Andromeda's Fall by Abigail Owen

Set against the dramatic background of the North American wilderness, Andromeda's Fall introduces us to a world of wild shifters, banded together to guard themselves against their enemies. Shadowcat Nation consists of all the cougar shifters from Canada through South America and consists of dares, smaller bands constantly vying for power and freedom. Andie Reynolds is running from the leader of her dare, a greedy man who wishes to force her to marry him. Her only hope to escape his grasp is by mating with and marrying a man from another dare.

This book fits solidly in the entertaining category for me. It's over the top, but only in the best of ways, blending high levels of emotional intrigue with action and a fantastic desperation. There wasn't much depth, but I don't know that there really needed to be, considering that it successfully held my attention and got me to smile in ways that only a good romantic comedy could. Four stars from me!

****0

Willows of Fate by Susanna J. Linton

This cross between high and modern fantasy takes a young woman from rural South Carolina and puts her in the middle of a medieval fantasy conflict--a fascinating premise that I felt could easily bring in some fun reading and a witty but charming new story. Willows of Fate is book one in Linton's Lands of Sun and Stone series about two worlds--ours and a fantasy world that was forcefully split from ours ages ago.

This book covers the adventures of Desdemona, a recovering alcoholic who has had visions of fantasy creatures since her childhood but who is now trying to move on with her life as a lawyer. After her mother, brother and aunt all die in quick succession, Desdemona discovers a dark family secret that leads her "through the willows" to a fantasy land where she literally holds the key to a growing conflict.

Willows of Fate did have a fun story, with mostly believable characters and a quick draw to it. I read through it pretty quickly and enjoyed a lot of the creative atmosphere, but I'm not sure if I'll go on to the other books in the series. I very much respect and appreciate the cast of personalities, but I didn't really feel drawn to any of them. I also wanted to know more of what was going on with the South Carolina life Desdemona left behind (with a handsome young man and ongoing mystery that was, to be honest, at least as interesting as the fantasy world). There was also a share of mystery that was never fully revealed, like a hooded stranger in the beginning or a centaur who appeared at her mother's funeral.

Rating this book is difficult because I enjoyed it but there was a lot that I felt it didn't fully cover. But I'll go on the high side and say that it's definitely worth the read for anyone looking for a fun, new fantasy world. Four stars!

****0

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

It's been a while since my last review. I've been reading a lot but fell so far behind on reviews that I decided not to bother until I was ready. Now I am. So for a first new review of a new book: Poison Study, the debut novel of Maria V. Snyder.

Poison Study is a fantasy novel with a unique focus: the main character, a young woman named Yelena, is freed from death row on the condition that she become the poison taster for the commander of her military-ruled nation. The premise alone was enough to draw me in. Poison tasting? A fantasy kingdom ruled by the military? This could be good. And it could have been.

Now we have to get to the nitty gritty. I stopped reading this book when I was about 1/3 of the way into it. I just couldn't continue. Most of the problems are common for first-time and amateur writers, but they were so severe that I couldn't keep up. Yelena had no personality and was a complete Mary Sue. She had a tragic past, a dark side, a strong sense of justice, unerring beauty and grace, quick wit and intelligence, and everything you would expect of a cliche super-woman. The world the story took place in was detailed and different from anything I had read before, but the detail largely came in page-long info dumps that had little, if anything, to do with the story or with Yelena at all.

Then we get to the story itself. I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a serious fantasy epic, with its emphasis on politics and manipulation among characters, or a colorful, light-hearted yarn in which the cook invents cinnamon rolls and the idea of putting pudding in the cake mix. It took itself too seriously in places, and not seriously enough in others, so I never really knew how I should feel as reading it.

Don't get me wrong. Ms. Snyder has great ideas and could shape them up to be a bold and beautiful fantasy world, but it just needs more work. Two stars.

**000

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!

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