Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

No, I didn't forget about my review blog. I just read something longer than usual: Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. A friend suggested it several years ago after learning how much I enjoyed War and Peace, and I finally worked my way to reading it. Now for the review!

I enjoyed the book all the way through. From the start it was much simpler than War and Peace in terms of plot and the number of characters to keep track of. WaP took about 350 pages before I was finally able to comfortably track and relate to the characters. The Napoleonic conquest of Russia mingled with their personal lives lead the story in an elaborate spiral that at times felt overwhelming. Anna Karenina was gentle and deliberate. The plot points were easy to point out so long as I remembered that the main story arc can be reduced to the fact that a married woman has an affair. There are other characters and other stories, but the structure carefully revolves around Anna and her various torments and temptations. Should she leave her husband and son to start a life of scandal with the only man she had ever truly loved? What should she do regarding their mutual friends? Should she justify the looming divorce or admit that she was a horrible person and a sinner? Sometimes the writing gets relentlessly haunting and takes a bold moral view of the scenarios.

That's enough about the story. Now for the payoff. When I finished War and Peace, I couldn't believe that it wasn't a more popular book. It was amazing (well, except for the epilogue section that was too far removed from the rest of the book for me to do anything but hate) and I felt that the read was so worth the read that it's been hard not to commit myself to another six months of digging into it. With Anna Karenina, I didn't feel that. I'm glad I read it, and I did find it a fun read, but it was more fluff than War and Peace and less a piece of art. I felt a bit like I'd stepped into a vaudeville show instead of the classical ballet I had expected. Still entertaining, and easy for masses to pick up on, but not jaw-dropping.

Do I recommend it? I give it 4 stars. And if you're thinking about attempting WaP anytime and don't know if you can last, you might want to start with this so you can get a feel for Tolstoy's writing and upper class nineteenth-century Russian family politics.

****º

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

I had to take a break from reviewing--but only because I read a book that meant so much to me in the end that I honestly didn't know how to review it. It wouldn't fit on a five-star scale. Reviewing it at all felt wrong somehow, so I was stuck. Maybe I'll write that review sometime. But meanwhile I have been reading other books. Here's a review of the recent hit for kids and YA readers--The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.

Sophie knows that she would be the perfect princess, and at the book's opening she can't wait to be swept off her feet by the mysterious schoolmaster and taken to the legendary school for good and evil, where she would study to be a fairy tale heroine and graduate to have a magical life of her own. Her best friend Agatha is different. Agatha is plain and down-to-earth and honestly a bit concerned about her friend's fascination with being kidnapped and taken to an "imaginary" school. I don't think I'm spoiling much by saying that both girls get kidnapped--and that their roles are hilariously reversed as Sophie is sent to the School for Evil as a witch and Agatha is forced into learning all things princessy while looking for a way out.

I expected a fun read when I first picked this book up, but to be honest I had no idea it would be so entertaining. It doesn't matter if you're 12 or 92, the antics of the two girls trying to determine the fate of their fairy tale in this wonderfully bizarre world was one of the most amusing things I've read in a while, with a totally satisfying and unexpected ending that should win just about anyone's heart. I recently finished the sequel--A World Without Princes--and will probably write a review of that soon.

In the meantime if you're looking for something fun and casual to spruce up your reading routine, be sure to check this one out!

Five stars!

*****

Triple Mini Review: The White Luck Warrior, Dancing with Cupid, and Kiatana's Journey

I haven't been up to writing a lot of reviews lately, but I've been reading as much as ever! Here's a sizzling hot batch of three books that I've read lately and my thoughts. Kudos to the authors!

The White Luck Warrior by R. Scott Bakker.

This is the most recent book in Bakker's trilogy of trilogies, which started with the Prince of Nothing. Set in a fantasy world with hints of sci-fi, the first trilogy builds the world in a convincing and fascinating method--only to smash it to bits with an even better second trilogy, which reveals that the first three books were only setting the stage. I enjoyed the last book, The Judging Eye, to a great extent... but it falls short of The White Luck Warrior. This book does everything you could want it to, and more. You see new sides to old characters, pick up on fascinating details of the unfolding universe and you will be seriously shocked at some things that I can't mention because of spoilers. Five stars!

*****

Dancing with Cupid by Jennifer Marshall.

A centuries-old Indian love god is on a quest to be reunited with his long lost wife--who has been reincarnated as a no-nonsense lawyer in a feminist law firm. The sheer uniqueness of the storyline was enough to draw me in, and I'm glad I gave it a try. The book reminds me of the Bollywood movies I used to watch in college--fun, flirty, a little dangerous and a little impossible--over all, a cute and amusing read. Four stars!

****0




Kiatana's Journey by Natalie Erin

A fairy, a shapeshifter, an adventurer, and some adorable wolf puppies set out on a quest to save the forest from a mysterious plague. I'm all about unique fantasy, and this novel has that to the brim! Unfortunately, it also had its problems. The writing felt unstable and draft-like. There were consistency problems (such as one wolf pup remembering something that happened years before she was born), and info-dumps in the middle of what could have been a fascinating plot moment. The hardest for me to read was the dialogue--every character sounded exactly the same, with the same sarcasm and the same wit to the point where I would frequently lose track of who was talking. I had to stop about halfway into the book, when I realized that it wasn't getting better and I wasn't enjoying it. Fascinating idea but poor writing forces me to give it one star.

*0000

The White Seed by Kenneth Marshall

I snagged a digital copy of Kenneth Marshall's The White Seed from LibraryThing a few weeks ago. I don't read much science fiction, even though it's one of my favorite genres to write and watch, so I didn't know what to expect going into it. I was in for a pleasant surprise!

The White Seed is the first book in a series of novels set thousands of years in the future. Mankind left Earth long ago and colonized many different star systems by using white seeds--databases containing everything necessary to establish a successful human colony from a wide selection of genetic material. In the story, a team of four people from the homeworld Athena explore the wilderness of super-earth Keto to examine a dead human colony and learn why it supposedly self-destructed.

I thought the plot would be the most memorable thing about this book--sabotage, surviving the wilderness, mystery and a possible traitor. But what really came through for me was the brilliantly portrayed cast of characters with all different personalities, backgrounds and beliefs. It reminded me of Battlestar Galactica (the new one, not the atrocious Star Trek wannabe from the '70s). Kali, the leader, is burdened with responsibility and has a dark military background that haunts her through most of the tale. Toran is an anthropologist dealing with grief from the loss of his wife--possibly at the hands of Kali herself during the war. Ai is a vulnerable young microbiologist who struggles with self-acceptance and is encouraged by Alon, a secretive scientist who gets her to open up to him.

At first it was hard to keep the characters straight while figuring out how the universe worked, but in the end I was stunned by the multi-faceted heartache, suspicion and friendships that came out of this book, and the plot made it only more enjoyable. Four stars!

* * * * º

The Blackbird's Song by Billy Wong

The Blackbird's Song is an epic fantasy novella that seems a cross between a Dungeons and Dragons scenario and I don't know what. A mysterious young woman named Blackbird leads a group of odd ruffians in a revolt against an oppressive church. Anyone reading this should expect epic fight scenes, drama, mystery and a healthy dose of adventure.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend it without fair warning. Though Blackbird came off as a loveable and detailed character, I couldn't tell the others apart and frequently got them confused. The writing style was inconsistent and even amateurish at parts, breezing over scenes that would have been amazing if they were drawn out more and replacing what could have been great one-liners with simple cliches. I frequently got the feeling that there was more to the world than Wong was letting on, and was partly relieved when some of it was satisfactorily explained in the end. I still don't know why the characters all hated the church in the beginning or what the church was doing that was so oppressive. There was also an alternate ending, which could have been carried off nicely if handled well but instead made the whole book feel like a ripoff that even the author didn't understand. Frankly I regret reading it and wish I could have settled just one ending in my mind.

In short, this is a highly imaginative work--but one that I feel could have used several more drafts and some serious cliche hunting. Not to mention the setting and character development. I can give it only a solid two stars--one for my being able to stomach the whole thing and one for a creative and exciting storyline. I wish the author all the best in his future efforts and look forward to seeing what he can pull off in a better-written book!

* * º º º

The Path of The Horseman by Amy Braun

The Path of The Horseman is an adventurous story that takes place right after the biblical apocalypse. The four horsemen, Avery (Pestilence), Simon (Famine), Kade (War) and Logan (Death) are abandoned by heaven after fulfilling their purposes and are left to dwindle around on Earth in human bodies, fighting demons and scrounging for living supplies. Things change when they run into a band of humans that has somehow survived the apocalypse and that is now the target of one of the toughest demon leaders around.

This was a very fun read. The abandoned Las Vegas setting, the touching and memorable characters and the decisions they are forced to make drew me in much more than I was expecting. I laughed. I cried. It's seriously the most emotional I've been over a book in a long time. I've never really thought about the horsemen as characters before--beyond the show Supernatural--and loved the unique twist Braun provided to an otherwise overdone genre of the post-apocalyptic. Five stars for an excellent read!

*****

In Search of The Castaways by Jules Verne

Most reviewers stick to new books. It makes sense. The authors will be much more appreciative if they're still alive when you review their books, and you can get the word out about new writers who are still early in their careers. But I'm a sucker for the classics. I've been a devotee of Jules Verne especially since before high school, and since I got my Kindle I've been discovering books of his that I'd never even heard of before. In Search of The Castaways is one of those books.

In Search of The Castaways is actually part of a trilogy Verne wrote, the most famous novel of which is 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and the conclusion of which is The Mysterious Island (also a great read). Each book can be read and enjoyed individually and have only the smallest bits of interaction, but they really pop when read together.

Castaways is a true adventure novel. A message from a missing sea captain appears in a bottle, and an entertaining and unlikely group of explorers--men, women, and even children--sail around the world in an effort to find and rescue the wrecked survivors. Most of the story takes place either at sea, in the Chilean wilderness or in colonized Australia, and the heroes have to battle the elements, pirates and cannibals on their way to learning the fate of the men.

The characters are just as unforgettable as the adventures they face: the determined orphans who will do anything to see their father again, the daring young sea captain who's just crazy enough to make the trip, and (my personal favorite) the brilliant French geographer who is also, despite his intellect and abilities, the unluckiest person on the world.

This book is a worth read and deserves a spot in anyone's classics collection. And hey, if you can read it for free online, what is there to lose?

Five stars!

*****