May 2012: A Month in Review

May has been a busy and exciting month.  I’m done with classes for the summer, which gives me a bit more time to read.  It’s been nice not to have due dates and assignments.  I went camping last weekend with my family in Pennsylvania, which was a very relaxing way to spend Memorial Day weekend.

I’ve been participating in a lot of groupreads this month:

• “Mistborn: The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson
• “Red Seas Under Red Skies” by Scott Lynch (spoiler-free review forthcoming)
• “Neverwhere” by Neil Gaiman
• “Warbreaker” by Brandon Sanderson

As much as I love groupreads, this past weekend I was doing three at once, and I think that’s a bit excessive.  From now on I’m going to try to keep it to no more than two at a time.  After we’re done with “Neverwhere” we’re going to be reading the next book in the Mistborn series, and I’ll post more details on that as soon as I find out more.

In addition to the groupreads, I read six other books:

• “Roadside Picnic” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
• “Singer From the Sea” by Sheri S. Tepper
• “Seraphina” by Rachel Hartman
• “The Court of the Air” by Stephen Hunt
• “Kindred” by Octavia Butler
• “Tell a Thousand Lies” by Rasana Atreya

During the first week of June I’ll be attending Book Expo America at the Javitts Center in NYC.  I’m looking forward to the conference and even had business cards printed for my blog.  I’ll be posting Twitter updates throughout the week, but I haven’t decided whether to post about the conference while I’m there or to wait until the week after.  I have no idea what to expect and would welcome any advice from people who have been there before.

Next month I’m also planning to post about my new adventures with graphic novels/comics.  My other reading plans involve some ARCs that I’ve received and whittling down my ever-increasing TBR pile.

How has everyone’s month been going?  Anything exciting coming up in June?

“Tell a Thousand Lies” by Rasana Atreya

I received a review copy of “Tell a Thousand Lies” from the author, Rasana Atreya, in exchange for an honest review.  The novel was shortlisted for the 2012 Tibor Jones South Asia prize and was nominated for the 2012 Global eBook Awards.

“Tell a Thousand Lies” is the story of twin sisters growing up in a village in India in the 1980s.  In this culture, skin color plays a major role whether a girl will be able to make a good match.  Pullama, the protagonist, is dark-skinned and knows that she probably will not find a suitable husband.  Her sister Lata is pale and beautiful, but she doesn’t want to get married, but instead dreams of becoming a doctor.  Pullama’s world is turned upside down when a corrupt politician preys on the superstitions of the villagers and convinces them that she is a goddess in order to increase his chance of winning the upcoming elections.  Pullama and Lata find their roles reversed, and Lata’s simmering resentment threatens everything that Pullama has ever held dear.

“Tell a Thousand Lies” is an extremely well-written novel.  I’m often skeptical of self-published books, but this is one of the good ones, with none of the typos and editing errors that often plague other indie books.  I mention this because editing is one of my pet peeves, and in that respect this book went above and beyond my expectations.

Pullama’s story was compelling and gave me insight into a culture that I don’t know much about.  I do think that the whole goddess thing might be bit of an exaggeration of village superstitions, but at the same time I was pleased that we got to see Pullama live in a more modern city so that we could contrast city and village life.

I particularly enjoyed the insight into the dynamics of family life.  Pullama’s mother is dead, but her grandmother fills the gap and is therefore in charge of finding the girls suitable marriages.  We can see that the grandmother truly cares for them, but at the same time she is caught up in a village mentality and is afraid to let the girls get too much education or to pursue a different path.  We also see changing relationship between the two sisters as Lata becomes resentful and bitter about her fate and becomes jealous of Pullama.

Parts of the novel were heartbreaking, especially with regards to Pullama’s husband and children, but the story does have a happy ending.  The villain, Kondal Rao, is someone who is truly despicable and thinks nothing of ruining other people’s lives for his own gain.

I would recommend “Tell a Thousand Lies” for anyone who’s interested in learning more about Indian culture.

Warbreaker Groupread, Part I

Welcome to Part 1 of the “Warbreaker” groupread!  I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while because I am a bit of a Brandon Sanderson fangirl.  When Naithin announced the readalong, I couldn’t pass up the chance to participate in the discussions, even though it’s going to be a very busy couple weeks leading up to and including my trip to Book Expo America.

Before I get started discussing the content of the book, I just wanted to say how much I love the cover illustration.  It’s not in line with the kind of cover art that I usually like, but it fits so well with the story.

Many thanks go to Amanda and Naithin for hosting the discussions!

“Warbreaker” is a standalone novel that features a color-based magic system.  The rest of this post will contain spoilers from the first section of the book.  I’ll post a spoiler-free review once I’m done reading it for anyone who isn’t following along.

1. All right, let’s start easy – how are you liking the book so far? We’ve been introduced to a lot of characters and started several stories now. Any in particular catch your attention? Anything intrigue you?

Of the Sanderson novels that I’ve read thus far, this one seems to be the least polished, which I especially noticed while reading the prologue.  At the same time, the idea behind the story is original and I’m getting caught up enough in the story to overlook the fact that the writing doesn’t quite measure up to what we see in Mistborn: The Final Empire or The Way of Kings.

My favorite character thus far is Lightsong.  His tendencies to pretend at drunkenness and headaches even as one of the Returned are rather endearing.

I also love Nightblood, even though I don’t think it (He?  She?  Do swords even have genders?) counts as a character so much as a sarcastic sentient object.

At first I thought of Vivenna as a bit of a boring character, but I gained a new respect for her when she ran away to save Siri and accidentally fell in with some mercenaries and acquired Breath.  She’s an unlikely heroine, and I can’t wait to see her learn to use her magic.  One of the things that I love about Sanderson’s novels is the way that he crafts magical systems that work as natural processes and obey certain rules.

2. The Returned are all treated as Gods, but at least one of those Gods doesn’t believe in his own divinity, despite seeing potential visions. Do you think the Returned will prove to be divine? How do you feel about the religion built up around them?

Lightsong is going to prove to be an important character when he remembers whatever it is he’s supposed to do.  I don’t think that the Returned are divine, but rather, they’re more like the Elantrians.  They’re not immortal, as they can give up their lives to save others.  Their more like zombies than angels, and even though I don’t like a religion that involves sacrificing the souls of children, I do think that it is based around some sort of truth/wisdom/insight.  The dreams are most likely prophetic, but I don’t think the Returned can do much to stop the events they foresee from occurring.

3. The God King didn’t turn out to be the way he’s presented and thought of in this world. Any ideas on what his role will be in this story?

At first I thought that he might turn out to be a powerless figurehead, but someone of the Tenth Heightening is far from powerless.  He’s quite mysterious, and I am curious as to his personality and function.  He reminds me a bit of the Lord Ruler from Mistborn, but at the same time he doesn’t seem quite as sinister (yet).

4. The title – Warbreaker – what do you think it might refer to?

Perhaps each of the characters that we’ve met will be a part of the events that stops the war from occurring.

Neverwhere Readalong, Part II

Happy Memorial Day, and welcome to part two of the Neverwhere readalong.  This week’s discussion covers chapters 6 thru 12 of the novel.  I’m loving the book thus far; it’s got a perfect balance of darkness, magic, and humor.

I’m probably going to be a bit behind on visiting people’s blogs.  I’ll try to get to all of them today, but I’ve got a lot of catching up to do because I’ve been away from internet/cell phone service/etc. for the weekend.  I went camping with my family in Pennsylvania, which was both relaxing and exhausting.  I read a couple books while I was there, and I’ll be posting reviews of them over the next few days.

The following discussion will contain spoilers.  I’ll post a spoiler-free review of “Neverwhere” once I’ve finished reading it for anyone who isn’t following along.  For those of you who are, be sure to pop over to Carl’s blog to see the rest of the discussions.

Dear Diary, he began.  On Friday I had a job, a fiancee, a home, and a life that made sense.  (Well, as much as any life makes sense.)  Then I found an injured girl bleeding on the pavement, and I tried to be a good Samaritan.  Now I’ve got no fiancee, no home, no job, and I’m walking around a couple of hundred feet under the streets of London with the projected life expectancy of a suicidal fruitfly.

1.  Chapter 6 begins with Richard chanting the mantra, “I want to go home”.  How do you feel about Richard and his reactions at this point to the unexpected adventure he finds himself on?

I like seeing the way that begins to come into his own during this week’s chapters.  At first he’s not willing to believe that what’s  going on is real and keeps asking questions based on what he knows above.  He acts very sensibly and has no imagination.  As the story progresses, he begins to lose his inhibitions and begin to accept the nonsensical and wonderful world below that he’s slowly becoming a part of.  Seeing him pass the Ordeal of the Key seemed like a rite-of-passage that marked his full acceptance of London Below, and the Ordeal physically marks Richard’s realization that life isn’t as black-and-white as he thought it was.

2.  The Marquis de Carabas was even more mysterious and cagey during the first part of this week’s reading.  What were your reactions to him/thoughts about him as you followed his activities?

At first I thought that he might actually be the mystery employer.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw him talk to Croup and Vandemar and realized that he was on Door’s side.  Pity about the crucifixion.  He seemed like an honorable chap, if nothing else.

3.  How did you feel about the Ordeal of the Key?

I touched on this a bit in my answer to the first question because I think that the Ordeal marks Richard’s acceptance of the topsy-turvy underworld.  If he’d have given in to the voices in his head that told him he was insane, it would have been a rejection of London Below.  Instead he affirms the potential to see the world in a different way, which is a potential that I think he’s had all along.

The ordeal itself was nightmarish, but Gaiman’s details here made it even more absurd.  I loved the part about the cup of tea.

4.  This section of the book is filled with moments.  Small, sometimes quite significant, moments that pass within a few pages but stick with you.  What are one or two of these that you haven’t discussed yet that stood out to you, or that you particularly enjoyed.

It’s things like seeing Old Bailey telling bad jokes to birds, or seeing Door and Richard awkwardly drunk off their asses on wine from Atlantis, or even Lady Serpentine’s breakfast that make “Neverwhere” so special.  Gaiman uses silly nonsensical details to create a world of wonder and intrigue.

5.  Any other things/ideas that you want to talk about from this section of the book?

Croup and Vandemar are such fantastic villains.  I still can’t hate them and find myself laughing at them every time I see them.  It’s hard to hate someone who chomps on Tang dynasty statues or tries to talk with a mouth full of frogs.  Croup and Vandemar are both dangerous and delightful, and I look forward to seeing more of their shenanigans.

“Kindred” by Octavia Butler

Earlier in the week I went on a post-finals book buying binge and picked up a novel by Octavia Butler.  A lot of people recommended that I also read “Kindred,” and so I decided to start with that.

If I had to sum up the book in one phrase, I’d say that this book is Murphy’s law applied to time travel.  Everything that can go wrong does, and at the worst possible time.

“Kindred” is technically classified as sci-fi, but it is a genre-bending novel that also incorporates elements of historical fiction.  It tells the story of Dana, a modern black woman from California who is pulled back in time to the early 1800s in Maryland to rescue her distant white ancestor Rufus when his life is endangered.  Dana makes six visits to the past during the course of the novel and is only able to return home when she believes that her own life is threatened.

Dana is forced to confront the horrors of slavery as she spends time in the past and struggles with her own identity as she is swept into life on the plantation.  Meanwhile, she finds herself in the rather awkward (and completely f’ed up) position of having to make sure that Rufus has sex with a woman named Alice so that her ancestors would be born and she wouldn’t flicker out of existence a la “Back to the Future.”

“Kindred” is such a powerful story because Dana is so easy to identify with.  She’s intelligent, resourceful, and a very much a product of modern life.  When we see slavery from the eyes of someone from our own world it makes everything seem so much more real than it would in a typical historical fiction novel.  We see Dana react to the past in a multitude of different ways, ranging from her initial realization that she wasn’t in 1976 anymore when kid-Rufus used a racial slur against her to the panic at realizing that medicine in the early 1800s could be downright scary (bloodletting?  leeches?  gross!).  It’s extreme culture shock on a multitude of different levels, but Dana eventually finds herself adapting and learning to understand the mindset of surviving the violence and dehumanization that her ancestors faced.

One of the things that I also enjoyed about this book was seeing Dana’s relationship with her husband Kevin.  She and Kevin are both writers and are very clearly soulmates.  We see some of her backstory with Kevin, including the way that both of their families handled the fact that they were an interracial couple (badly, of course).  However, the problems that Dana and Kevin face in the modern world pale in comparison to the harsh reality of life in the 1800s.

Dana discovers that anything she’s carrying when she gets pulled into the past goes with her, so she packs herself a bag and on one occasion even takes her husband with her.  Kevin tries to use his social standing to protect her, but that doesn’t make Dana’s experience of the past any less dangerous.

I read “Kindred” in one sitting and was on the edge of my seat the entire time.  Butler’s writing is articulate and powerful, and she is able to make readers not just see the past but also feel it.  “Kindred” is one of the best books that I’ve ever read, and I’d highly recommend it.

Red Seas Under Red Skies Readalong, Part V

First of all, a general housekeeping note… I’m out of town this weekend and posting this using WordPress’ nifty scheduler.  I won’t be back to respond to comments and visit blogs until late Monday and won’t be able to see or respond to anyone until then.  In fact, I’m going so far into the middle of nowhere that I won’t even have cell phone reception.  *evil grin*

It feels like we just started reading this book yesterday and now we’re already finished.  Many thanks to Andrea over at The Little Red Reviewer for hosting this and to all of you who wrote questions and participated in the discussions.  It’s been a wonderful experience.

This week’s questions were written by Lynn.  Today’s fan art is by shoughad and is entitled Also, I am entirely fictional.  I laughed when Locke came out with that line at long last.

From this point on, there will be MAJOR plot spoilers (major as in “We just finished the book and wanna talk about the ending”).  If you haven’t read it but are planning on reading it, stay tuned for my spoiler-free review later in the week.

Oh my god, such a lot going on I thought the showdown between the Poison Orchid and the Sovereign was brilliantly written and they were holding their own until Utgar and his nasty device turned up.  Well a lot of you had kind of predicted it, and I suppose we’d been let off too easy so far in terms of deaths of well-liked characters  – but come on,  did you expect something like that?  And how on earth will Jean ever recover?

I’ve been saying ever since we started that Ezri was doomed, but at the same time I’m glad that it was her who died.  Not that I wasn’t upset by it, but I was panicking when the ship got boarded that Zamira’s kids might end up getting hurt, and I was grateful that they didn’t.  Ezri’s death was tragic, but I’m glad that at least Lynch gave her the honor of a heroic death, albeit an incredibly painful and unnecessary one.  I feel so bad for Jean.

The deceit, the betrayal, first Rodanov and then Colvard.  Even now I’m not entirely sure I understand Colvard – Rodanov was never keen on the oath but Colvard seemed okay with it all and yet in this final deceit she was more devious than Rodanov – what do you think was her motive?

Both of their motives seemed fair enough.  If Zamira went too close to Tal Verrar then she risked upsetting the Verrari enough that they’d bring their little ships to come crush Port Prodigal.  They just wanna be left alone so they can pillage and plunder, and Zemira’s plan would threaten that if anything went wrong.

Merrain – such a puzzle, no real answer, the mysterious tattoo, the determination to kill everyone to keep her identity and that of her master a secret.  Does anybody have any ideas where she’s from and what she’s up to exactly and who the hell is she working for??

I’d lay bets on the Bondsmagi.

Finally we get to the point of the GB’s latest scheme, all that elaborate planning for two years, fancy chairs, gambling, dust covered cards, abseiling lessons – all for one gigantic bluff. I loved the diversionary tactic here but having finally reached the end of the story and, more to the point, the end result – do you think the GB’s are as clever as they think they are?

When I found out that they weren’t quite as clever as they thought they were and that the pictures were fake, I started laughing and people on the metro started giving me dirty looks.  They did earn Requin’s respect though, not that it’ll help them at all.

I must admit that I liked Requin and Selendri – particularly at the end – I don’t think Requin will go after Locke and Jean, he was even sort of cool and composed about it all, in fact he came across as a bit pleased with himself because he had the last laugh.  Plenty of good characters this time which did you enjoy reading most about this time?

Selendri was badass and I’m glad that she survived the book.  She and Requin are such a cute couple.  I also loved seeing Zamira with her kids.  She was an awesome pirate momma, and I wanna be that cool when I grow up.

Oh, and my favorite part of the entire book was when Locke and Zamira joyously sacked Salon Corbeau.  Saljesca was a bitch (and I’m actually censoring myself here, I’ve plenty of less appropriate words for her) who totally deserved it, and I want to give our pirates a hearty round of applause for doing the right thing.  *claps*

Finally, a triple barrel question, I know I shouldn’t ask this BUT, on reflection do you have a favourite between LoLL or RSURS??  And why?  Are you going to pick up Republic of Thieves?  And, where do you think Lynch will take us to next??

It’s hard to choose a favorite between the two.  I did think that RSURS was a bit less serious than LoLL.  I’m glad that each book has its own story arc.  After reading RSURS, I’ll definitely pick up Republic of Thieves.  I need to know how Locke survives the poison, and I absolutely MUST meet Sabetha.  I’m hoping it comes out soon!

“The Court of the Air” by Stephen Hunt

Stephen Hunt’s “The Court of the Air” is a steampunk adventure in which the fate of the world hangs in the hands of two orphans on the run.  Molly is apprenticed to a brothel, but on her first day of work her first customer tries to kill her.  As it turns out, she’s got a huge bounty on her head and is completely baffled as to why.  Meanwhile, Oliver has spent his whole life secluded because he’s part fey and people are afraid of him.  When his Uncle is murdered, he finds himself in the company of the disreputable Harry Stave, a member of the shadowy Court of the Air.

This book has so many things going on at once.  There’s political intrigue, robots, airships, mutants, torture, Lovecraftian insects, human sacrifice, steam engines, and a frickin’ mushroom forest!  I’m a big fan of the mushroom forest.  At the same time, the author tries to cram too much action into one book, which means that if your mind wanders for thirty seconds and you glance down at the page, you’re completely lost.  There are scores of minor characters who only show up for a chapter or two and then are forgotten about for most of the book.  The author keeps introducing new characters up until the very end, and it’s difficult to keep track of all of them.

This is an adventure story, so there’s little to no character development.  At the same time, the worldbuilding in the kingdom of Jackals was phenomenal.  Jackals is governed by a Parliament, and political debates involve two opponents beating the crap out of each other with big sticks.  The monarchy still exists, but the king gets his arms chopped off so he can’t oppress the people and is mostly around so the people can throw rotten fruit at him if anything goes wrong.  The major villains are “communityists” who believe in enforcing equality by putting everyone into identical clunky cyborg bodies.

Hunt’s world is incredibly complex, to the point that I think that most readers will either love it or hate it.  I’m rather ambivalent about it; I think it had a lot of wasted potential and could have benefited from some expansion.  The book could have worked really well if there was a bit more explanation and we got to spend a bit more time getting to know each of the characters, but I felt like the story was too rushed to be fully enjoyed.  There were a lot of individual elements to the story that I loved, but the book didn’t work for me as a whole.

“The Court of the Air” is the first book of the Jackelian Saga, but it functions well as a standalone.  Because of the complexity of the story it takes a deceptively long time to read.  I’d suggest it only if you’re a big fan of steampunk and have the time to digest it slowly.

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I read this book as part of the Once Upon a Time Challenge and the Speculative Fiction Challenge.