Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
Just finished reading Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan. Set in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I Midnight Never Comes brings to us the wold of political intrigue from not only the court of the Virgin Queen but also from Queen Invidiana, ruler of the Onyx Court that lies beneath London. I really enjoyed this story. It’s well written and based on an intriguing concept that ties the fates of both Queens together through a pact created when the young Elizabeth lived under threat of execution.
I have to hand it to Marie Brennan here. She has clearly researched extensively both this period of history and also the world of the fae and it shows. She’s managed to recreate London and the Queen’s court with it’s political manoeuvring whilst also giving us the Onyx Court with it’s own brand of politics laced with the fae’s own wicked style.
The story centres around two particular courtiers. Both of whom struggle for different reasons. Lune serves the fae Queen but has fallen from grace after her negotiations with the sea fae left her Queen less than pleased. Michael Deven aspires to greatness and is desperate to catch Elizabeth’s eye. He manages to secure himself a place among the Gentlemen Pensioners who protect the Queen and also to gain the patronage of Walsingham. Both characters are thrown together in the role of spy. Lune to live among mortals at her Queen’s will uncovering secrets from the court in order to help with her own scheming and Michael as the eyes and ears of Walsingham as he tries to uncover what he believes to be an unknown influence upon Elizabeth.
The settings are both equally enjoyable to read. Brennan manages to easily bring to mind the 16th century streets of London with it’s dark and seedy elements and also creates the magical world of the fae world that lies beneath the streets as a dark reflection. No sunshine enters the Onyx court. It’s filled with dark and twisting corridors and populated with a mixture of beautiful, ugly and bestial creatures who all take sinister pleasure in the downfall of others. It’s a frightening world where Lune lives on a knife edge.
The characters are well written. The tension and fear are easily felt and the constant danger that particularly Lune lives with gives the story a certain edginess. Alongside this we manage to have a sprinkling of appearances from famous names from the period. Walsingham, Essex, Dee and Marlowe all put in a turn and from the fae Queen’s court we have an equally interesting bunch of characters such as Tiresias – a mortal pet of Queen Invidiana and a seer whose strange and often incoherent visions torment him. Brennan also manages to twist some of the most famous historical moments from Elizabeth’s history to give them a different slant, such as the defeat of the Armada. I love it when an author manages to interweave historical and fantasy fiction in order to give a different meaning in this way.
The basic thrust of the story is that the pact made between the two Queens is damaging to both worlds and the two courtiers are between them set the task of discovering the basis of that pact and finding a way to break it. It’s a very dangerous path to tread and both of their lives will become increasingly under threat.
If I have any criticisms about the book it would be probably in relation to the romantic element that exists between the two main characters. I didn’t particularly read this book with any notion of romance being involved but Lune and Michael do become romantically involved. For me, the relationship between the two felt very ‘thin’ – just as though we’ve been told they have feelings and that’s that – it just didn’t come across in the writing very well is all.
Apart from that I really enjoyed this book. If you enjoy historical fiction mixed in with fantasy and courtly intrigue then I think you’ll enjoy this very much.
I’m submitting this for the Once Upon A Time event being hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings
Love the star of the show – or not!
It’s been a funny old week with a few thought provoking discussions which leads me to my question. Which will be short and sweet. Let’s face it, you don’t always love the main star of the show do you? Come on, you don’t! Or maybe that’s just me! But, as far as I can see the hero or heroine is not always the most easy to get on with character in the story. Alice or the Cheshire Cat? Bilbo or Smeagol?. So, that brings me to five main characters that I don’t really like and five lesser characters that I do:
Five main characters that I don’t really like:
- Frodo – not my favourite character. I love the LoTR but not Frodo – and he’s pretty central to the plot but I just find him too needy!
- Harry Potter – again, he’s a bit meh. I prefer the Weasleys
- Akira from Daughter of Smoke and Bone – didn’t like him at all. Very cruel and cold. I know lots of people will disagree!
- Heathcliff and Catherine – Wuthering Heights – they’re not really that nice as characters (me, me, me!)
- Alexei from Twelve by Jasper Kent – love these books, but Alexei starts off as a very selfish sort of character and you spend a lot of time in his head!
Five lesser characters that I do really like:
- Jean Tannen from The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies- I know that was obvious – and really, is he a lesser character? not really. However, is he the main character? – no, not really. Anyway, any chance to mention Jean is okay with me. I love this guy. He should be in a few more books – not just the Gentlemen Bastards!!
- The Fool from Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice – what a great character. I loved him. He wasn’t in the story a lot but I certainly sat up straighter and paid attention when he was around.
- Bob from the Dresden Files – he only has a bit part (he’s a character living in a skull) but he’s pretty funny not to mention knowledgeable!
- Marquis of Carabas from Neverwhere – I suppose he has a fairly fundamental role to this book but he’s not one of the main characters. I liked him a lot.
- The Wee Free men from Terry Pratchett’s discworld series. I love these guys – you can’t live with them – but you really can’t live without them!
So, let me know who your love and hates are that are not always as you would expect.
Quite Contrary by Richard Roberts
25 April 2013
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Little Red Riding Hood, Quite Contrary, Richard Roberts
Just finished reading Quite Contrary by Richard Roberts which on the face of it I thought would be a sort of retelling of the fairy story Red Riding Hood but in actual fact turned out to be a journey through a mishmash of many fairy stories.
Mary Stuart is a 12 year old with a lot of attitude. I wouldn’t say she’s always easy to like but you need to bear with her on that score. She has her own reasons for being a snarky wise ass. To be honest Mary doesn’t read like a twelve year old – more like 17/18 but I think this age was probably chosen because it better fit the purposes of the story.
At the beginning Mary is, against the wishes of her mother, making her way to a party on Halloween. Which is quite fitting because she’s going to spend the rest of the story attired for trick or treating. Basically, Mary, through a dare, crawls into a crawl space under the house where the party is being held – and somebody shuts the hatch. Well, you just knew that was going to happen! As she crawls along in the dark she realises she’s moved into a different territory – and how does she reach that conclusion you may ask? Because she meets a talking rat – Rat in Boots no less (although he hasn’t quite acquired the boots yet). Shortly after making the acquaintance of Ratty Mary mistakenly dons the outfit of Little Red Riding Hood (I won’t go into the details of the why or where) and inadvertently casts herself into the character from the fairy story which means the big bad wolf will pursue her relentlessly to the ends of the earth.
From hereon-in anything can and will happen. Mary takes one journey after another dipping her toes into countless tales ranging from the Norse gods to Spider witches, voodoo, tales of fey and even moving into a tale of purgatory – which is here portrayed as the belly of a giant ship with twisty winding corridors and dark creepy places that are inhabited by shadows that try to trick and catch you! The stories become a little more sinister with each telling until you move almost into urban fantasy with a couple of downright horror stories in the making.
In terms of characters I think people may struggle a little to like Mary, particularly at the start of the story, and I will admit that she’s sometimes her own worst enemy. However, I didn’t dislike her, I didn’t like her as much as her two companions but I find that quite often I like the characters on the periphery or who are not intended as the key players. Mary’s two companions are Rat and a wooden animated doll called Scarecrow. I really liked these two characters – particularly rat – which just feels weird to be saying somehow!
As the story moves forward you begin to realise that in spite of Mary trying to act all tough she’s basically quite a good hearted soul -in fact looking back at the stories she takes a part in she quite often becomes fairly fundamental in helping the other characters, although this doesn’t always end up being the case – at the end of the day she is being chased by a very persistent, huge, wolf and wolves don’t take prisoners.
Basically, for me this is a coming of age novel. It puts me in mind a little of a cross between The Book of Lost Things and the Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making (with a bit of Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz thrown in for good measure)- and when I say that it seems to be about a young person becoming involved in a series of adventures and trying to come out the other side in one piece, along the way meeting some friends in the strangest places and winding up in some potentially difficult situations. Then all being wrapped up in a revelation.
Now, criticisms. Yes, I’ve likened this to a few favourite books here but I will point out that the writing isn’t quite as lyrical as Valente or quite as magical as Connolly and maybe it loses a little bit in provoking the real sense of fairyland somehow, I think probably because it races ahead and also because it moves away from the old fashioned way of telling tales. I also confess that I found it a little bit sad – even the ending. But, I did enjoy it and was fairly gripped in wanting to know what would eventually become of Mary. I think the ending was a bit of a conundrum for me and I probably need to think on it a little longer as I’m not totally sure whether there was a ‘happily ever after’ in there or not. I understand that Mary realised what she had to do and that she had to stand up for herself and not be the victim and that she could in fact choose not to become dark and twisted. Maybe that was what all the stories were trying to achieve as by the end she realised she did want to help others and realised she wasn’t a bad person.
I like the fact that there is a message in the story and probably I wouldn’t be so worried about the ending if Mary wasn’t only 12! But it’s a fantasy story so I shouldn’t become so involved!
I did enjoy Quite Contrary. It had plenty of intriguing stories, was fast paced and – had a talking rat! I will definitely try Richard Robert’s next book to see what else he comes up with.
I received a free copy of this from the publishers in return for a honest review.
As this covers fairytale, fantasy and myth I will definitely be submitting this for my Once Upon a Time reading event over at Stainless Steel Droppings. This also counts to my 100 books in a year reading challenge.
Shadow of the Sun by Barbara Friend Ish, readalong week 4
This week is the fourth week of the readalong of Shadow of the Sun being hosted by Dab of Darkness. If you haven’t already joined in then there’s still time to do so however you might not want to read any further as spoilers will be rife!
1) Ellion and Letitia finally have not 1, not 2, not 3, but four trysts in this section of the book. What insights into the characters did you gain from these assignations?
Well, in one sense it was inevitable and you could see it coming but then in another sense I really hoped I was going to be wrong – not that I’ve got something against people getting jiggy. But, I’m going to be a total party pooper now and say that I don’t respect either of them at the moment. They’re in the middle of life and death situations and they both just keep striding off by themselves – like Letitia jumping to shore and flouncing off – which was clearly a ‘chase me’ to Ellion – and worked very well. And, well what of Iminor. I don’t know it just doesn’t seem the right way to treat somebody. If you don’t want to be with somebody then call it quits already, don’t go making poodle eyes at some other guy and then go playing patty cakes in the most flagrant fashion ever. And what’s up with Iminor anyway – I don’t have much respect for him now either. Why doesn’t he just tell Letitita to do one – she’s turning him into a muppet – basically how would she feel if he was behaving like this? Look, I get that the Tanaan are all about openness and enjoying their sexuality but it still seems to me that this is massively taking the piss and it leaves a bit of a bad feeling for me with both of them (although in fairness to Ellion he isn’t otherwise engaged). Plus, what is with Ellion boasting, inside his own head, about all his conquests and duels, again, it just didn’t show him in a good light. Alright, it’s obvious that they have feelings for each other and it also felt inevitable that they would get together – I just don’t like the way they’re going about it.
2) Letitia’s retinue has diminished even further. How did this affect you as the reader and how do you think it will affect the dynamics of the remaining Tanaan?
It affected me in the way that I started to wonder why it is her that her life is more important than theirs. I’m sorry but she comes across as a little spoilt and petulant and her actions seem to constantly put people in danger – and why on earth experienced warriors who know that she is talking nonsense then follow her orders I haven’t the foggiest. It’s about time that somebody just told her to shut the hell up when it comes to strategy because she knows even less than I do and her foolish behaviour has led to the deaths of some really good characters that I was enjoying reading about. Frankly, I think I would sooner they still lived and she didn’t (okay, that’s a bit harsh but I’m a bit annoyed with her at the moment)! At least I would prefer it if somebody just gagged her and stuck her over the back of a horse and took the path that was right instead of letting a rather foolish and silly young girl lead them all into danger. Now, everybody is probably going to beat me to a pulp now for suggesting such a thing but really, just because she’s the Mora doesn’t mean she knows what path is the safest does it. And, if Ellion was protecting somebody else whose knickers he wasn’t trying to get into would he act differently?
3) We’ve learned a bit more about the missing Carina in this section. What do you think is in her grimoire that has Letitia so secretive?
I enjoyed reading the flashback. I think Carina’s gotten up to something that Letitia doesn’t want anyone to find out about. That’s why she’s so protective. I think she was having a secret tryst with the baddie/who can change into a dragon. He sort of sounded a bit interesting there didn’t he and there seemed to be a mixture of feelings that came across?? Perhaps she was also drawn a little to the dark side? she certainly seemed to feel an attraction and definitely wasn’t repulsed by him.
4) We’ve heard plenty about how much Ellion’s vow not to draw power means to him. But then we also see him finding several ways to feel, tough, smell, and use someone else’s power. What do you make of this and where do you think it will take Ellion?
I just feel that this is another of those areas that you can almost see as inevitable. He’s going to protest about using magic and his vow all the way through the book while people die needlessly and then at the end come to his senses. Perhaps I will be wrong with this though and Letitia will become more powerful magically and he won’t have to lift a finger or break his vow. At the moment it feels like he’s breaking his vow by stealth though. Little by little.
5) Nechton also played a larger role in this section. Which aspect has caught your attentions so far?
Perhaps it’s the old thing of being drawn to power but he certainly comes across as, mmm, worth reading more about’. Okay, he’s a baddie, but sometimes they’re just more interesting! And, don’t pretend that you don’t all think the same thing! (Unless, of course, he turns out to be a real arse in which case I reserve the right to change my mind – after all, we’ve only had a glimpse up to this point).
6) The mummers were in and out of this section, turning up in city and on the river. What did you make of their antics?
I don’t understand why they seem to keep cropping up wherever our party are and why they’re so interested in them. They are just plain weird aren’t they. My mum lives out in the sticks a bit and there was a tradition in that neighbourhood of mummers coming and knocking on your door, they would come into your house when you opened the door and sort of dance around a little bit just touching objects and humming -very unusual and quite frankly a bit creepy. I think that would scare the bejesus out of me if it happened. Not to mention my dogs would be most unhappy – somebody would be getting bitten!
7) So far throughout the book we have gotten maps as we read. How is this working for you as the reader?
Not so well on the kindle to be honest. Probably because I’m a bit more stupid than most people so I’m not really adept at flipping through the chapters to look back and forward. This is definitely one of the upsides of paperbacks.
It might be something that I try and take a look at more when I’ve finished but it just feels too tricky at the moment and I’ll end up losing my place.
The Cleaner of Chartres by Sally Vickers
Just finished reading the Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers. This is a gentle sort of read although it does contain elements of darkness when you least expect them.
The story is about a young woman called Agnes Morel. Agnes is something of a mystery. Nobody in Chartres really knows where she came from or very much about her past. She turned up in Chartres some twenty years ago and has gradually made a life for herself, with a few friends, a small apartment and a quiet life. However, Agnes is soon going to have to confront the memories from her past as old acquaintances show up and the life she has built on such shaky foundations begins to unravel.
The story is told in two alternating time frames showing us Agnes as a young girl (abandoned at birth and living with nuns at a convent in Evreux), and as the woman she is now. I quite enjoyed this way of telling the story – I suppose the author could have chosen a more linear fashion of storytelling but I think in telling the story this way it has a more dramatic impact particularly in the way that it highlights how Agnes has changed during the two periods. There were definitely moments where it was almost difficult to reconcile the two or to quite figure out how Agnes ever got to her current stage.
I wouldn’t say Agnes has had an easy life and you can’t help feeling sorry for her as you read on. I think what makes it a little more sad is the way that Agnes just seems to quietly accept all that fate throws at her as though she has little expectation out of life. That being said she has managed to find a measure of happiness and seems to have acquired more friends than she realises.
The writing style is quite lyrical and somehow manages to feel almost like a fairy story or more to the point has a feel of ‘otherness’ to it a little in the way that Joanne Harris brings that element to her story Chocolat.
It’s a very easy book to read with almost a holiday or beach feel however it had a slightly disappointing edge to it that I can’t quite pin down. I think it could be a general ambivalence towards Agnes who, even though she seems to touch the lives of those around her, she never seems to have any real sense of happiness or well being. There’s also the fact that some of the other characters are almost like cartoon cut out baddies. Proper good old fashioned villains that are a little too stereotype. Other than being a bit bitter I was never totally convinced by Madame Beck and the character assassination she undertakes on Agnes. Also the whole plot with the baby Max was a little thin. And, I don’t think the ending was totally satisfying. It felt a little as though the author wasn’t quite sure how to finish the story herself or just got to the point where she decided enough was enough.
But, criticisms aside I did enjoy this. It is quite a lovely read and if nothing else I think it would convince anyone to want to visit the ancient Cathedral of Chartres. The descriptions are amazing.
I suppone if I was going to say what this book was really about I would ultimately describe it as a book about forgiveness. How your life isn’t necessarily set in stone due to events in your past and how you can make changes if you want to.
