Tagged: puck

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater(Cover picture courtesy of Book Box Daily.)

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

Well I suppose that The Scorpio Races at least has good descriptions.  That’s pretty much all the praise I can give this book.

This is the first book I’ve read by Maggie Stiefvater and it will very likely be the last.  The Scorpio Races is a book that’s 404 pages long that tells a non-existent story.  (Spoilers ahead.)  Puck, or Kate as she’s properly called, is a young girl living on a mysterious island that has caipall uisce.  Essentially they’re vicious, flesh-eating horses that live in the water.  And the crazy people on the island (the ones that stay there anyway) race them on the first of every single November.  Kate’s older brother is leaving for the mainland to make a better life for himself and his orphaned siblings but oh no, Kate can’t have that!  She decides, on a whim, to enter the Scorpio Races in order to delay her brother’s departure…by one whole month.  Yep, that’s her great plan.  Maggie Stiefvater later inserts further drama about the house coming close to being foreclosed on but it just seems like a lame justification for Kate’s stupidity.

I should have liked Sean as a character but I couldn’t muster up the energy to give a crap about him.  He works for an awful man because he wants to buy the horse he’s become attached to.  That’s it.  He often speaks with the mainland horse buyer George Holly, but Holly’s main purpose as a character is to offer exposition and generally pad the length of the novel.  He serves no useful purpose, believe me.  And it seems the only purpose Sean has in the end is to save Kate’s stupid butt when she decides to enter the Scorpio Races on a regular horse.  Amongst flesh-eating caipall uisce.  Does her stupidity have no end?

I nearly fell asleep by the time the races started.  The races start on page 380 in a book that’s 404 pages long.  The rest of the novel is meaningless ‘training’ sequences that always seem to end in forced, awkward ‘romance’ between Kate and Sean.  It just seems like added drama rather than a genuine romance.  I mean, if George Holly hadn’t said that Sean and Kate obviously had feelings for each other I really don’t think I would have noticed.  There’s a fine line between subtle and non-existent.

Ugh, for a novel with a great premise, The Scorpio Races was a complete bomb.  To be honest I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

I give this book 0.5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     Goodreads

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

(Cover picture courtesy of Julie Kagawa’s website.)

My name is Meghan Chase.

I thought it was over.  That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me.  But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming.  Drag me away from the banished prince who’s sworn to stand by my side.  Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I’m not sure anyone can survive it.

As most of you are aware, I am a shameless Julie Kagawa fan.  I love the entire Iron Fey series, but The Iron Queen (the third book) is my absolute favourite.  Here’s why:

Meghan Chase has finally acquired a backbone.

Unlike in The Iron Daughter, she has finally learned how and when to hide her emotions and lie.  She’s also more sure of her love for Ash and has stopped doubting him so much.  Overall, she’s just a better character and she’s far less helpless as she learns how to fight and use her glamour.  By the climax, when she faces the new Iron King, she shows incredible bravery and makes an enormous sacrifice in order to save the Nevernever.  It’s satisfying and extremely touching at the same time because readers could see hints of Meghan’s inner strength before, but now it finally shows through.

Since the stakes are even higher than before, there is hardly a dull moment.  The plot speeds along at a tremendous pace as the battle for the fate of the Nevernever begins.  This is the kind of book that will keep you reading into the early morning; you won’t want to put it down.  And the ending will make you desperate to get your hands on the last book in the series, The Iron Knight.

I rarely read series in order, but Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series is an exception.  I was amazed at the world-building in the first book, captivated by the admittedly cliché love triangle in the second book, but what I loved in this book was the quality of the writing.  The wonderful thing about reading an author’s first series in order is that you get to see how much they improve in writing, characterization and world-building.  Julie Kagawa has improved greatly since her debut novel and I think we can expect great things from her in the future.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere.  Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen.  As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen.  But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan’s own fey powers have been cut off.  She’s stuck in Faery with only her wits for help.  Trusting anyone would be foolish.  Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly.  But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can’t help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

Once I picked up The Iron Daughter and started reading it, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop until I was done.  Not only is it even more spellbinding than the first book, The Iron King, the characterization is brilliant and the plot is superb.  Unlike many second books, it does not suffer from Book 2 Disease.

In the beginning, Meghan manages to frustrate me as she pines for Ash, openly displaying her feelings for him at court.  Ash had told her emotions were a weakness at court, so she should have hidden them, but she did not.  What stopped me from hurtling the book at the wall was the fact that soon she figured out how to hide her feelings.  I can also forgive her because Ash is her first love and your first love makes you do incredibly stupid things.

Despite this temporary nuisance, there is really nothing much to complain about.  The plot zips by and I flipped through the pages as fast as I could.  There is something about Julie Kagawa’s writing that keeps you spellbound and makes you (quite literally) gasp for breath after you’ve finished the last page.  And of course her true talent lies in leaving readers desperate for the next book, if only to find out who Meghan chooses: Puck, her best friend or Ash.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

(Cover picture courtesy of Julie Kagawa’s website.)

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she never could have imagined…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six.  She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war.  Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Meghan Chase, the main character, is a geek at school who just wants to fit in.  But on her sixteenth birthday, strange things start happening.  Her brother becomes switched with a changeling and her best friend reveals that she is a half-faery, the daughter of the King Oberon.  Meghan goes on a quest to a secret world consisting of the Summer Court and the Winter Court in order to get her little brother back.  It is this quest that will bring her both pain and happiness.

Now, The Iron King is pretty much your typical YA novel: young female protagonist, a slightly dysfunctional family, a love triangle and a super hot but icy guy the protagonist loves.  But what is different about this novel is that Julie Kagawa’s protagonist has substance and real motivation.  Meghan is a geek at school with a crush on the captain of the football team, something many readers are able to relate to.  She wants nothing more than to fit in, but every time she tries, things go badly.

Some may complain that The Iron King is basically a bunch of old YA tropes mixed together in a soup pot.  This is certainly true, but these elements mashed together work well or they wouldn’t be used in so much YA fiction.  Julie Kagawa’s novel not only has an interesting (but admittedly clichéd) plot, but is well-written and emotionally resonating.  I found myself actually caring about the characters because Meghan, Ethan, Ash and Puck are all well-developed archetypes.  So if you’re looking for an excellent, slightly clichéd Young Adult novel, The Iron King is certainly the book for you.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
Amazon     Barnes and Noble