Face off!
19 March 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Art It Up, Gargoyles, Max Gladstone, Not Yet Read, Three Parts Dead
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 first part of Max Gladstone’s Three Parts Dead (as part of a readalong), and The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan. If you’ve read Three Parts Dead I hope you’ll know what I’ve done here:
Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally. Golly, what a day..
19 March 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Bards, Fantasy Review Barn, Tough Travelling
This week over at The Fantasy Review Barn Nathan is once again taking us Tough Travelling through the tropes of fantasy and this week we’re in for a jolly old time of it looking at examples of MUSICIANS/BARDS
BARDS often join questing parties and provide entertainment around the campfire. Sometimes their music even holds a little bit of magic. Or a clue to an ancient mystery. Or…
Allan a Dale is a minstrel in Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men.
Hoid from the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. Bit of a court jester with a sharp tongue, a keen eye and he also has the ability to jump between Sanderson’s books.
Ann McCaffrey’s Pern books – now I’ve only read the first one – but, I’m pretty sure that I’ve got another one about a Dragon singer? That’s perhaps a bit of a cheat but….
The Painted Man by Peter Brett – Rojer – plays a mean fiddle – in spite of losing a couple of his fingers during an attack.
Kvothe, Name of the Wind and Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss – his parents belonged to a troupe themselves and Kvothe is a talented musician who earned his own set of pipes.
Mike Allen’s Black Fire Concerto – the two leading ladies (Erzelle and Olyssa) utilise their music to perform magic.
Honorary mention:
The Hobbits – I had to go there. But, come on, they’re always singing songs and telling poems. And actually the dwarves can wax a bit lyrical as well!
Shakespeare himself – something of a poet after all:
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind”
The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan
Just finished reading Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan when Lady Trent continues to defy society’s rules and behave exactly as she wants!
This is a great series that I’m really enjoying. I’m loving reading about Lady Trent as she grows up and accompanying her on her wild and wondrous travels. Oh, to go swimming with turtles and dragons!
In this particular instalment Isabella is about to embark, aboard The Basilisk, on her most ambitious adventure to date. She’s going travelling for two years in a bid to study as many different species of dragons as possible. This time however, she’s taking her young son Jake along – particularly after all the criticism she received from society’s elite about leaving for a lengthy voyage without him last time.
As usual Brennan comes up with a wonderful array of different people and cultures and shows no qualms about throwing Isabella into any number of situations from swimming with dragons through secret caves to flying in dragon bone contraptions to being tossed on the high seas in stormy weather and run aground, shipwrecked.
So, what do I like about this series. Well, it’s just a wonderful combination of great evocative writing, period proprietary (usually hanging in tatters) and adventures that usually have a way of going wrong. Plus of course dragons. Although on that note be aware that the focus of these tales is really Lady Trent. Yes, she’s a natural historian and has a love of anything to do with dragons and in each series we’re introduced to new species, in fact in this particular story Isabella makes some fascinating discoveries that will set the search for dragon knowledge upside down, but these are not wild adventures, the stories are told in a gentle fashion by a well spoken woman of class. She’s not swashbuckling, she’s not creative cursing and she’s not kicking anybody’s ass and the stories might contain adventure but they’re certainly not grimdark. I think I’ve already mentioned that it’s a bit like an alternative Austen and Isabella reminds me a little of Lizzie in that she has spirit and a brain and isn’t ashamed to demonstrate either – quite the opposite, she’s incredibly ambitious and keen to show her own brilliance in what was previously a male dominated arena.
Isabella is perfectly aware of her own limitations though and also only too aware of the restrictions placed upon her. What’s that saying about ‘a reputation is years in the making and minutes in the breaking’ – well, I think Isabella is only too well aware of that and whilst she might flaunt the rules on occasion she still tries to be a bit discreet about it and usually waits until she’s left Scirling before donning her trousers. It was interesting in this instalment to see the relationship with her son growing. In fact Jake seems to be something of a catalyst for making Isabella break even more of the rules as he sees things with a child’s simplicity and can’t see any reason for her to behave in a restrained manner.
We are also introduced to a young archeologist this time around, a perfectly courteous and civil young man whose passion for ancient ruins matches Isabella’s desire for the knowledge of dragons. They both help each other out and complement each other very well and I was interested to note that Isabella isn’t completely oblivious to the opposite sex as she may have come across in past books – which isn’t to say anything improper happened – more that she was much more aware.
Now, if I was to have any criticisms at all they would be minor in the extreme. I think this particular instalment felt very similar to the past story in terms of a fairly gentle build up before exploding into a much more dramatic finale resulting in Isabella becoming yet more infamous – pretty soon she’ll be ‘barred’ from travelling to most countries. Personally I don’t mind the slow build up because there is always such a wealth of detail about the preparations, travel and other people encountered along the way. Some of the rituals and beliefs from this story were particularly fascinating – not least the rather strange marriage that occurs – that I won’t elaborate upon.
I would probably say on balance that I preferred the Tropic of Serpents but only marginally and I’m really looking forward to see how the revelations in this book will pan out and how Isabella’s relationships will develop further.
I received a copy of this courtesy of the publishers through Netgalley for which my appreciation. The above is my own opinion.
‘April hath put a spirit of youth in everything’
16 March 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Spring reads, 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 Books On My Spring TBR List
This was difficult – simply in terms of keeping it to 10! Been a bit naughty because a couple of these are definitely not Spring but you know! So here goes:
- Clash of Iron by Angus Watson – April
- The Doll Maker by Richard Montanari – April
- When we were Animals by Joshua Gaylord – April
- A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson – May
- When the Heavens Fall by Marc Turner – May
- The Vagrant by Peter Newman – May
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas – May
- The Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence – June
- Time Salvager by Wesley Chu – July
- Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan – July
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone, Readalong Part 2
16 March 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Max Gladstone, Readalong Part 2, Three Parts Dead
And the second week of our readalong is upon us already – time really does fly when you’re having fun!
This week’s lovely hostess is Susan from Dab of Darkness. Be sure to stop there and leave a link or check out her answers. Also, beware of spoilers below – they’ll be running amok. Plus, if you still want to jump in the schedule and other participants are here and so without further ado lets get to the Q&A. Conspiracies and intrigue have been aplenty this week and I’m keen to see what everyone makes of it all.
1)Throughout this section, we learn little tidbits about our main characters: Tara & her time at the Secret Universities, Kevarian and her past works, Abelard & his childhood. What fascinated you the most?
I think all the little snippets of information were interesting to read about and some very enlightening. I mentioned that I was keen to know more about the Craft and whether its a magic that anyone can wield so I really enjoyed learning that it seems to be something that presents itself fairly early on in life and the school then seems to take an interest in these children that are gifted. Sticking to Tara for the moment it was good to find a little bit more about her expulsion from school. I admit I felt a wee bit guilty as I’d automatically jumped to the conclusion that she’s done something to provoke the situation when in actual fact she was simply standing up to the Professor who was abusing his students and taking terrible advantage of them. Also interesting to pick up that maybe that same Professor has perhaps had a relationship with Kevarian?? Did it feel to anyone else that Kevarian was a little bit scared of the Prof maybe??
2) So many conspiracies! Someone tried to burn out some of Raz’s memories, there were super secret contracts between the dead Cabot and Kos and some unknown third party, and Abelard found a hidden altar in the heart of Kos’s church! Do you think they are connected?
There is a lot going on here. The history between the Stonemen and Justice and the obvious animosity between the two. It seems to me that the Stonemen have been set up to be the fall guys by someone. They’ve not been in the city for years and when they’re called back it’s to find themselves at the scene of an ugly crime. Personally, I can’t help thinking that the Professor is the main instigator. My main reasons are that he was the person who set up Justice, thereby banishing the Stonemen – so he certainly won’t have any qualms about pinning the dastardly deed on them. He also seems to be up to no good with his students and leaching their power. I’m not sure why I think he’s the lynchpin – maybe he’s trying to see the destruction of all the Gods, maybe he manages to steal some of their power somehow. There was also this strange contract between Kos and Cabot. Again, if Kos had to ‘pay out’ on that contract (whatever it was) but never got his ‘pay back’ then perhaps somebody else gained in power – okay, I’m useless. Still think it was the Prof though.
3) This question is just for fun & came about from discussion over at Violin in a Void last week. Abelard is a chain smoker and his worship of Kos keeps him safe from any ill effects of said smoking. If there were multiple deities who could protect you from ill effects of different vices (alcohol, illicit drugs, gluttony, etc.), which vice, if any, would you pick?
The vice of sitting around endlessly, reading and chatting to people about books, perhaps taking the odd glass of wine in the evening and generally being useless and lazy in every respect. Sloth!
4) Stonemen! Will Tara be able to win over Shale and gain his assistance? Will Justice’s Black Suits face off against them, potentially destroying the city? Discuss!
I feel sorry for the Stonemen after reading about their downfall. They’re casualties of circumstances outside their control and they’ve been hated on for a while now. If I was Shale I’d be pretty damned vexed with Tara about now! I mean, she took his face off for goodness sake. That’s got to be a bit disorientating. I think she’ll manage to bring him around though – after all the Stonemen need allies who believe they’re not the baddies right about now. You can’t help feeling that the Stonemen and Justice could work so well together if they could just overcome their differences.
5) The Courthouse of Crafts is a strange place. Feel free to comment on it. Ms. Kevarian tells Tara, last minute, that she will be the one to face Donovo. Calculated way to boost Tara’s confidence? Or a cruel way to test her?
I loved the Courthouse. It felt like something out of Harry Potter where nothing is ever as it first seems. Rooms seem to change, staircases rotate, doors appear, etc.
Personally I don’t think Kevaria was being cruel. I do think it was a test because at the end of the day Tara is in something of a sink or swim situation at the moment and throwing her in at the deep end could be just what she needs to get the creative ideas flowing. Some people just work better under stress so I suppose it will help to show whether Tara can rise to the occasion or not.
And what a cliffhanger – I’m relieved to get back to it now I’ve made all my ridiculous answers.
Books and travelling with Lynn 