A Bookworm's Journal

Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Imagine what would happen if Jane Austen wrote YA fantasy. You'd have Victorian England, romance and magic. If you can wrap your head around this concept, you'll have a pretty good idea what Sorcery and Cecelia is like. If you're struggling with that idea, I'll make it short: genius.

I must confess to being a huge Jane Austen fan and when I read a reviewer who said that it had a very Austen-esque flavor to it, I was hoooked. I'm very, very happy I did (in fact, I've already got the second book on its way). Fans of Austen (and strong female characters) will love the style of the romance (very Pride and Prejudice) and the way certain characters are depicted (shades of Mrs. Norris and Mr. Collins). Fans of Regency Romance novels (*eyes bookshelf guiltily*) will love discussions of 'the season' and well-known Regency characters such as Sally Jersey, etc. Fans of fantasy will love the fact that this is a Victorian England where magic works and the way it works in the world that was created.

All in all, this is a really brilliant book.

The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadows
Twelve Kingdoms is a fairly popular fantasy anime series based on a series of very popular Japanese novels. People on animeondvd.com were very, very excited when Tokyopop announced they'd be translating the novels and while I only had a vague idea what the story would be about (girl gets transported to strange world, must fight to survive, etc.) the positive comments from AoD members, plus my personal weakness for YA fantasy, made me decide to give this a shot.

Quick summary: Brilliant ending, confusing beginning. Lots of potential for the future volumes, since this one seemed like a set up for the future due to the fact that so much time was spent on worldbuilding. Give it a shot if you like fantasy.

Longer version:

I must confess, the first part of the novel was terribly, terribly confusing (and reading it half-asleep was probably a bad idea). How much of this was intentionally confusing, since the story was from an confused Yoko's POV and how much of it was due to the writing, I'm not sure. The middle part was much less confusing, though I still find the set up of the world a bit confusing. Once I read the end of the novel, it became more clear, either because it was described better by the characters or because the previous explinations finally sunk in.

I'm not sure what to think about the various characters. Yoko has a lot of potential to grow in later volumes but she was rather bland at first. Of course, I can't complain too much, since it seemed quite realistic to me. The Ever-King seems almost too good to be true and I'm not sure what to think about Keiki, since I haven't seen much of him yet. Rakushun was my favorite character and I want to see more of him.

No idea how accurate the translation was but the translation/adaptation itself flowed well, though I swear I saw the Prophet described as "he" once (can't remember where) in a bit of a typo.

Overall, while I think there was overload on the worldbuilding that made the story confusing and a bit hard to get into, the "bang" at the ending made it worthwhile. I'm really looking forward to reading the next one. Now that the world has been set up, there's more potential to explore characters and adventure without becoming tedious, as some of the explinations did in this volume.

(And why my local Borders, which usually has a huge selection of anime/manga related goods when compared to Barnes & Noble only ordered one copy when Barnes & Noble had a dozen is beyond me.)

Buy it if you like fantasy. ;)

The Taste of Innocence by Stephanie Laurens
A few years ago, I ended up with a slew of free romance novels thanks to

apis_mellifera. I'd never actually read any romance novels before that and while there were a number of them that didn't appeal to me, there were a few recency romance novels that I found quite fun to read (Julia Quinn & Victoria Alexander). After that, I went on a bit of a recency romance binge and while I don't read them often, there are a few authors whose books I tend to pick up.

Thus, Stephanie Lauren's latest book, The Taste of Innocence.

It was standard fare for Stephanie Laurens. Male hero who is resistant to marriage and love (though, in this case, he admits he needs a wife). Female heroine who is determined to make him love her. Some sort of villian that forces him to admit his feelings. Fun to read, without much to make you think.

Fortunately for me, this book was about a million times better than the craptastic horror that was To Distraction, the Bastion Club book released last fall. I adore the other Bastion Club books, since the plots actually tend to be quite good and there's a mysterious nobleman called Dalziel that no one knows much about, plus a central villian that they're trying to track down. Alas, To Distraction, the fifth and most recent one, was awful. I expect Laurens' books to have more sex than I care for in a romance novel but there was far too much of it in To Distraction, not to mention introducing a random villian with no central connection to the 8 book story arc and an awful, awful plot. Why do I mention this book in connection with 'Taste of Innocence'? Why, because one of the villians seen in this book shows up as the villian in 'Innocence'. This bugs me. The Bastion Club books and the Cynster books have only been connected in the most minor ways before (name dropping, basically). Using a villian from a Bastion Club book in this book makes it seem like the Bastion book was a set-up for this book. If there had been a better connection or if To Distraction hadn't been so awful, I might have been able to tolerate it. However, there wasn't and it was horrid so I am irritated.

Taste of Innocence was a fun read, but To Distraction wasn't.

Lady Friday by Garth Nix
Every single time I read a book by Garth Nix, I'm amazed at how good his books are. While I don't think the Keys to the Kingdom series can ever match up to the Abhorson Trilogy (but really, few series do) it's still an amazing series.

Lady Friday is the fifth book in the series and though I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did some others (Sir Thursday was my favorite, I think), it was still creative and quite fascinating. I'm a bit worried about Arthur though ... the keys keep changing him into more and more of a Denizen and he's becoming more arrogant and less sympthetic towards the lower Denizens the more he uses the keys. It was fun to see Leaf again but her involvement proves that being friends with Arthur is a dangerous thing to be at the moment.

I can't figure out which deadly sin Lady Friday was supposed to be. So far we have:

Mister Monday - Sloth
Grim Tuesday - Greed
Drowned Wednesday - Gluttony
Sir Thursday - Wrath

I originally thought Superior Saturday was Envy (since she appeared to be jealous of whoever had the key) and Lord Sunday was Pride (too proud to believe that the Rightful Heir would ever defeat him), leaving Lady Friday as Lust. However, now I'm wondering if Lady Friday was actually Envy (jealous of the experiences of mortals) and Superior Saturday is Lust (as in a lust for power). I'm still convinced that Sunday will be Pride. Any other ideas?

Also, is Arthur supposed to be a contrast to the Trustees -- they have the Deadly Sins, he exemplifies the Virtues?

They're Chastity, temperence, charity, diligence, forgiveness, humility and kindness. If he is, which book has which characteristic?

Lady Friday might be forgiveness, since he was forgiving the Piper's Children. Dunno about the others ...

Now, here is my current pet theory: the Will is actually the Architect.

Anyway, Lady Friday is good. In fact, any book by Garth Nix is good (though Shade's Children and Ragwitch aren't nearly as good as some of his others).

Manga review - Swan 2-9
Ever since I started spending a decent amount of time on the manga side of the Anime on DVD forums, I've been hearing a lot more about obscure titles that you probably won't find in bookstores. One such title is a manga called Swan, an older shoujo title about a girl who wants to become a ballet dancer.

Now, I know next to nothing about ballet; I've seen the Nutcracker and that's it. However, I must confess that I really, really like Swan. For people who are familiar with the conventions of shonen sports manga (boy really loves sport and practices like mad, astonishing everyone with his great progress, with cliffhangers at the end of every volume), you'll understand why I agree with the reviewer who said Swan is basically a sports manga in a shoujo setting. Hijiri, the heroine, isn't considered the best dancer out there but she loves ballet and when given the chance, she shows that she has a lot of talent and is willing to work hard to improve her flaws as a dancer, astonishing everyone (but her teacher) in the process. Naturally, because this is shoujo, there's love, romance and broken hearts not to mention rivals galore.

Swan is a really, really fun series and I'm now very, very addicted. It's a pity that more people aren't willing to buy older manga titles, since Swan is fun, once you give it a chance. If only someone would get Glass Mask and release it ...

Kare Kano 21 - Final
Kare Kano, one of the first manga series I ever picked up, has finally ended its English release. Since I spend a lot of time on the manga forum of the AnimeonDVD.com website, I was spoiled on one of the major plot points of volumes 20-21 -- Yukino's pregnancy. The comments on there were very, very negative about this plot point. The general concensus was this: "Yukino is pregnant? Yukino is going to keep the baby and marry Arima? Oh no, Yukino is going to become a housewife and her life is now over."

I wasn't exactly thrilled by the idea that Yukino would become a teenage housewife but I wasn't exactly thrilled that people were so negative about the whole housewife=worthless comments and decided to reserve judgement until I'd actually read the manga. So, now that I've read the manga I'm actually quite pleased. Yukino didn't seem like the type who would give up a career just because she had children, and she didn't. I know it's not as easy as the author made it out to be (and I'm sure it's worse in Japan than here) but I'm glad to see that the author believes it's possible.

The best part of the last two volumes? Some of the quirky Yukino humor returns. The Arima arc was so dark and melodramatic that it was refreshing to return to the humor that made me love the series in the beginning.

So long Kare Kano. It was a fun ride while it lasted.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
A few months ago, I read Princess Academy and was quite enchanted by it. I picked up The Goose Girl when I realized that it was by the same author and based on an existing fairy tale, a style of book I usually tend to like.

What did I think? Overall, I quite liked it. The main character was fairly likable as was the hero, the writing decent, the world interesting and the kind of magic fun. However, what made this book great were the side characters -- Enna & Finn, Cameron, Razo, etc. These characters really helped make the book what it is and frankly, I found many of them far more interesting than the main character Ani. I know there are two sequels that focus on the side characters I mentioned (Enna & Razo, I believe) and those are promptly going on my wishlist.

This isn't as good as Princess Academy but I doubt many books are.

The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones
Diana Wynne Jones has published two new books in the Chrestomanci series. The Pinhoe Egg is the most recent and this one features Cat Chant, the character we met in the first Chrestomanci book.

I'm a huge fan of Diana Wynne Jones and the Chrestomanci books are some of her best stories, if you ask me. The Pinhoe Egg is fun, but I don't think it has the same slightly spooky aura that the first two books in the series did. I like it a whole lot better than I do Witch Week and the Magicians of Caprona but not nearly as much as Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant (about equal to Conrad's Fate, IMO).

I'm sure fans of the Chrestomanci series won't be disappointed (and overall, I wasn't) but still, it feels like a little bit of the magic of those early books is missing.

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
For some odd reason, I decided to read the Terry Pratchett books featuring Susan, Death's granddaughter in reverse order to the way they were published (Thief of Time was finished in 2006 and Soul Music is in progress). My opinion of these books hasn't changed much since the first time I read them -- Thief of Time is the best, Soul Music is the worst. In fact, Thief of Time is the only one of these books I can honestly say I like (the others are tolerable but not great, IMO). I think it's because Lu-Tze is such an awesome character and Lobsang Ludd softens Susan's irritating edge. Plus, the plot seems so much better.

*shrug*

This opinion is probably the opposite of Terry Pratchett fans (most of the early Pratchett fans seem to think his later books are average whereas I think Night Watch and Thief of Time are among his best).

New Year's Resolution
So, I've decided that my New Year's Resolution this year will be to keep this journal up to date. I don't know that I'll post long reviews (especially if the book is a reread) but I want to at least learn how many books I actually read a year.

I think I may include a manga category as well.

Hum ...

Clone Alert ...
So, I read The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks the other day.

What did I think of it?

It's a clone of Lord of the Rings. Seriously. For every single adventure/character (well, 90% at least), I could point out a paralell event/character from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

It's not a bad book; it just copies Tolkien far too much and the characters are too one-dimensional. Since it was Brooks' first novel, I think I'm going to give him another chance and either read another Shannara book since I thought the world had potential (and his writing wasn't horrible) or one of his others.

But Sword is really a copy-cat. I'm surprised he got it published.

Musings on Diana Wynne Jones vs. other young adult fantasy authors
One of my best friends and I were recently having a discussion in a bookstore while looking at the young adult fantasy section. I suggested she read some Diana Wynne Jones books but she said she'd read a few and didn't really like them. I was rather curious about this as we generally like the same authors. So, I started thinking about the difference between her books and other YA fantasy authors, like Tamora Pierce or J.K. Rowling.

Diana Wynne Jones has some of the most interesting and complicated plots I've ever seen. The writing is fairly high quality. Her characters are generally realistic which, in many cases, makes them rather irritating.

J.K. Rowling has built (and slightly underused) a great world. She's one of the best authors at using 'the cliche' (orphen boy who's supposed to save the world, etc.) and making it seem unique. Her characters, with the exception of Snape, are one-dimensional but are slowly growing more two-dimensional as the books progress. However, they tend to be very likeable characters. Her writing is okay but she could really use a better editor to remove 'book bloat' and punctuation errors.

Tamora Pierce has two really great worlds. While she suffered some plot and pacing issues in her first series (the Alanna books), she improved a lot by the time her second series came along and these problems were vastly improved. Her characters are fun and fairly well developed and she's does a good job at showing how they change through the story.

Thinking about this, made me realize that Diana Wynne Jones' books have one big flaw -- they're very cold and clinical. You rarely get to know and love a world and the characters the way you do the other two authors. Harry Potter is full of flaws, as much as I love it, but I know and love the characters and the world and want to know what happens. The same thing happens in Tamora Pierce's books. I always want to know more about what happens after the story ends.

As much as I admire DWJ's plots and writing, I can honestly say that I only felt that way about one of her books that I read -- Howl's Moving Castle. The rest of her books, while I liked and enjoyed them, never gave me that feeling. And chances are, that's why a series like Harry Potter stormed the world, rather than any of her books.

The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones
So, recently read The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones. Generally a good book, although I don't think it's one of her best. It managed to have a complex plot without being too confusing like Hexwood and Fire and Hemlock. However, I found it to be a bit too creepy for my tastes (although I'm sure some people love it for this reason) and rather depressing (neglected kids are very depressing to read about). Honestly, this would've been better if DWJ had set it in a different setting. I think she was basing it too much on her own childhood (read her autobiography on her website) to have any sort of emotional distance. *shrug*

I think I'd rather go read Howl's Moving Castle again. :}

Thanks to

anchan218, I have a new default icon, which I adore. I always thought a Yomiko Readman icon would be appropriate for this journal but wasn't creative enough to think of one. When I saw this one and

anchan218 said it was okay to use, I jumped at the chance. :)

Thanks!

I will now feel obligated to post more, although I'll still use my old icon to discuss fantasy stuff with. I need to make a new one for 'classics', I think. :)

Musings on Grace Livingston Hill
I haven't posted here for a while, have I? Oops. Of course I've been reading and I plan on talking about some of them eventually ...

What I want to talk about today is "books you love and can't figure out why."

I recently re-read some books by the author 'Grace Livingston Hill' that I used to love and adore. After reading them again, I've been reminded of exactly why I still love them, though my values and beliefs have changed a lot.

Grace Livingston Hill has to be one of the most prolific authors in history. She wrote over 90 books from the 1900's through the 1930's and perhaps later. These books are old fashioned Christian romance novels. I've read at least 40 of her books and can tell you several things about them.

The general plot summary goes thus: A good Christian girl/boy is left alone in the world (death of parents, trip to the city, etc.). Evil Non-Christian boy/girl will decide that they want to marry the Christian for money/looks. The destined partner appears. If not a Christian, they will be converted by the good Christian girl/boy. If they are a Christian, there's some reason as to why the Good Christian thinks that he/she is unsuitable (usually one is rich and the other is poor). Eventually, after Evil Non-Christian does his/her best to marry Good Christian, Christian Boy and Girl marry and live happily ever after. There will always be several mentions about how evil makeup and low-backed dresses are and alcohol is a horrible sin ... (this always makes me giggle -- I can only imagine her horror at miniskirts and low-necked or strapless dresses). Oh yes, and most churches are dead and don't teach the truth about God any more ...

Yet, I'm still fond of these books. People who know me will realize that now I'm not a Christian although I once was. Knowing that I've read them again and still like them may surprise people. However, there's just something entertaining about them that amuses me and makes me feel happy, no matter how unrealistic they are.

The Circle of Magic Quartet by Tamora Pierce
So, I just finished reading "The Circle of Magic" Quartet (Sandry's Book, Tris's Book, Daja's Book, Briar's Book) by Tamora Pierce. While I liked them, I wasn't super impressed by them. The plots seemed pretty standard and the school setting was rather bland. Also, none of the characters really grabbed my attention.

The first book, Sandry's Book was the weakest of the four, IMO and the strongest was Briar's Book, with Daja's Book a close second (if it'd been less predictable, then it would be first).

The thing that impressed me the most about this book is how physically normal the kids are described as. Having one of them be overweight was a nice touch, IMO. Too many fantasy novels have characters that are the most beautiful people on the planet ...

Overall, I think it's a decent but not brilliant series. While I'll probably read the other Circle books at some point in time, I think I prefer the Tortall books. Now excuse me while I go order "Trickster's Choice" from amazon. :)

The Immortals Quartet by Tamora Pierce
I just finished reading The Immortals Quartet (Wild Magic, Wolf-Speaker, Emperor Mage, The Realm of the Gods) by Tamora Pierce.

Overall, I'm quite impressed. I don't know quite what it is but I enjoyed this series quite a bit (and I must admit to slightly crushing on Numair). Again, I found this series more interesting than the original Alanna books. In fact, I may like it more than the "Protector of the Small" series, since I like both Daine and Numair as much as I do. (Of course, if I admit it, I probably like it most since I think that Daine and Numair make a cute couple.)

The plot seems tighter than the Alanna books and while Daine has some Mary Sue-like qualities, they aren't as obvious as Alanna's. The ones that are obvious are later explained ... and I found the mystery about them before the Big Secret is revealed quite interesting. The only thing I regret is not knowing what happened to Daine and Numair between the end of "The Realm of the Gods" and "First Test."

I wonder if Trickster's Choice is any good? :)

Truckers and Diggers by Terry Pratchett
I recently read Truckers and Diggers by Terry Pratchett. They're two of the three books in a series of young adult novels, who must find a new home when the store they're living in is demolished.

These books are okay but they don't inspire me to devotion the way some other Terry Pratchett books do. I think that "Maurice and His Educated Rodents" is a much better young adult novel than these books are. In general, I would describe these as a science-fiction version of "The Borrowers." While they were an interesting read, I've got to admit that they don't have the re-read value that some of his other books have had. However, I really do want to read the third one, "Wings", that my local library didn't have. :}

Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce
The Protector of the Small series (First Test, Page, Squire, Lady Knight) by Tamora Pierce is a sequel to the "Lioness Quartett" and "The Immortals" (which I haven't read yet).

I read the Lioness Quartet a month or so ago and while I liked it, there was something about the story, the magic, the romance and Alanna, which didn't quite "work" for me. While I liked it, it didn't make me feel the 'spark' that other series have given me. However, I really liked "The Protector of the Small" books -- much better than I liked the Lioness Quartet. I liked Kel, I loved her family, I liked Neal and I was very fascinated by Raoul. While there wasn't a major quest for Kel until the last book, I thought the way the first few books showed her character really helped me understand why she was chosen, in a way I never understood why Alanna was chosen. Plus, Kel seemed far more ordinary than Alanna did.

Yes, I really liked these books. :)

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinely is now one of my new favorite young adult fantasy novels. I like the characters, I like the writing, I like the plot ... Okay, the ending isn't quite what I expected but I still love this book. Harry (female, for those of you who haven't read it) is an interesting character and I'm semi-crushing on Corlath.

It's exactly the kind of book I would have adored when I was a kid and the writing and story are complex enough now, to where I still love and adore it. :)

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