“Warsworn” by Elizabeth Vaughan

This week I’ve been in the mood to read something mindlessly entertaining.  After finishing “Warprize” by Elizabeth Vaughan, I decided to pick up the sequel.

The story begins as our scantily clad heroine, Xylara, feels a bit homesick, despite being hopelessly head-over-heels in love with her Warlord.  In order to be officially confirmed as his Warprize, the two must travel to the Heart of the Plains.  However, Xylara’s penchant for providing medical care to everyone in need overshadows her usual common sense, and so the Firelanders must face an unknown enemy–the Plague.  Meanwhile, tensions within the camp and a fear of the unknown threaten to upset the Warlord’s power.

This book isn’t quite as lighthearted as the last one, and some characters do die, but as a whole it still does convey a feel-good message of hope.  I definitely think that of the two books, “Warprize” was better, but I was still caught up in the story, and I like the way that Xylara and her Warlord become closer as a couple throughout the book despite realizing each other’s weaknesses.  It’s nice to take a story beyond the initial happily-ever-after and see how the couple progresses to face new challenges.  I was also glad to be able to see more of the Fireland culture, especially their celebratory traditions.  One of my favorite little details in the story was the way that Xylara taught the Firelanders to play chess, and the way that they changed the rules and adapted it to make it more suitable to their warrior culture.

If this were just a romance novel, I don’t think that I’d find this series as addicting as I have, but I’m a fan of the medieval setting and I love the way that Vaughan is able to build another culture that isn’t just a copy/paste version of an existing one.  There’s enough action and conflict to keep the story interesting, and Xylara and her Warlord make a cute couple.

While the book is far from perfect, the story is entertaining and fun.  I tend to have difficulty finding good escapist novels, but so far this series is working out well for me.  I’ll be back to my usual types of reviews in a few days, but for now light reading is a nice break from the routine.

“Warprize” by Elizabeth Vaughan

I’ve been having one of those weeks where nothing seems to work out quite the way I want it to.  Between getting sick (I’m finally better now!) and other general life stress, I needed something mindless and fun to read to relax.  After browsing around for a bit on my Kindle, I found “Warprize,” by Elizabeth Vaughan.  It is the first book in the Chronicles of the Warlands series.

Our heroine, Xylara, is both a princess and a healer.  When her kingdom is defeated by the barbarian Firelanders, part of the terms of the surrender are that she be given to the Warlord as his Warprize.  Resigning herself to slavery in order to save her people, Xylara begins to live with the Firelanders, only to discover that there is far more to their culture than meets the eye.  Oh, and of course the Warlord is tall, dark, and handsome…

I liked the way that Vaughan was able to focus on the cultural differences between Xylara’s people and the Firelanders, who have both male and female warriors and drink a coffee-like beverage called “kavage.”  A warrior society of caffeine addicts is pretty fun.  I also thought it was interesting that the author chose to keep Xylara in a very traditional feminine role throughout the story–she doesn’t fight, isn’t scheming for power, etc., but at the same time is able to play a pivotal role in preserving peace and acting as a bridge between two very different societies.

Although the book is a romance, there are no annoying love triangles, and the sex scenes aren’t terribly awkward.  In fact, I don’t think that there are more than one or two sex scenes in the book, which I wouldn’t have guessed from the book’s description.  The story reminded me a bit of the Dany/Khal Drogo dynamic in Game of Thrones, except with less rape and eating-of-horse-hearts.  It’s a very non-stressful story, and it’s about the closest thing to a real romance novel that I can handle.  While the writing isn’t perfect, it’s tolerable.

This isn’t a high work of literature, nor is it meant to be.  It’s a guilty-pleasure fantasy romance novel featuring a scantily clad heroine and ends with a happily-ever-after, which is exactly what I needed.

Second Foundation Groupread, Part I

Welcome to the first half of the groupread of Second Foundation, which is a part of The 2012 Science Fiction Experience hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.  Over the past month, we’ve been working our way through Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, which won the 1966 Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series.  Thus far, “Second Foundation” is my favorite in the trilogy!

From this point forward there may be spoilers.  I’ll post a spoiler-free review for anyone who hasn’t been reading along at the end of the groupread.
1.  How have your perceptions of the Mule and his form of governing grown or changed, or not, after spending more time with him in this novel?

I still like the Mule.  I think I’m more impressed with him the more that I see him; he’s intelligent and manipulative, but at the same time I enjoyed the way that he handled his encounters with Bail.  Even though I was rooting for the Second Foundationers, I see the Mule as a benevolent dictator who is mostly harmless.  I also feel bad for him, as his mutant condition dooms him to eternal loneliness.

2. Having finally gotten a glimpse into the mysterious Second Foundation, what are your feelings/thoughts about this group and their methods (as revealed thus far).

I want to know so much more about the Second Foundation.  Their telepathic communication intrigues me, as well as the way that they continue to update Seldon’s plan to conform to current circumstances.  They remind me a bit of mathematical Jedi.  Even though they’re portrayed as the “good guys,” their motives and methods aren’t entirely clean, and they’re just as willing to use mind control to achieve their own ends as the Mule.  At the same time, it appears that at least with the Second Foundationers, the mind control occurs on a purely voluntary basis based on a commitment to their ideal society.  Unfortunately, I felt a wee bit less sympathetic when I found out that they were grooming themselves to be powerful overlords.

3. Has your understanding of the Seldon Plan changed at all with the revelations about the plan and the Second Foundationers near the end of this first part of our reading? Looking back does it alter any ideas you had about Seldon and his predictions?

At first I thought of Hari Seldon as a bit of a wise Dumbledore-like figure.  In the first two books, I completely approved of him, even though sometimes he had a bit of a Messianic complex.  Seeing the full complexity of his plan makes me appreciate his genius even more, but at the same time I don’t approve of the strict class division that will be present in his ultimate society between those who have mental powers and those who do not.

4. A simple one: How did you feel the first part of Second Foundation held up in comparison to the sections we’ve previously read?

This was my favorite section thus far.  I found the idea of the Second Foundation to be brilliant, and I loved the mental chess between the Mule and the Second Foundationers.  It was a pleasure to read.

5. It is perhaps not surprising that Asimov’s second important female character in the trilogy would be a direct descendent of the first. What do you think of young Arcadia “Arkady” Darell?

She’s awesome.  Arkady can be a little twit, but at the same time she’s very intelligent and is capable of far more than people give her credit for.  I loved the dialogue she had when a man tried to climb in her window; it was impudent, impertinent, and utterly unexpected.

One other thing that I noticed in this section–

Her lips tightened as she thought of her father looking up from his book-viewer just long enough to say, “But if you’re going to pretend you’re nineteen, Arcadia, what will you do when you’re twenty-five and all of the boys think you’re thirty?”

Did Asimov just predict the Kindle?

See everyone next week for discussions on the second half of the book!

“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card

When I first read Orson Scott Card many years ago, I was somewhat apathetic toward his work.  It might have been that I read a companion book rather than the main story, or perhaps I was just reading it at the wrong point in my life.  Either way, my opinions about his writing have changed drastically.

For anyone considering reading “Ender’s Game”–read the author’s introduction.  Card has a sense of humor.  He acknowledges on the first page that the majority of readers probably won’t bother to read the introduction anyway, before going into some of his thought processes when writing the book.

“Ender’s Game” is set on a futuristic Earth that is threatened by the Buggers.  In order to prepare for the Third Invasion, genius kids are trained from a young age in tactics and warfare at a specialized Battle School.

The protagonist, Ender Wiggin, leaves his family to begin training at the age of six.  As his training progresses, Ender faces obstacles that none of the other kids have had to deal with, and eventually comes to the realization that he is being trained to become the commander of Earth’s forces for the Third Invasion.  He struggles internally with his own alienation from his peers, and that he is forced to dealing with bullies in a cruel manner out of self-preservation.  Meanwhile, the inevitable conflict with the Buggers is approaching sooner than Ender could have suspected…

My favorite characters were “Locke” and “Demosthenes.”  These were the screennames of Ender’s brother and sister, who hid behind seven proxies in order to achieve political fame on the internet.  The world grows to respect their political opinions without realizing that they’re just a couple of kids.  The anonymity that the internet offers with regards to age was an amazing discovery for me in junior high and high school, and I had some great discussions with people who assumed that I was far older than I was.  The “Locke” and “Demosthenes” scheme was absolutely brilliant, and I loved every minute of it.

One of the biggest complaints that a lot of people have with the book is the fact that the kids are too mature for their age.  I didn’t have a problem with this; I thought that their age made them suitable for the type of tactics that commanding an army against the Buggers required, because it is a lot like playing a complicated video game.  Meanwhile, despite the overall impression of maturity that the kids try to convey, there are a lot of times in the story where their childhood emotions shine through.

I felt at first like the ending was a bit anticlimactic (mostly because I knew what was going to happen from reading Ender’s Shadow), but I hadn’t expected the whole Speaker for the Dead thing, which was mind-blowingly awesome.  I couldn’t think of a better way that the novel could have ended, and it made me think that there’s a lot more to Card than I originally gave him credit for.

Rumor has it that there’s supposed to be a movie version of “Ender’s Game” coming out in 2013.  I’m a bit skeptical as to how it would play out in a movie format, but I do know that the book is excellent.  I’d highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys science fiction or is just looking for a good read!

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I read this book as part of The 2012 Science Fiction Experience hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings and the Speculative Fiction Challenge hosted by Baffled Books.  “Ender’s Game” was a dual-winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, which is quite an achievement, and as so I am also including it in the Award Winning Books Reading Challenge hosted by Gathering Books.

“Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins

“Mockingjay” is the third book in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy.  As with my review of  “Catching Fire,” I’m going to try to avoid as many spoilers as possible from the first two books, even at the expense of a more vague review.

“Mockingjay” takes it’s name from a species of bird that exists within the book that is a cross between a jabberjay and a mockingbird.  Jabberjays were birds that the Capitol used to memorize and deliver messages, kind of like more intelligent parrots.  When jabberjays bred with mockingbirds, they created a species capable of memorizing and repeating human songs with lyrics as part of their bird calls.  It becomes a symbol of revolution, because the Capitol never meant for them to exist.  Little touches like the mockingjay are a part of why this book resonated so well with me; it’s that touch of creativity that adds little glimpses of sunshine and hope in the middle of a very bleak world.

The bulk of this installment in the trilogy takes place in District 13, which was firebombed in the previous revolt that occurred around 75 years before the trilogy takes place.  However, much of District 13 survived in underground tunnels and bunkers and continued to thrive, unknown to the average citizens of the Capitol and the other districts.  The resistance is headquartered there, and is using Katniss as part of their official propaganda.  Now officially a part of the revolution, Katniss finds herself questioning whether the ends justify the means, and what the cost of a victory would be.  Meanwhile, a good friend is in enemy hands, and Katniss feels increasingly powerless while caught up in a conflict larger than herself.

The first two books in the series were rather emotional, but this one takes the cake.  I cried several times while reading it, but at the same time couldn’t put it down because it was so suspenseful and I had to know how everything would end.  Overall, I was quite satisfied with the ending.  Katniss’ life after the revolution didn’t take the direction that I expected, and I’m glad.  It was interesting to see the way that Katniss evolves since the first book, becoming more and more jaded (and kind of scarred for life) since the moment she volunteered herself for the Hunger Games to protect her little sister.  She matures a lot as the books progress.

The ending of the book also (finally!) resolves Katniss’ love life dilemma, and I think it rather funny that most of my friends are very adamant about who they thought Katniss should end up with.  I was happy with her choice; my sister was not.  For anyone who’s read it, who did you like more, Gale or Peeta?

Overall, I’m definitely glad that I read this series.  Normally I’m a bit hesitant when everybody gets obsessed with a book, because let’s face it, everybody was obsessed with “Twilight” too.  “The Hunger Games” isn’t like that; it’s more mature and leaves room for thought, and the writing is infinitely better, despite its flaws.  I tend to shy away from YA novels, not because I don’t like them, but because I’m a fast reader and tend to go through them too quickly.  Luckily, I made an exception for this, and it’s something that I may have to do more often!

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I read “Mockingjay” as a part of The 2012 Science Fiction Experience hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings and the Speculative Fiction Challenge hosted by Baffled Books.