Category Archives: Fantasy

Review: Melinda Salisbury – The Sin Eater’s Daughter

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The Sin Eater’s Daughter

Melinda Salisbury

Twylla has been chosen to save her kingdom by the God and her duty is to perform the services deserved by treasonous vipers in the country – she lays hands on them and they die from the poison in her skin. No-one can touch her but the royal family – and one of the perks is marrying into it to continue the bloodline.

sineaterThe cover on this book is beautiful, and made me want to read the novel as soon as possible. Sadly though, judging a book by its cover doesn’t always turn out well…

Twylla lacks a spine. She lacks the ability to question what is going on around her, and she lacks the ability to communicate with people her feelings. She sometimes seems to lack feelings at all, except regret. She even admits she feels nothing for her mother!

Oh yes, let’s just have a quick word about the love triangle. Is there even one there? Is this like a ‘Frozen’ love story, where it looks like she loves both of them and can’t choose? It’s pretty clear that Twylla falls in love pretty instantly, and gets suckered in by the first man who treats her as a person.

That Queen is nothing but a bit of bad work. How refreshing to see a monarch who is going to do the whole Oedipus thing for her son without even blinking an eye. Enough said, or I’ll spoilt the plot.

The Sin Eaters of the kingdom are fascinating. When someone dies, their sins are visualised as food, and the Sin Eater is called to eat those sins so that the person doesn’t wander. What I wondered was how many Sin Eaters there were, and how isolated the practice was. Surely one woman can’t eat that many sins with the death rate present in those sorts of society?

Apparently this is the first book in the series. I think I would actually like to read the next in the series – maybe the author will have fixed the pacing issues, and given a bit more thought as to making a more independent heroine. 3 stars for this one from me.

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Review: Ilka Tampke – Skin

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Skin
Ilka Tampke

Ailia has no Skin. She doesn’t know who her parents were, and so she cannot learn or do anything in society. Like any other untutored woman, she wants to learn more of the world – and in learning more of the world she will either save or destroy it.

I could accuse this book of taking a slow pace of progression, and spending too much time on the details. But I wouldn’t, because it’s deftly crafted in that I didn’t feel the passage of time (just as Ailia does in the Mothers’ world) and I slipped fluidly from scene to scene. The world building, while it has the support of being crafted on a real-world geography, felt nicely fleshed out, despite focusing on such a small part of a landscape.

Ailia is all you could want in a gritty heroine. Like others of her kind, she is different from the rest of the community. But she is able to reach out past that – she isn’t always lonely, other people still see some good in her. Despite not being able to completely be treated like a true member of society, she has friends, she’s protected to some extent, and for what she is, she has a good place in life. She doesn’t mean to go off-track, it just happens!

It’s amazing how often I am drawn to historical fantasies without realizing it. This novel takes fact and fiction and intertwines them in a manner that means you can’t see how history could have happened without magic.

While I could predict some of what Ailia’s journey would be, other parts of the novel surprised me. I didn’t see a number of twists coming (although many of them appeared to happen from the same instance), but they were nicely woven into the rest of the storyline, and there wasn’t anything that came completely out of nowhere.

What frustrated me was the comment from Isobelle Carmody on the back, saying this novel had something to do with human yearning. No! This novel is so much more than that! While Ailia wants to learn things, that doesn’t mean she’s a love-sick idiot. She knows exactly what she should expect from life, and instead of yearning after it, she goes and does it.

I finished this novel on a very satisfied note. No, not everything turned out the way the reader might expect, but at the same time it was so so satisfying. I didn’t feel like the author had set it up to be a cash cow and write more sequels, I felt like she had reached the end of that saga, sat back, and been pleased with her work.

This novel suckered me in. I should have been doing some housework, and instead I sat down with a doona and a cup of tea to read this novel. 4.5 stars from me, simply because I’m not sure it’s good enough for a reread. Otherwise, highly recommended.

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Review: Stephen Merlino – The Jack of Souls

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The Jack of Souls
Stephen Merlino
Trickster Harric has a curse he needs to break, set by his loving mother. Caris longs to be a knight, but is hindered by her horse-sense. Willard carries an ambassador and gift towards the Queen. As their lives intertwine through a series of accidents, each must fight for what they want.
The blurb on the back of the book suggests a lot more action than what actually occurs in the novel. To me, it felt like the action dragged, and I hardly brought myself to finish the last chapter. I didn’t spend very much time thinking about the novel while I wasn’t reading.
I didn’t really realize or like Willard as a character.  He felt like a ‘classic’ downtrodden knight. He was a grumpy, irritable old man who didn’t deserve any kind of sympathy or care. Or maybe that was the point? None of the characters really made me worry for their welfare. Except perhaps Kogan, who provided some light hearted relief to the storyline.
I did like the way that Harric and Caris’ relationship developed, and the factors influencing that. One wonders what will happen in the next novel. Will they remove the rings? Will Caris still want to kill Harric?
I felt conflicted about Harric’s story and his mother. Yes, she’s doomed him, but I also don’t understand why the magic he is fighting with is so horrible. In this way, the author positions the reader to feel the same way about magic as the general populace. It’s frustrating and confusing though! The same way that Harric must feel…
Sadly, I wouldn’t call this an ‘Epic Fantasy’ novel. A fantasy novel yes, but it’s not nearly long enough to be considered epic in my book. I didn’t feel like the story had enough content in it to make the book the length it was, and I would have coped with it being condensed down into a snappy narrative.
Fascinating! I discovered when I googled for the cover art to put here, that this book was funded by a KickStarter. I didn’t know that that was even a ‘thing’ for authors. I’ll have to keep an eye out for novels on there.
I wouldn’t consider this novel an outstanding example of its kind. If you see a copy at the library, or perhaps an ebook of it, then it could be for you. For me, I wanted more action and less character repeats. It is possible that the next two books in the trilogy will prove me wrong, and make reading this first one worthwhile. 3 stars from me.

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Review: Garth Nix – Grim Tuesday

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Grim Tuesday
Garth Nix
Arthur thinks he’s safe home in bed, busy undoing the sickness brought by Mister Monday’s goons. Little does he know that the next minute his house will be for sale, and everything will be reclaimed by Grim Tuesday – unless he returns to The House.
Again, I’m rereading these in line with my girlfriend’s brother. He’s enjoying them, even if he is super slow at reading! I get through these novels in the space of around 1-2 hours, because they aren’t particularly meaty.
Arthur is not the most brilliant of characters, and this is perhaps what makes him most endearing to teenage readers. He doesn’t profess to be smart, and most of the time he’s just wandering around trying to get himself out of mischief. Suzi Blue, his friend, is also trying to get him out of trouble.
Again, action driven and best for those who don’t want too much character development. It’s aimed squarely at the reluctant reader.
The Will is so pompous! They are super annoying. I don’t see why Arthur has to release the bits of Will in order to get to the gloves or anything else. Bugger the Will! Sunbear. Pah. Frog.
I liked the challenge between Arthur and Grim Tuesday. Arthur’s relationship with his family is very important to him, and to them, and even if Arthur seems to be hardly home, and they leave messages on the fridge to each other, they’re still a loving family.
I think the best thing for me in this novel are the Ships. I can’t really talk about them without giving too much away, but let’s just say there are worlds inside bottles. I remember that they play a larger role in some of the other novels in this series – and I look forward to rediscovering that.
My resolve to read and review these is not strong. I’m not sure what I can really say about these plot-driven novels by an author I already loved.

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Review: Juliet Marillier – Dreamer’s Pool

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Dreamer’s Pool
Juliet Marillier
Blackthorn and Grim are dying slowly, tortuously, in a dungeon of the foulest ruler of their lands. When Blackthorn is given an unexpected opportunity to change her situation, she finds herself being forced into a life-path she never expected to take.
With two highly flawed protagonists and a raw, gritty storyline, this new offering from Marillier is suited to the young adult and adult readers. It was a fresh breath of air in the other more childish novels I have been reading lately. Just what I wanted.
I empathized strongly with Blackthorn, although others might find her prickly personality off putting. Her life circumstances seem quite unique, but only in that she is not afraid of stating her opinion (or dying by it). Her role as the healer of the town reminded me of the Owlflight novels by Mercedes Lackey, and the empathetic healer in that.
The ending came as a surprise. Why did no-one ever consider the number of people in each pool incident? The build up of information, if you weren’t familiar with storytale endings, would lead the reader onwards. There’s also some coy links with her other novels, including the Sevenwaters series (one of the first reviews I ever wrote – be gentle!).
I loved that there was more than one climax. Although we all wondered about the Prince’s happiness, it was good to see Blackthorn still defending others and taking her own path. And Grim defending others at the same time as protecting Blackthorn (which he has decided is his goal in life).
I wish I knew more about Grim. In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone will want to know about Grim, whether they are a character in the same book, or someone reading it! He’s such a dark persona, and although his perspective is provided intermittently, it’s not really clear what is going on inside his head.
I read the first part of this book, and really regretted having to put it down. When I got a couple of free hours, I polished it off and was devastated that I had finished it so quickly. Thank goodness there are two more books planned in this series. I don’t know what they will cover, as surely nothing more can happen in this tiny community?!? I look forward to reading them soon, as Marillier often has a good publishing schedule going on.
I was provided this book in return for a honest review. I would have bought the book regardless of whether it had been provided, because I love this author’s works on their own standing. It will be released to the general public in Australia on 1st October 2014.

UPDATE: I have been informed that there is an Audible copy of Dreamer’s Pool. I’ve gotten pretty excited about talking books in the past, and this one is no exception. Here’s a link to the SoundCloud preview.

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Review: James Snyder – Into the Abyss

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Into the Abyss
James Snyder

Connelly’s life has taken a turn for the better. For once, she is wanted (despite ending up in a bad place once again to get there), and her foster parents seem great. But slowly, slowly, everything falls apart again, and she is left on the streets.

This middle novel in the series (The Beautiful-Ugly Trilogy)

stomps on your heart in the same way the first one tore it. It was painful to read, and yet just as painful to put it down, not knowing what would happen next.

Those brief moments when Connelly feels like she has a family you want to celebrate with her, but also understand her reservedness. Her inability to keep things together after that however, is kinda annoying. She says she knows how to say no, how to just observe, but she can’t help spoiling what she has.

I find it hard to reconcile Connelly dropping drugs so quickly with the rate at which she moved into them. She’s into some hard things, it’s easy for her to go deeper in than to come out. Yet when she has a change of scenery, she feels those changes strongly enough that they take the joy or ignorant bliss of drugs from her.

The gang head is friendly than the average Joe on the street! If it’s true, the way New York is portrayed here, I never want to go there. Sure, Connelly isn’t very good at picking friends, but she doesn’t have much experience.

Something that disturbed me was the way that Snyer basically made every male in Connelly’s life a predator or a hindrance. In the end, even the question to find her brother was answered in this way. In fact, I’m not sure there are any wholly positive influences, apart from that art teacher a long time ago. The women are equally dysfunctional as the men, and it’s a hard, cruel world out there for everyone.

This is a gritty novel, even more so than the first one. The ending fits in with the beginning, and smoothly transitions into the next novel, so if you’ve got them, make sure you take them all with you to your reading spot.

Trigger warnings for drug use, rape, sexual content, suicide and swearing. Definitely a young adult novel, not teenage fiction.

I requested this trilogy directly from the author, and was lucky enough to receive all of them at once. I’m really glad I did, as these were really enjoyable, if emotionally difficult to read.

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Review: James Dashner – The Maze Runner

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James Dashner
The Maze Runner
Thomas wakes up with no memory to a place with it’s own language, it’s own hierarchy, and a puzzle that no one can work out.
The maze runner is really action packed and even a bit gruesome. The action particularly at the end reminds me of Lord of the Flies and Piggy’s death. The amount of cruelty in this society. I wonder why they only used males, plus I wondered about the fact a little community could come out of it. Also there’s the crude sexual humour that Teresa brings.
I don’t know how they would have made a screen version of this with the amount of violence. Also the Grievers sound horrific. That that said, this novel doesn’t have any character development at all, so I think its perfect for a movie and I can’t wait to see it. September 19th 2014 apparently is the release day for The Maze Runner.

I really didn’t get the thing of them being the smartest if they couldn’t work it out! They were just going to wait and die! No change of anything over two years seems stupid.

It didn’t click for me the names of some if the characters. That is a nice touch on the novel, suggesting it’s actually a dystopian fantasy. That said, it is a very unique world. It takes what seems to be a really specific concept and plays with it to its conclusion.
You want to know more about Tommy and Teresa. Tommy being the main character works, but there really isn’t any explanations of telepathy or anything else strange, which I’m hoping for in the next novel.
I was so frustrated when I was speeding towards the end, knew not enough had happened and flipped to the back cover, and low and behold, there was a sequel. NOOOOOOO! But this is a trilogy, which means there is so much more good reading for me.
I did actually really enjoy reading this and I was glad I was sent a review copy for free. It’s one of the more decent novels that teenage boys will be interested in.

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Review: Garth Nix – Mister Monday

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Mister Monday
Garth Nix

Arthur suffers from debilitating asthma that causes him to end up in hospital on a regular basis. On his first day at his new school, he suffers an asthma attack that kills him. Or would have killed him, had he not had the minute key from The House thrust upon him. Thrown into a new, exciting and utterly terrified world, Arthur needs to learn things fast – before all the people he loves get sick.

This series (The Keys to the Kingdom) was one of the best that I had read when I was younger. This first novel still holds that appeal for me. It’s a new landscape, it’s relatively unique as the concept of a ‘magic house’ goes, and Arthur is endearing in his naivety.

I do feel somewhat frustrated with Arthur. He should have cluded on on the days of the week thing already! It’s no good sitting back. And plus, he’s able to change time outside ‘The House’, so he should do that.

The frog is inspired! Heh, sharing frogs in throats. The Will does seem a bit sneaky though, and I don’t like it all that much. I guess who at all likes Wills in general?

This is a plot driven novel. Arthur doesn’t get any smarter or sneakier, but he does begin to understand how things work. But he’s a bit of a blank slate – you can project yourself into him. The journey is the exciting part.

This novel is the one I compared The Book of Days to, but I guess this one is significantly older. And in addition, this is set in the modern world. It’s just The House that is behind. I’m glad I’ve come back to reading these again though, as my girlfriend’s brother is also reading them.

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Review: Cornelia Funke – Inkheart

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Inkheart
Cornelia Funke
Meggie and her father never stay anywhere long. It’s not until a mysterious figure visits in the night that Meggie begins to understand why her father never reads aloud to her. It’s all about one book ‘Inkheart’.
Meggie sometimes seems like just a vehicle for the novel to move forward. She starts out naive, gets a little brighter and braver, but in all she’s just a young girl who wants her parents by her side.
This novel is filled with betrayals, and cowardice, and all things good in a fantasy novel. Just like the novel that is contained within it. It’s sort of a story-within-a-story, but you never get the full text of Inkheart.
This also is a movie – and for once I saw the movie before the book. I don’t really remember much about it, but it might be worth a look. I feel like the movie also contained parts of the second novel (and for some reason had a dragon in it??) Anyone remember this better than me?
I listened to this novel, and man it was a long one. So long, in fact, I took a break between listening to the first couple of disks, then another couple, and finally took a very long break when I got near the end.
The problem with this novel, and listening to it I suppose, was that it felt like it was dragging on. It had multiple climaxes that all felt equally important, and so the final confrontation seemed less important. There had been so many near-death experiences before that point, that I couldn’t even feel too upset if anyone died.
I was nagged to read this novel for a long time, and I have at least two copies on my physical shelves. It still didn’t take preference over anything else though. A good novel, but not an amazing one. You need really determination to get through it.
I can’t believe there are two more books in the trilogy. I can’t see myself rushing out to read them, or have them read to me. I think if there had been something more appealing at my library, I would have traded to that soon into this novel. My other two audiobooks I picked up in that set were also failures though, so this was the best of a bad lot.
The writing is flawless, the characters engaging – it just is too long to be a good teenage fiction book.

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Review: Juliet Marillier – The Caller

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The Caller
Juliet Marillier
Neryn still has another guardian to meet before she can undertake her task as a Caller. Little does she know that magic has been weakening under the Tyrant’s rule, and it may be more difficult than she imagines. When it comes to the final battle, will she be able to succeed against the other forces moving against her?
The Caller is everything I wanted from Marillier. Action packed, strong friendship ties, and a bit of drama that doesn’t allow you to hope that the main characters will turn out ok.
I liked that we heard more from Flint’s perspective in this novel. Something from the other rebels would have been good too (such as Tali), but this lack meant that you felt like you were truly in Neryn’s shoes.
Hint, don’t read the back of this novel’s cover, or any summaries online. I accidentally read one, and then spent the whole book wondering when the thing was going to happen. It didn’t, and I didn’t feel cheated, I just wished I could have appreciated the bits more.
The conclusion isn’t surprising. Or rather it is, but then you realise you should have guessed from all the pointers in the beginning. You feel satisfied, but not too satisfied. And there’s still some tension lurking right to the very end.
I’m sort of sad that I didn’t feel enough connection to any of the secondary characters to be sad when they died. There was one exception, but I can’t tell you about that, obviously.
I’d love to know what happens next. Who will be king? Who will be the regents?

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