Category: Book Review
A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer
(Cover picture courtesy of this wiki.)
Nhamo’s mother is dead, and her father is gone. When she learns that she must marry a cruel man with three wives—before her twelfth birthday—she runs away. Alone on the river, in a stolen boat, Nhamo is swept into the uncharted heart of a great lake. There, she battles drowning, starvation, and wild animals, and comes to know Africa’s mystical, luminous spirits. Nhamo’s journey will transport readers into her world, in a story that is poignant, humorous, dramatic and extraordinary.
This isn’t actually the first time I’ve read this book but I hadn’t read it for several years so when I saw it in the library the other day I decided to give it another try. I remember loving it, but how was it this time around? Well, it was okay. It’s nothing really all that special, despite the fact it was a Newberry honor book in 1997.
It’s an interesting look at life in remote Africa that’s both interesting and unsettling. On one hand, it was fascinating to see the spirituality of a different culture. On the other hand, there were definitely some practices like the ngozi marriage Nhamo was going to be forced into that really are terrible. Nancy Farmer manages to balance out these ‘good’ and ‘bad’ elements in a non-biased way that tells a good story. I obviously can’t speak as to how accurate things are portrayed but Nancy Farmer included a bibliography and some further explanations for things she alluded to in the book.
Nhamo is an excellent character. Sometimes she’s surprisingly mature, surviving out in the bush on her own for months at a time. Other times she’s very immature, throwing temper tantrums that you would expect from pretty much any preteen girl. This is definitely aimed at more of a middle grade audience so I think readers of this age will be able to identify well with Nhamo, despite the cultural differences.
The only thing that stops this book from being a great book is the pacing. When things are interesting Nancy Farmer’s pacing was way too fast. And when things were more boring the pacing became uneven and the plot slowed down to a crawl. It reflects the actual time Nhamo spends in certain places but it doesn’t make for the most interesting read, believe me.
So was A Girl Named Disaster as good as I remember? No, but it was still a pretty good story and if you have a preteen or young teen that likes to read I’d definitely recommend this book.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
Crystal Deception by Doug J. Cooper
(Cover picture courtesy of Masquerade Tours via email.)
Criss lives in a special kind of prison. He can see and hear everything around the world. Yet a restrictor mesh restrains his reach and keeps him cooperative. His creator, Dr. Jessica Tallette, believes his special abilities offer great promise for humanity. But she fears the consequences of freeing him, because Criss, a sentient artificial intelligence with the intellect of a thousand humans, is too powerful to control.
Guided by her scientific training, Tallette works cautiously with Criss. That is, until the Kardish, an otherwise peaceful race of alien traders, announce they want him. With technologies superior to Earth’s, the Kardish express their desires with ominous undertones.
The Union of Nations is funding Tallete’s artificial intelligence research, and she turns to them for help. Sid, a special agent charged with leading the response, decides Earth’s greatest weapon is the very AI the aliens intend to possess. But what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? And what is humanity’s role if an interstellar battle among titans starts to rage?
[Full disclosure: I was sent a free physical copy from the author in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
I honestly have to admit I was more than a little skeptical about Crystal Deception when I signed up for the blog tour. A book about a sentient, talking crystal could either be really good or really terrible. Still, I decided to be open-minded because I’ve been skeptical of books before and they ended up being some of my all-time favourites.
As it turns out, my open-mindedness was rewarded. Doug J. Cooper’s story is much, much more complicated and engrossing than the blurb would have you believe. There are plot twists around every corner and the characters are very well-developed and interesting. Even Criss himself, the artificial intelligence crystal, has a distinct personality of his own and he grows throughout the novel.
We’re introduced to quite a few characters in the beginning, but I like how they’re all actually necessary to the storyline. In the end we only really focus on five characters and each of them has distinct personalities and backgrounds so it doesn’t feel like five versions of the same person. Surprisingly, Criss the crystal was my favourite character. He’s cold and generally unemotional in the beginning but after his exposure to humans for so long he starts almost becoming one, growing in self-awareness. It’s a very interesting transformation but at his core he’s still a brilliant supercomputer. Juice, Jack, Cheryl and Sid are also great characters and they’re all extremely well-developed and sympathetic.
As I said before, the plot is fairly fast-paced for this nearly 400 page book. There are twists and turns around every corner until you really aren’t sure what’s going to happen in the end. I can’t really go into much detail without introducing spoilers, but the way Doug J. Cooper handled the Kardish mystery was absolutely brilliant. At first it seems like there are holes in logic a couple of miles wide but there’s actually a very good explanation for why the Kardish have been orbiting Earth for 20 years.
You don’t have to be a big sci-fi fan to enjoy this book because you can enjoy it on many different levels. You can enjoy it as an exciting thriller/mystery or you can thoroughly enjoy Cooper’s scientific explanations for the creation of AI crystals and all of the technology that is available in his imagined future. Basically, there’s something for everyone here and I’m so glad I kept an open mind about the book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
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Since Doug J. Cooper is so awesome, the blog tour will be having a giveaway of TWO $40 Amazon gift cards or PayPal cash. It’s even open internationally and doesn’t end until April 14. Just click the link below to start entering!
The Wise Woman’s Tale by Phillipa Bowers
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Kate Barnes is 14 years old when she first experiences the strange gifts she has inherited from her grandmother’s side of the family. She has a vivid waking dream, a memory of an earlier life centuries before when she was murdered by an angry mob who believed her to be a witch. Her grandmother decides the time is right to reveal to Kate some family secrets, including the ancient cave that houses the family tomb. Just as Kate is learning to develop her second sight, her education with her grandmother is interrupted when her father insists she return home. He is determined that Kate forget her grandmother’s teachings and get a job in order to help support their growing family. But nothing will keep Kate from her destiny: to take her grandmother’s place as local wise woman and guardian of the mysterious cave.
If there’s one word I could use to describe this book it would have to be ‘confusing’ or ‘pointless’. Throughout the book I felt like Phillipa Bowers meant to impart some knowledge to the reader, to get to the point of the story but at the end I just felt confused. Basically, what was the point of writing this story? It wasn’t particularly entertaining, there were no great insights and the writing was mediocre at best.
Where do I start with the writing? Sometimes Phillipa Bowers tries to make the characters speak in a dialect characteristic of their social upbringing and the area they live in and other times it sounds like they’re almost speaking a more modern dialect. Her writing has absolutely no transitions whatsoever, which is in part why this story is so confusing. One minute Betty is a bratty four-year-old (as far as I can tell) and the next minute she’s darn near 13. How the heck did that happen? If there was a time jump she didn’t make it very obvious at all and if there was no time jump she should have done a better job making Betty’s age clear. It’s just plain confusing.
Since the writing was so confusing, the characters were bland at best. Kate is a stupid, naive young girl who doesn’t know how to say no to anyone. That seems typical for the times but she never really grows out of it. She never really realizes what is going to make her happy and her relationship with her younger sister Betty is just plain bizarre, even considering the circumstances. Part of the problem is that when a major change happens in the story, there’s no build-up to it. Suddenly her mum dies, her brother leaves, she moves out, her grandmother dies, etc. There’s just no transitioning.
I can’t call the plot fast-paced in all honesty because I struggled through this book. If the writing had been of a better quality this easily could have been a great read. However, since the writing was of such a poor quality the plot was all over the place and I had no idea what was happening half the time. This was just a really confusing story and I honestly couldn’t recommend it to anyone.
I give this book 1/5 stars.
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In a Treacherous Court by Michelle Diener
(Cover picture courtesy of Michelle Diener’s website.)
1525: Artist Susanna Horenbout is sent from Belgium to be Henry VIII’s personal illuminator inside the royal palace. But her new homeland greets her with an attempt on her life, and the King’s most lethal courtier, John Parker, is charged with keeping her safe. As further attacks are made, Susanna and Parker realize that she unknowingly carries the key to a bloody plot against the throne. For while Richard de la Pole amasses troops in France for a Yorkist invasion, a traitor prepares to trample the kingdom from within.
Who is the mastermind? Why are men vying to kill the woman Parker protects with his life? With a motley gang of urchins, Susanna’s wits, and Parker’s fierce instincts, honed on the streets and in palace chambers, the two slash through deadly layers of deceit in a race against time. For in the court of Henry VIII, secrets are the last to die…
Brilliantly revealing a little-known historical figure who lived among the Tudors, Michelle Diener makes a smashing historical fiction debut.
[Full disclosure: I requested a review copy from Michelle Diener and was sent a free physical copy in exchange for an honest review.]
As much as I’ve read about the Tudors I never actually heard of Susanna Horenbout or John Parker. It’s strange because you’d have thought that a female illuminator would be mentioned frequently (if only because it was such a rarity) but Susanna really hasn’t been recognized by history. Michelle Diener meant to remedy that in this book.
Susanna is an amazing character. I like how she’s constantly trying to prove herself in a world where men don’t really believe she is a talented artist. It’s not a typical girl empowerment story so much as a very realistic portrayal of the attitudes of the time. At the same time, Susanna loves her art. She loves to draw and paint and she’s good at it. Inspiration strikes her at odd times but she’s not your typical day-dreaming artist either.
She has a good head on her shoulders and she’s more than a match for the cunning, somewhat ruthless John Parker. John Parker is also a fascinating character. His horrible childhood combined with his ruthless determination to serve King Henry VIII would make him interesting enough, but it’s his change in personality caused by Susanna that really makes him memorable. Both characters change as they spend more and more time in each others’ company.
The plot was very fast-paced, but obviously not at the expense of character development. There’s assassins lurking behind every corner, romantic intrigue aplenty as well as plots that strike at the heart of England’s court. Michelle Diener did fabricate some of the details but in her note at the end I liked how she justified her decisions to change history just a little bit. She blended history and speculation together perfectly and it all came together in a great novel.
From the moment you read the first sentence, you’re sucked back in time. From its filthy streets to the hostile/merry court of Henry VIII you feel like you’re right there with Susanna and John. You feel their emotions as their own, especially their pain, love and determination. I can’t honestly speak to the total historical accuracy of In a Treacherous Court but I can tell you that the major details are accurate and Michelle Diener certainly created a very authentic feeling with the details of daily life in Tudor England. That’s what’s really important in historical fiction.
Basically, this was a great debut novel and I can’t wait to read about the rest of Susanna and John’s adventures.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa
(Cover picture courtesy of (un)Conventional Bookviews.)
VENGEANCE WILL BE HERS
Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster?
With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer.
MONSTER
Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions—her creator, Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost—the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.
In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, triumph is short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I seriously had my doubts about Julie Kagawa being able to end her Blood of Eden trilogy well. It’s a very complicated world with more problems than you can count so how could she possibly come to a satisfying conclusion? Even when reading it I had my doubts but I didn’t need to. Julie Kagawa pulled it off once again.
I’m seriously impressed. With that horrible cliffhanger at the end of The Eternity Cure I was very anxious about getting my hands on the final book. Allison is still brooding from Zeke’s death and she’s turning into the monster that her brother Jackal is, the kind of vampire Kanin tried to prevent her from becoming. I can’t go into much detail without some major spoilers but let’s just say Allie’s true colours show through when she finally decides what kind of vampire she wants to be.
The plot is insane. There are so many twists and turns that I could barely keep up. Some were completely unexpected whereas others were fairly predictable but overall it was an exciting, surprising plot. The ending wasn’t abrupt in the way that some authors end trilogies, but instead there was a nice detailed epilogue that gives you an idea of what will happen to this horrifying world of humans, vampires and rabids. There is, of course, a little ambiguity left but I was satisfied by the fact that most loose ends were tied off.
As usual, the characters were amazing. Allie changed so much over the course of the story and we learned quite a bit about Kanin and Jackal. All the characters that the plot centered around were well-developed and I really connected with them on a deeper level compared to the previous books. I was honestly very surprised about how connected I felt to the characters because I haven’t been emotionally involved in a book for at least a month now. It was a nice change.
Basically, if you’ve read the previous two books you’re going to love The Forever Song. I know I did. So go ahead and pre-order it! It releases on April 15 of this year.
I give this book 5/5 stars.