Category Archives: Fiction

Review: Tamora Pierce – First Test

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First Test
Tamora Pierce
Keladry is the first girl after Alanna the Lioness to apply to become a Page under King Jonathan of Tortall. Unfortunately for her, she has to first undergo a harrowing test year, in which her resolve is tested and her mettle tried.
As one of the reviewers quoted on the back of the novel says, it’s filled with a plucky heroine, complete with animals, monsters, school and a hint of magic. For me, it’s the school and animals that does it. The whole book ticks all of the boxes that I look for when selecting a good enjoyable novel to relax with.
I’ve read this novel multiple times, and no doubt will continue to do so in the future. Kel shows a trait of caring for others so strongly that it is impossible not to like her. Just enough action that it’s satisfying, just enough schooling and real life problems to keep it flowing naturally.
I’m not sure why she is pictured holding a cat on the cover. She does rescue some kittens, but she doesn’t really do much with them. Not like her lovely Diane influenced birds.
I would strongly suggest this novel for any young woman (I doubt it would appeal to boys, although I could be surprised) who wants to be a bit different from the mould. Certainly times have changed now, and people don’t do such medieval fighting, but it’s still an uncommon thing for woman to be included as equal partners in the military. But I digress…
Now for a problem I see with the novel (and the series).
I think it’s disappointing in a way that Kel is already somewhat weapons trained. I wanted a raw newby girl to train to become a knight. But I guess that is unrealistic – if they didn’t show aptitude from an early age, it’s unlikely they would want to go for such a career goal.
Overall though, it’s got that flavour that has me coming back for more every time. I used to reread it at least once a year, but I now have so many favourite books that I just can’t do it! And I have so many exciting review books too, which I didn’t have before.
So on that note…
I think I’m going to stop wasting time on including affiliate links to novels. I’m pretty sure you readers are intelligent enough to find the novels that you want in your own way. I haven’t had a single reader click on a link for the whole time I have been blogging. For this reason, I will no longer provide those links. It takes me time to do those, time that I could be spending reading or keeping my other paperwork up to date. Any opinions?

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Review: Traci Harding – Gene of Isis

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Gene of Isis
Traci Harding
Mia is specialised in what she does – but sadly, not many people want her for the job she’s good at. That is to say, there isn’t much call for PhD graduates in ancient languages and mythology. This is a theme that runs through Harding’s books to great advantage, and really fits in with my own viewpoint on life and religion.

The beginning was super slow and I almost gave up listening. I persevered however and things improved from there. My partner also listened with me in the car, and he couldn’t understand why I kept listening! I certainly didn’t do so for a certain Trudi Caravan novel I started, but this one still gave me hope.

I didn’t realise until the middle of the novel how the author was cleverly going to introduce the other two female characters to us. I was worried that I would lose Ashley’s point of view, and I was so enjoying it! The lessons.
This novel is the first in a trilogy and so I found myself dreading the end, particularly as the library didn’t have the next two books in. When I got to the end, I thought maybe for this one I would consider splashing out to buy the next books.
I wondered about the passing of time while Mia was reading. Sometime I felt like it was progressing too slowly. I also would have appreciated some more interjections by her about what she was reading.
God! The ending was almost too hard for me to bear! I so wanted to skip forward, but I knew I’d miss something. Well worth waiting for. There were still parts of this that didn’t make sense to me, but now I have forgotten the majority of them. I’m just basking in the fact that it was a great book to listen to. I wanted to keep sitting in my car to listen to it after I finished driving.
I’m glad I listened to this as a talking book. The reader is fabulous! She’s got the accents down and I could easily tell the difference between the characters. A rare gift, and I think I might look out for other novels read by her. {edited to add – I have since begun listening to another book by Traci Harding read by this reader, and it’s just as good as I’d hoped}.
I often dreamed of reading novels myself as a bit of income, but the beautiful reading of this one makes me think I’m not nearly good enough. Perhaps a youtube reading?
I’m a bit slow on reviewing at the moment, sorry. Mainly I am getting time for talking books as I commute 2 hours each day to work. I should be caught up and posting properly again soon.

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Review: Mercedes Lackey – Steadfast

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Steadfast
Mercedes Lackey
Katie is trying to escape from her abusive husband. With Travaeler blood in her veins, yet being a cross-breed, she is unlikely to be welcome anywhere. When she finds a dream job in a music hall of Brighton, she thinks she might be safe for a while. But throw magic into the mix, and who knows what might happen?

This novel started out with so much promise. Once again, it failed to deliver. It smacked of another title in the series, even including rogue fires! I guess she’s run out of unique endings?

This book suited its title so badly, that I didn’t even realise it was based on the story of ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’. The majority of books in this series aren’t really based on any fables, so I wasn’t expecting it. Having now refreshed my memory of this tale, I can see remnants of it, but nothing major.

For several days after completing the novel, I found myself thinking I hadn’t finished it. The ending was too satisfactory and abrupt. Plus it was exactly what I expected, the minute I found out about the cellar.

Maybe my problem was that I didn’t like Katie. She was just so malleable. It didn’t seem right for her to have a special thing like magic. Although I guess she’s just a layman and so the point of his novel was that they could have powers. Her character felt inconsistent to me.  She was afraid of all men, yet her acceptance was pretty good of her new friends, perceptive as they were to what she needed. 

There was so much scope for learning more about how to train a fire mages. But instead the book dwelled on the accommodations and food of the characters.

A disappointment. I thought I’d enjoy it more than Bastion, but I was disappointed. Maybe Lackey is moving away from being my favourite current author. Other writers, such as Juliet Marellia, have published books that I’m longing to read – and perhaps I’d better give their works a closer eye in the future.

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Review: James Phelan – The Last Thirteen #2

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The Last Thirteen #2
James Phelan
Sam is still dreaming. For him, it is getting more difficult to tell the difference between dreams and reality. He’s been stranded in several countries, including Egypt, but now it’s his job to convince the 12th dreamer that she belongs with him.
18498291Once again this is an action packed novel, story-focussed and story-driven. I don’t think I spent a minute thinking about the individual characters, only the overall picture of action.
Alex, whose character development I complained about last time, certainly gets a lot more back-story. I can’t believe I picked that! Well, at least picked him out as a probable suspect…
I still wish there was more about the actual abilities of the current Dreamers. The experiments by a certain group certainly lend themselves to me learning more about it. Not to mention extending them. It sounds good in theory, but in practice? We’ll have to wait for the next book.
Each novel of this series has a nail-biting cliffhanger. I don’t know if the author came up with this method by himself, or whether this is a bigger novel chopped into serialised bits, or just a fine marketing technique. Either way, you can tell when the end of the novel is coming, because it will be just before you get a great piece of information.
Repeat from my earlier review: It’s a bite-sized spy/genius/warfare novel that’s going to get your non-reader interested in reading again. If you’re not sure, to me it seemed similar to Robert Muchamore’s Cherub series. If you’re not sure if your son/daughter is ever going to get away from comic and graphic novels, offer this instead. The action is fast-paced and there’s hardly any emotional baggage or ‘feels’ to get in the way.
I received this novel directly from Scholastic as an Advance Reader copy. This has in no way influenced my review. This novel was released to the public before I got a chance to write up my review. You can still get on it in time for Christmas!

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Review: Mercedes Lackey – Bastion

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Bastion
Mercedes Lackey
Mags is still recovering from being kidnapped, and his memories falsified. So that he can have some peace and quiet, he’s sent out on circuit near where his parents and the bandits were left. It seems like he is going to find out more about himself – one way or another, dead or alive.

First off, what’s up with the title anyway? It feels like a little bit of named countryside that I’ve never read about before. It’s not mentioned in any of the other novels of Valdemar that have been listed in the Guard archives, and you’d think a piece of history like that would be in there, like the Vanyel references.

I’m not sure whether to object or not about the pace of this novel. It seems to me like nothing happens in the first half, literally, except some flashbacks to previous novels. I enjoy scenery descriptions and so forth, but there needs to be some substance behind it. Like the others in this series, it felt empty and unsatisfying and could have been combined into one of the other novels. Yes, it did have a pretty distinct storyline in the end, but there was so much filler!
I felt really uncomfortable with the treatment of Mag’s and Amily’s relationship. Mags is a Herald! The conversation he and his mentor have is just awkward for Mags and readers alike. It’s not similar to any other novel she’s written that I’ve read, which is most of them, and I don’t like it and don’t feel like it added anything to the story. In fact it felt crude. The dramas between the two mentors had a little bit of interest in it, but the eventual resolution of it was a let down.
Once again, I got to the end and wondered if it was finished. This time, I wasn’t even sure if it was the end of the series or not! This seems like a publishing money cow, but it’s not a tasty one. I didn’t even remember the book before this one very well – this one is just as forgettable.
I’ve got another Mercedes Lackey novel waiting for me to review it – I’m not that excited, but it’s from a series she hasn’t stuffed up yet too much, so hopefully it is good!
This was just the right novel to get me into reviewing again – something to partially tear apart by an author who should have known better. I’ve been reading but not reviewing lately. I just got a fabulous stack of books from Scholastic to review though so I should have some more going on really soon.

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Review: Lian Hearn – Tales of the Otori 2: Grass for his Pillow

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Grass for his Pillow
Lian Hearn
Takeo has gone with the Tribe in order to fulfil what he feels is his birthright and duty. Lady Kaede has gone home, pregnant but without Takeo. They must each find their strengths and wait for the spring – where perhaps they will meet again.
Once again, I really enjoyed this series and found myself sitting in my car listening to it by choice! I guess I could have brought it inside to listen to, but the atmosphere wouldn’t have been there!
Takeo is a bit dense sometimes, but he does try to do the right thing. You can tell what his weakness is, and he knows as well. He’s haunted by the people he kills in his role for the Tribe and yearns for something more. Kaede is much more commanding and suited to being a warrior, but alas she’s born female and it’s hardly a choice for her.
The ending is decidedly unsatisfactory and reeks of being a second book in a series. Plenty of cliff-hangers and uncertainties. Bah. I’m just a bit irked because I don’t have the third book waiting for me to listen to! Instead I have the prequel to this series.
I had a moment of doubt when I heard the introduction, because it wasn’t in the same voice as the first novel – but then it turned out to be the same readers as before and I was happy. I was used to them sounding the way they did, and I didn’t want change! I think I wouldn’t have listened to it, if it didn’t have the same expressive readers.
As with the first novel, I don’t think that the title of the novel is particularly true. He doesn’t really spend all that much time free to sleep with grass for his pillow. It seems like he spends much of his time locked inside a room, or battling against the snowy elements of Autumn.

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Review: Jodi Picoult – The Pact

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The Pact
Jodi Picoult
Chris and Emily have been friends, and closer than friends, for as long as anyone can remember. Their parents fully expect them to get married in the near future. So something must have gone dreadfully wrong when it looks like the two have entered a suicide pact, but only one of them dies.
Well, this wasn’t what I was expecting. Or maybe it was, but I had been hoping for something else. I wanted more focus, and more information from Emily before her death. I wanted Melanie to answer some of my questions, and for her to realise there was more at stake than she thought.
I felt frustration, and an inability to connect with the characters. I didn’t want to see inside the jail. I didn’t care what happened to Chris. I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t suicidal, why he didn’t see the same ways out as his cellmate. Ugh! He frustrated me!
I did want to know what really happened that night, and drawing out knowledge of that until the end just drove me nuts. I almost skipped to the end just to find out, because I was so sick of the filler and the ‘feels’. This novel did take me on an emotional rollarcoaster for some of the time. I tend to feel deeply with characters, usually regardless of how well they are written.
Being open-minded, I like to think that Gus and Michael could have had something happening there. And the ending is just unsatisfactory. Melanie is such a cop out. It seems so unfair that Gus and James should also lose their friends, as well as their potential daughter-in-law.
Everything was set up perfectly. You could see that the story was constructed to fit a particular plan. There didn’t seem to be any spontaneity in the novel.
I guess what Picoult likes to do is draw in her readers, and then leave them wanting more at the end. I get that, but it still annoys me. The ending to this one, with the exception of the very last page which seemed to have been put in just to torment readers, is actually one of the more concrete ones.
I also bought Vanishing Acts at the same time as this one. I’ve just started into it, and can’t believe it’s another jail storyline. Seriously, it’s not my thing.
Sorry to all of you who love Jodi Picoult’s works – I’ll agree that they are well researched, and that they aren’t meant to be comfortable reads (they should be thought provoking), but I simply couldn’t love The Pact.

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Review: John Steinbeck – Tortilla Flat

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John Steinbeck
Tortilla Flat
Danny and his friends have tales told about them in a series of short interconnected stories. It’s an interesting insight into their lives of relatively early American (USA) [well, what I call early because I’m a young person!].  
 
I really like the know it all of the group, Pilon. He’s just so engaging and scheming and bright! Well, you know, bright in relative terms compared to everyone else.
 
Eh, Danny I could have taken of left. I just didn’t ‘get’ him very well. He’s such a friendly and easy-going guy, and clueless in his own way. For god’s sake man, take control of your life and those useless drinkers you call friends! Maybe I’m just not tolerant enough, which is my usual problem…
 
Pirate! Oh Pirate, how clueless. But he’s such a good example to the others, who seem to do nothing but drink wine. I find it sad and also sort of funny, the story about his candlestick. The others would have loved to be there too no doubt.  
 
The ending of this novel seems very final in its own way. Not unexpected, and has a certain parallel to other events in the novel. There’s another book after this one, and although I was aiming to read the second book in this ‘series’, I didn’t get around to it in time. It is my intention to borrow the other book from the library at a later point. 
 
I read this after the suggestion (and lending of books to me) by an Aunt while on holidays on the US. I saved my draft review on my other laptop, and then didn’t get around to posting it. Oops.

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Review: Lian Hearn – Tales of the Otori 1: Across the Nightingale Floor

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Across the Nightingale Floor
Lian Hearn
Taeko has lost his family, his life and everything precious to him. Now he is a pawn for getting revenge on the warlord that rules most of the country. The nightingale floor will sing if he stands on it – is he up to the challenge?
77160Despite my little blurb there, it doesn’t feel like the nightingale floor is actually that important. Most of this novel is about the respective journeys of Taeko and Kaede towards the evil Iida. Taeko makes such a willful apprentice, it’s a wonder he ever gets anything done! Shigeru could have had a bit more airtime in my opinion.
I found myself wanting to sit in my car to listen to it, far after I should have been at work. I’m thinking that’s a good sign. Some parts were just so suspenseful I couldn’t bear to leave. This even held true after I looked at the wikipedia page to find out the name of the book in the series, and accidentally looked at the synopsis.
Whoever translated this novel (from I think Japanese??) did a great job. The turns of phrase were natural, although I found it more difficult to keep track of the characters because of their foreign sounding names.
I actually really enjoyed this novel. The readers on my talking book were great, particularly the male one. His voice was soothing, and yet rose to the occasion at points of tension. The female narrator was a little more sketchy, but ok.
While I was looking up how to spell the author’s name, I stumbled over a rather scathing review, that said that the characters were weak and the settings completely unrealistic. While I agree that Kaede was a bit of a sook, I still liked Taeko. And the lack of description was perfect for a talking book that I wanted to listen to while driving – no distractions!

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Review: Stella Gibbons – Cold Comfort Farm

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Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons
Flora Poste has been recently bereaved of her parents. Left with 100 pounds per year, she writes to four different relatives to try get sympathy and somewhere to live. She chooses the most unlikely charity – because she doesn’t want to have to share a bedroom!
92780Flora is an annoying character always poking her nose in self-righteously where she can. She does sort things out I suppose, but some people are happy being miserable! And other people, such as poor Adam, just want to get on with life in the same way they always have.
Look, this is supposed to be comic in the style of PG Wodehouse. I’m just not seeing it! I found it rather sad, and Flora just irritating. In fact, she reminded me of Jane Austin’s Emma, right down to the last chapter. Interfering busy-body nuisance. Perhaps I’m just not tolerant enough.
I have to say that the novel is well-written, if a little repetitive owing to Flora’s own repetitive issues. I could imagine each of the characters easily, and saw the squalor of their conditions. If they were written so that I wouldn’t like any of them, it was a success.
The question that everyone wants to know the answer to – what did Ada Doom see in the woodshed – and is indeed, the whole reason I persevered with this novel, is not answered. Sorry if I just spoilt it for you. But arg! No answers! And there were a couple of other things that weren’t satisfactorily answered either, and it just irritated me.
I borrowed this from a friend who thought I might enjoy it, but sadly I can’t say I did. I tolerated Flora, but didn’t feel anything but pity for the other characters. Except perhaps the other young girl, and that was an extra helping of pity because she allowed herself to be shaped so much.

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