Category: Book Review
The Doom of Undal by Katrina Sisowath
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
The Dragon Court has ruled Tiamut uncontested for millennia, bringing knowledge and prosperity to all.
Yet all is not as it seems—far to the West in the land of Undal, mightiest of the nations, the Royal Queen and her children are struck with a mysterious illness and perish. Was the Dragon Court responsible? Or had the Queen had been experimenting with dark magic?
Her grieving son, trained in the dark arts by the goddess Eris herself, swears vengeance. When he defies the Dragon Court and they rescind their blessing on his royal house, he must turn to his mother’s experiments and ancient blood rituals to achieve his aims. In his quest for truth, he will become the greatest threat Tiamut has ever known.
With details pulled directly from Plato (yes, THAT Plato), The Emerald Tablets of Thoth, Sumerian and Egyptian mythology, The Doom of Undal tells the story of the Fall of Atlantis.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
The Doom of Undal is the second book in a series but since it was not presented to me that way I decided to request it. I was a little mad when I learned that this was the second book but in the end it doesn’t really matter. The names are more confusing in the beginning than they would be if you read the first book but it’s nothing you can’t overcome.
For the first 60% or so, you may be a little confused by the blurb because The Doom of Undal does not start out with a mysterious death. No, it starts with the childhoods of our main characters and their introductions into the different temples. They all become acolytes of different gods and goddesses depending on their powers as well as their personalities. Hathor, for example, is a sort of whimsical child who learns the arts of the love goddess because it suits her talents as well as her whimsical nature. The boys go into more warlike temples. It’s all quite interesting in its own right but starting the book off that way really, really slows down the plot. The plot has to be slow at the beginning because of the sheer volume of names being introduced but that super slow plot also meant I had a really, really hard time getting through the first half of the book.
What I absolutely love about this book is how Katrina Sisowath blended together Sumerian and Egyptian mythology as well as a few other things in order to tell her story. Since I love Egypt, the Egyptian influences were quite obvious: the pyramids, the brother-sister marriages of the Dragon Court, some of the Egyptian deities like Hathor, etc. I’m less familiar with Sumerian mythology so I can’t really comment on that but I really did enjoy all of the thought Sisowath put into developing her world. It’s fantastic and her enthusiasm for this world really does show through in her writing. The world-building is probably the only reason I didn’t give up on the book completely while I struggled through to the more exciting half. Really, this is what fantasy should be like when you’re mixing magic, myth and history.
As I said before, the plot is slow for about half of the novel until we travel with Rhea to the court at Undal. While travelling there she reconnects with an old childhood friend named Cronous, who is the heir apparent for the hereditary rulers of Undal. However, she is supposed to marry his father while he is sent away to become even more bitter and perhaps bring out that underlying cruelty a bit more. While Rhea does her duty to her much older husband and even seems to enjoy some of being queen, when Cronous returns complications arise as she finds herself falling in love with him and not her husband. I don’t want to spoil too much but the lovers then embark on a path that, as the blurb said, is the greatest threat Tiamut has ever known. Both characters go through some pretty drastic changes as they embrace their darker sides a bit more but it’s the reactions of Rhea’s siblings that will probably seal the fate of Undal’s rebellion.
To sum up: I would strongly recommend reading the first book before reading The Doom of Undal. You don’t have to, but I think I would have received far more out of this book had I read Serpent Priestess of the Annunaki. If you read that, then I think the first part of the book will be a little more exciting than it was for me, since it basically closes the chapter on the older generation and introduces the newer one. Still, I think The Doom of Undal was a fairly good read and if the blurb has intrigued you, go check out the Dragon Court series.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Starlet’s Man by Carla J. Hanna
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
“If you live courageously, you have scars.” -Beth, Starlet’s Man
From the award-winning author of the Starlet Series, comes Starlet’s Man, a story about a boy becoming a man amidst the mixed-messages in Hollywood culture. Discover why the Starlet Series took Gold and Silver medals in the Readers’ Choice 2014 International Book Award Contest.
Lights, Cameras, and Lies. High school student athlete, Manny Biro, is caught between the boy he should be and the man he wants to become.
Everyone around him accepts the Hollywood life. He doesn’t. Manny wants no part of acting. On the surface, his childhood best friends seem to have it all: money, power, success. Between the lines, they are all confused. Alan is a messed up want-to-be director focused on pushing scenes to their sexy potential. Beth is an athlete driven to escape from a dark past. Janet is Manny’s kid sister caught up in fashion and trends. And Marie is a lonely actress exhausted by the culture that makes everyone’s favorite stories.
[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
One of the things I really didn’t like about Manny in the beginning of the first book (this is a prequel) was his self-righteousness. He criticized everything about Hollywood but proceeded to act like he was a part of that culture by fooling around with different girls and such. I wasn’t really sold on him being Lia’s love interest at first but he did grow on me as the books went along. However, in this prequel we get a really good look into his mindset while he was transitioning from boy to man
In the beginning, Manny is a pretty confused young man. He sort of likes his friend Beth, who he trains with in the mornings. At the same time, Liana Marie will always hold a special place in his heart even though she seems to be in love with her current costar Evan. And all of this takes place in a catty environment where publicity is more important than doing what you actually feel like so even if he and Liana finally admitted their feelings for each other, Lia’s bosses would not be happy with her dating a no-name. This, understandably, puts Manny in a very brooding mindset and leads to some of the stupid decisions I’ve alluded to as well as some of his hypocritical self-righteousness. Do I particularly like him at this point in his life? No, but he is an interesting character and it really does make me appreciate how much he’s changed by the second and third books in the series.
My only real complaint about this prequel is that the plot is a little disjointed. Sometimes it feels like there are random scene changes that I had a hard time keeping up with and it certainly wasn’t because of formatting issues or anything like that. I think that sometimes Carla Hanna pared down her writing a little too much and should have left in some more descriptions of the different locations and the transitions between locations. It does make for a fast read but I really would have appreciated a little more description so I wouldn’t have to deal with the occasional confusion.
The plot, however, is pretty good. It starts out with Manny learning about the kerfuffle over Lia’s last movie and it goes through her filming of Constantine’s Muse and all the screwed up things that come along with it as I saw from her perspective in Starlet’s Web. Her trials and tribulations are always at the forefront of Manny’s mind but he has his own things to worry about: money, Alan’s gossip blog spreading lies about his love life and his growing willingness to admit to Lia that he really does love her. It’s by no means a straightforward journey but that’s probably in part why I loved Starlet’s Man so much. Life isn’t a straightforward plot line and neither is this book. Manny has his ups and downs but finally comes through as a caring young man who is no longer the messed-up, self-righteous boy we meet in the beginning. It’s a satsifying journey.
Since this is a prequel you can absolutely read it before you read the main series but as a matter of personal preference I’d recommend reading Starlet’s Web first because I just like Liana more as a character. Manny is interesting enough and grew to be a better person, but being introduced to his self-righteous younger self so soon could turn you off a wonderful series. But if you like reading the prequels first, go ahead! This is a good book.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Shattered Court by M. J. Scott
(Cover picture courtesy of NetGalley.)
Entangled in a court ruled by tradition and intrigue, a young witch must come to terms with newfound power and desire—and a choice between loyalty and survival.…
The royal witches of Anglion have bowed to tradition for centuries. If a woman of royal blood manifests powers, she is immediately bound by rites of marriage. She will serve her lord by practicing the tamer magics of the earth—ensuring good harvests and predicting the weather. Any magic more dangerous is forbidden.
Lady Sophia Kendall, thirty-second in line to the throne, is only days away from finding out if she will be blessed—or perhaps cursed—with magic. When a vicious attack by Anglion’s ancient enemies leaves the kingdom in chaos, Sophia is forced to flee the court. Her protector by happenstance is Lieutenant Cameron Mackenzie, a member of the royal guard, raised all his life to be fiercely loyal to the Crown.
Then Sophia’s powers manifest stronger than she ever imagined they would, and Cameron and she are inextricably linked in the process. As a witch unbound by marriage rites, Sophia is not only a threat to the established order of her country, but is also a weapon for those who seek to destroy it. Faced with old secrets and new truths, she must decide if she will fight for her country or succumb to the delicious temptation of power.…
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
It was the cover that attracted my attention and the blurb that piqued my interest but in the end it was M. J. Scott’s amazing writing that made me fall in love with the book.
In The Shattered Court, Scott has created a beautiful fantasy world full of mystery and magic, intrigue and innocence, loyalty and betrayal. It’s definitely a world of duality where nothing is as it seems, particularly toward the end of the novel. The way Scott set up the whole magic system in Anglion is just brilliant. There are four known types of magic, you see, but women (especially royal women) are only allowed to practice earth magic, which seems to be one of the weaker magics in general. Air magic and especially water magic are forbidden and knowledge of them is extremely limited. In the neighbouring kingdom of Illvya things are quite different but the royal family restricts knowledge of the other kingdom almost as much as they restrict the trade with it.
Enter into this world our protagonist Lady Sophia, who prefers the name Sophie. She’s about to turn 21, the age when all witches’ powers will manifest or not when there is an attack on the royal castle in Anglion. Since she was in the lower town gathering magical supplies with the Crown Princess’ own bodyguard, Cameron Mackenzie, she is whisked away to the country where it’s safer. So not only does she not have the proper Ais-Seann ceremony on her 21st birthday, she does something rather unconventional that really is problematic when you consider the fact that she’s supposed to be properly bound in a marriage ceremony instead of on a ley line with a mere third son (the aforementioned Cameron). When she gets back to court and discovers who lived and who died in the vicious attack that destroyed much of the palace, her life is forever changed. Suddenly, Sophie isn’t sure who to trust, even though she was utterly devoted to Eloisa, the Crown Princess. Now that she’s manifested and moved up in the line of succession due to a number of deaths it seems that everyone at court wants a piece of her. And trust me when I say that things quickly get complicated.
Although Sophie is sort of the main focus of the story we also get to see things from Cameron’s point of view. Of all the characters I think it’s Cameron that undergoes the biggest change throughout the story. He goes from being Eloisa’s lover to being a sort of outcast in court for his actions. He also loses his overbearing father who constantly pushed him to take advantage of his role as Eloisa’s lover to advance in court. But when Sophie and he are accidentally and inextricably bound, things get a heck of a lot more complicated than he would have liked. Cameron moves up in the world but learns that he and the woman he loves are in more danger than he ever dreamed possible. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers but let’s just say his new love leads him to change his loyalties pretty quickly and make some very hard decisions, particularly toward the end of the book.
The plot is quite fast-paced. We’re introduced to Anglion and the two main characters and then the attack on the castle happens just as we’re getting our bearings. While there are some slower parts, Scott never really lets up with the tension because there’s always a sort of unseen threat lurking in the background. Who was behind the attacks? And who is unhappy enough with Sophie’s unconventional bonding that they would actually threaten her life? As Sophie and Cameron struggle to unravel the mystery of who essentially bombed the castle, they’re faced with a whole host of other dilemmas as they start to make certain powerful people uncomfortable with all of their digging. Again, I don’t want to give away some of the plot twists because they’re awesome but let’s just say that more than one person would happily silence Sophie or Cameron (or both) in a heartbeat.
So here we have a vivid, rich fantasy world populated by complex and interesting characters. If The Shattered Court just had that going for it I would have fallen in love with it but with the plot twists and the constant tension throughout the narrative there was no doubt that I would love this book. The cliffhanger ending was good because it resolved some of the initial questions in the story but left a lot of new questions to be answered in the second book. And believe me when I say that I’m very eagerly awaiting the next book even though this first book won’t actually be published until April 28th of this year. Yes, it was just that good.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Frostfire by Amanda Hocking
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Bryn Aven is an outcast among the Kanin, the most powerful of the troll tribes.
Set apart by her heritage and her past, Bryn is a tracker who’s determined to become a respected part of her world. She has just one goal: become a member of the elite King’s Guard to protect the royal family. She’s not going to let anything stand in her way, not even a forbidden romance with her boss Ridley Dresden.
But all her plans for the future are put on hold when Konstantin– a fallen hero she once loved – begins kidnapping changelings. Bryn is sent in to help stop him, but will she lose her heart in the process?
[Full disclosure: I asked for and received a free ebook copy from Amanda Hocking’s publicist after I realized I had been approved for the second book on NetGalley without reading the first. This is, as always, an honest review.]
One of the things that really intrigued me in the Trylle series was the trackers. More specifically, why the lowborn trolls with few talents would ever want to protect the rich and ungrateful nobles of their world and bring back their changeling offspring. What drives them to become trackers when they could probably quite easily assimilate into the human world? And what about the inner workings of tracking? How does one go about it? What’s a good success rate? What is the training like? These weren’t questions that made the ending of the Trylle series unsatisfying but they did leave Amanda Hocking a lot more room for expansion, which is how this spin-off series came about.
If you’re expecting to see lots of the characters from the original trilogy, you’ll probably be disappointed. We meet Flinn briefly and there are mentions of the reforms of Loki and Wendy in their tribe but they don’t feature at all. Instead, we focus on the Kanin tribe of trolls which are of course the same species but have a very different culture while keeping the same essential troll traits: changeling children and a ridiculously rigid societal hierarchy. Trackers are employed to find changeling children once they come of age and yet they’re still looked down upon. The only real difference in Kanin society is that there’s an elite group of trackers called the Hogdragen that guard the royal family specifically. It’s a great honour to become one and that’s really where our story begins.
Bryn wants nothing more than to become a member of the Hogdragen. She always has to work extra hard to prove she’s worthy not only because she’s a female tracker (and that’s exceptionally rare) but also because she’s half Skojare, a more water-loving breed of troll. Even amongst the lowly trackers there’s a hierarchy and half-breeds are definitely at the low end of it, even if her parents were both high-ranking members of society who gave up the titles of Markis and Marksinna out of love. When the tracker she admires, Konstantin, tries to kill her father the Chancellor quite randomly and then disappears. Several years later, Bryn meets Konstantin while out to bring back another changeling. He’s not quite the villain she always thought he was but she’s still hungry for vengeance. And that’s really what I love about her character: even when she is attracted to someone she doesn’t let it get in the way of her mission. Yes, she does start to doubt whether or not Konstantin is the awful traitor that everyone (including her) thinks he is, but that’s because she’s never blind to reason and she’s very good at reading people. Konstantin is ambiguous, not evil and it’s really that mystery about him that sets the events of the story in motion.
What I really loved about Bryn as a female lead is that she’s capable of lying and of actually keeping her mouth shut. Sometimes her emotions overrule her but in general she actually keeps her mouth in check when it’s necessary. No popping off state secrets willy-nilly or anything like that, as some YA heroines seem to do with alarming regularity. She’s so focused on being professional that even when she’s attracted to her boss Ridley she tries her best to keep things platonic. Of course it doesn’t always work but she recognizes that any relationship between them would be stupid and improper and so she really does struggle to keep her feelings in check. What a novel, mature idea! She actually acts like she’s a 19 year old, not a 13 year old.
The pacing isn’t always the most fast-paced but in general the intrigue within the different courts and between different people is more than enough to make you keep turning the pages. And when there’s not intrigue, there’s plenty of action. Although Frostfire isn’t constantly exciting in an action movie way, it is always interesting. So much so that this “I’ll just read a couple of chapters” book became a one-sitting book. At just over 300 pages it’s not a particularly long book but it suits Amanda Hocking’s relatively fast pace quite well. When you think about it, she does pack a lot into this little book and the cliffhanger at the ending is satisfying but definitely leaves you wanting the next book, Ice Kissed.
Even if you haven’t read the Trylle trilogy, you will enjoy Frostfire if you’re intrigued by the blurb or this review. I’m not a big fan of some of Amanda Hocking’s other series, but when it comes to trolls she’s definitely a master. She’s clearly put quite a bit of effort into world-building and that really shows in the Kanin Chronicles even more so than it does in the Trylle series. I really can’t wait to see what happens when Bryn encounters some of the other tribes of trolls in the second book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Night by Elie Wiesel
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Night is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War. In just over 100 pages of sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father–child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver.
Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary Of Anne Frank, Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.
When you read about the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel is one of those survivor names that keeps cropping up again and again because of the amazing things he went on to do later in life. While I was researching his story I noticed that there are actually two versions of Night: one from 1982, translated by his publisher at the time and another one from 2006 that was translated by his wife (who translated most of his fictional novels). I decided to read the most recent one because of the introduction where he mentioned that he was now able to correct and revise some of the details that had gotten lost in translation in the first edition. Because of that introduction I believe this one is the more faithful translation when compared to the original Yiddish manuscript and decided to read this 2006 version.
One of the things that really struck me about Night when I started reading it is the sparse but beautiful prose Elie Wiesel uses. He describes things in a way that ensures they’re ingrained in your memory but never really gets flowery about it. I can still picture the scene of the ghetto emptying day by day until Elie’s street is called for transport. I can picture the horrific burning ditch that greeted Elie and his father when they arrived at Auschwitz and learned the truth: their denial of the horrors a fellow townsman had warned them of might very well be their undoing. It’s really stark prose and it drives home the horrors of all that he witnessed in his months-long stay at various concentration and work camps, first at Auschwitz, then Buna and then to Buchenwald where he and the rest of the prisoners were liberated in 1945.
While the prose and descriptions are stark, you really do get a good sense of his mindset as he adjusts psychologically to his situation. At first he’s still pretty naive and horrified by what he witnesses but by the end you can tell that he’s lost some of that humanity, that sense of the importance of every single life. And who wouldn’t, given the circumstances? He takes his readers on a journey through the loss of his faith in a benevolent, almighty God and how his father kept him alive for so long despite Elie’s lack of will to live at times. It really does hit you hard; this little book of just 115 pages packs one heck of a punch and it does leave you wondering what sort of humans could carry out such horrible deeds. There aren’t really any adequate words to describe my feelings after reading this book but it’s a combination of sadness, happiness, numbness, despair, confusion and hope. I think every reader will have a different emotional experience.
If you’re the sort of person who is interested in history in general, but particularly in survivors’ accounts of the Holocaust, Night is definitely a must-read. Elie Wiesel is a master writer who can pack such an emotional punch in so few words that sometimes his story will leave you breathless. I can’t recommend this book enough.
I give this book 5/5 stars.