Daja’s Book is the third in Tamora Pierce’s children’s fantasy book series, Circle of Magic. I was previously classifying this as young adult, but this book has firmly set my mind on the subject. At the end of these books, I keep wanting more from them. More development. More sophistication. More actual content (they’re very short). More time spent (they take place over very short periods of time). And I finally decided, basically just about five minutes ago, that the expectations I was placing on this […]
Swashbuckling Bastards!
After two books, I think the thing I find most fun and exciting about Lynch’s stories is that he doesn’t have extra-ordinary characters. None of his characters, (aside from the bondsmagi) possess latent super-powers or even an unnatural bend towards some kind of skill. They’re just ordinary humans who get where they are by hard work and tenacity. And even when they’ve done their best, they still face very real and dangerous failure, and it’s that possible failure and its consequence that keeps me picking […]
Seat-Gripping Story
Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson in the Shades of London series is about a girl named Rory who moves to London from Louisiana. Her parents send her to boarding school while they are in Bristol, a town close by. But, just as Rory reaches London there is a murderer on the loose, mimicking the fierce Jack the Ripper, a murderer in London history who killed in a specific way. The modern day Ripper strikes on the exact day, time, and location. Even though […]
“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.” – John F. Kennedy
It’s hard not be retroactively frustrated with this book when after finishing it I read the author information and found out that Ms. Dallamonica is gay but wrote a novel where her heronie only has straight romances. “I already have Tanya Huff in my life,” I thought. But I realize that that isn’t fair (to either Ms Dallamonica or Ms. Huff, who is an author that I adore (have you guys read her Valor series? Go read the Valor series.)) given the realities of getting […]
A quietly impressive redemption story with magic and a dangerous religion
The first book in the Earthsea cycle, A Wizard of Earthsea, offered a nuanced take on the fantasy trope of the wizard who comes of age into his power and learns that universal axiom “with great power comes great responsibility.” This second entry into the cycle shifts momentarily away from Ged’s story toward Tenar, who at birth is selected as the First Priestess of the Tombs of Atuan. Her story neatly deconstructs the equally common-in-fantasy Chosen One trope and also serves as a lesson about […]
Repetitive and sexist but not terrible for all that.
This is technically a review of the last book in two connected series but it can stand as a review of all ten books in both the The Belgariad and The Malloreon series. Because, let’s face it, they’re all more or less the same book. Now, unless it is loving satire written by Diana Wynne Jones, I am not typically a huge fan of quest fantasy. I find quest fantasy to be old-fashioned, trope-y, and sexist. And the books of David and Leigh Eddings hit […]
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