‘If you go down to the woods today…..
you’d better to in disguise….’
Art it Up. This is a meme hosted by Tabitha over at Not Yet Read. The idea being to see if you can come up with some 
inspiration for a little sketch or doodle from your last week’s reading or just anything else in general. My recent reading includes The Rebirth of Tao by Wesley Chu and the Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman. Over at the Fantasy Review Barn today’s topic is fauna in fantasy – with this and the fairytale I’ve tried to go for a creepy forest – could have done with a bit more shading but….
‘Feed me Seymour, feed me now!’
8 April 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Fantasy Review Barn, Tough Travelling, Unique Flora
This week over at the Fantasy Review Barn Nathan is again taking us tough travelling. This week we’re looking at
UNIQUE FLORA
Self-explanatory. If you know of a plant that is either not on earth, or doesn’t act the same way in fantasyland as it does on earth, then you can consider it unique. Have fun.
Threads from the Dragonriders of Pern books by Anne McCaffrey. This was the first thing that came to mind (thankfully something came to mind). Threads are spores that rain down upon the planet – not all the time but in cycles (I think – somebody feel free to chuck me a clue here) and basically cause terrible destruction. Left to their own devices I think the planet would be in a pretty bad way but fortunately there are dragons and dragonriders to help with the gardening duties!
Talking flowers – not something you see every day – Alice – Through the Looking Glass by C S Lewis
Triffids from Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham – I should think this doesn’t need an explanation – but basically these plants are mobile, they can communicate with each other and they have poisonous stings.
The Forest of Fighting Trees from The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. They’re trees. There’s enough to warrant calling them a forest – and they fight!! Well, they throw things at you anyway.
Yggdrasil – a tree from Norse mythology – encountered by me in the book Hammered by Kevin Hearne where the main character, Atticus, has to climb the tree on the back of a giant squirrel – he’s going on a quest.
Honorable mentions:
Harry Potter – Gillyweed – I would definitely try this – swimming underwater made easy!
Lord of the Rings – Fanghorn Forest – okay, this is maybe a cheat but this forest does seem to have a mind of it’s own so it’s having a mention.
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
Just finished reading The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman which is a beautifully illustrated story.
This really is a gorgeous little book, a reimagined mishmash of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty with a bit of dark and creepy thrown in for good measure.
Now, whilst I do love a good fairytale retold, particularly when they come in such lovely packages, I wasn’t totally bowled over with this one. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not a bad book, just not as good as I expected and I think I’ve genuinely surprised myself to be honest because I quite literally usually adore everything that Neil Gaiman does and I practically love him (not in a stalker-lets-boil-the-pets sort of way!)
It is a good story with an interesting twist in the tale and modernised in terms of a Queen coming to the rescue as opposed to a dashing knight in shining armour and I certainly wouldn’t discourage anybody from reading as, like I said, it is good. It just didn’t have that certain something that I can’t usually put my finger on but I always find in a Gaiman book that makes me want to run out and gush like a maniac.
It is a lovely book though and I have already ordered Hansel and Gretel as well – I just need to be more measured with my ridiculously high expectations I suppose – at the end of the day you can over hype something all by yourself. And, just feast your eyes on that cover!
“Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.”
6 April 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 10 characters you would revisit, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday
This week over at the Broke and Bookish the topic for Top Ten Tuesday discussion is:
‘Top Ten Characters You’d Like To Check back In With’
So, would you like to jump back down the rabbit hole again or crawl through the Wardrobe or do you have some place else you’d love to go back to.
- Richard Mayhew from Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere – I loved the world created here in London Below and would love to join Richard again on some more adventures, maybe avoiding the Angel.
- Rhett Butler from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind – last words being along the lines of ‘frankly my dear I don’t give a damn’ – you have to kind of want to go back and see if Scarlett can win him back.
- Aragorn from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – any excuse frankly just to see Aragorn again!
- Melanie from The Girl with all the Gifts by M R Carey – I could definitely read more from this world and I think the ending would lend itself to another book. Although – I think whatever happens next would not have been pretty in most respects.
- Shai from The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson. I loved this book and the main character Shai. I hope that Sanderson will one day revisit and give us a few more of her adventures.
- Robert Neville from I am Legend by Richard Matheson. You may think this an odd one. At the end of the book the outcome is bleak for the human race but part of me thinks really, in all the world – which is a pretty big place – there could still be a few people hiding/surviving couldn’t there???
- Wade from Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. This was such an entertaining read with one of those endings that give you a smile and want you to punch the air. It would be nice to check in on Wade and see what he’s up to now.
- The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt – this was a surprising book for me in that I had no idea I would enjoy a western type story. I loved this and the ending was brilliant. Sometimes it’s best just to walk away with a smile on your face but in their case i would like to revisit the Sisters brothers to see what happened to them – did some of their old exploits come back to haunt them?
- Sunshine and Con from Robin McKinley’s Sunshine. I would definitely like to read about what these two got up to next. An interesting world and definitely worth a visit – don’t think I’d want to relocate there though!
- Corrag from Susan Fletcher’s Witch Light. I absolutely loved this book. It totally captured my attention. I’m just greedy and want more of this so would definitely revisit.
The Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu
Just finished reading the Rebirths of Tao. This has been a great series with each book becoming successively better than the last – the ending is just brilliant!
If you haven’t read the previous two books then stop reading now as there may be spoilers for the previous books.
For a quick recap. Aliens landed on earth many many years ago. Unable to exist in the atmosphere they needed a host which they inhabit until the host dies and the alien is released and searches for a new host. During the course of their time on earth a couple of things have happened, some of the aliens have become attached to humans and as a result they don’t necessarily like the treatment meted out to humans and this has resulted in war. The aliens have split into two factions – Prophus and Genjix – and are engaged in a battle to the bitter end. The Genjix are the stronger force however and have the upper hand – until, at the end of the last book, the fates of both sides were thrown wide open.
At the start of book 3 we have again jumped forward. The revelation at the end of book 2 has had dramatic repercussions for both sides – both of them forced to hide their alien nature from the humans who are now aware of their presence and frankly don’t like it! The two sides are still at war – which was a surprise in a way as I wondered if previous events would have pushed them together. Instead of that events seem to have driven the Genjix to step up their own agenda.
Roen is now united with his family, Jill and Cameron and between them they help to run part of an underground operation helping other hosts to get to safe places.
This is a great series it really is. Aliens, spies, war. Body Snatchers meets Bond. There is plenty of action. It’s easy to become attached to the the Tan family and to care about them and their ups and downs. There’s a great supporting cast and there are plenty of twists and turns and on top of that we finally find out what the ‘big’ plan is that the Genjix have in store for the planet.
What I particularly like about this series is it started off by provoking lots of questions. The second book came along and answered my questions whilst delivering a great plot and dramatic finale and then the third managed very successfully to wrap things up – which was great because I really couldn’t second guess how this was going to end.
I also really liked the focus on the friendship that some of the hosts and aliens had achieved.
It’s a difficult book to review though because I don’t want to give anything away about the end.
All I can really say is that I thoroughly enjoyed this series. It started off really well but then continued to grow into a very well thought out and complex drama I found myself going from the question of ‘why would the humans help the aliens’ to ‘why would the aliens help the humans’. A great turn around indeed. Thoroughly good characters, loads of action and all peppered with a wonderful sense of fun. No hesitation at all in recommending.
I received a copy courtesy of the publishers through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Books and travelling with Lynn 