Polgara and her charge Garion, chasing the stolen Orb of Aldur. The adventure continues, and small skirmishes and battles ensue as the group travels on theie quest. Intrigue is uncovered in far off cities. Whole new cultures are shown, very different from the ones we knew before. Plus new characters are introduced that promise to delight and vex us all.

Mandorallen turned to Barak. “If it please thee, my Lord,” he requested politely, “deliver my challenge as soon as they approach us.”
       Barak shrugged. “It’s your skin,” he noted. He eyed the advancing knights and then lifted his voice in a great roar. “Sir Madorallen, Baron of Vo Mandor, desires entertainment,” he declaimed. “It would amuse him if each of your parties would select a champion to joust with him. If, however, you are all such cowardly dogs that you have no stomach for such a contest, cease this brawling and stand aside so that your betters may pass.”
       ”Splendidly spoken, my Lord Barak,” Madorallen said with admiration.
       ”I’ve always had a way with words,” Barak replied modestly.

The second book in the Belgariad promises to be very different from the one before because Garion is no longer just a young child as he was in the first book. Time has passed and little Garion is growing up. There are a lot more teen angst style growing pains in this book than the last as a result. Especially as he struggles with his Aunt’s true identity, and his own.

Several new cultures are introduced as well and all of them provide their own complex controversies. The Dryads who look like children but are extremely sexually active. The starving and suffering of the serfs in Mimbre is juxtaposed with the “honorable” knights that rule them. And finally Nyissa – a country that highly values snakes and the concept of immortality, when they aren’t taking drugs or poisoning one another – features another highly sexualized being in the form of their “queen” who has ruled Nyissa for generations, or has she?

In amongst all of this though there are some gems for feminists to appreciate, just a few though. The largest being Polgara herself. She sews for the enjoyment of it, loves to wear pretty dresses, and be told she is beautiful, but she is also a very powerful and very wise sorceress and when she says jump the kings of the world do so immediately. I like that this shows that you can embrace femininity and still be considered worthy of power and respect. Something not often shown in any fiction let alone an 80′s high fantasy novel.

While the beginning of this novel seems to show a repeat of some of the same events of the last one (a plot is uncovered, Garion is in the middle of things again, new characters join the quest) there are a lot of new twists and turns as well. This is an enjoyable read that builds on the world of Pawn of Prophecy and promises more to come in the next book as the quest continues to reclaim the Orb of Aldur.

Kindred Reads

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I am sharing this review for posterity’s sake, this is the very first review I ever wrote and posted online. I blogged this review over ten years ago on December 13, 2001. I meant to post it here on its ten year anniversary but the holidays got in the way. Instead I am posting it today to kick off a new year with. This review is full of spoilers (seriously, it spoils just about the whole book) and is really more of a book report than a review but I can definitely see some of my beginnings in this and so I decided what better way to start a new year than with my start in book blogging. Enjoy!

“The French Mathematician” started out life as a project that was submitted for a Master of Arts degree entitled “A Fictional Biography of the French Mathematician Evariste Galois 1811-1832″. The author, Tom Petsinis set out to link the humanities and the sciences in a piece of writing that would tell the tragic tale of Evariste Galois in such a way so that writing majors might be able understand the type of mathematics that Evariste fathered and also the man himself. Petsinis is a professor who teaches mathematics at the University of Technology. And, he came across Evariste’s story while attending a lecture on Group Theory, a branch of mathematics based on Galois’s discoveries. The book is a well-written three-part biography with an excellent choice in writing style. It is very accurate for a book about whose subject there is such a small amount of information available on. Following is a summary and review of the various parts of “The French Mathematician” in the order that they appear in the book, for the most part.

There is no introduction, just acknowledgements of the support of various professors during the undertaking of this endeavor.

The first chapter is written as though it should be tacked on to the end, but is instead written at the beginning. The conclusion, on the other hand, simply gives what the fate of Evariste’s discoveries was to be.

Part one summarizes Evariste’s introduction and love affair with mathematics, his undying faith in the “x” and the power of that “x” to replace the cross and change the world to a place of order. Something Evariste believed would come about with the (French) Revolution. That the revolution would lead from chaos to mathematical precision. He believed in the power of mathematics.

Part two shows Evariste’s change of loyalties as he is swept up into the revolution. With the death of his father on his conscience and a need to prove himself and make himself great after being locked behind school walls during the outbreak of violence in the streets of Paris. He forsakes mathematics for the sword and the flame, wreaking buildings and joining various Republican organizations. He seems crazed at this point, thinking violence and a complete rebuilding of the French empire will be the only path to a Republican era.

Part three illustrates Evariste’s slow return to mathematics. He still clings to his Republican ideals but he begins slowly coming around to recognizing and nurturing his love of mathematics. He begins to write and submit works again and even holds a series of public speeches where he lays out his theories and proofs for his work. Throughout this section you watch as he is torn between mathematics and republican ideals. And he never really decides either way when he is arrested and imprisoned for six months for his part in the revolution. While in prison he becomes very sick so he is transferred to a hospital where he meets and falls in love with the Doctor’s daughter. Unfortunately she is only flirting with him and when her fiance (one of Evariste’s good friends) returns to Paris, his friend is forced to challenge Evariste to a duel.

I find that the writing is reminiscent of the style of writing popular during Evariste’s time (1811-1832). Prone to detail and more advanced diction then what is commonly known today, the book could almost pass for the diary/notebook the author “claims” it is. Unfortunately when referring to acts of a sexual nature the writer approaches the subject more blatantly than a writer of the nineteenth century would and uses far less subtltey. “The French Mathematician” is an excellent read that is recommended for English and Math majors alike.

Kindred Reads